Citi in Talks to Sell Hedge-Fund Business (WSJ)
It’s got about $4 billion in assets– anyone interested? Otherwise SkyBridge Capital is just gonna take it.
Pangalos: Italy Masked Finances Worse Than Greece (Reuters)
Greek Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos criticised Germany’s attitude towards the Greek crisis, saying Athens had never received compensation for the economic impact of the Nazi occupation during World War II. “They took away the Greek gold that was at the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back. This is an issue that has to be faced sometime in the future,” he said.”I don’t say they have to give back the money necessarily but they have at least to say ‘thanks’,” he said. “And they shouldn’t complain so much about stealing and not being very specific about economic dealings.”
HSBC Said to Scrap Plans for CEO Pay Rise After Investors Balk (Bloomberg)
Sad trombones for Michael Geoghegan.
Daring to Think ‘Private Jet’ Again (NYT)
Breathe a huge sigh of relief: “Gingerly, some business travelers are venturing back into private aircraft after the battered economy — and a public outcry against that perk of fat cats, the corporate jet — walloped the general aviation industry starting in 2008.”
Round Two: Bernanke Faces More Grilling From Congress (CNBC)
Oh, and apparently this time they might get a little nasty with him, not with any real substance behind the digs, but just for show, which has never happened before in any of these hearings.
Steve Wynn to take Foxwoods helm (Philly)
Steve Wynn announced yesterday that he is stepping in as the managing general partner of the Foxwoods casino project planned for Columbus Boulevard at Reed Street.
Archive for February 2010
$$$ Kanjorksi: Bankers Are Like Incontinent Dogs [DI]
$$$ Wall Street Career Change: “Why did cupcakes need to be magical? They’re not magical for me. Where’s the masculine aesthetic?” Arrick said. “We needed to butch it up, buttercup.” [FINS]
$$$ AIG didn’t see didn’t see bailout rage coming. [BW]
$$$ You should play in this poker tournament. We’ll be there (not participating, natch, though taking part in the drinks situation). [Caesars]
Donald Trump is dueling it up with activist investor Carl Icahn over Atlantic City’s Trump Entertainment Resorts. Specifically, the two are fighting for ownership of the property, which Trump does not currently own. Don’s argument is that the casinos “would be hurt if Icahn won because it would take the Trump name off them.”
Congratulations Alan Greenspan! The former fed chair, who people are hoping will die soon, has won the Dynamite Prize in Economics, which is basically what the Razzie Awards are to the Oscars. Greenspan was awarded the honor as the economist most responsible for blowing up the global economy.
You can’t take the pressure at your job, you’re tired of getting kicked in the nuts and blamed for everything’s that’s wrong in the world. You need some lovin’ and can’t seem to get it anywhere. You”re completely burned out. Where to turn? If you’re Fritz Henderson, you go crawling back from whence you came. Only this time, you play hard ball, and you do it on your terms. That’s how the former GM CEO, who resigned in December after eight months on the job, is doing it. He’s back, baby, but now as a “consultant” for GM, in a gig that pays about $59,000 per month, for 20 hours- or about $3000 an hour.
In 2007, birthday boy Stephen Schwarzman celebrated with a party that cost $1 trillion and included John Thain, Maria Bartiromo, Vernon Jordan, Bill Clinton, Rod Stewart and Patti LaBelle singing “Happy B’Day.” He’s scaled it back in the years since, preferring the simplicity of quiet celebrations at home, just him, wife Christine and the crabs. Sixty-three was set to be more of the same, with a quick bite to eat followed by a 7:30 showing of Valentine’s Day, the only trappings of diva-ness being SS’s plan to send a fleet of assistants several hours prior to rope off a couple of sections with caution tape to prevent the riff-raff from interrupting his viewing enjoyment. That was, until Haiti called. And when Haiti comes a’ knock’in, Steve Schwarzman answers. Rom-com, canceled. Dinner at the Sizzler, out. Lunch at home, in. Charity tennis match with John McEnroe et al, and the opportunity for Stephen “The Third Williams Sister” Schwarzman to help the earthquake victims while showing the “Adonis Effect” in action? So very in.
