Citigroup’s stock is selling at the same price it held when John Reed was CEO back in 1993, according to Bloomberg. That's what DICK BOVE, chief financial strategist at Odeon Capital Group, notes in his latest report. “It is at a 20  percent plus discount to book value. Clearly, investors have lost faith in the company,” he says. "So, what went wrong and why is this company still around?” BOVE asks. “I would argue that the core problem with this company goes back to [its former CEO] Walter Wriston’s belief in Spenserian management. By pitting one manager against another the bank became silo-ized. Everyone paid attention to his/her turf to the exclusion of the company. The enemy was not across the street, s/he was across the hall.” BOVE lays out his case for Citi in this episode and assesses the task ahead for and performance of Citi CEO JANE FRASER.

In this same episode, BOVE also discusses his new research on Fannie Mae, describing its huge balance sheet as a “lie.” Fannie Mae, the largest holder of home mortgages in the US, is at the heart of a deteriorating home buyers market in the nation, he says. BOVE contends that Fannie Mae is able to avoid common accounting standards and, in essence, "state whatever it so chooses." Fannie's style with language and disclosure, he says, is akin to what happens in George Orwell’s 1984, where an oppressive government develops a language called Newspeak. Fannie, BOVE says, is run on grim socialistic terms with staff exiting in droves.

This episode also looks at the impact of the latest interest rate rises by the Federal Reserve in the face of rising prices and inflation. Odeon's MAT VAN ALYSTYE notes that the era of easy money, and the legacy of quantitative easing, is still here despite the Fed's initial efforts at curbing inflation and scaling back its balance sheet. That's because interest rates have only risen 75 basis pounds since the latest round of increases while Fed tightening of its balance sheet has yet to earnestly occur, he says. BOVE and VAN ALYSTYNE are joined by journalist JOHN AIDAN BYRNE in this lively and informative show on all things money and markets