Opening Bell: 11.09.09

Posted by Dealbreaker, Nov 09, 2009, 7:45am

lloydblankfein6.jpgLloyd Blankfein: “I’m Doing God’s Work” (Times Online)
An impish grin spreads across Blankfein’s face. Call him a fat cat who mocks the public. Call him wicked. Call him what you will. He is, he says, just a banker “doing God’s work.” […] “I know I could slit my wrists and people would cheer,” Blankfein says. But then, he slowly begins to argue the case for modern banking. “We’re very important,” he says, abandoning self-flagellation. “We help companies to grow by helping them to raise capital. Companies that grow create wealth. This, in turn, allows people to have jobs that create more growth and more wealth. It’s a virtuous cycle.” To drive home his point, he makes a remarkably bold claim. “We have a social purpose.”

Wall Street Record Bonuses Return As Big 3 May Pay $30 Billion (Bloomberg)
More than 2007’s $26.8 billion and up 60 percent from last year. Some people feel the need to harsh on the good time: “Wall Street is beginning to resemble Clark Gable as Rhett Butler in the film ‘Gone With the Wind’: ‘Quite frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,’” Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate on compensation at the Portland, Maine-based Corporate Library, said in an e-mail. “It doesn’t seem as if even political threat, disastrous PR, envy, rising unemployment rates and home repossessions is enough to get any of these people to refuse the bonuses they have ‘earned.’”

Executives Wary After Arrests (NYT)
Apparently hedge fund managers have been calling their lawyers to check out what’s legal and what is grounds for a perp walk in the wake of recent arrests. For now, they’re going to try really hard to be good. “Right now we’re still at Defcon 2,” said Anthony L. Perricone, a lawyer at Jones Day who advises hedge funds. “They’re going to err on the side of conservatism.”

JPMorgan’s Dimon Hires Father For Bear Stearns Brokerage (Bloomberg)
Theodore “Ted” Dimon, the 78-year-old father of JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer, quit Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit Friday to join his son’s firm, according to a person familiar with the matter. The elder Dimon and his five-member broker team will join Bear Stearns Private Client Services, a unit acquired by his son in the March 2008 takeover of the failed investment bank. He will report to Michael Lee, head of the unit’s New York office.

Robot Hamsters Hottest Toys This Christmas (FT)
“It’s not just hamsters,” Mr Hornsby said. “We are bringing out the clans: chipmunks, squirrels, hedgehogs, rabbits … We have all sorts of cute things coming.”

Some people aren’t pleased to see Goldman employees vaccinated for H1N1 (NBC)

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