• 11 Jan 2010 at 5:40 PM

Write-Offs: 01.11.10

By Bess Levin

$$$ Is Mr. Greenberg saying the machinations of Goldman Sachs were responsible for the disastrous failure of AIG amid the recent financial crisis? “Well, it certainly wouldn’t be difficult to come to that conclusion.” [WSJ]
$$$ All rise for Liu, the prima donna! [NYP]
$$$ SEC Won’t Seek Civil Charges for BofA Executives, Directors [WSJ]
$$$ Just putting it out there: “New York is the only city in America where you can walk,” said Nassim Taleb, an investor who gained a measure of celebri­ty for his theories, described in The Black Swan, that extreme events can roil financial mar­kets. “People treat walking like exercise,” he said, “but walking is how humans become hu­mans.”
Taleb, who rejects the label “caveman” in favor of “paleo,” avoids offices (including his own) as much as he can. He pre­fers to think on the go. Dressed in a tweed coat and Italian loafers, this paleo man is a flaneur, some­times walking miles a day, rang­ing from SoHo to 86th Street. [Chronicle Herald]

Comments (12)

  1. 1
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 1:47 PM

    Flaneur is french for "loafer".

  2. 2
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 2:01 PM

    Liu is a disaster in the making, nice that he has outed himself as a member of the Spitzonian party. Perhaps he also likes to choke the working girl? Kevin Kim, who stepped into the seat vacated by Liu is another matter altogether. Seems like a bit of a truther, and wants the Korean peninsula united and led by Kim Jong-il.

  3. 3
    Posted by HAM05 | January 11, 2010 at 2:07 PM

    @1 correction, flaneur is french for creepster; i've read it in books about linguistics.

  4. 4
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 2:38 PM

    The Lui position sounds like a great job for Mark Nazal.

  5. 5
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 2:45 PM

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&s...
    "Soros, Citadel Hire Hedge-Fund Analysts From Galleon (Update2)"
    The Lululemon girl?

  6. 6
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 3:35 PM

    How many units?

  7. 7
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 5:09 PM

    @3 so what you're saying is that Bess's choice of words was spot-on?

  8. 8
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 5:19 PM

    @7 that was the paper, not bess's choice of words.

  9. 9
    Posted by guest | January 11, 2010 at 8:41 PM

    @8 = flaneur

  10. 10
    Posted by Nicholas Nassim Tale | January 12, 2010 at 2:03 AM

    from Merriam-Webster:
    flaneur: an idle man-about-town
    now stop disparaging me and go read my self-fellating ego-stroking philosophical masterpieces called "Fooled by Randomness" and the The Black Swan"

  11. 11
    Posted by american bandersnatc | January 12, 2010 at 3:18 AM

    Taleb: Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?
    Reader: Yes.
    Taleb: Morons.

  12. 12
    Posted by guest | January 12, 2010 at 4:18 AM

    11- I thought they were just slacker stoners, no?

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