Archive for November 2009
Win A Free Book For The Friend Or Family Member You’re Too Cheap To Spend Money On This Year
By Bess Levin
Yesterday it was suggested that one of the reasons John Paulson was able to make the leap from run of the mill rich guy/peasant by hedge fund manager standards to John motherfucking Paulson! was that he “became a grump.” In earlier times, he was known for his loft parties in SoHo, and as he approached the trillion dollar pay-days, began to do things like ream employees out for overusing the printer, and reprimand people for eating junk food, according to Greg Zuckerman’s new book, The Greatest Trade Ever.* A recently published study from the University of New South Wales says that “negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world” so, perhaps there’s a connection between between JP making people pay to replace their own inkjet cartridges and figuring out that maybe subprime wasn’t the can’t lose asset class everyone thought it was cracked up to be.
Today, a Swedish study notes that “men who bottle up their anger at being unfairly treated at work are up to five times more likely to suffer a heart attack, or even die from one.” And if you think being the just go with the flow guy who “lets thing pass without saying anything” would save you, think again. That tactic will get you killed to. So here’s what I’m thinking.
Asia’s oldest stock exchange has fallen on hard times. Its crosstown rival is getting a lot more play these days and has stolen a march on all the fancy new products a stock exchange can offer.
Rather than go quietly into the night, the Bombay Stock Exchange and its hotshot new CEO are going to do something. Something drastic. Something like listing on said aforementioned crosstown rival?
Raj Rajaratnam has maintained his innocence since he was escorted out of his Sutton Place apartment almost two months ago and apparently that’s the story he’s sticking with. His lawyers rejected federal insider trading charges this morning, for several reasons. These are our favorite:
1) The government shouldn’t have been allowed to wiretap him in the first place, because when it sought approval to do so, failed to mention it had already interviewed him under oath for another investigation, seen Galleon documents, etc. So whatever they may have overheard as a result of the taps– be it, “I can’t believe we’re getting away with this shit!” or otherwise– should not be held against Raj-Raj or Galleon.*
2) Let’s just say Raj received inside information (WHICH HE DIDN’T)– no one was ever paid or otherwise compensated for their hot tips.
3) Galleon wouldn’t have needed to gather and trade on inside information because the research done by its analysts was “more detailed and precise” than anything they could’ve gotten illegally. Unless the alleged inside information had the same in-depth research behind it as Galleon’s, i.e. a young analyst modeled Lululemon spandex on a conference room table, Raj would’ve had no use for it.
Here’s the full response, via DealBook:
*I have to say the government really fucked up on this one. Not because they shouldn’t have wiretapped Raj– that’s fine but because they failed Snooping 101. This is like when you think someone’s up to something, and you go and read their emails to check it out. When you find out you were right, you hold onto that info and then wait for them to fuck up and reveal it to you themselves. You can’t admit you know what you know because you used less than legitimate tactics to catch them, i.e. you were reading their shit. This is basically the same thing. God.
AIG’s Rescue Bedevils U.S. (WSJ)
Some fed officials want the Pay Czar to ease up on comp restrictions. “AIG is the best example of why the government should never get itself in the position of even having to make these tradeoffs,” said Anil Kashyap, an economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. “It’s why you don’t want the government involved in the private sector in the first place.”
Fed Said to Ask Stress-Tested Banks to Submit Plans on TARP (Bloomberg)
“It would send a terrific message to the market if there was a plan and a timetable for at least the top banks in TARP to pay the money back,” said Joel Conn, president of Lakeshore Capital Inc. in Birmingham, Alabama, which owns stock in PNC Financial Services Group Inc. “It would signify they are good enough to stand on their own.”
The Gold Man Of Goldman (Business Today)
If Lloyd Blankfein could change one thing about his company it would be for his employees to take more time off, or so he told a bunch of Princeton students.
Start Date Is Critical in Ponzi Plan (NYT)
Does anyone know when Madoff made the switch from ‘legit’ biz to not so much? Andy? Mark?
Bank Bailed Out RBS and HBOS (FT)
Breaking: The British banks might have gone under. The Bank of England extended secret emergency financing to Royal Bank of Scotland and to what was then HBOS during the banking panic last October, “indicating the two banks were even closer to collapse than had been thought.”
Mad Rush As Gold Bugs Get The Boot (WSJ)
HSBC has told retail clients to remove their small holdings from its fortress beneath its tower on New York City’s Fifth Avenue. The bank has decided retail customers aren’t profitable enough and is demanding those clients remove their gold to make room for more lucrative institutional customers.
$$$ Accused Ponzi schemer Rothstein signed the letter: “Ciao ciao, Money never sleeps motherfucker :-)” [Law.com]
$$$ Mr. Meehan asked him, “Danny, are you going to break it off with Janie?” He says Mr. Pang replied, “No problem. I can get married and still have a girlfriend.’”
$$$ John Paulson donates $5 million to Southampton Hospital [Crain's]
$$$ Plan is revived to repay some Lehman creditors. [DealBook]
Europe just emerged from the recession, but the Irish continue to insist on trying to ruin things. The Celtic Tiger is dead, and Eire is reduced to joining the ranks of Europe’s financial lepers, Italy, Greece and Portugal.
Credit-default swap prices on the sovereign debt of those countries are rising, meaning that Fitch Ratings might be on to something.
However no one, it seems, not even the Irish, have anything on the Greeks in terms of fiscal brinksmanship.
Earlier today it was rumored that Citi had “kicked off week three of a research department hiring binge that has unemployed sell-side analysts partying like its 1999,” starting with the signing of a multi-year, multi-million dollar guaranteed package for a mid-cap software analyst. Some people thought this was outrageous, due to the fact that the alleged money was coming from TARP. We just thought that, if true, it was an outrage that anyone would be getting this kind of contract before Vikram got his Zen Garden. So we were delighted to hear from a Citi spokesman, who assured us it wasn’t true.
One Jabroni Pony, perhaps maybe bristling at the fact that Lloyd has chosen not to take his career advice, say yes. Is it true? The JP believes it is so, down in his gut. Do the rumblings have anything to do with some bad pork product last night? Unclear. Anyway, bigger question: if the nitrates in Gasparino’s stomach are actually on to something, did Lloyd ever read the papers? Or did he have the papers read to him?
Earlier: Charlie Gasparino Has A Suggestion For Lloyd Blankfein
So that’s how they’re achieving 10% growth.
Sulfur emissions from imported Chinese drywall is linked to corroding metal and wires in U.S. homes, and may be causing eye irritation and other health complaints by homeowners, federal investigators said.
Joke’s on them: They’re going to own this country soon enough, stinky, poorly-built houses and all.
Chinese Drywall Linked to Metal Corrosion, U.S. Says [Bloomberg]
Earlier this year, after a rash of criticism that their financial crisis coverage was far too fluffy, and that they weren’t taking this thing seriously, the Wall Street Journal vowed to start addressing the real issues. Nobody wanted to start losing serious investors to the Times and wouldn’t it be great if Rupes could say his reporters were ahead of the curve prior to the next crash? They started by tackling something huge: a Page One exposé on cankles. Many were worried that after blowing the doors off that story, the follow-up would seem frivolous by comparison. Even people at Dow Jones were nervous they’d shot their load too soon. Today those fears are put to rest.
