Citi’s $7.6 bln loss meets Wall Street estimate (MarketWatch)
Citi said this morning that it posted a fourth-quarter loss of $7.6 billion, in line with analyst estimates and accounting for more than $6 billion in expenses to repay some government investments. The $7.6 billion loss amounted to 33 cents a share, compared to a loss of $17.24 billion, or $3.40 a share, in the year-ago quarter.
Goldman Delays Bonus Decision (Reuters)
Goldman employees across the pond were supposed to get their bonus numbers yesterday– but now they’re getting them next week, which is very upsetting.
AIG Seeks Changes In Bonus Payments (WSJ)
AIG is obligated to pay out $195 million in retention bonuses in March to AIG Financial Products employees. The company recently discussed a proposal to make the payment several weeks early if employees agree to have it reduced by 10% to 15%, people familiar with the matter said.
Credit Suisse Cuts Global Bonus Pool by 5% to Spread Costs From U.K. Taxes (Bloomberg)
About 400 managing directors in the U.K., who make up less than 10 percent of Credit Suisse’s staff in the country, were told today that their bonus pool is being cut by a further 30 percent from planned levels.
Swiss Banker Blows Whistle On Tax Evasion (NYT)
“It is a global problem, and I am only the messenger who provides the bad news, or even better, the truth,” Mr. Elmer, 54, wrote in a recent e-mail message. “Offshore tax evasion is the biggest theft among societies and neighbor states in this world.”
Archive for January 2010
$$$ Committee wants Hank Paulson to testify On AIG [Politico]
$$$ Jim Chanos: Just Wait Until The Chinese See Communist Insiders Flipping Their Homes [BI]
$$$ More Theories About AIG’s Worthless Stock [TBM]
$$$ Suit ability: The new uniform of power [FT]
$$$ We’re off ’til Tuesday, enjoy the long weekend.
Retired CBOT Traders Wax Nostalgic For Days When Biting A Colleague’s Nose Off Wasn’t Considered Taking It Too Far
By Bess Levin
“The biting of the nose and the fights, sure, when you’re throwing around that kind of money, people tend to lose it sometimes,” said Doug Pringle, 42, who traded corn, soybeans, 10- year Treasury notes and 30-year bonds for 17 years. “I miss the excitement.”
Trading-Pit Glamour Dims as Computers Ascend in Film [Bloomberg]
Floored Official Site [Floored the Movie via DI]
Jessica Pressler’s analysis reveals that God’s “work” has less to do with helping victims of a horrific natural disaster than front-running clients (completely kidding Blanksie…completely kidding I’m serious but it doesn’t change how I feel about you). And sort of surprisingly,* Wall Street’s biggest welfare recipient, the Big C, is the one most visibly rolling up its sleeves and getting in there.
JPM will be paying $9.3 billion in comp and benefits for investment banking employees ($378,600-ish/each) for ’09. That’s 33 percent of the division’s revenue, which Bloomberg notes is way less than the 62% in 2008 and “the lowest proportion allocated for pay since JPMorgan merged with Bank One Corp. in 2004.” So don’t even entertain the thought of continuing to get up in JD’s face about comp. Don’t say it and don’t even think it.
You guys, this is heartbreaking. As you know, the one thing that matters most to Lenny Dykstra in this world is flying private. After he did it the first time, he I loved it and swore he’d never go back to flying commercial. Nails’ finances being a little tight these days, he hasn’t been able to do much traveling, but he’s never let go of the idea of stretching his shit out thirty thousand feet above the ground, sans plebes and their rug rats rubbing up against him and asking “Hey Mister, didn’t anyone ever tell you to chew with your mouth closed?” That’s why after LD was forced to vacate his Thousand Oaks estate (where he left, among other things, dog feces on the floor), he started shacking up at airplane leasing company Avantair’s offices, where Dyks’ Player’s Club mag subleased space, ’cause he had no other place to go, it felt like home, and he could finger the catalogs.
