Meredith Whitney was saying back in late 07 that C would have to sell smith barney http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axJLjGtgwDrM&refer=home
I think the spinning off of the Smith Barney brokerage unit seems a bit contrary to the recent Merrill Lynch business being aquired by BoA? Both very different strategies....watch ML will be spun out once they BoA trims all the fat. The ML sale also happened under extreme panic scenario, and I'm sure in hindsight they're wondering (ML execs) if they did the right thing, but its done of course. This SB spin off tells me that business will improve, a new business landscape, kind of like after a forest fire, eventually things grow again.