> If the gov wouldn't have bailed out Citibank the shareholders would have been wiped out in the first place. And also the entire economy would have collapsed,

> If the gov wouldn't have bailed out Citibank the shareholders would have been wiped out in the first place. And also the entire economy would have collapsed, and we'd all be trading ammunition for bottlecaps, instead of merely living through a nasty recession. Which is why they backstopped it. Yes, it would have been cheaper to let Citi fail and nationalize it, but it wouldn't have been cheaper to then have to deal with all the contagion and all the other businesses that would have exploded because of it.