UBS Posts First Profit In More Than A Year (Bloomberg)
UBS earned 1.21 billion francs in the fourth quarter, its first profit since the third quarter of 2008, helped by lower costs tied to the company’s debt and a tax credit. The bank is paying 2.9 billion francs in bonuses for 2009, up 34 percent from the previous year. Chief Executive Officer Oswald Gruebel said in a statement that the return to profitability “will increase clients’ confidence in UBS.”
Time For Bonus Round At Banks (Charlotte Observer)
At Foreign Cars Italia of Charlotte, where cars run from about $100,000 to $1 million or more, bank bonus season used to provide a boost every February. But Gary Furnas, a sales consultant at the dealership, said he hasn’t been involved with a sale to a bank employee since November 2008. That customer, a Bank of America employee, bought a black Ferrari, but then kept it on the lot for two months because he worried that it was too flashy. It wasn’t a matter of money – “he could have bought four or five of them if he wanted,” Furnas said. In the end, the customer asked the dealership to resell the car, and he opted for a less showy Maserati instead. “He said he was getting too much grief from his co-workers, that he couldn’t be seen driving it around his neighborhood or in the bank parking lot,” Furnas said.
S.E.C. Enforcers Focus on Avoiding Madoff Repeat (NYT)
In the headquarters of the SEC, Mr. Madoff’s name is rarely spoken. More than seven months after he was sentenced to prison for orchestrating a global Ponzi scheme, shaken employees are still struggling to come to grips with how they failed to catch him before it was too late.
Nassim Taleb: Warren Buffett May Just Be Lucky (CNBC)
“I don’t want to spend too much time on Buffett. George Soros has 2 million times more statistical evidence that his results are not chance than Buffett does. Soros is vastly more robust. I am not saying Buffett doesn’t have skill–I’m just saying we don’t have enough evidence to say Buffett isn’t doing it by chance.”
Wall Street’s Race To The Bottom, By Elizabeth Warren (WSJ)
Banking is based on trust. The banks get our paychecks and hold our savings; they know where we spend our money and they keep it private. If we don’t trust them, the whole system breaks down. Yet for years, Wall Street CEOs have thrown away customer trust like so much worthless trash.
UBS bankers’ 2009 cash bonuses up a third on year (Reuters)
UBS will pay about 2.9 billion Swiss francs ($2.7 billion) in cash bonuses for 2009, up about a third from depressed payouts a year earlier.
Goldman’s Response To The New York Times, By Lucas Van Praag (Huffington Post)
NYT assertion: “Goldman’s demands for billions of dollars from the insurer helped put it in a precarious financial position by bleeding much-needed cash.”
The facts: Relative to the size of AIG’s overall business, Goldman Sachs was a small counterparty. We don’t believe our marks were “aggressive,” they reflected market prices at the time. We requested the collateral we were entitled to under the terms of our agreements. The idea that AIG collapsed because of our marks is not credible. In any event, the story later asserts that, by the spring of 2008, AIG’s dispute with Goldman Sachs was just one of its many woes.
NYT assertion: “Goldman Sachs stood to gain from the housing market’s implosion because in late 2006, the firm had begun to make huge trades that would pay off if the mortgage market soured.”
The facts: This statement is misleading and mischaracterizes how we positioned ourselves at the start of 2007. Goldman Sachs, like most other financial firms, was long the mortgage market at the end of 2006. In order to bring our exposure closer to flat, we began hedging our mortgage holdings in the first quarter of 2007. Those hedges certainly limited our exposure to the declining housing market, but we also recorded substantial writedowns on our residential mortgage holdings. Moreover, in most of the trades with AIG described in the article, Goldman Sachs was hedged by an offsetting position and did not have a short directional bet on the mortgage market.
go lucas, it’s your birthday, go lucas, it’s your birthday.
ubs does stil suck though
That giant sucking sound… I can’t quite put my fimnger on it.
LvP is blogging at the huffington post. awesome. we need to get him to guest a DB.
buying a ferrari and leaving it on the lot out of embarrassment is the new killing it.
In honor of Lucas, I’m going to get me some tattoos on my back like that lady, but instead of the arabic, I’m going to like all the CDO positions in Maiden Lane I, II, III, with the whip mark tattoss across the top.
I’m torn. Conflicted. Confused.
Are there two UBSs?
Bess,
It would seem Becky has thrust herself into cleave wars. Can we get a taste in honor of SI’s swimsuit edition?
Grateful for all you do.
Who will play LVP in the movie?
Jeremy Irons?
When did HuffPo start publishing facts?
Hey Lucas, spin your way out of “The Business Insider’s” latest assertion:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-site-of-the-goldman-power-plant-explosion-is-declared-a-crime-scene-2010-2
“Federal Investigators Are Denied Access To The Site Of The Goldman Power Plant Explosion”
The thought of having to trade down to a Maserati has me so messed up I’m just gonna down my last bottle of A. H. Hirsch Reserve today.
@9, I don’t care who plays LvP, as long as this guy plays a Harvard-bound bird-obsessed HP:
http://www.imdb.com/media/rm163944960/nm0163988
nasim= hater
probably hates dq, too
Joe Mac @8 is a competent observer. Trading rooms across America saw vast cleave from Ms. Quick this morning. I couldn’t help but wonder if the poor Macquarie guy was burying his head in his hands if CNBC was on in his trading area especially when the “Business Model” segment teasers were broadcast.
Well played @14
@13 no way. too young and too small.
WSJ said “bottom.” Friggin’ pervs.
Is KL tall enough to reach the peddles of a Ferrari or a Maserati? Struck me as more of a Mini guy.
p-e-d-a-l-s
In sum, kiss my ass and suck my dick, everyone.
-LvP
does LvP have a twitter account?
Brooklyn Decker on the cover of this years swimsuit issue = ITS MOVING
Maggie B is getting fat.
Forgot the link.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=9783431
@NS – she was on the today show this am…the chicks at the gym that monopolize the tv and prevent me from watching cnbc were regretting that interview.
Don’t approve. Is she related to Jay Leno or what’s up with the chin?
here’s the link…
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/35309852#35309852
(NSFTFwC) not suitable for trading floors with cameras.
Dear Erin,
Looking for a “Belly Bomb”? BBM me for “lunch”.
Shes displaying our new side pocket fund. Forearm Bridge Capital Partners.
Boo hoo.
LVP hand me a tissue
NYT stop teasing
We were just a squirrel trying to get a nut.
We deserved this money, we earned it through hard work and dedication.
So what if AIG didnt have the money to pay us back and the govt tax dollars were given to us to make good on AIG “I owe you’s”.
I dont see what all the fuss is about.
-LB
Loved your book, Nassim, but what is a lucky guy to do with 50BB of net worth now that I finished reading that?
- WB
@31 awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhA_xRVl5Vo&feature=youtube_gdata
@33 LB is a very sensitive guy and of course that clip never gets old.
NIce work
-31
“better to be lucky than smart” -Napoleon