Where Was Chuck Prince’s Freshman Year Econ Prof When We Needed Him?

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vikram.jpgThough conventional wisdom states that nothing or no one will ever be able to whip the diversified whorehouse that is Citi into something resembling a profitable company, at least one person willing to go on record believes Vikram Pandit “has the smarts” to do just that. We’re speaking, of course, Pandit’s finance professor from grad school, who took a cue from Bernanke’s thesis advisor yesterday and went to bat for the old boy in an interview with Portfolio. According to Rajnish Mehra, who served on the CEO’s dissertation committee at Columbia, Citi “is in safe hands” with Vik because his thesis “tackled the [now relevant] question of asset pricing with heterogeneous agents.” So don’t worry, shareholders, about that prediction that C is headed to $10– Mehra says he even went back over Pandit’s work just to make certain he was remembering the right kid from over twenty years ago and, sure enough, he was (like anyone could forget that smile).
Citi at a Crossroads [Portfolio]

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Comments (18)

  1. 1
    Posted by NomadTrader | April 17, 2008 at 2:37 PM

    I got your heterogeneous agent right here. And what’s with that shit-eating grin: maybe he’s just been told Jack Welch thinks he can run a Taco Bell.

  2. 2
    Posted by Anal_yst | April 17, 2008 at 2:39 PM

    Elvish santa!

  3. 3
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 2:41 PM

    13000 headless Bears

  4. 4
    Posted by BSD | April 17, 2008 at 2:45 PM

    Pandit the Bandit

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 2:49 PM

    @2:14pm. What’s this about 13,000 headless Bears? Bear only employed about 14,000.

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 2:52 PM

    @2:49 don’t worry about it, it’s just one of the db idiots who has no idea what he’s talking about acting indignant that he doesn’t think the editors are giving him enough coverage when, in fact, people who are saying 13,000 out of the 14,000 employees are getting laid off doesn’t deserve to hear shit. anyway, pandit. i like him. he looks smart.

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 2:56 PM

    2:49
    Its being reported.
    2:52 is a wee bit log-winded….

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 3:01 PM

    oh yeah? it’s being reported that 13,000 bears are getting laid off? prove it. until then i just want to say, vikram has kind eyes.

  9. 9
    Posted by big r | April 17, 2008 at 3:10 PM

    jarvis gets me so hot

  10. 10
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 3:18 PM

    Twenty years ago, my advisor was calling me all the time asking where was my thesis pertaining to curing premature ejaculation and I told him it was coming real quick.

  11. 11
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 3:24 PM

    @2:52pm/3:01pm. Thanks for the comment. I couldn’t find any confirmation of the 13,000 number. @2:41/2:56pm, what is your source?

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 4:27 PM

    Pandit brings class and credibility at Citi. Maybe the thousands of IT geeks from Vikram’s Country will get some respect.

  13. 13
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 5:44 PM

    I think Vikram Pandit must be extremely smart and also people-savvy to get the CEO job at Citigroup after Chuck Prince’s departure. I’m sure that there were plenty of people who didn’t want an East Asian as the CEO of a major American firm.
    I hope I’m not proven to be way wrong.

  14. 14
    Posted by guest | April 17, 2008 at 11:06 PM

    Cramer of CNBC does not like Vikram Pandit.He thinks Vikram can’t handle the job well maybe because he isn’t jewish or Harvard grad.enough.

  15. 15
    Posted by guest | April 18, 2008 at 1:43 AM

    Cramer of CNBC is a certifiable nut job. I think he’s demonstrated his savvy about Wall Street institutions.

  16. 16
    Posted by guest | April 18, 2008 at 2:11 AM

    And I’m sure Sanjay, Vijay, Gupta, Ramesh, Vishal, etcetera, etcetera will agree with Rajnish that Vikram is doing a great job.

  17. 17
    Posted by guest | April 18, 2008 at 7:48 AM

    http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1102844

  18. 18
    Posted by guest | April 18, 2008 at 8:54 AM

    9% up in pre-market, I’m sure the Jews and the WASPs will agree that Vikram is doing a great job.

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