Opening Bell: 11.16.09

Bank of America Hits Pay Snag In CEO Hunt (WSJ)
The BAC board has identified another reason no one wants to take over for Ken Lewis (i addition to a lack of interest in running a hellhole) and it starts with a ‘K’ ends with a ‘en Feinberg.’
UBS’s Debt Trading May Be Key for Profit Revival (UBS)
“I’d like to see us put more risk on the table and actually trade a bit harder,” said CFO John Cryan, 48. Wealth management clients, who have already withdrawn a net 182.9 billion francs over the 18 months through the end of September, may not halt redemptions until UBS returns to profitability, he added. “The turnaround will have to come from the investment bank,” said Dirk Becker, a Frankfurt-based analyst at Kepler Capital Markets who rates UBS “reduce.” “However, the biggest profits will come from the private bank. The problem is money outflows and there is no serious hope yet that they will stop.”
Paulson Puts Money On Citi, Ditching Goldman (NYT)
Paulson & Co. acquired an additional 300 million shares of Citigroup during the third quarter, while selling its entire holding in rival Goldman Sachs.
Blankfein: Firm’s wealth unit ‘should be bigger’ (IN)
He declined to discuss specific hiring goals but said in the interview that the firm “has to get into the high hundreds, before we can talk about thousands, of advisers.”
Deutsche Bank Drowning in Vegas on Costliest Bank-Owned Casino (Bloomberg)
And they’re literally underwater: “Any construction project of this size runs into problems,” Fasulo said. “But to bump into an aquifer is just bad luck.”
GM Reports $1.15 Billion Loss (WSJ)
An improvement over last year!

Comments (18)

  1. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 8:02 AM

    UBS Sucks

  2. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 8:05 AM

    An aquifer, in Vegas? Why didn’t the risk models predict this? Where were the quants in all this?

  3. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 8:21 AM

    that’s right blankfein, suck this.
    -vik

  4. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 8:40 AM

    so wait, does this mean c people will get bonii this year?

  5. Posted by Stanley O | November 16, 2009 at 8:53 AM

    Dear Bammy,
    How ’bout hooking a brother up? I love Tarp, and many English Ales.
    Stan

  6. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 8:56 AM

    Paulson is the new Prince Alwaleed.
    Bring out the white horses and sexy black mole.

  7. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:15 AM

    @6 he’ll never match his shirts to the horse like I do. Remember that.
    -prince

  8. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:27 AM

    Hitler kaputt

  9. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:38 AM

    @2…don’t forget the “engineers” who designed the substructure without drilling a small test well first to see what was underneath. After all, as any engineer will tell you, “if it works on paper, it works in the field…”
    ~Center for the Study of Dumbass Engineers

  10. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:43 AM

    these stories blow

  11. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:44 AM

    @10 so I guess you/your mom can related to them?

  12. Posted by Lucy Van Pelt | November 16, 2009 at 9:45 AM

    It’s not the size of your wealth unit that matters, it’s how you use it. But a big wealth unit is nice.

  13. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    UBS is about 3 months late in taking on risk in fixed income, wow does that firm suck

  14. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 9:53 AM

    Only in the auto-industry could you lose a billion dollars and consider it a success.
    (well, maybe airlines too…)
    (or at citi…)

  15. Posted by Asshole In Greenwich | November 16, 2009 at 10:06 AM

    We don’t consider ourselves successful unless we blow through a billion dollars a week. Anything less, you’re just not trying hard enough.

  16. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 10:12 AM

    I am a UVA student.

  17. Posted by Anal_yst | November 16, 2009 at 10:22 AM

    Curious what Paulson knows that apparently everyone else does not.

  18. Posted by guest | November 16, 2009 at 12:17 PM

    @16 admitting you have a problem is the first step. Good for you.

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