Unfortunately, Avantair, apparently has a little problem with the fact that Nails hasn’t paid them any money since September 2008 and want him out of there, so they’re suing the guy. Obviously our little solider isn’t going to go down without a fight, which is why he told Avantair’s attorneys that “the sheriff” will have to “drag” him out, but this still stings, really bad. And it almost makes me think that the Avantair doesn’t remember or perhaps never knew what private flying means to LD, or how they could come to some sort of an agreement wherein he became in their spokesman and in exchange got to sleep on the floor. And so I would ask them to read this, and just, think about what they’re doing.
Matching the $1 million donations from the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley is Pershing Square Asset Management chief William Ackman. The activist hedge fund manager said yesterday that his Pershing Square Foundation would wire its gift to Partners in Health today. Partners in Health offers healthcare services in the stricken country.
As you’re aware, yesterday was Count Vikula’s birthday and while it was supposed to be a super fun day, free of stress and full of cake, things didn’t exactly pan out that way. Prince Alwaleed made it for the occasion, took VP out for a nice dinner and made sure to tell him how nice he looked. Unfortunately, he also felt the need to rain on Pandito’s day, by talking shop before dessert. Specifically, the Prince told Vickles that he’s had “two years of leeway from shareholders, and the honeymoon is over. 2010 is the year you need to deliver.” 2008, 2009? Breakfast in bed, served by a rotating cast of investors. 2010? Get your own donut, from the coffee cart guy on Park. 2008, 2009? Pony rides around the building. 2010? The Prince will be riding your ass like Zorro (bareback).
JPMorgan Reports Fourth Quarter Net Income Of $3.3 Billion (JPM)
Jamie Dimon: “We are gratified that we generated earnings of $3.3 billion for the fourth quarter and nearly $12 billion for the year. Though these results showed improvement, we acknowledge that they fell short of both an adequate return on capital and the firm’s earnings potential. We benefited from the diversity of our leading franchises, as demonstrated by the continued earnings strength of our Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, Asset Management and Retail Banking franchises. We are proud that, throughout these tumultuous times, we never stopped investing in the fundamental growth drivers of our consumer businesses.”
US Banks Set For Record Pay (WSJ)
An analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows that executives, traders, investment bankers, money managers and others at 38 top financial companies can expect to earn nearly 18% more than they did in 2008–and slightly more than in the record year of 2007.
Citigroup’s ’09 Bonuses Said to be Similar to ’08 Levels (Reuters)
Individual cash payouts may be capped at $60,000.
UBS, Credit Suisse Saw Outflows From Italian Amnesty (Bloomberg)
That can’t feel good: “UBS AG, Credit Suisse Group AG and Julius Baer Group, Switzerland’s biggest wealth managers, may have lost as much as 18 billion Swiss francs ($17.6 billion) in assets through an Italian tax amnesty, Morgan Stanley estimates.”
Did Tudor’s Tensor really tank? (CTNews)
According to investors, Tensor now has $1.1 billion after ending last year with about $870 million.
$$$ Hedge Fund Advisory Sues Over Allegedly Stolen, Destroyed Information [FINalternatives]
$$$ A Bank CEO “Bringing In His Own People“? Be Very Afraid. [The Big Money]
$$$ The Myth of 2009′s Great Consumer Deleveraging [The Atlantic]
$$$ Why Citigroup’s Going to Take The Fall [TDB]
A few days back, there was some suggestion that while he was running the New York Fed, Tim Geithner and his staff maybe instructed AIG to keep its payments to banks hush-hush, as backed up by emails containing memos saying as much. Timbo’s former employer said TG had nothing to do with it, but some people– noted hooker fucker Eliot Spitzer, for one– remain skeptical. So John Harwood brought up the issue during an interview with the Secy. today and great news! 1) He’s never even seen the memos and 2) he understands that this isn’t really about him. People are angry, sure. He’s angry too! But he gets that anger clouds judgment and clouded judgment results in people just haphazardly laying blame on the most elfin-looking guy in the room. But fear not: TG ain’t mad at ya.
HARWOOD: As you know, you’ve been asked to testify before Congress about some memos that came out, Congressman Issa released regarding AIG and advice the New York Fed gave to not disclose the full repayments to some counterparties of AIG. Now, I know you’ve said that you–or your spokesmen have said that you were not involved in those memos. But did you agree with the advice in the memos? Was it sound advice?
