Wells Fargo Advertisement Tells Huddled Masses To Get Bent (Reuters)
There’s something fundamentally embarrassing about having to watch your industry recoil in terror like a puppy in a Chinese market every time someone finds something to rail about: after a while your eyes just get glazed over and you stop paying attention. Wells managed to not only find their balls on this one, but shared their testicular fortitude with the world in the form of an ad that chastises (politely) the general public and press for quick judgment on something they know very little about: how this banking shit works.
UBS Not Killing Investment Bank Completely (Bloomberg)
The Swiss tax specialists wanted to take a minute to remind you all that they’re not bowing out of the Investment Banking business, yet. That will be all.
Goldman Chief Calls For Stricter Accounting Controls (FT)
“Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’ chief executive, has called for banks to adopt more stringent accounting practices, accept tougher regulation and give greater power to risk managers, in a trenchant analysis of the causes of the financial crisis and how they might be remedied.
In an article for Monday’s Financial Times, as the Obama administration prepares to rewrite the rule book governing the US banking industry, Mr Blankfein outlines seven areas of misdemeanour – ranging from “complexity [getting] the better of us” to the “outsourcing of risk management” to ratings agencies.”
The Treasury Pushes Announcement (Reuters)
Our favorite Alexander Hamilton wannabes have decided to push the announcement of the-next-big-deal to Tuesday at 11.
Government Looking At Ways To Circumvent Contract, Collect Money Ahead Of Private Enterprises (Bloomberg)
The government is all but admitting to seeking bankruptcy for automakers on this one, and they way in which their doing is really rather ominous for banks.
“General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC may have to be forced into bankruptcy by the U.S. government to assure repayment of $17.4 billion in federal bailout loans, a course of action the automakers claim would destroy them.
U.S. taxpayers currently take a backseat to prior creditors, including Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to loan agreements posted on the U.S. Treasury’s Web site. The government has hired a law firm to help establish its place at the front of the line for repayment, two people involved in the work said last week.
If federal officials fail to get a consensual agreement to change their place in line for repayment, they have the option to force the companies into bankruptcy as a condition of more bailout aid. The government would finance the bankruptcy with a so-called “debtor in possession” or DIP loan, a lender status that gives the U.S. priority over other creditors, said Don Workman, a partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP.”
Barclays Beats Forecasts, Cuts Bonuses (Reuters)
“Barclays … said bonus payments across the bank would almost halve for 2008 as it reported a 14 percent drop in annual profit and said it faces a tough year ahead.
Its profit beat expectations, however, and the bank’s shares jumped over 7 percent in early trading on Monday.”
Blackstone Leader Leaves (FINalternatives)
“Bruce Amlicke has resigned as chief investment officer of Blackstone Alternative Investment Management’s fund of funds division to spend more time with his family, The Wall Street Journal reports. Amlicke will remain with Blackstone for a transition period of a few months; his position will not be filled.
Amlicke has been with Blackstone since 2004, overseeing its 116-member fund of funds team.”
U B Sucks. Get out and smell the fresh air.
@1 – why so persistent ?
“Wells managed to not only find their balls on this one, but shared their testicular fortitude”
…uh, yeah, whatever, with shareholder money.
So instead of spending it on boondoggles, they spend it on full page ads in the WSJ. Rupert Murdoch wins again.
Circumvrent huh… the old reach around…
“Blankfein outlines seven areas of misdemeanour – ranging from “complexity [getting] the better of us” to the “outsourcing of risk management” to ratings agencies.”
Its shocking that he didn’t mention “willful negligence on the part of industry regulators and the S.E.C.”
Oh wait, those aren’t “areas of misdemeanour.” They are closer to felony behavior than misdemeanor.
Obviously, Well Fargo is in desperaate need of a good PR firm specializing in “damage control”. I hope they find one.
Why isn’t there a DB post on this gem?
Trying to Live on 500k in New York City
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=2
Hilarious.
@7, the taxpayers won’t allow it! that would be a waste of money!
TAXPAYERS RISK $9.7 TRILLION ON BAILOUTS AS SENATE VOTES
http://tinyurl.com/5×7
So go ahead, send your employees on a boondoggle, just don’t take TARP money?
I’m thinking about taking out a full page ad to tell banks not to take taxpayer money….
@8
Quite amusing. My heart is currently ‘bleeding out’ over their woes.
Any coincidence that the Wells ad ran in the same paper as the NY times article on how “difficult it is to live on 500k a year”?
