$$$ Is Citigroup Finally Off The Ropes? [Fortune]
$$$ Mark Cuban’s Insider Trading Case Revived [MarketWatch]
$$$ Bankruptcy Trustee Goes After Dykstra– And His Wife [CNBC] Continue reading »
Archive for September 2010
Some Investors Having Difficulty Forming An Opinion On Carlyle’s Foray Into Hedge Funds
By Bess LevinI’m kidding, of course. As you may have heard, Carlyle is considering buying a stake in a hedge fund manager and is in talks with multiple firms, in addition to looking to raise “two new debt funds and a $1 billion pool to buy small companies.” The units would be overseen by Mitch Petrick, who joined the firm in March from Morgan Stanley. Presumably, there are at least a few people who are amped about Petrick’s potential stewardship, while others are, how to put this, less than thrilled. Continue reading »
According to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, the nap lover’s impending departure, and those of others on the economic team, is “not a surprise…there will be people who have worked enormously hard over the past few years to make decisions to go back to doing what they did before joining the administration,” such as consulting for DE Shaw and/or taking Harvard back to its all-male roots. [Bloomberg]
Backwoods dildo adventures. Par for the course at many of the tri-state area’s most prestigious hedge funds. Most people know this is coming when they sign on, and the various reasons why it’ll make them a valuable member of the team. Shame that makes you stronger and all that jazz. Still, for some, it can come as a shock when they initially read the email from the boss telling everyone to pack their bags for a trip that will foster a “mature sense of masculinity” among the group. They might even refuse to take part in the event, which could spell serious trouble in the form of negative reviews, shitty bonuses and even termination. We bring this up today so you don’t make that mistake, like Steve Eggleston, who would probably go back in time and whittle his own “wooden phallus” if he knew then what he knows now. Continue reading »
Shia LaBeouf “Incentivized” His Trading Coaches To Make Him “Some Coin” By Promising Them Visits To The Set Of Money Never Sleeps
By Bess Levin
Also, his top pick is McDonalds, if you’re looking for some ideas.
It’s one thing to produce a film that induces feelings of suicide in the audience, what with its 17 different plots lines and Gucci loafers, all the while exposing your childlike comprehension of the machinations of Wall Street but when you insult the looks of Lloyd Blankfein, you go too far. Continue reading »
Cuts going down circa now. Continue reading »
Warren Buffett’s Main Man Says Give It Up For The Bailouts, Advises People Who’ve Fall On Hard Times To Stuff It
By Bess LevinCharles Munger, the billionaire vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, defended the U.S. financial-company rescues of 2008 and told students that people in economic distress should “suck it in and cope.” “You should thank God” for bank bailouts, Munger said in a discussion at the University of Michigan on Sept. 14, according to a video posted on the Internet. “Now, if you talk about bailouts for everybody else, there comes a place where if you just start bailing out all the individuals instead of telling them to adapt, the culture dies.” [Bloomberg]
Matthew Lynn: Hedge Funds Are Running Out Of Reasons To Exist (Bloomberg)
“If they were collecting money from the wealthy and investing it in industries or countries where capital is short, that would be a good argument. Or if they were creating markets in commodities or asset classes where none existed before, that would work. If they were smoothing out returns so people’s pensions were protected, or swapping currencies so they got cheaper mortgages, that would also make sense. True, it may be impossible. The industry might well be a giant parasite that does nothing more than siphon vast wealth from the economy, while doing little in return. But it should at least try. Just bleating about liquidity isn’t going to work. And if it can’t come up with a better way of justifying itself, it deserves to get hammered.”
Hedge Fund Closure Rate May Rise to 20%, Merrill Lynch Says (Bloomberg)
“Going into the year-end, there will be significant closures and we estimate it could be as high as 20 percent,” Fredericks said in an interview Sept. 17 in Hong Kong. “A large portion of managers are still below high-water marks. Performance is flat and money hasn’t been flowing to smaller managers.”
BlackRock Sees Meaningful Slowdown In Second Half (Reuters)
“We do not believe that we are slipping back to recession, but we do expect the global economy to grow at a meaningfully slower pace in the second half of 2010,” Stephen Hull, a director and investment strategist at BlackRock, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Chanos: Yuan May Depreciate, Not Appreciate (CNBC)
“We think there’s a big speculative bubble that’s going on over there and it’s having knock-on effects on certain things like commodities or materials,” Chanos told CNBC Tuesday. “We’re short the property developers, we’re also short basic materials companies.”
Shia LaBeouf: “If you think you can sit at home and watch Jim Cramer and make millions, you’re wrong.” (NYP) Continue reading »
Back in March, Lindsay Lohan filed a suit against E*Trade, claiming that the baby in the brokerage’s latest commercial was based on her life. Lohan came to this conclusion because the character’s name is Lindsay, she’s referred to as a “milk-a-holic,” and there’s a suggestion that the young one is a man-stealing tramp (she also claimed that though the name “Lohan” is never mentioned, she’s attained first name recognition. Plus, the stuff about the baby being a strung out slut). For the grave offense, Lohan demanded the spots pulled, and $100 million for the emotional distress they caused her. Continue reading »
Japan’s economy may suffer unless visiting executives such as Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs can more easily jet in and out of the country by private aircraft, said a Japanese business aviation group. Jobs vowed never to return to Japan after he was forced to ditch ninja throwing stars found in his luggage on his way to boarding his private jet at Kansai International Airport, Japan’s SPA! magazine reported this week, citing unidentified airport officials. Apple spokesman Steve Dowling said the incidents described in SPA didn’t take place. “Complaints from private jet passengers do happen fairly frequently,” Kazunobu Sato, vice chairman of the Japan Business Aviation Association, said in an interview yesterday in Tokyo. “The strength of Japanese businesses will slowly decline if business jet use doesn’t increase.” [Bloomberg]
