With the full faith and credit of the United States of America behind it, Citigroup (C) is now liberated to rid itself of toxic assets while strengthening its balance sheet. Why not get the bad news out when you know the government is at your back?

Without that, the news on Thursday from Citigroup may very well have triggered a sell-off in the stock that could have resulted in it failing.  Not in this day and age, though.  We are in the age of socializing risk while privatizing profits.

Forget about the capital recently deployed by the government to obtain preferred stock.  (See also: "Winners and Losers of the Bailout.") C will gladly pay that dividend knowing that more dollars are available should they need them.

So, in that environment it should be no surprise that the company reported its fourth straight quarterly loss today.  This time around the loss was to the tune of $2.8 billion, or $0.60—a stark contrast to a year ago when the company earned a $0.44 profit.

It would be an understatement to say that the housing crunch has absolutely paralyzed this once proud institution.  The only silver lining is that the results beat expectations.  Analysts assumed the loss would be at $0.70.

That is no small consolation when the company is forced to write-down $4.4 billion and announce job layoffs totaling 11,000.  Will this be enough for the company to survive the current environment?

Does it matter?  If the government absorbs losses, who cares where the company stands today?