A new result of the credit disaster.

Yahoo reports that "Citigroup Inc. Chairman and Chief Executive Charles Prince, beset by the company's billions of dollars in losses from investing in bad debt, resigned Sunday and is being replaced as chairman by former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin."

Prince's position looked especially shaky after the company on Oct. 1 estimated that third-quarter profit would decline about 60 percent to some $2.2 billion after seeing nearly $6 billion in credit costs and write-downs of overly leveraged corporate debt and souring home mortgages. At that time, Prince said the bank's earnings would return to normal in the fourth quarter.

But when Citigroup released its third-quarter results two weeks later, the write-downs and credit costs exceeded $6 billion, and Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden indicated the outlook going forward wasn't as upbeat as Prince had predicted.

What can I say?

The credit crunch that started last Summer has just gotten another victim. Not an innocent one.

Considering all the people trying to keep the credit crunch from collapsing the entire U.S. economy, the problems have now removed a new individual. Will the survivors be able prevent an Argentine type disaster? Dunno.

The finance experts generally think that if the disaster is slow enough, they will be able to prevent local disasters from taking down the entire system.

It might work. We should all hope so.