It’s a function of quantitative easing. The banks buy treasury bonds from the treasury department and then the fed buys those bonds from the member banks at a profit with cash printed out of thin air. The banks turn around and buy stocks driving prices higher. The other side of the quantitative easing mechanism is artificially low interest rates. The Fed keeps interest rates near zero so corporations can take big loans for practically nothing, in some cases like in Europe there are negative rates so the borrower pays back less. Corporations can then take the borrowed funds and buy back their own stocks driving up the share price. Shareholders are happy no matter what the employees shit out. It’s not just citi here, the Fed and it’s member banks are all subsidizing this shite.