We’re listening to the Meredith Whitney conference call right now, but while we patiently wait for the Q&A during which we’ll ask what everyone else is thinking– have you ever killed person?– here’s something interesting, considering that while DD’s victims usually don’t like it when she violates them in public, typically they roll over and take it, rather than screaming, “You take that back!” Today, though, Wachovia decided it has had enough. Stifel Nicolaus is out with a note saying that WB is demanding a retraction of Whitney’s latest report, claiming that her conclusion that Wachovia may have sold $50-60 billion in Golden West loans at a substantial loss during the quarter is “dead wrong.”
Update: Whitney mentions some sort of calculating error in her report but stands by her original conclusion.
Oppenheimer Note-US Banks [PDF]
Oppenheimer-US Bank Slide Show [PDF]
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i’d let MW spank me…
Wachovia is done, anyway you look at it. You have think that if IndyMac went under as its own entity then Golden West would have also gone under at a time like this. Therefore Wachovia’s billion dollar purchase of Golden West is completely valueless. Basically, Wachovia paid a very high price for a unbeleivably attractive prostitute only to later find out she had AIDS…not HIV but full-blown AIDS – which will eventually kill them.
At least I’ve never been dead wrong.
~Fake Stephen Hawking
you know what?
that meridith chick and that richard bove guy have nailed it and called out the bullshit.
but because they don’t have fancy MBA’s (maybe they do?) and work for less prestigious firms like fahnestock and ladenburg thalmann or oppenheimer or punk zeigel whatever the fuck firms they’re called, they get pilloried by the by the fancy folks at the fancy firms.
circle the wagons.
if these 2 people are so hated by the self described “elite”, why don’t the elite just hire them and tell them to shut the fuck up?
it fits into the elite playbook.
snobbery and hubris gets ya every time.
You gotta love Bove doing that mea culpa earlier today on the banking sector on CNBC. If the camera angle was just right, I’m sure you could see the gun pointed at his back.
I heart Meredith, she kicks a*s
what’s with all the poors on here lately whining about fat cat bankers and fancy MBA degrees? You know the economy isn’t that bad when these nothings can still afford internet access.
The SEC should investigate Whitney for taking down the entire financial system. She’s behind the short sellers and is using them as her lackey scapegoats.
She is ruining the party – everything would be fine if not for her, those damn short-sellers, and the media. They created the problems and the banks are the innocent victims.
i love it.
the entire collapse of the western financial system is being blamed on and layed at the feet of charles gasparino, meridith whitney and richard bove.
that’s so fucking awesome i think i’ll go punch myself in the face.
“guest” at 11:48 AM
Phil is that you? I thought you were in Belarus.
Bess-
I could care less…but you might want to be careful about posting sell-side reports…those guys can get snarky about their actual reports being circulated and it would suck if DB got in trouble for it…
for what it’s worth
that girl kept me in mutha-f-cking Puts through fake-rally-08. bove was not as consistent, he kinda got long there for a bit. mw = champ.
-retail “gawker” guy
11:55– totally disagree– mer (bove, etc) is a total attention whore (she said it herself to bloomberg in the august issue). they LOVE their thoughts being disseminated.
@ 11:55… “snarky”…. i love that word. Makes me laugh every time. Take note, Bess & JC…
you have to hand it to her – that chick has bigger balls than 99% of the mostly effete males who populate wall street.
she’s been called every name and pejorative in the book by some pretty important people, and she just gives them the middle finger. it’s hard not to bend to peer pressure.
but i’m starting to wonder if she’s sitting on the don’t come line for too long and pressing her bets…
she’s got little more upside here since the specific companies she went after are down like ~80%.
why not just cash in your chips?
lots of fancy math on the call…meredith started at one of the bulge, but was relieved of her duties (not sure why, negative views perhaps?). as far as her credentials, who knows, she may have an mba, but doesn’t have a cfa (at least per the research report, who knew?). compelling argument that home prices have further to fall, but she didn’t say how much banks need to raise. I like ackman who puts it all on the line and says fre/fnm should go to zero.
