As of close of markets on Friday, the market capitalization (the value of all the common stock) of General Motors and Citigroup combined is only about the same as Costco or WalMart of Mexico. The value of both of them is only about a quarter of the value of Apple. In fact, the market cap of GM and C combined is only about 10% of WalMart.

To put that in the perspective of the request put forth by the auto companies last week in Washington, the government could buy both GM and Citigroup and own them outright for $20 Billion, about 20% less than the car companies asked for just to keep going.