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User_gary Posted 18 years ago
Grammar

huge blow, meltdown

Risky subprime loans delivered a huge blow to the financial services giant. The mortgage meltdown forced Citigroup to post the worst fourth-quarter loss in its 196-year history: $10 billion. The company also had to write down $18.1 billion on mortgage-backed securities and cut its dividend by 41%. Chief Executive Charles Prince was shown the door, and the company's shares fell 47%, making it the worst-performing Dow Jones industrial average component in 2007.

Please explain the emboldened parts.
  

Top answer

Subprime loans are those made to borrowers with bad credit. They're risky when the borrower has very little chance of paying the money back. ) The huge blow came when a huge number of these loans suddenly went into default, and the company lost a fortune.

— Avangi

  • Subprime loans are those made to borrowers with bad credit.
  • They're risky when the borrower has very little chance of paying the money back.
  • ) The huge blow came when a huge number of these loans suddenly went into default, and the company lost a fortune.
  • I believe the expression " meltdown " is borrowed from "nuclear accidents" where things get out of control and the whole ****** thing melts.
  • Citigroup's mortgage business melted, figuratively speaking.
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3 Answers
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Subprime loans are those made to borrowers with bad credit. They're risky when the borrower has very little chance of paying the money back. (The lender risks losing his money.) The huge blow came when a huge number of these loans suddenly went into default, and the company lost a fortune.

I believe the expression "meltdown
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Thanks a lot Avangi.

But what you mean by "lost a fortune" above?

Do you mean "Company lost a luck"???
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Sorry about that. Here a fortune just means a very large amount of money. In the old legends and fairy tales, the young hero often went out into the world to seek his fortune, which I believe meant to make himself wealthy. I guess luck often had a lot to do with it. We speak of the family fortune, where families are very very rich. So you can make a fortune in the stock market, and you can l
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