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T. Boone Pickens is a guy who usually gets what he wants one way or another. So the Iraqis should take note that the most recent part of TBP’s plan to get the country off foreign oil calls for demands them to provide the US with access to their stash of black gold.
“We should not leave Iraq without a call on the Iraqi oil…. I don’t see how the Iraqis could turn us down, I just don’t.”
And if they do turn us down….TBP has a plan for that as well.
That’s the most obvious interpretation of the news that Westchester Country ($116,916 median household income to a New York and United States average of $51,001 and $61,117 according to the 2000 census) agreed to build a slew of “affordable housing” in a settlement with the Department of Justice and HUD over Westchester’s supposed failure to enforce fair housing laws.
The Wall Street Journal is calling it a shot across the bow of other counties (they mean the wealthy ones though) and in particular jurisdictions growing fat (or just barely failing to starve) off government teats.
There’s no reason at all, when you think about it, that you shouldn’t be able to move into your new place in Scarsdale right after for filing for unemployment.
But Mr. Sims said the lawsuit had made clear that “there was a significant amount of racial segregation” in Westchester. He said studies showed that zip codes could increasingly serve as a predictor of life expectancy and illness. “It’s time to remove zip codes as a factor in the quality of life in America,” he said.
Indeed.
Wealthy Suburbs Accept Low-Income Homes [The Wall Street Journal]
DB is hearing that Vikula’s new associate class was treated to a night of revelry to celebrate their arrival at the parts of the bank that have not already been sold off. Among the reported festivities last night were cocktails at the office followed by some grub at Dylan Prime before the new TARPettes made stops at Frying Pan, Buddha Bar, and Brass Monkey.
Judge Questions Merrill Bonuses (NYT)
“A week after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it had settled the matter, Judge Jed S. Rakoff questioned whether the $33 million agreement with Bank of America was adequate. He refused to approve the deal, saying too many questions remained unanswered, including who knew what and when about the controversial payouts.”
Distressed Debt Deals On The Rise (Reuters)
At $84.4B, distressed-debt deals are on pace to double last year’s numbers.
Stanford Can’t Get Money To Mount Legal Defense (NYPost)
There stands a decent chance the government has the money tied up to the point that Stanford will effectively be getting a team of public defenders.
Despite Negative Revenue, UBS Making High Profile Hires (Bloomberg)
The marginally less client friendly Swiss bank is building out its teams in the downtime, having picked up more than 20 bankers from the competition. No mention of comp plans.
Toxic Assets May Need More Help (Reuters)
The Congressional Oversight Panel is looking for stress tests on the smaller banks/institutions to assure they’re not functionally inept, and wants capital support much in the same way it was available to the larger institutions.
Asia Showing Slow Climb Out Of Recession (NYT)
China released its economic numbers today, showing industrial output raising 10.8% and retail sales up 15%.
New York Fed In Hiring Spree (FT)
“The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is aggressively hiring traders as it seeks to manage its burgeoning securities holdings, making the central bank one of Wall Street’s most active recruiters of financial talent.”
$$$ Another day, another multi-million dollar Bank of America settlement. [Bloomberg]
$$$ Times are still tough for some. [Crossingwallstreet.com]
$$$ People really need to start being less selfish with their money and gamble more. [WSJ]
$$$ Anybody want a job? [NYT]
As Dealbreaker readers will already been keenly aware, American automotive firms have been beset by difficult market conditions including too many customers, too few customers, high material prices, low material prices, insufficient resale value, excessive resale value.
You will be happy to know that the management team has been working overtime and come up with this solution.
GM, eBay to Test Online Car Sales [The Wall Street Journal]
It seems like only yesterday Elijah Cummings was losing his mind after he found out about AIG’s little field trip to the St. Regis Monarch Beach. Bailed out companies were not supposed to be taking Joe the Plumber’s tax dollars and using them on bottles of Dom delivered to beachfront cabanas. But that was in a different time, a different era. In today’s recovery, it’s game on- or at least Primerica seems to think so.
