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There's something I've been meaning to tell you.
August 10, 2010, is the day that will go down in history as the one in which fed up employees left their jobs in style. Yesterday afternoon, Steven Slater, the greatest flight attendant of all time did it via obscenities-laced tirade/inflatable slide and just a few hours prior to that, Assistant Jenny was putting her own spin on things. Continue reading »
Indian Billionaires Step Into Spotlight (WSJ)
Over the past few decades, the Ruia brothers (Ravi and Shashi) have built Essar Group from a small construction firm into an industrial force, with $15 billion in annual revenue from steel, shipping and telecommunications. That’s put them in the rarified league of families whose conglomerates dominate Indian industry, including the Ambanis, whose interests range from oil to financial services; the Birlas, with a portfolio spanning cement to mobile phones; and the steel- and auto-making Tatas. Ravi and Shashi Ruia even share superstitions. They believe 13 is their lucky number because the conglomerate’s fast growth began when its headquarters was on the 13th floor of a Mumbai office tower.
Ellison Says HP Ouster of Hurd Like Apple Firing Jobs (HP)
In a letter to the New York Times, Ellison said, “The HP board just made the worst personnel decision since the idiots on the Apple board fired Steve Jobs many years ago.”
Merrill’s Risk Disclosure Dodges Are Unearthed (NYT)
Barely visible to any but a few inside Merrill, Pyxis was created at the height of the mortgage mania as a sink for subprime securities. Intended for one purpose and operated off the books, this entity and others like it at Merrill helped the bank obscure the outsize risks it was taking…“It’s like the parable of the blind man and the elephant: you had some people feeling the trunk and some the legs, and there was nobody putting it all together,” Gary Witt, a former managing director at Moody’s Investors Service who now teaches at Temple University, said of the situation at Merrill and other banks.
Where Will Hurd Go Next? (Fortune)
Open to ideas on this one.
Waters’ Ethics Charges Cite Role of Waters’s Grandson (WSJ)
At issue is whether Ms. Waters (D., Calif.) violated congressional ethics rules by urging the Treasury Department in October 2008 to give $12 million in government bailout funds to a minority-owned bank in which her husband owned stock. Documents released Monday by the House ethics committee showed Ms. Waters had few personal contacts with the bank, Boston-based OneUnited Bank. Ms. Waters personally arranged for a meeting with officials from the Treasury Department and bank executives. But subsequently, Mikael Moore, her chief of staff and grandson, handled most of the communications in the fall of 2008 between Ms. Waters’s office and bank officials.
‘Breaking the Buck’ Was Close for Many Money Funds (WSJ)
From August 2007 to December 2009, at least 20 firms that manage such funds in the U.S. and Europe pumped more than $12 billion combined into their funds, according to the Moody’s Corp. unit. The lifelines included purchases of troubled securities and capital contributions.
THIS IS BULL SHIT (Video) (NYP)
Footage of new DB obsession/prospective AQR employee (please?) Steven Slater being arrested (clip after the jump).
I mean… (NBCNY)
“Police sources said that when authorities found Slater he seemed to be in the midst having sexual relations.” Continue reading »
$$$ SF Fed: ‘Significant‘ Chance of Recession Next 2 Years [CNBC]
$$$ JPMorgan’s Losses from Indecent Overexposure [HP]
$$$ Maxine Waters Charges Spelled Out by U.S. House Ethics Panel [Bloomberg] Continue reading »
Based on a pretty kick-ass performance in July, just gonna throw it out there: maybe whiteboard markers aren’t such a bad idea after all? Continue reading »
“Stuff CEOs with cash and bring back the corporate jets and country club memberships. That’s the message of new research coming out of Columbia Business School. The study measured the likelihood of default in 117 banks and other financial institutions from 1998 to 2008. Turns out, the companies that paid executives in shares and stock options were more likely to go bust than those that simply doled out bonuses in cash.” [FINS]
Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Darren Sukenik has rules for people who come to his open houses: have the cash to buy what he’s selling, don’t waste his time, and do not bring god knows whatever is on your shoes into this apartment. In order to ensure prospective buyers abide by commandment number three, Sukenik typically insists people either take off their shoes before entering or cover them with “surgical booties.” Explaining his rationale, he told the Times, “[These] apartments are precious…you want to make it feel like a jewel box. You wouldn’t wear construction boots in a jewel box.”
Usually, people play by Sukenik’s rules. There is one group of people, however, who’ve brought some friction to the table.
Mr. Sukenik said that in the past, some buyers, especially hedge fund executives who view it “humbling” to bare their feet, have angrily stormed out.
Last Friday, Bloomberg printed a hilarious story about a girl named Carrianne Howard, who’s fallen on hard time. Currently, Howard works at a topless bar called Lido Cabaret in Cocoa Beach, Florida. But, wait, that’s not the funny part. What made the story a laugh riot was that the reporter/editor made the hugely tenuous (at best!) link that Howard’s travails– her parents had spent $70,000 for her to earn a bachelor’s degree in game and art design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, which helped her score an entry level job in her industry of choice after graduating in December 2007, from which she was later laid off and had to turn to showing her tits for money– were the fault of Goldman Sachs, as the bank owns 38 percent of the Art Institute’s parent, Education Management Corp. Over the weekend, Carrianne took to YouTube to respond, clarifying the facts. Continue reading »
Say what you will about the FCIC but these guys and girls are on top of their shit. They knew when Goldman was trying to pull a fast one on them vis-a-vis sending all of the bank’s emails over the past few years to Washington (as was requested) instead of just the relevant ones, underlined with notes that said stuff like “ooo that, sooooo not legal, you should really nail us to the wall for that” and “hooo boy, can’t believe we got away with that one” and they knew that Bill Thomas would make for riveting TV. And now, they’ve figured out a way to pay back the taxpayers for those bailouts. Continue reading »
Things have been going prettay prettay prettay well for Richard Perry these last six months. His fund, Perry Capital, is up nine percent year to date, his beastly neighbors have quit bitching about the fact that he was burning their eyes out, and this past weekend, his daughter got married to a HBS grad who could potentially take over the family business one day (the SIL is an analyst at the Baupost Group). And speaking of the nuptials! Richie can be credited with not only making sure the celebration had the puffiest shrimp money could buy and a cake that was to die for but delightful ambiance and riveting entertainment for his guests as well. Continue reading »
You’d really be helping them out and apparently they’ve got high hopes, so it’d be yet another kick in the pants for yet another thing to fail. Do it for Dick. [CNBC]
