$$$ Walter & Monica Noel: The Millions Didn't Go to Charity [Cityfile]
$$$ Access Executive Said He Would 'Fight' for Madoff Funds [Dealbook]
$$$ Let's just put them in charge. [GT]
$$$ Marc Fisher Has Some Choice Words And Shoves For Walter Noel [GuestofaGuest]






Posted by Lowly Assistant , Dec 23, 2008 5:27PM
Maybe this has a direct correlation with my handle, but shouldn't these kids be playing baseball, lighting things on fire, and smoking drugs? I'm most definitely timid, regarding the next generation of assholes (read: people I'm jealous of) coming from Greenwich.
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 23, 2008 5:29PM
I can't believe I'm even entertaining the possibility of defending these schmucks, but Fairfield Greenwich Group lists 40 charitable organizations they donate to on their website.
I'm way too lazy to check, but perchance most donations were given through the firm and not through the individual foundation?
https://www.fggus.com/guest/charities.html
Posted by guest , Dec 23, 2008 5:56PM
This French dude was probably just a wannabe BSD. Thought he could trade and make money. Madoff kept giving him the 'returns' so he kept deluding himself into thinking that he was the real BSD.
When the fraud was uncovered, reality hit him on his face. He was no BSD but worst, a really stupid schmuck.
Such things happen to many people. The continue to live in the belief that they are something which they are actually not. The reaction to reality finally dawning upong them varies, but is a function of the extent of delusion.
Madoff was also deluding himself in believing that he was a great money manager and a highly respected guy - though he simply committed fraud to maintain those delusions. Noel was delusional too.
This French guy took it a bit too hard. Noel is still living in denial.
Investors should make sure that they get detailed psychological profiles of managers they entrust their funds with. Involvement with delusional individuals as well as folks with an inferiority complex trying to overcompensate is never likely to end in anything good.
Posted by guest , Dec 23, 2008 6:00PM
Noel donations:
Greenwich Country Day School/ Greenwich Academy = $15,000
CT Food Bank = $100
Is there anything about these people that isn't grotesque?
Posted by guest , Dec 23, 2008 6:22PM
@3- shut up, prick.
Posted by Goldman Sachs Neophyte , Dec 23, 2008 8:11PM
@3 great comment, you are spot on! Every time I make a comment like yours, Bess deletes it from the site. In fact, this comment will probably be deleted as well.
Posted by guest , Dec 23, 2008 8:50PM
I just wanna put this out there: I really thought DB would suck after Carney left. I was wronger than Greenspan's previous model, because current DB is the best fucking DB ever. Will you marry me, Levin?
Posted by guest , Dec 23, 2008 9:11PM
Greenwich kids win a trip to Hartford? What the fuck kind of prize is that?
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 23, 2008 10:29PM
Billy Mays hawking ESPN360, eat that Vince!
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 2:17AM
They paid 105k in commissions and fees off a portfolio of 100k?
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 8:12AM
Wow...Charlie is in rare form.
Had to phone it in today. Sounds like he smoked two packs of cigarettes last night.
Can't remember where he was last night.
I love that guy.
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 8:41AM
Hello? Anybody? Hello?!
Oh jeez - I'm the only one here today!
...and I'm a Christmas-celebrating Catholic.
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 8:45AM
Those little snot nosed trustafarians are responsible for this whole mess. We have finally found the evil rumor mongering short sellers. They should be tossed in bone me in the ass prison. Oh wait, they have to go to Hartford. Never mind. They have suffered enough.
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 24, 2008 8:46AM
@11
He's been phoning in like every morning recently, sounding about the same (maybe 1 pack/night + a 5th of scotch avg)
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 9:13AM
The French gut - ya
Adios asshole.
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 24, 2008 9:13AM
Apparently DB is on vacay today, let us discuss (something, anything), um, huge surprise YRC biz sucking, trying to renegotiate covenants, ha no one saw THAT coming 2-3 yrs ago when they issued/refi'd their debt, haha
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 9:16AM
@16 - maybe this is true in every downturn, but it seems like the companies that are truly fucked are the ones who screwed up their debt in the last couple of years.
Is that going to change after this crisis? Will prudent management come back into vogue?
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 9:25AM
12-you are not the only one! feeling happy, nothing like a kir royal in the morning..
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 9:30AM
16 What's YRC?
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 9:33AM
How about New York is one big ice skating rink today...
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 9:34AM
Best way to kir a hangover
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 24, 2008 9:44AM
@17
Far as I can tell, the ones who got cheap debt with loose covenants - so long as they didn't go buck wild with it - will be (ceteris paribus) relatively ok. The ones who levered up to like 8x EBITDA (or so the models predicted when the debt was issued in '05/'06) are f*cked, since now that 7x is prolly around 12x+ no doubt. Whoops?
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 24, 2008 10:20AM
@ 19
YRCW is the ticker.
@17
To elaborate, no I don't think prudent management will come back on the whole. Maybe on the surface it'll appear so, lots of rhetoric will be tossed around, "improvements" in controls, corporate governance, and other window dressing, but I don't think much will change in that department in the grand scheme of things.
What I've been trying to ascertain though, is what's going to be the next 'it' thing, the next fad, the next soon-to-be bubble that gets us out of the aftermath of the housing/credit one, hmmm
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 10:29AM
WTF is "prudent management". You're both using the term interchangably with low leverage.
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 10:32AM
The next "it" thing.. It may be helpful to review the history of it things (since the late 60s at least). The ones I remember are:
housing
internet
nifty 50
conglomerates
Anyone wish to expand the list?
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 24, 2008 10:47AM
@24
I was using it in the general sense of the term, not sure where you got the idea I meant low leverage.
Posted by guest , Dec 24, 2008 11:00AM
26 See 17, which equates leverage with poor management.
Posted by Anal_yst , Dec 24, 2008 12:14PM
@27
Not sure that equation was explicit, but I can see how one could interpret as such.
Surely, knowing what sort of debt load you can handle is a subset of prudent management, which many lost sight of in recent years, but I don't want to beat a dead horse.
Posted by guest , Dec 29, 2008 1:56AM
killing oneself is construed as being honorable in some cultures. Dont see any Maddoffs out there doing the honorable thing.