Madoff List Made Available Via Court Documents (CBS)
Presented without comment.
Bank Of America US Governments Bitch (Reuters)
It was bound to happen, and while we all figured it would be Citi (sorry, Citi) that first fell to its knees and felt the great warmth of acceptance, it turns out we were wrong; BAC has apparently almost officially made the move from “girlfriend” to “live-in hobo.” And no, we’re not talking the good kind, we’re talking the kind that you rescue from the homeless shelter and can threaten to send back at any moment – though you have to admit there’s a certain popcorn’ish quality to watching CEO’s have their testicles handed to them.
Fun with selective hearing:
“Paulson and Bernanke on December 17 “forcefully urged Mr. Lewis not to walk away,”
[...]
Days later, Bernanke told Lewis Bank of America had no grounds to walk away
[...]
They warned Lewis that if the deal collapsed … their confidence in Bank of America would be “undercut.”
[...]
The government agreed to provide $20 billion in additional capital for the bank and to insure against losses on $118 billion in troubled assets”
Bank Of England Taking Its Sweet Time (Bloomberg)
In all likelihood the Bank of England is shooting for an effective 0%, but it looks like it’s going to take a holiday at 1% and get back to us in a few.
“The Bank of England will probably lower the benchmark interest rate closer to zero today as officials resort to buying securities to revive the economy.
The nine-member Monetary Policy Committee will cut the bank rate by a half-point to 1 percent, the lowest since the institution was founded in 1694, according to the median of 61 economists’ forecasts”
Swiss Government To UBS: Did Not (Reuters)
UBS pulled a brilliant move in announcing prematurely that the Swiss Government had asked them to break up, thus forcing the Swiss into a defensive position and (possibly, depending on previous moves/what comes next) setting them up to say something like “We’re committed to the success of UBS”.
Somewhat related, Bloomberg has it that Swiss Re has stepped outside the hospitality of the Swiss Government to look for funds, turning to O3 for about $2.6B in funds:
“The investment may give Berkshire a stake of more than 20 percent as Swiss Re struggles to keep its AA credit rating. The reinsurer fell as much as 18 percent after posting a 2008 loss of about 1 billion francs and announcing plans to cut the dividend. The Zurich-based company also will disband its financial-markets unit and may seek more capital.”
A Look At Wall St. Pay (NYT)
Skip the first five’ish paragraphs and jump to the bit about the pay study: it’s not a bad (if sobering) read.
Deficit Fears Weigh On Debt Issuance (FT)
“The Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee expressed concern on Wednesday over the sharp jump in net borrowing needs – which market analysts estimate could reach $1,500bn to $2,500bn for the 2009 financial year.
Traders are particularly concerned about the appetite for Treasuries among foreign investors, who hold more than half the outstanding $5,500bn in Treasury debt.”
U B Sucks. Don’t forget it …
Buffett is such a river boat gambler. He looks harmless but if you’re going to him hat in hand, he’s going to plunder you in the name of Berkshire Hathaway shareholders.
Buffett continues to use convertible bonds as his weapons of choice. Interesting…
http://www.BerkshireHathawayForum.com
too early, didn’t care
So they had him in a gimp suit. Big deal. He’s not the first bank CEO that had to wear it.
BAC cannot be nationalized. The US faces too much potential liability in a Takings lawsuit by BAC shareholders and if BAC goes bust a month after completing this deal the US Treasury will have lost all of its “moral suasion.”
Any bank executive who gets pressured by Treasury or FDIC will come on TV like a latter day Blago and claim Sheila Bair is trying to “BAC” them.
seriously, the madoff list. are they joking making that thing public? I’m not sure I would want my address out there for the world to see. basically, the feds have just given a free marketing list to anyone looking to make a buck. anyone want to join me in starting a new investor protection service? I’m have a 163 page list of hnw individuals that I plan to target, looking for an analyst to put it in alpha order by last name (will pay more than your current gov’t wage)…
ha, this list is a great way to look for real estate deals / forced sellers.
I’d like to see Ken Lewis taste his own testicles.
hnw?? You mean former hnw mon ami
Ut oh……Moody’s laying off another 10 percent.
hey! my former accountant is on that list! the bastard never told me he had such a sweet thing going….
I’ve already loaded the Made-Off list contents into our customer relations database. Call center will be making the calls shortly.
What a goldmine.
Interestingly, Andrew Madoff is listed as a victim …
“It’s the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLCQkClE6JHI
“Madoff Said Only Brother Could Do Audit, Witness Tells Congress “
“We see a huge shift into finance over the years, and Harvard students clearly respond to economic incentives,” Mr. Katz said. “I certainly don’t think it was a pure love of finance that drove people into the field.”
HBS = Bunch of trend-hopping, money chasing scum.
Ha. Marcum Kleigman is on the list. Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of guys.
@11 How does it make you feel to know your accountant’s a dumbass?
Must be match book cover CPA’s
LMAO
Credit Suisse is the Dylan Ratigan of financial services.
@14 – lemme guess, you got rejected? why must everyone be a hater? get over it buddy. look at this way, at least you didn’t spend all that money to go into ib only to see your dream of riches get crushed…
Best part of the BAC article in the Journal is the closer. Tells you all you need to know about Ken. You see, he has a higher calling (and it is not to his shareholders).
Asked by an analyst about his decision to go ahead with the Merrill deal, Mr. Lewis responded: “We did think we were doing the right thing for the country.”
Kevin Bacon NOT on the list? Weird. Must have invested through a third party.
Thanks for posting this Madoff list – I’m a distressed real-estate buyer and this will be a good shopping list
John Thain made me gay.
Kevin Bacon isn’t on the Madoff list ?
“Skip the first five’ish paragraphs and jump to the bit about the pay study: it’s not a bad (if sobering) read.”
Yeah, the whole financial industry. So you’ve discovered that bank tellers, payday lender cashiers and claims adjusters don’t get paid that much. Great job, Willy! Keep this up, and maybe in another six months I’ll let you have a Houlihan Lokey notepad.
Is Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband on the list, Prince Von A-Something. It seems he only jumps on the pr bandwagon on these conspiracies, you know, Madoff scam, Anna Nicole’s baby, JFK grassy knoll shooter, etc….
That picture of Bernie reminded me to post this link:
http://www.ehow.com/how_4523474_identify-sociopath.html
I looked it up previously because I work for one.
there’s a new us banking order (based on market cap):
jpm – $85 bn
wfc – $66 bn
usb – $24 bn
bk – $23 bn
bac – $20 bn (how’s that mer deal working out for you kenny?)
c – $16 bn
anyone want to make a case that wfc shouldn’t be trading more in line with bac and c? this is going to get ugly…
@26- Lol. Thanks.
“we all figured it would be Citi (sorry, Citi)”
why on earth would it be citi? nobody thought citi was stable or could be seen to prop up another firm at anything but disaster pricing even then. if citi had bought merrill the entire thing would have collapsed into the void. it was BAC because BAC was seen as having the strong deposit base.
notice how it has been the allegedly “strong” banks (e.g. jpm, wfc) buying “bad” banks? not the already well known to be shit banks like citi.
lol @ NTC & Co. and Paul Konigsberg. Maybe Paul should change his last name to “Ponziberg.” Anytime your name takes up a whole page, on a list like that, well…
Bonus points if anyone feels like searching the entire list for Congressman or Senators. That would be excellent.
Thomas H. Lee (of Refco fame) is on the Madoff list. That douchebag never met a scam he didn’t want in on.