Jamie Dimon is in DC today for a meeting of the Business Roundtable, but most importantly, Golden Boy will have yet another dinner tonight with Obama. He won’t be the only CEO at the table, but obviously he will be the only that really matters and the only one BHO will have eyes for.
First, some housekeeping. As you’re aware, a few months back, Tom Hudson made the seemingly wise decision to distance himself from the Pirate Capital name and all that it stands for (including but not limited to ass-bleeding, cockminnow fights on the floor, the (spawn of) Michael Bolton, the fall-out associated from nailing the spawn of Michael Bolton, the AUM shrinkage, and the Sugar Daddy dot com). He did so by instructing the intern manning the phone at the 800 Connecticut Avenue office in Norwalk not to answer “Pirate Capital” but “Captain Jack” and, more symbolically, by putting the actual pirate that had stood in the lobby for years into storage. Now, for reasons that have yet to reveal themselves but no doubt stem from Hudson’s ridiculous, all-consuming, uncanny, really rather impressive and heretofore unmatched fetish for men who wear eye-patches, he’s going by the name Doubloon Capital, which the naive among you will assume is a reference to a poker chip when in reality it’s part of Tom-bone’s sick addiction he just can’t quit. Anyway! He’s looking for some warm bodies. No experience necessary.
CNBC’s Becky Quick is going to Omaha next week to have a little chat with Warrren Buffett over Oreo Blizzards and cherry Cokes, in anticipation of the Oracle’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. And she’s going to be asking him your questions. Anything you’d like to hear more about from WB?
He didn’t do it all himself of course. Big ups to the ShiLa Capital Management team, handpicked by the thespian from their posts at the Encino Charles Schwab office, Citi and John Thomas Financial.
Related: Shia LaBeouf Knows What It Takes To Get Hired At Goldman Sachs
Wall Street Bonuses Rise 17% (WSJ)
Total compensation at the largest securities firms grew beyond that figure while profits could surpass what he calls an unprecedented $55 billion for 2009, Thomas DiNapoli said. That’s nearly three times Wall Street’s record increase, a rate of growth that is boosted in part by the record losses in 2008 of nearly $43 billion, DiNapoli said.
AIG Document New York Fed Kept Secret Shows Goldman Minted Most Toxic CDOs (Bloomberg)
“This secrecy is one more example of how the whole bailout has been done in such a slithering manner,” says William Cohan. Slithering now.
Cantor to Launch Futures Exchange For Film Buffs (Reuters)
“People love movies, and this is a way for them to profit from what they know,” said Melanie Gordon-Felsman, a Cantor spokeswoman. “Let’s say you love ‘Avatar,’ and you loved ‘Titanic,’ and (director) James Cameron’s coming out with his next movie — so you want to get in the game.” Know who won’t be putting his money on ‘Avatar’?
The Chimera at the gates of Goldman Sachs (MarketWatch)
“This is classic van Praag: the $20 words, the haughty condescension, the arrogant dismissals. The message is you’re emotional and don’t have your facts straight. We’re reasoned and objective about our own matters. You, dear media critics, don’t know what you’re talking about.” Pinky rings, unite.
In the Dogg House: Snoop Seeks to End His Ban in U.K. (WSJ)
The situation has exasperated the Snoop camp. There is “disbelief and frustration” at the time it is taking and the energy the government has put into the effort, said Philip Trott, Mr. Broadus’s lawyer at the U.K.’s Bates Wells & Braithwaite LLP. Agent Brent Smith at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment LLC added: “Snoop has missed out on several arena tour opportunities, many TV and festival opportunities, as well as a few proposed charity events…And now the U.K. taxpayer is financing the court appeals.” Just like they are the RBS building.
