Vikram Pandit, chief executive of embattled Citigroup, stopped by The Times this morning to answer questions posed by the editorial board and editors from the news pages. He dropped no bombshells -- alas, that rarely happens in these sessions. Instead, he gave a cautiously optimistic view of the economy, the housing market and even Citi's mortgage portfolio, saying that low interest rates are helping even borrowers in risky interest-only loans. He also said that Citi has the capability to buy out the federal government's $20-billion stake in its preferred shares (the feds also own 34% of Citi's common stock, which Pandit said the Treasury Department could sell whenever it wished), but that the company was still talking to regulators about the timing of any exit from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. He said the credit crunch felt by small and mid-size businesses stemmed from the problems at regional banks and the shrunken "shadow banking" system. And he offered a few thoughts on what the government should do about financial institutions that are too big to fail.

Here are excerpts of the session:

How is Citi doing?

How is the economy?

The government's stake in Citi

Citi and Treasury Secretary Geithner

Paying back TARP funds

The housing market's outlook

The ongoing credit crunch

The too-big-to-fail problem

Insuring against huge failures

Bring back Glass-Steagall?

Photo: Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit testifies on Capitol Hill in February. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

-- Jon Healey