When Citi shares cost less than a newspaper

This is a bit off topic, but I was in an elevator when the small screen flashed with the news that shares of Citigroup had sunk below the $1 mark to 97 cents. That’s down 14.2% from yesterday. As of 12:43 p.m. ET the price has risen to $1.035, giving the company a market cap of $5.64B. If you’re keeping score, that’s off nearly $265B from the $270B valuation back in early 2007.

At that price, Citi’s market cap falls somewhere between salesforce.com ($3.65B) and Intuit ($7.37B). While Intuit executives may have fantasized about moving into banking, it’s doubtful that they would want to add sick books to QuickBooks.

The news out of Detroit is not much better. GM’s shares fell below $2. At that price, consumers can buy two shares of Citi or one GM, or a copy of The Wall Street Journal. Then again, at those prices, you might want to save up and splurge on a shot or two of whiskey.