Self-styled shareholder superman Carl Icahn says Barack Obama would be a “terrible” president, Bloomberg reports. His election, backed by a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, would lead to runaway legislation, higher interest rates and accelerating inflation, Icahn told a conference of investors last night.
“I don’t normally get involved in politics, but this time I am,” Icahn said. “I don’t think Obama really understands economics.”
Does this mean Larry Kudlow was right?
Carl Icahn Says Obama Would Be a ‘Terrible’ President for U.S. [Bloomberg]
Archive for May 22nd, 2008
It seems like all we ever hear about is what a nice guy Jamie Dimon is, and how he’s a “giant among midgets” and his souvlaki is out of this world, but the direction he’s taking Bearpont Morgan Chase** is deeply disturbing and very much brings his judgment into question.
Not two weeks ago JPMorgan’s head of Latin American Credit, along with four MD’s and one ED were laid off for reasons related to “cost cutting and expenses.” Today we’re told that a JPM director paid a visit to 383 Madison this morning to fire all but two analysts from Bear’s Latam Research division, telling the peasants, “As you probably realize, we cannot take you on and as you may or may not be aware, JPMorgan decided to keep the headcount the same as before the merger. So now, you are free to look for other jobs.” Obviously we knew that there would be (severance-saddled) victims in this whole thing but the fact that Jamie Dimon can’t spare a few pesos to keep the group which inspired “Project Awesome” (the fictional Latam division of the fictional JS Spencer bank which spent most of its time chilling in Cabo with the odd Brazilian mention in Dana Vachon’s Mergers and Acquisitions) fully intact is a hard pill to swallow and quite nearly criminal. To Dimon’s credit, however, he apparently was instrumental in coming up with the line, “You are free to look for other jobs,” which was inspired. (Especially after he asked everyone to stay put for the last several months and requested that other banks hold off on hiring Bear employees until he could decide who would be getting fired.)
*It’s funnier than “vivan.”
**Not yet official, just in the hopper. Also under consideration: JPMorgan Cayne, the reasoning being that “this whole thing would never have happened without JC’s inspired management of Bear.”
Citigroup might want to rethink its insomniac slogan. Although the “Citi Never Sleeps” slogan is meant to convey a sense of never-ending vigilance, a new study shows that sleep deprivation leads to a loss of attentiveness and interferes with visual processing.
The study, which will be published in the Journal of Neuroscience, shows that losing only one night’s sleep has a dramatic effect on the brain, making it prone to short, sudden shutdowns. The study suggests that sleep-deprived people alternate between periods of near-normal brain function and dramatic lapses in attention and visual processing.
“It’s as though it is both asleep and awake and they are switching between each other very rapidly,” said David Dinges of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “Imagine you are sitting in a room watching a movie with the lights on. In a stable brain, the lights stay on all the time. In a sleepy brain, the lights suddenly go off.”
Losing just one night’s sleep makes brain prone to ‘sudden shutdowns’ [Evening Standard]
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Layoffs ’08: Bloodbath in JP Morgan’s Structured Finance Group
By John CarneyWe’re told that layoffs began yesterday in the structured leverage finance group at JP Morgan. Yesterday heads rolled among the senior staff. Today junior people are feeling the axe-man’s blade, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Did we ever find out what it was that disgraced former New York governor Eliot Spitzer wanted from his hookers that made the folks running the prostitution ring warn girls about his “dangerous” desires? We can’t remember. But Emily Gould spent 36 hours watching Sex and the City, and now she might have an idea.
OMG. You guys! Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer totally had to scramble (heh) for cover when a protester wearing a shirt reading “Microsoft = corruption” started hurling eggs at him. Video after the jump.
(We meant to post this yesterday but got distracted by the big fight about women on Wall Street. An intern has been executed for this oversight.)
On slow summer afternoons in the DealBreaker bunker we like to play a game we call “Market Movers.” The point is to come up with a one or two sentence explanation for broad market movements. Whoever comes up with the most ridiculous yet vaguely plausible explanation wins.
Yesterday’s winning entry in Market Movers was a bit lengthy but so ridiculous that it ended the game entirely.
One of the things we’ve learned during the Democratic primary battle is that Hillary’s victories are bullish for stocks and Obama’s wins are bearish.
The clearest example was Hillary’s massive West Virginia victory. Stocks opened strong the following day. But after Obama’s big North Carolina win, a night he nearly carried Indiana, stocks opened way down.
Even though Hillary clocked Obama in Kentucky, since Obama took Oregon convincingly, he really carried last night’s elections and now stands on the verge of gaining the Democratic nomination. Not surprisingly, stocks opened down 80 points this morning.
So who was the genius who came up with the nonsense that the market moves because of the Oregon primary while discounting the Kentucky primary? Amazingly, it was Larry Kudlow, who doesn’t even work at DealBreaker. We were going to send him an email congratulating him on the win until we realized that he wasn’t playing Market Movers at all. He was being absolutely sincere.
Stocks Don’t Like Obama [NRO]
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