After canceling performance-based giveaways for their top earners in February, this proud part of the Citigroup family is now offering 400 trips to Maui and another 1100 to Caesar’s Palace in Vegas to their top earners as a little added incentive. So get ready to sell people! And to help you kick things off, allow us to take you back to a better time.
Labor markets must really be improving. Who knew that downward tick in the unemployment rate last month would put so much global pressure on higher-end establishments such as golf courses to find available workers? But clearly we are in for better times as four former residents of the lovely residence facility in Guantanamo Bay have scored an upgrade and wound up with a summer job most people would kill for.
Following their time in Cuba. the four members of China’s Muslim Uighur minority are now almost two months into a four month stint working at the Port Royal Golf Course in Bermuda. Faced with the rapid departure of a group of Filipino workers, Wendall Brown, chairman of the board of trustees for Bermuda’s public golf courses, started the work visa process by describing how the clan possessed all of the special skills required to work in a British colony.
“They have been offered a temporary position at Port Royal until the Grand Slam,” he said. “There are still special projects that we need to do like cleaning up and beautifying the course … All four of them have been given a job there. It’s on a temporary basis. Two of them speak fairly good English.”
The timing couldn’t be better for these guys as once they finish summering in BDA they can make their way to British Columbia for their winter jobs as heli-skiing guides in the Selkirks.
There is this recursive sort of double-take one does on learning that a firm is on the verge of exhausting its legal reserve. First, that the firm needed a large legal reserve. Second that it was exhausted. Third, that “large” in this instance is $650 million. Whoosh!
Somewhere there is a fantastic punch line in there when the horrified looks are placated by a quick “Yeah, it’s State Street Bank.” Everyone goes back to drinking a middling California Chardonnay. That this would be soothing should be irritating.
State Street Corp. may deplete the $625 million set aside in 2007 to settle legal claims stemming from losses linked to subprime mortgages.
The reserve “may not be sufficient to address ongoing litigation” if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sues State Street and seeks monetary penalties, the Boston-based custody bank said in a regulatory filing today. The SEC told State Street that it might be sued over disclosures about and management of fixed-income investments through 2007, the company said June 25.
“We’re not going to speculate as to the amount of any potential monetary penalty,” Carolyn Cichon, a spokeswoman for State Street, said in a telephone interview.
No reason, it seems, to be alarmed. Of course the reserve got spent. That’s what it is there for.
The company declined 99 cents to $52.87 at 11:06 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. It has gained 34 percent this year, compared with the 25 percent rise for the Standard & Poor’s index of asset managers and custody banks.
That’s a modest decline, isn’t it. Lower administration costs now that $625 million no longer resides in the building?
State Street May Exhaust $625 Million Legal Reserve [Bloomberg]
Thanks to many folks in the Golden State who still don’t quite know the difference between a right and a privilege, the current hit to the California state budget from lawsuits stands at $1 billion and counting. The prevailing mindset of solving the budget crisis by suing the state for making certain budget cuts is impressive even by the highly litigious standards in this country. As the state would have undoubtedly been chastised for wasteful spending by hiring expensive lawyers to defend its interest in court, their record so far against lobbying groups mimics that of a pitcher who is about to be sent down to the minors. With a few more “wins”, the only group of people happier than the victorious lobbying groups will be the newly freed California inmate population.
Lawsuits are the latest roadblock for California budget [LA Times]
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is shocked, shocked to discover that misleading advertising is going on in here.
Sell too few cars? Get dropped. Sell too many? Get dropped. Turn around and start issuing misleading advertising
New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo today told 40 auto dealers across the state to stop issuing misleading advertisements for the Federal Car Allowance Rebate System, known as “cash for clunkers.”
The government-funded clunkers program, which seeks to boost the economy, allows dealers to credit $3,500 or $4,500 for trade-ins that may be worth less. Dealers’ ads mislead consumers into believing that their trade-in vehicle qualifies for the program when it does not or that they are eligible for a several-thousand-dollar rebate, Cuomo said in a statement today.
Next thing you know they will want to eliminate introductory or teaser rate financing!
Cuomo Tells Dealers to Stop Deceptive Clunkers Ads [Bloomberg]
