By Adam Shapiro, FOX Business Network correspondent

It all boils down to one simple question: do you believe them?

The numbers count, but nothing is more important than the faith of consumers, investors and citizens to believe statements from Citigroup and the US government about the most recent bailout to save the financial system, western civilization and “Big Nick’s” on New York’s upper west side (which serves the best burgers north of “Times Square” and to my knowledge has not asked for a bailout).  Trust me, Big Nicks is a part of this, but regarding CITI and Uncle Sam, do you believe them? Standing outside CITI Group headquarters on a cold New York day and listening to all of the experts – remember it was the experts who got us in to this mess – my answer to the question is no, and I hope to be proven wrong.

The 306 billion dollar FDIC insurance plan to save CITI covers a pool of trading account assets, which CITI says totals 458 billion.  (See slide 17 from the CITI Town Hall Presentation given Nov. 17)

Here is the problem: the same trading account assets are 520 billion at JP Morgan Chase and 429 billion at Bank of America.  So, will they now knock on the bailout door? What is different about those trading assets at CITI compared to the assets at JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America? Do you believe the FDIC, FEDERAL RESERVE and US TREASURY – which issued a joint press release saying, “With these transactions, the U.S. government is taking the actions necessary to strengthen the financial system and protect U.S. taxpayers and the U.S. economy”? What do they know that we don’t about those assets at other banks? Or, do you think they will have to step in to help JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America?

CITI insists that its future losses will not exceed 29 billion dollars and that the FDIC will not have to spend one penny to save them.  Really?  Do you believe them? Just last week CITI said, “CITI has a very strong capital and liquidity position….”  Really? Then why did CITI just get an additional $20 billion from the US Treasury?  Did CITI fail to understand its own exposure, or did they simply forget to include the $29 billion in potential future losses from the nifty Nov. 17 town hall pep talk that CEO Vikram Pandit gave CITI employees. It was at this time he notified them that CITI was cutting 50,000 jobs. Great way to motivate the troops.  Seriously, can you believe this stuff is happening?

Finally, this deal does not address the $1.2 trillion off balance sheet assets that CITI insists pose no threat.  (Add loads of sarcasm here) REALLY? We’ve heard that before, and remember 667 billion of that off-book asset are mortgage backed securities. CITI CFO Gary Crittenden says “CITI has enormous capacity to absorb credit losses.” Those off balance sheet assets “are likely not to have a significant impact on CITI over time.” But FOX Business anchor Alexis Glick asked Crittenden what guarantees CITI could give us that those 1.2 trillion wont impact CITI’s balance sheet, and that was a question he did not answer.  So, do you believe them?

Which brings me to Big Nick’s on New York’s Upper West Side. I am really hungry, and a Big Nick’s burger right now would be a lot easier to swallow than what the FDIC, Federal Reserve US Treasury and CITI are serving the American public.

Visit FOX Business Network for the latest news and exclusive coverage on the CITI bailout.

By David Mac Dougall, Baghdad Bureau

We finally made it to Kentucky Fried Chicken in downtown Fallujah. The quest for KFC is over!

But let me clarify: on closer inspection it turns out this is not one of Colonel Sanders’ officially sanctioned franchises.  In fact, apart from the large “KFC” sign in the window you’d be hard pressed to distinguish this from many other chicken restaurants in Fallujah.  The big difference though, is on the inside.  Iraqis like baked chicken, and it turns out deep fried chicken is something of a novelty, and so they’ve been flocking to the restaurant over the past eight months since it opened – the local newspaper even ran a story about it, so I guess it’s not a FOX exclusive.

Of course, we only made it to KFC with the help of our embed hosts this week – Capt. Dan Micklis and the Marines of Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines.  They’ve been showing us all over the north of Fallujah, and we’ll be sad to say goodbye later this evening as we start the journey back to Baghdad.

We were the only customers early Friday evening in KFC, so I bought enough chicken to feed the Marines.  In case you’re wondering, they only have one thing on the menu – a $5 meal which buys 2 pieces of fried chicken, French fries, a soda, bottle of water and 2 bread rolls.

If the official KFC wants to send Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines any free stuff, like t-shirts or hats, vouchers for meals (or pretty much anything really!), then get in touch and we’ll make sure you can link up with the guys.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures!

Where could 23-year old Hannah Upp be?

It’s been over a week now since the young Spanish teacher vanished from her Harlem neighborhood. She was reportedly last seen by one of her roommates wrapped in a towel either walking from their bathroom to her bedroom or the other way around.

