It isn't clear what's so much worse this week about Citigroup than last month, or indeed last year. One tangible difference is that unlike in January - when Robert Rubin flew in on the Gulfstream to fleece the Kuwait Investment Authority of US$3 billion - there's more transparency, or maybe less wishful thinking, over the extent of the trauma created by the credit crunch.Ten months later Citi is now the recipient of more largesse than any other US financial institution.Under plans announced yesterday the US government will guarantee US$306 billion of mortgages and other Citigroup assets. The US Treasury and the US Federal Reserve will invest US$20 billion in preferred stock paying dividends of eight per cent.Citi already received US$25 billion from the Treasury under an initial investment, made in all top US banks, under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.With a market capitalisation of US$20.5 billion at the end of last week it looks like the US government will in effect own a majority of the equity of Citi, so while it's not an outright takeover in the manner of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, it still looks like an effective nationalisation.Citi has lost 84 per cent of its market capitalisation since its post-Lehman Brothers failure peak value of US$23 per share in late September, and lost 60 per cent in value in only two weeks.