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Earlier this morning we mentioned a story by the Sunday Times which claimed, according to “bankers at Davos,” that Lloyd Blankfein would be taking home a $100 million bonus this year. We asked Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas Van Praag for his thoughts on the report. His short answer, via Larry Summers, can be found here. And the slightly longer version:
“There’s speculation, and there is stupidity. This speculation transcends the simply stupid and takes it to an entirely new level.”
A senior London-based investment banker has apparently bet that Lloyd Blankfein will be out at Goldman Sachs within two years and he said he would back it up with millions of pounds.
Asked about the wager over Mr. Blankfein, Goldman spokesman Lucas van Praag said: “It is preposterous that The Wall Street Journal would even consider publishing such effluent.”
Just kidding– it might’ve been a sloshed John Mack. Or Brian Moynihan, taking a page from his predecessor’s playabook. Or maybe it was Nouriel Roubini’s favorite cocktail waitress at the neighborhood piano bar who told the Sunday Times LB will be taking home a unit this year. The paper claimed its sources were “rival bankers” and without Jamie Dimon there, this is kind of a tough one. Maybe it was Goldman co-president and attendee Gary Cohn, specifically sent to Davos to “fuck with them a little.” Who knows (/cares)– it’s all relative.
Larry Summers talking shop in Davos, and waiting, just waiting, for his god damn diet Coke.
“I would occasionally go off in partners meetings and say something to the effect, ‘I hope you guys all understand,’ and remind them, ‘people don’t like you. Very few people do’.'”
Bank Of America’s New Voice In Washington (WSJ)
Brian Moynihan spent five of his first 13 working days as CEO in Washington. People close to the bank say he wants to revamp the company’s recalcitrant reputation, have a voice in new legislation and avoid a rerun of last year’s sparring with U.S. officials, which led to regulatory handcuffs, a forced overhaul of the bank’s board and Mr. Lewis’s departure. Moynihan also attended the World Economic Conference in Davos, which Lewis never did.
Paulson Says He Was Prepared to Guarantee Lehman (Bloomberg)
“The British screwed us,” Paulson, a former chairman of Goldman Sachs, said he told the U.S. bankers the next day.
UBS Shares Hit by Swiss Minister ‘Fail’ Comments (Reuters)
“We know … the Swiss economy and the job market would suffer on a major scale should UBS fail as a result of its licence being revoked in the United States,” Justice Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf was quoted as saying in an interview with Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, published on Sunday.
Morgan Stanley says to hire several hundred traders (CNBC)
Who wants a job?
Everything That Could Go Bad, Did Not (FT)
Hank Paulson feared there would be a run on the dollar during the early phase of the financial crisis when global concerns were focused on the US, the former Treasury secretary has told the Financial Times.
Bankers use derivatives trades to cash in bonus stock (FN)
Nice problem solving, team.
CIA ops moonlight in corporate world (Politico)
The tactics that BIA officials such as these teach hedge fund clients are based in a program it calls “Tactical Behavior Assessment.” In one presentation in 2006, BIA personnel promised to teach managers at SAC some of the CIA’s own foolproof techniques. The presenters included two women with backgrounds in intelligence. One spent 20 years with the CIA, specializing in polygraph, interviewing, and deception detection. The other had more than 25 years of interrogation experience, and reminded someone of Clarice Starling.
Roubini Sees `Very Dismal’ U.S. Growth (Bloomberg)
“The headline number will look large and big, but actually when you dissect it, it’s very dismal and poor,” Roubini said in a Jan. 30 BloombergTV interview following a U.S. Commerce Department report that showed economic expansion of 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter. “I think we are in trouble.”