Also hilarious that a writer that makes less than 100k pontificates on how much it sucks to live off of 500k.
13 Obviously you didn’t read the article. They took great pains to say that its the kind of life that a chief exec leads – private schools, spacious apartments, weekend homes, plus less obvious things like tutors, ball gowns for the wife – that makes these big sums necessary. The rest of us could handle it, thank you, but not them. The ending line summed it up: a chief exec wouldnt have the confident stride he does if he was forced to move to Hoboken and pile into the PATH each day, reading a folded paper and crushed against the rest of us.
Wells has jumped the shark. For those who were still unconvinced that Wells is run by a bunch of douchebags, the evidence is now there in the pages of your newspaper rags courtesy of themselves.
Start the violins please.
@14
Mike Bloomberg takes the subway. He did so before he was Mayor. in the period that I worked in Midtown I had seen the guy on the subway, twice. I think he has a pretty confident stride regardless.
I guess the ending is a joke ?
Or maybe bankers feel the need to distance themselves from the ordinaries?
Buffett’s only large expenditures are for high class Omaha whores. How many could he buy for 500k / yr.?
14-
Let me guess, the great unwashed masses need to shut up and have empathy for our betters?
Where the did they teach you that, England?
16 One day a week, Bloomberg gets driven from his house to 59/Lex and takes the express three stops to City Hall. Very different from what the rest of us do (walk to the train, change from one line to another or from express to local) and a lot less frustrating. I would appreciate his efforts more if he walked from his house (79/madison) to Lex/77, waited for the local, took it 4 stops to 42nd (or two stops plus a long escalator ride at 59), then changed for the express. That would change the door to door from 20 minutes to around 45 minutes, increasing the indignity and discomfort of the thing significantly.
14 – Yeah, you’re right, the ‘rich’ should just fire everyone working for them, tutors, teachers, chefs, assistants, drivers, and spend WAY less money.
Then the economy would recover for sure!
can someone write an article on how to make ends meet on $263 million a year? one constraint, i want to keep the effective fed tax rate to 17%, not one penny more. k?
tia
18 No, no. 16 is correct: the ending of the article – that preserving the dignity of the chief exec improves his job performance – is meant to be funny.
It’s ridicule and sarcasm for everyone except the Goldman Sachs guy.
Suddenly the tone switches and it’s all “trenchant analysis” and “Mister Blankfein.”
Sheesh.
@19
Touché. I guess the discomfort of descending two sets of stairs from 59/Lex once a week isn’t great enough … heck, by that time of day I’d already burnt 2 hours of my day on scummy Metro-North and subway rides…
@8 – seriously, can someone please check the numbers. a co-op apt that costs $1.5 mm does not have a mortgage that runs $8k a month! for starters, most co-ops require 50% down. so that means the mortgage is only $750k. at a 6% rate (totally realistic in this market), that payment for a regular 30 yr mortgage is only $4,500 a month ($54k a year about ½ of his est.). if the common charges (which should be partly tax deductible) are north of $2,500 ($30k/yr – 30% of his est.), the building has a problem. rule of thumb – $1 per square foot, not likely that a three bedroom is over 2,500 sq ft in this town (that said, I’m not sure where you can find 3 beds in manhattan for $1.5). I’m call in bs, salkin is nothing more than a provocateur…
In my neighborhood there are plenty of WS big shots (I mean that) but that’s in the burbs. They have great schools for their brats, can spend on second and third vacation homes, and the only negative thing is managing the commute that is 60 to 90 minutes long one way, when they don’t get driven to work or to the airport. Though they make more than $500K a year, if their income ever gets so low, they wouldn’t have any problem hacking it where they live (though a lot depends on their wives, hint).
On the other hand I know immigrant families who grew up in Manhattan in hole-in-the-wall rent-controlled apartments, with three or four kids in one “bedroom” and no luxuries. Today their parents could live a life of luxury in different corners of the world with their kids, but those parents still prefer their hole-in-the-wall.
@25 – Property tax?
don’t mix co-op’s with condos. that’s why co-op maintenance is partially tax deductible…for example, my condo maintenace is is a little more than my tax. that said, together they are roughly in line with similar sized co-op maintenance.
GM is going into Chapter 11 or significant government oversight… Best sign? Lutz is out – he’s a died in the wool auto guy, no way he would exit if GM could survive sans Uncle Sam.