Of Senators who are under the impression that The Beard’s last name is ‘Ber-na-ke’. Obviously this will be added to throughout the day.
* Sen. Richard Shelby
* Sen. Chris Dodd (really?)
Archive for December 2009
Goldman Takes Offensive On Pay (WSJ)
Goldman has been holding private discussions with shareholders for weeks on the subject of compensation, in order to indicate that they care what investors think and ward off a backlash before paying out huge ass bonuses. Here’s a 14 page presentation re: making it rain on employee’s faces.
Barclays Said to Plan Salary Increases, Lower Bonuses (Bloomberg)
Apparently the change will mainly affect junior and mid-level employees.
RBS board may quit if £1.5bn bonus plan is vetoed (Independent)
Let the chippies pay people whatever they want or they’re walking, maybe.
Senator Sanders Moves to Hold Up Bernanke Confirmation (NYT)
“In this country, there is profound disgust at what happened on Wall Street,” Mr. Sanders said in an interview. “People want a new direction and people are asking, where was the Fed? How did the Fed allow this to happen, when one of their mandates is to oversee the safety and soundness of the banking system?”
US Seeks Client Names Of Stanford (Reuters)
The Justice Department asked a court on Wednesday for permission to seek the identity of American clients of the Texas financier R. Allen Stanford who may have been hiding their assets with his firm to evade taxes.
Tiger’s New Prenup (TDB)
A lawyer familiar with the hastily conducted negotiations of the past 72 hours said that as of Wednesday evening Elin has been offered a $5 million payment immediately if she agrees to stay–and her prenuptial agreement is being revised to give her up to an additional $55 million.
Comcast, GE Strike Deal; Vivendi to Sell NBC Stake (WSJ)
Comcast now owns the majority of Maria’s ass.
For those of you shitting your pants when Gasparino breathlessly did ‘a phoner’ on CNBC last night because you thought John Paulson’s ‘BofA will triple by the end of 2011‘ prediction would be compromised – not to worry – not right now at least.
Will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights?Not too many years ago, there was a serious discussion going on as to whether London had surpassed New York as the world’s great financial center. Unfortunately for proponents of the former, the U.K.’s European “allies” seem hell-bent on ensuring that the Big Apple has more to worry about from Singapore.
After losing its battle to keep an unfriendly Frenchman out of the EU’s top financial regulatory spot, the Brits were again rebuffed in their efforts to make it easier to ignore any untoward diktats from Brussels. So if when the new European Systemic Risk Board decides to step in, London’s going to have to garner the support of 13 other countries to get the ruling overturned. Britain had wanted that burden to fall on the regulator.
“The U.K. had some major difficulties in accepting that the new European bodies”–covering banking, securities, and insurance and pensions–”would be able to take decisions,” a guy from Luxembourg said. Luxembourg!
Apparently it’s video day here on DealBreaker. Above, the Journal goes behind the scenes at the Victoria’s Secret show to ask the business gurus what they learned from the crisis and how investors can use those lessons moving forward. According to Selita Ebanks, you have to “respect the dollar.” Caroline Trentini says you need to save. Chanel Iman advised that if you’re going to spend, “do whatever you can to get that discount,” and then kind of winked at the camera which I think means you got the greenlight to BJ your way to free shit.
The former Lehman Brothers CFO turns 44 today. We’ve heard nary a peep from the old girl since she took a leave of absence from Credit Suisse last February so we have no idea what she’s up to but we hope she’s doing well (nothing ever seemed to have come of that grand jury investigation, so that’s nice). Gift ideas?
Well, maybe not all that nigh. But when Lil’ Tim climbs high atop the Treasury Dept. building and stands on his tippy-toes, he can almost see something that somewhat resembles the end of the $700 billion government bailout program.
“We are close to the point where we can wind down this program and stop making new commitments,” Geithner told a skeptical Senate panel today.
How close? “We’re not quite there yet.” And certainly not in the next couple of weeks, when TARP is set to expire.
Carl Icahn: The Problem With Corporate America Is That It’s Full Of Fraternity Presidents
By Bess LevinWatch it on Academic Earth
[via BI]
Nice guys, but not too bright, according to Carl, who was addressing a bunch of Yale students via Webcam. He also talks about how he “made a few bucks playin’ pokah,” Princeton being a better school than Yale (but Yale still being “pretty good”), and the model and car he used to ride just after getting out of school. He seems to have some difficulty with the technology (he can’t hear all the questions in the Q&A and leans in very close and starts shouting at the screen at one point), and at times you think he’s going to tell the kids to take five so he can catch a few winks but there’s something mesmerizing about the whole thing (probably the accent) and I really just want him to be my grandfather.
I give this new hedge fund my highest recommendation.Remember Old Lane Partners? You know, that hedge fund that Citigroup had to buy to get its hands on CEO of the Century Vikram Pandit?
Well, if you missed out on the chance to lose your shirt on it during its all-too-short two years of (mis)managing money, don’t despair. You may yet have another chance.
Guru Ramakrishnan–the last CEO of the doomed hedge fund–and five other former Old Laners are back, sans Vikram, of course. And despite the Old Lane’s disastrous run, they’ve managed to raise more than $200 million from outside investors eager to see if Old Lane Part Deux (officially called Meru Capital) can match Old Lane’s intoxicating mix of hubris, incompetence and extraordinary enrichment of its managers.
