Obama To Castigate Wall Street (WSJ)
“A free market was never meant to be a free license to take whatever you can get, however you can get it,” Mr. Obama will say, according to speech excerpts released Wednesday night. “That is what happened too often in the years leading up to the crisis. Some on Wall Street forgot that behind every dollar traded or leveraged, there is family looking to buy a house, pay for an education, open a business, or save for retirement. What happens here has real consequences across our country.”
Blankfein Fights Back On SEC Case (FT)
In conversations with private equity executives and others, Mr Blankfein left clients with the impression that he was eager to fight the charges in court. “He was very aggressive,” said one person called by Mr Blankfein on Wednesday. “He feels that the government is out to kill them, that they are under attack and the whole thing is totally political.” One person who received a call from the Goldman chief said he was told the regulator’s case against the bank was politically motivated and would ultimately “hurt America”.
Marc Faber: Governments Will ‘Bankrupt Us’ (CNBC)
“They will all bankrupt us and expropriate us, but it may not happen tomorrow. They’ll give us something to play with, until the whole system breaks down…they’ll just print money and print more money,” Faber said this morning. Faber warned that the “ultimate armageddon” would be much worse the next time around.
Moore Capital Warns Of Euro-Zone ‘Breakdown’ (MarketWatch)
“Perhaps the most interesting area for the foreseeable future is in the potential breakdown of the European Monetary Union,” Louis Bacon wrote in a letter to investors. “Instead of punishing the Greeks for their free-rider and fraudulent gaming of the Maastricht rules — either by ejecting Greece from the Union to propel them to reform and come back at a competitive exchange rate or by forcing them to restructure their debt within the confines of monetary union, either of which would have eventually strengthened and solidified the euro — the European leaders have decided to reward the prodigal Greeks with a bailout, socializing their ills and taxing once again the prodigious Northern European workers,” he said. Continue reading »
A year or so ago, petroleum trader Jeremy Aylmer punched IT executive Charles Cox outside London nightclub Floridita. Now he might go to jail because Cox was knocked unconscious, never came to, and died 20 months later. According to the Aylmer’s lawyer, he never meant to kill the guy! Or even hurt him too much! But, you know, shit happens. Also, naturally, this was over a woman. Continue reading »
Yesterday we discussed Gryphon Financial, and its status as the latest firm to be shut down in the SEC’s quest to ruin a good time. To recap, Grphyon is scam of a financial firm which swindled less than $20 million from investors and, in the process, told the best lies ever, which included: the fact that its office is in Staten Island, and not on Wall Street, props from George Soros, who it was claimed said, “Alone, the Gryphon Financial are incredible, together they are unstoppable,” alleged huge-ass returns (Gryphon said that investments were “up 1,324 percent in total compounding returns in the last 16 years,” when in fact they only formed in 2005), and press from the FT, which supposedly wrote “This secret group has identified as the latest hedge fund to exploit the weakening sub prime markets – pounding stocks down to nothing and making billions along the way, one hedge fund run by this group had been rammed to see returns of over 1000% in 2007.”
Former SEC chairman Harvey Pitt, who now runs a consulting business, thinks the SEC is “betting the house” by going after Goldman Sachs.
In a column for The Daily Beast, Pitt says the SEC erred in not notifying Goldman or having settlement discussions with them before making the suit public. He also points tout that a split vote by SEC commissioners on whether to pursue the Goldman charges doesn’t help the agency’s credibility in the matter. Continue reading »
Let it be known: you do not have to be a strapping, beautiful, devastatingly charming bank executive and no friend of the city of Atlanta to have university students get their panties in a bunch over your speaking engagements at their school. Members of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs are “up in arms” over Vikram Pandit’s selection as their commencement speaker this year. Continue reading »
Analyst bonuses just got delayed until mid-August supposedly so that the firm can ensure we’re being paid on par with the rest of the Street and not getting underpaid.
Nice try, but you’re going to have to wake up a lot earlier if you want to fool this UJR. He’s not buying it. Continue reading »
Only in South Florida can a guy dupe investors out of $900 million by promising guaranteed annual returns of 10-26 percent from profits on arbitraging groceries.
Reminds you of the Seinfeld episode when Kramer and Newman decided to collect empty bottles in New York and drive them to Michigan to get the extra deposit money. But, that’s exactly what Nevin Shapiro, a 41-year-old Miami Beach businessman, did from 2004 until the feds caught up with him.
Shapiro turned himself in to authorities in New Jersey (we’re not sure what he was doing in Newark) this morning and has been charged with civil fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission. (read the SEC complaint.) Under the name, Capital Investments USA Inc., Shapiro ran a classic Ponzi scheme, collecting cash from hundreds of Floridians with new investors going to pay off old ones. Continue reading »
Bloomberg reports that the Fabulous Fab has agreed to testify at a Senate hearing on the Hill next week. He’ll do so alongside Lloyd Blankfein, which *could* be awkward! What else will happen? Who the hell knows but here’s a few items for the wish list:
* He refers to himself in the third person, by his nickname
* Childhood stories about his days in France
* Interrupts Lloyd and gets a backhand to the face (and vice versa)