@11:55 – good call, bess, may want to take the link down.
she’s like a whistleblower.
i bet she got shitcanned from one of the “elite” firms, and she’s on a mission.
hell hath no fury and all that.
i’d still hit it
@johnny– is 2003 your favorite year, too?
lol @ 11:48am
that was me writing about fancy MBA’s, i’ve got one myself for what it’s worth which is apparently not much after looking at analyst bonus numbers.
concede this point to me:
right now, she is far and away the #1 banking analyst on all of wall street, in terms of recommendations and performance.
i bet you can’t do it which proves my first comment is true.
How can the WB be offended by someone’s postulating that they are full of sh*t?
They hired Goldman to tell them what their loan book was worth?? Don’t they market themselves as Investment Bankers and a serious wholesale bank while selling their advice to the marketplace?? Does anyone have less credibility??
Bob Steel is a superstar, so it’s hard to think he would take the job if it’s a lost cause.
the reality is that analysts are just shills to support revenue producers like investment banking and sales traders.
In peripherally related news, I just got a compliance bulletin about market rumors and how we are to be good boys and girls and not spread them. Like, REALLY?!?!
@12:14, you might end up in a leather harness.
No MBA for MW, but come on, this is not rocket science.
MB is a goddess. I respect her for telling the emperor that he has no clothes. Or telling the banks that they have no assets.
I agree with people on this thread. MW should definitely be probed for colluding with the Shorts. She started it all. I’m surprised no Bank CEO has tried to get her assassinated yet.
wow i had no idea that banks were even being that honest with themselves about forecasting price drops.
30% peak to trough is pretty aggressive.
the reality is that shit is going to wind up dropping like 40 – 50%, but still, pretty realistic numbers.
MBA is a stamp of approval or key to the gate – nothing more (unless you have no business knowledge, then it helps get up to speed on the basics). CFA is another fairly general body of knowledge designation.
Both offer some degree of credibility but I’d take very smart, truly hungry, and experienced over some letters any day. If you want to find a diamond, it’s individual character over the average pull from a designation pot (that said, character and the designation pot aren’t mutually exclusive).
And this comes from someone with an MBA and CFA.
perhaps Meredith Whitney and Dennis Kneale should get married they both talk out of the sides of their mouths purly for the shock value of TV.
hi 12:39,
while i agree with your general sentiments, the reality is that a top 5 mba will do more for you at a place like goldman sachs than just being hungry.
it’s the same reason why nfl pro’s generally come from the same schools, even though almost every player at every d1 program can run 4.4′s and bench 225 27 times.
there are exceptions to every generalization, of course.
@12:46
I somewhat disagree with your comparison of recruitment from MBA to NFL. When you play football at an SEC school the reason more people go pro is because you have experienced the best competition in real life scenarios. It is fairly similar in the what you are doing day to day between pro and college. However, at any MBA program you are getting no work experience (other than an internship), rather just learning the theory of a profession you are trying to enter.
@12:46
“while i agree with your general sentiments, the reality is that a top 5 mba will do more for you at a place like goldman sachs than just being hungry.”
That’s why I said smart, hungry, and experienced. Also, I am assuming real performance and generation of value, not a networking old boys thing.
Also even Gordo the Great agrees on the main points:
“Most of these Harvard MBA types – they don’t add up to dogshit. Give me guys that are poor, smart, hungry – and no feelings. You win a few, you lose a few, but you keep on fighting.”
Meredith Whitney Cuts Wachovia on `Bleak’ Prospects
Stifel Nicolaus???
@12:04 said:
“you have to hand it to her – that chick has bigger balls than 99% of the mostly effete males who populate wall street.
she’s been called every name and pejorative in the book by some pretty important people, and she just gives them the middle finger. it’s hard not to bend to peer pressure.
but i’m starting to wonder if she’s sitting on the don’t come line for too long and pressing her bets…
she’s got little more upside here since the specific companies she went after are down like ~80%.
why not just cash in your chips?”
i wonder if she broke a sweat today?
lol