Like many of the former Bear Stearns workers not currently employed, erstwhile CEO Alan Schwartz will be taking the summer off to plot his next career move. (Things are slightly different for Schwartz in that he has actual job offers, but whatevs.) Supposedly he’s deciding between staying with the newly formed Bearpont Morgan Chase, where the slot for a “We are drowning in liquidity” guy remains unfilled, or heading over to private equity, possibly with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. According to the Post, Schwartz has told friends that he’s being “judicious” about the decision, though that quote was surely taken out of context and has less to do with Big Al’s career trajectory than a late season summer share, having missed the deadline to join Jimmy Cayne at bridge camp.
Bear’s Schwartz To Mull Bids Over Summer [NYP]
Archive for June 2008
Illinois Plans to Sue Countrywide, CEO (WSJ)
This is just the beginning of the legal fun we’ll have… Illinois (where we might have gone to school K-8th grade) is suing Countrywide and its CEO, citing deceptive marketing practices in the sale of mortgages, ultimately wreaking havoc on the state. Just cause we’re board of making the same argument on this stuff over and over, we’re going to skip making a point altogether. That being said, this seems a little crazy: “Ms. Madigan says she is asking that all Countrywide loans originated using “unfair and deceptive” practices be rescinded or modified in some way, even if Countrywide has to repurchase the loans.” If that’s successful, it pretty much compels every other state to follow suit.
Barclays to Raise $8.9 Billion to Shore Up Capital (Bloomberg)
Add it to your spreadsheet. You’ll never guess that investors included Temasek (Singapore), Qatar, China and Japan.
Monet fetches record $80.5m (Reuters)
We’ll try to save the art market analysis for Felix Salmon, but it doesn’t look like he’s commented on this one yet. Anyway, some painting of water lilies took in over $80 million, almost double what had been expected. Altogether, Christies’ “meet the impressionists” night took in $284 million, over a quarter of a billion dollars. We don’t really know what any of this means, but just in general hard not to see it as a continued healthy sign. Tomorrow morning, we can find some more hard analysis other than what’s going on in our mind: “that’s, um, a lot of money.”
Approval Is Near for Bill to Help U.S. Homeowners (NYT)
Just in case Illinois can’t single-handedly turn the housing crisis around, have no fear. Congress is on it. Here’s the key chunk of what the bill looks like: “The centerpiece of the Senate package is a rescue-refinancing plan aimed at stemming the tide of more than 8,000 new foreclosures a day that lenders are filing across the country. The plan would allow distressed borrowers and their lenders to stem losses by allowing qualified owners to refinance into more affordable, 30-year fixed-rate loans with a federal guarantee. The legislation would also provide benefits for first-time buyers, who would receive a refundable tax credit of up to $8,000, or 10 percent of the value of a home, on purchases of unoccupied housing. ”
$$$ Who Killed The Economy? [Portfolio]
$$$ Welcome to Flight 666 [IdeoBlog]
$$$ Summer Internship Don’ts [Mergers and Inquisitions]
$$$ Who really knows how many bankers are unemployed? [TheDeal]
$$$ Wall Street Analyst Immortalized with New Opera [1-2]
Corporate loan agreements are being drafted to include an express provision allowing lenders to transfer their loans to the Federal Reserve, a loan expert tells DealBreaker. The Fed has been accepting a much broader range of collateral in exchange for short-term loans through what is known as Fed “repos.” In a repo, dealers bid on borrowing money versus various types of general collateral.
The new provisions seem to anticipate the possibility that banks might use corporate loans in repos, accessing cash from the Fed in exchange for the credits. In the past the assignment provisions of loan agreements that governed transfers typically did not expressly permit transfer to the Fed. Instead, they permitted assignment to others commercial banks, insurance companies, investment or mutual funds or other entity that is an “accredited investor” under securities laws. The new provision illustrates the ever more pervasive role the Fed has in the current credit markets.
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business school
This Is The First In A Series Of Anti-Knowledge Initiatives That Will Culminate In Hiring First Years Who Can’t Read
By Bess LevinMorgan Stanley is said to be cutting back on its b-school tuition reimbursement, from 100 percent to 10k a year. “Sucks for those of us working through 10k/quarter part-time programs,” said our tipster who just wants to learn, damn it. “This sets me back 50k or so. There goes the last of my loyalty to the company.”
Goldman Sach’s flagship fund–i.e. the central showcase for the unbridled abnormal genius that is Goldman Sachs Asset Management– Global Alpha, which lost more money last year than almost any other major hedge fund, is back in the game. According to Bloomberg, GA rose about 19 percent through mid-June, after a 40 percent drop in 2007.
While the costs of Sarbanes-Oxley continue to mount, the law’s defenders enjoy claiming that it has performed the vital job of restoring investor confidence in the wake of the corporate scandals. No doubt those defenders will be heartened by a new study that shows that 62 percent of corporate executives agree that the law strengthened public and investor trust in corporate America.
After the jump, find out what this isn’t such good news.
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