It’s all a blur for her family and friends who are having a difficult time thinking of how this vivacious, funny, free spirited, yet street smart woman could have just vanished, most importantly without her key belongings. After her roommates noticed that she wasn’t around last weekend, they started to worry, and went into her room to see what was up. There they found her cell phone, purse, wallet, passport (she had lost her id, and was using her passport) ATM card, subway card, and keys. A heart stopping discovery. She loved to run in the nearby parks — but her running shoes were in her room too.

That’s when her roommate “Manny” started to scroll through her cell phone and call her friends to see if they knew where she was. No one had a clue. He talked first to one of Hannah’s best friends who came up on her call list, who’s name also is Hannah, and after a discussion about what to do, they decided to go to the police.

Her friends describe her as one of the most caring people they’ve ever known, and say there is no way she would ever just “take off”, especially with her new school year about to start. After Hannah’s friends called the police, they were told to “keep them informed”, because often times, people DO go away and don’t tell people, and they need to wait 24 hours to file a missing persons report. Her friends knew something was wrong immediately, and when the police learned that Hannah didn’t show up to teach her class this Tuesday, they knew too.

Today, we took our cameras and drove north to Harlem to check out the apartment complex where she was last seen at 63 Hamilton Terrace, and to talk with her worried friends and mother. They just don’t know what happened, there isn’t a clue, or one indication where she went. There are no security cameras around, so there unfortunately are no pictures of her leaving or who she may have left with. If she were to have come out of that front door, and headed to her left, that would have been the direction of the park where she ran and her school where she taught. If she had gone to the right, she would have been heading in the direction of the subway and local grocery store.

Keep Reading …

We are live and on location at the historic West Point Military Academy today, bringing you a story about the superintendent’s proposed changes to the words to the military academy’s alma mater and it’s beloved companion piece, “The Corps.” If you’ve ever been to a football game here, or at a graduation event, you know the songs well. They are as historic as the academy itself, and stand for age old tradition here, but there is something missing … any references to women. The alma mater, and “The Corps” have words like “men” and “sons” all through them.

Women were admitted into West Point’s elite officer-training program in 1976, and more than 3,000 have since graduated to serve as Army officers. The words in the two songs struck Lt. Gen. Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck before he was the superintendent, while he was at a ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of admitting women to West Point two years ago. Women in the academy were singing “We sons of today … we salute you.” “It just seemed out of step”, Hagenbech said, and has been discussing the changes with alumni, Army brass, and the cadets. Hagenbech wants to change the words with more gender neutral synonyms. “The men”, would become, “The ranks”, and “We sons”, would become “The Corps.”

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Here’s the catch, some of the women cadets, don’t necessarily want the change, because they reportedly don’t want to come off as “whiners”. The academy’s Board of Visitors, made up of presidential appointees and members of Congress voted unanimously to back whatever decision Hagenbeck makes.

Today begins graduation events, and today’s action is called “The Alumni Review.” The alma mater has been sung already, in the original, and current form, which i filmed for you so listen in … the proposed changes could be approved as early as June, but for now, the song remains the same (as Led Zep would sing…)

I’ll be sending in more pictures and updates as we go throughout the day. I’m curious to hear what the people attending today’s ceremony have to say about all this…

We are heading there now to find out. As you have probably heard, there is an uproar over recent comments made by Presidential hopeful Barack Obama about the people who live in small towns in Pennsylvania, and other small towns in the Midwest.

Here’s the quote:

“Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives,” he said. “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not.

“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Hillary Clinton and John McCain have plenty to say about what he said…

“Pennsylvanians don’t need a president who looks down on them. They need a president who stands up for them, who fights for them,” Clinton said Friday afternoon at a campaign stop in Philadelphia. She said the Pennsylvanians she’s met aren’t bitter, but “resilient” and “positive.”

McCain adviser Steve Schmidt called Obama’s statement “remarkable” and “extremely revealing.” “It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking,” Schmidt said. “It is hard to imagine someone running for president of the United States who is more out of touch with average Americans.”

So, this morning, we packed up our cameras and live truck and are heading to Allentown (we are all in the truck now listening to Billy Joel’s song “Allentown” as I write this to get us in the mood….) We are almost to our location – a diner where many locals hang, and are going to talk to them about what Obama said and how they feel about it.

My opening line? “are you bitter?” This should be interesting…. stay tuned

UPDATE: 11:45am. First interview; Thomas Graham who I found outside the Gate 7 diner in Allentown, here’s what he had to say

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This is John McGurrin, a retired school teacher, Navy Vet, and former 30 resident of Allentown

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