Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit (Vikram Pandit news) made headlines when he predicted the bank would be able to earn $20 billion a year by 2012--which strikes many as requiring a whole lot of earnings growth in a short amount of time. For one thing, the company is still saddled with Citi Holdings (Citigroup news), the so-called bad bank (bad bank news), which isn't going to revive itself anytime soon.

We've been lamenting the iffy state of fund raising for hedge funds and private equity firms as of late (private equity news). For private equity firms anyway, the other side of the shop, the deal-making side, is facing more uncertainty as well. Earlier this year, the industry was downright giddy about the prospects for more exits and more deals. But it's not really happening. The IPO market has been disappointing, which has muted the once high-flying expectations.

Heidi Montag Says No to Plastic from Heidi Montag

Not too long ago, London was quite sure it had muscled out New York City (New York City news) for the title of the world's financial capital. The city had reason to crow, IPOs (IPO news) seemed to be shifting there, European investment banking was hot, and banks were streaming in to boost their European presence.

JPMorgan (JPM) is regularly mentioned as one of the few banks that has been able to emerge from the financial crisis in better shape than before. The bank was the only one not to post a loss during the crisis after all. But Mr. Market seems skeptical.