In King of Capital, a new book out this week by David Carey and John Morris, the authors chronicle the deals and personalities that shaped the Blackstone Group, starting with how its founders, Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, met at Lehman Brothers. We’re told many times that Schwarzman had a drive like no other to make money and absolutely “hated to lose it,” which informed the firm’s approach to risk taking and helped it to “avoid the kind of brazen, outsized gambles that caused some high-flying rivals to run aground.” But Steve is not just about the coin; he, too, loves to get his freak on. Continue reading »
Archive for October 2010
Early today, a rumor circulated that Citadel Securities would be making some considerable cuts to its fixed income unit, and that it would be possibly “dismantled.” Continue reading »
The last couple years have not been going, as they say, so good for Lenny Dykstra. He got thrown out of his house (but not before ripping out the bathroom fixtures and pissing on the wall), he filed for bankruptcy (representing himself in court, natch), and his former friend, Jim Cramer, who nominated the guy for chairman of the Federal Reserve turned, his back when times got tough. We never stopped hoping that things would get better for Nails, though. And it apparently, they have. Way better. Continue reading »
Goldman Sachs Says US Economy May Be ‘Fairly Bad’ (Bloomberg)
“We see two main scenarios,” analysts led by Jan Hatzius, the New York-based chief U.S. economist at the company, wrote in an e-mail to clients. “A fairly bad one in which the economy grows at a 1 1/2 percent to 2 percent rate through the middle of next year and the unemployment rate rises moderately to 10 percent, and a very bad one in which the economy returns to an outright recession.”
Paulson’s Flagship Fund Up 12%; Wipes Year’s Losses (Reuters)
Paulson told investors that his Advantage Plus fund rose 12.41 percent in September, according to the person familiar with the matter. In comparison, Advantage Plus fell 4.27 percent in August, leaving it down 11 percent for the year. Paulson’s Credit Opportunities fund was up 3.94 percent in September, while the Recovery fund gained 8.47 percent and the gold fund returned 5.67 percent.
Soros Blames Germany For Europe’s “Deflation Spiral” (NYT)
Additional fiscal stimulus –and not fiscal discipline– is the way out of the crisis for both Europe and the United States, Soros said in a speech at Columbia University on Tuesday. “Deficit reduction by a creditor country such as Germany is in direct contradiction of the lessons learnt from the Great Depression of the 1930s. It is liable to push Europe into a period of prolonged stagnation or worse,” Soros said.
Fitch Downgrades Ireland’s Credit Rating (WSJ)
Fitch cut the government’s rating to single-A-plus from double-A-minus and said the outlook is negative.
Red Sox’s Hedge Fund Owner to Buy Liverpool F.C. (Dealbook)
Liverpool F.C. said Wednesday that it had agreed to sell itself to New England Sports Ventures, which also owns the Boston Red Sox and is run by the hedge fund manager John W. Henry, for an undisclosed sum. The deal may be worth about £300 million (about $475 million).
Undercover federal agent buried what he thought was corpse to pass muster with Pagans biker gang (NYDN)
Feds and state troopers found a foul-smelling tarpaulin containing two boots, towels and rotting garbage – but no body – a law enforcement source told The News. “We believe the agent was given a test to see if he would do it and whether he would tell anybody about it later,” a source told The News. The undercover operative, one of two U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents who penetrated the Pagans, became so trusted within the gang that he rose to the second-highest position in the Long Island chapter, according to court papers. Continue reading »
$$$ SocGen Arm Says Clients Still Shun Equities [Reuters]
$$$ AIG’s Chief Risk Officer Robert Lewis is stepping down after saying that the company underestimated the risk of bets tied to subprime mortgages. “We were wrong about how bad things could get,” Lewis told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in June. “What ended up happening was so extreme that it was beyond anything we had planned for.” [Bloomberg] Continue reading »
Nothing but love for the Oracle of O but whoa there big boy! Lloyd Blankfein doesn’t come into your Dairy Queen and trash talk the buxom milkmaids, AKA the Blizzard Babes, does he? Continue reading »
Ackman’s September performance. Continue reading »
Buffett said today at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Washington that the nation’s tax code “has gotten distorted to a huge extent,” by levying higher taxes on secretaries and janitors than on CEOs and private equity whiners. “We are not taking in enough money at the federal government level,” he said. He said tax collections will have to rise back into the 18-20% range from below 15% lately. But Buffett also added a new twist in an interview after his appearance with CNNMoney.com’s Poppy Harlow: He said it’s time to cut taxes on those outside the top tax brackets. “We’re going to need to get more money,” said Buffett. “Why not get it from me instead of the guys who will serve us lunch?” [Fortune]
A few years back, Jack Welch met a man named Michael Clifford at a party. Clifford is the lead investor in the Chancellor University System, LLC, and over shrimp puffs educated Welch on the merits of online schools. Jackles was not initially sold. But, he told the Wall Street Journal, he was impressed with the University of Phoenix, the Harvard of the Internet, which is owned by the Apollo Group, and after a little research decided he wanted in. Welch cut Clifford a check for $2 million and in exchange got his name and face stamped on the school’s MBA program, AKA “The Jack Welch Management Institute.” We first learned of this exciting opportunity in June 2009, before things were officially up and running. There were a few kinks to work out and then time passed and no one said anything about it and eventually we forgot about the whole thing and kind of figured Welch said “fuck it, I don’t feel like doing this anymore.”
Then today during an interview with Bloomberg, Welch mentioned that things are “really starting to take off. We’re getting students from around the world…it’s thrilling.” A quick search indicates Jackles speaks truth. The JWMI has a whole website with courses and whatnot, where tomorrow’s “winners” (that’s what Jack calls them) are being groomed. Continue reading »
This coming Sunday, a bunch of financial services employees will participate in a charity decathlon to “determine Wall Street’s best athlete.” The competition features ten events which include pull-ups, a 400 meter dash, a vertical jump and bench pressing and is only open to those who work in the industry. The money raised will benefit Lance Armstrong’s LiveStrong Foundation and go toward funding cancer research. Speaking of which: who wants to finding a cure for the disease and who could take it or leave it? The events organizers have helpfully broken things down on their site. Continue reading »
Paul Greenwood is a hedge fund manager who is probably going to go to jail for defrauding clients in a Ponzi scheme, which he pleaded guilty to a few weeks back. For that he does not deserve your sympathy or pity. What he did was wrong. But he’s also a man who today is having the one thing he cared about most in this world taken away from him. The only thing he cared about. The thing he loved most. Naturally, I refer to his prized Teddy Bear collection. Continue reading »
