A bunch of MBA candidates were stopped on campus for their esteemed opinions on the Goldman sitch. The consensus is they “don’t want to work at a firm like Lehman Brothers” and “what you can respect about Goldman is that they’re greedy but they’re long-term greedy.” Continue reading »
Archive for May 2010
European lawmakers are inching closer to passing a range of regulations that put hedge funds and private equity firms under tighter government control and subject them to much greater scrutiny.
The moves come as the EU is also attempting to prevent European investors from placing their cash with hedge funds and others located in offshore tax havens. Continue reading »
11:00 A financial services hack is about to attempt 50 munchkins in 40 minutes. This strikes me as a bit weak but then again, so many of you have failed at even weaker challenges (20 vending machine items over the course of 8 hours? 5 bags of chips in 100 minutes) that we’ll take it. Mixed box– chocolate glazed, regular glazed, sugar coated, jelly filled. He’s 24, 5 ’11 and 175 lbs. Contender is a water polo player in his free time and “there is talk of some Speedo-wearing consequence if he fails.”
11:10: 15 munchkins down, 35 to go. “Faster-than expected start.”
11:12: I’ve been asked to add that “he is a premature balder, and also considers himself a Professional ‘Bro’.”
11:24: 34 down, 16 to go. “He is slowing down though and is no longer talking smack. I told him he should be eating the heavier munchkins first, he responded with ‘Shut the hell up.’ Also, forgot to mention he had a Bacon Egg and Cheese a few mins before starting.” Continue reading »
Amid protestors holding signs that read “Stop Hiding the Money” and “Transparency Now” the Rev. Jesse Jackson has stepped to the mic at the Goldman shareholder meeting in lower Manhattan.
The Reverend asks GS to put more consumers and labor leaders on the board. From the WSJ, which is live-blogging the event. Continue reading »
-
Posted in:
Quicklisting
Want to Be a Movie Producer?
News outlets CNN and NPR report that indie film vet Stevie Long funds his projects with private equity, making his backers more than a profit; he makes them Hollywood players. Investors who want to become movie producers can visit LongStoryFilms.com.
This guy thought yesterday “was gonna be good.” Wrong, guy! Now he wants to take it up with Jim Cramer, and you, the people who need to stop listening to JC, who is “part of the Illuminati” that is going to “bleed you dry like a slug.” Continue reading »
Jim Rogers: Someone Should ‘Hang’ The NYSE (CNBC)
“Somebody should hang this New York Stock Exchange,” Rogers said. “They claim to be the center of the world’s capitalism, of the world’s financial markets, you would think that in 2010 they could sort out simple things like electronics.”
Stock plunge raises alarm on algo trading (Reuters)
“The potential for giant high-speed computers to generate false trades and create market chaos reared its head again today,” Senator Edward Kaufman said in a statement. “The battle of the algorithms — not understood by nor even remotely transparent to the Securities and Exchange Commission — simply must be carefully reviewed and placed within a meaningful regulatory framework soon.” Kaufman and Senator Mark Warner — both Democrats — said Congress needs to investigate the plunge, which at its deepest point wiped nearly $1 trillion off equity values.
Goldman, SEC Discuss Settlement (WSJ)
The two sides remain far apart. The preliminary settlement talks, held Tuesday, between Goldman co-general counsel Gregory Palm and other lawyers representing the New York company and SEC officials didn’t include any specific settlement terms, such as the amount of a fine or agreements Goldman could make with the agency, people familiar with the situation said.
SEC Said to Probe Causes, Exploitation of Yesterday’s Stock-Market Turmoil (Bloomberg)
SEC officials, who haven’t drawn conclusions, began preparing for inquiries in the hours after a U.S. selloff triggered by Europe’s debt crisis briefly erased more than $1 trillion in market value, beginning around 2:40 p.m. in New York. U.S. stocks tumbled the most in a year as waves of computerized trading exacerbated the rout, sparking a slide in Asian shares. The SEC and CFTC said in a joint statement that they will examine “unusual trading” that contributed to the plunge. “We will make public the findings of our review along with recommendations for appropriate action,” they said.
AIG Swings To Profit (WSJ)
AIG reported a first-quarter profit of $1.45 billion, or $2.16 a share, compared with a prior-year loss of $4.35 billion, or $39.67 a share. Excluding investment and divestiture impacts,the company recorded earnings of $1.21 a share compared with a prior-year loss of $22.90.
RBS Only U.K. Bank With First-Quarter Loss as Investment Bank Profit Drops (Bloomberg)
The bank reported a loss for the first quarter, the only major British financial institution to do so, as investment-banking profit unexpectedly slumped at the government-controlled company. Profit at RBS’s investment bank fell 58 percent to 1.47 billion pounds ($2.2 billion) from a profit of 3.47 billion pounds a year earlier.
AIG Is Said To Replace Goldman As Top Adviser (NYT)
AIG had planned to retain Goldman to help reorganize its businesses, but has replaced Goldman as its main corporate adviser, according to three people with knowledge of the matter, which was not intended to be public. Instead, the insurer is turning to Citigroup and Bank of America.
A Day Chasing Kim Jong II (Reuters)
Rumors of a visit had been circulating for months, and several colleagues had already been sent up to Dandong on futile “Kim watch” missions that involved long shifts of watching and waiting. But on the early hours of May 3, I sensed that this time might be different.
Audio Of Guy Giving Webinar During Yesterday’s Festivities (Reformed Broker) Continue reading »
$$$ Nasdaq to Cancel All Trades of Stocks Moving More Than 60% [Bloomberg]
$$$ Porn Company Has Plan to Stop SEC Time-Wasting [Asylum]
$$$ Mark Haines FTW [CWS]
$$$ Reid Backs Breaking Up Banks, Auditing Fed [HuffPo]
A 27 year-old financial services employee named Keith has a special offer for a special lady. Want to live in a 2,000 square foot apartment with your own bathroom, large kitchen and spacious living room, for $300 a month? You can! If you’re “an attractive, slim and easy going woman,” 18-27 years old. There are no strings attached, only one requirement, which is that you walk around in your underwear. Continue reading »
“I went to lunch and the market dropped 800 points. People were pretty chill and like, ‘Oh, it’s just some program trading thing,’” a source in Goldman’s investment management said. “[The] Citi rumor spread here before I started seeing it hit the news, because people were talking to clients on trading desks who were all hearing it too.”
Today’s Stock Market Crash Was Not Citi’s Fault, Says Citi; Goldman Remains ‘Chill’ [NYO]
4:30: Citi is hosting a call right now entitled “The Panic Button – What Happened?”
Amusingly (suspiciously!) this call was planned before the shit hit the fan, possibly weeks ago, to discuss “what is happening in global funding, foreign exchange, credit and equity markets.” At least that’s what they want us to believe.
4:35: Armando Diaz, Citi’s US Head of Franchise Trading takes the mic. “As believer of market efficiency and sniffing out the truth we were concerned about the Citi rumors.”
“We have done a very thorough examination multiple times in terms of trading logs, systems, runs”
“We have not found any info that would lead us to believe we were involved in a technical error” (so S a D, CNBC) Continue reading »
