Business Leaders Air Their Grievances (WSJ)
Complaints about perceived obstacles thrown up by U.S. politics, regulation and even its legal system were aired by corporate and finance leaders who lunched together at a Wall Street Journal CEO Council event here in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday. Barry Silbert, chief executive of SecondMarket, said Mr. Obama gave the country “nothing to rally behind.” Daniel Loeb, founder of hedge fund Third Point, counted himself as one falling away from previous support of the president. Mr. Loeb insisted President Obama was engaging in “class warfare.” He said business people such as himself “get sick and tired” of constantly being criticized for “engaging in the capitalist system.”
Economic Gains Aid Obama (WSJ)
Partial results from the poll, released Wednesday, found voters feeling more positively about the economy and of Mr. Obama’s handling of it. Some 30% believed the country was headed in the right direction, up eight percentage points from a month ago. Some 60% said the country was on the wrong track, down from 69% in December and from 74% in October. The question is considered an important measure of voters’ mood. For the first time in seven months, the poll found that more people approve of Mr. Obama’s job performance than disapprove, 48% to 46%. Some 45% said they approve of his handling of the economy—up six points from mid-December.
Greek Debt Talks Resume in Athens as Policy Makers Squabble Over Haircut (Bloomberg)
Charles Dallara and Jean Lemierre, negotiating on behalf of private creditors, return to Athens after European finance ministers insisted bondholders take bigger losses on their Greek debt. The International Monetary Fund further roiled the discussions by suggesting that public holders of Greek bonds might also have to increase support. The parties are groping for a solution three months after private bondholders agreed with European officials to implement a 50 percent cut in the face value of more than 200 billion euros ($262 billion) of debt by voluntarily swapping bonds for new securities. Since then, an economic contraction that exceeded estimates has made the goal of cutting Greece’s debt to 120 percent of gross domestic product by 2020 harder. An accord is tied to a second bailout for the country, which faces a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20.
Dimon: Impact of Greek Default on US Banks Almost Zero (CNBC)
“The direct impact of a Greek default is almost zero,” Dimon said. “The effect it has on the global economy will obviously filter down to the American banks too,” he added, but although “there may be a surprise somewhere,” he expressed little concern over such a development. “There’s a teeny chance of a catastrophic outcome, which is why the muddle-through is the only good strategy. There is no other good strategy.”
Buffett Defends Proposed Tax Rate Change (Reuters)
“The question is what is fair when you have to raise multi-trillions to fund the United States of America,” Buffett said in a joint interview with his long-time secretary, Debbie Bosanek, on ABC News. “Raising taxes will not change my behavior. I have paid all different kinds of rates and I’ve always been interested in making money. I believe this should be a defining issue. Debbie works just as hard as I do and she pays twice the rate I do,” said Buffett, a Democrat and Obama supporter. Bosanek pays a tax rate of 35.8 percent on her income, ABC said. She attended Tuesday’s State of the Union address as a guest of first lady Michelle Obama. “I just feel like an average citizen. I represent the average citizen who needs a voice,” Bosanek told ABC. “Everybody in our office is paying a higher tax rate than Warren.”
Bonus Grinches At Bloomberg (NYP)
The company, founded by Mayor Mike Bloomberg, said revenue rose $720 million, or 10.5 percent, to $7.59 billion during a tough year for its biggest Wall Street clients, according to an internal memo…Bloomberg, known for its ubiquitous financial terminals on trading floors, said it fell short of its own internal sales targets, to which employee pay is tied. According to the employee memo from Chairman Peter Grauer and CEO Dan Doctoroff, employee pay based on terminal sales, known as “certs,” will be below expectations because of the terminal shortfall.
Newt: America WILL Have A Permanent Lunar Base By End Of My Presidency (TPM)
By the end of my second term we will have the first permanent base on the moon and it will be American,” he said. According to Newt, the base would be used for “science, tourism, and manufacturing” and create a “robust industry” modeled on the airline business in the 20th century. From there, Gingrich suggested moving towards a Mars mission by the end of the next decade. He proposed setting aside 10% of NASA’s budget in prize money for private research into interplanetary exploration. “I accept the charge that I am grandiose,” he said. “Because Americans are instinctively grandiose.” Continue reading »
One reason that you’re in for seven lean years in the investment banking business is that bank capital requirements are going up due to Basel III, and “capital is expensive” in some loose sense, so banks will have less money to use to make loans and/or pay you. Some people think that this is mostly bull, because capital is not actually any more “expensive” than any other form of funding, though those people often actually don’t care that much about paying you so it may not be worth listening to them. In any case here is the abstract to an amusing new paper by Karlo Kauko of the Finnish central bank, because yes I make a point of being up to date on everything published by the Finnish central bank:
