Chaz G., mining the DB comments for scoops (KIDDING) reports that the firm cut 8 percent of its workforce this week. Continue reading »
Archive for October 2010
No sonogram updates today but September performance is in. Continue reading »
Please, please, PLEASE say this means he’s working on another “Who Is Next” list. Please. Continue reading »
Veteran Advertising Exec Not Impressed With Goldman Sachs Ad Campaign, Urges Them To Butch Things Up
By Bess Levin
If you opened up a paper this week, you may have seen an ad taken out by Goldman Sachs. The full-page spreads, fround in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, show a worker walking away from a bunch of wind turbines with the copy “progress is everyone’s business,” and are part of the bank’s new pitch to get people to like them, or at least to the point where they can say the firm’s name in public without the threat of harm. What did Jerry Della Femina, chairman and chief executive officer of Della Femina/Jeary and Partners think of the spots? Not much. What was Jerry’s beef? In his opinion, the Masters of the Universe come off like pussies. Continue reading »
Waddell & Reed Financial Inc., the mutual-fund manager based in the heart of Kansas that caters to mom and pop investors, is an unlikely company to be blamed for sending Wall Street into a tailspin on May 6. The company, started 73 years ago by Cameron Reed and Chauncey Waddell, was unloading the futures, known as E-minis, in the course of normal hedging of its holdings, according to the report. The trading may not have prompted a retreat had investors not already been rattled by negative news, including a worsening of the European debt crisis, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the regulators’ report hasn’t been released. Roger Hoadley, a spokesman for the Overland Park-based company, said its traders were “merely trying to manage downside risk in our portfolios.” [Bloomberg]
September performance. Continue reading »
Crisis In Ireland Shakes Europe (WSJ)
The Irish government said Thursday that the total cost of fixing its banks, battered by an epic housing bust, could in the worst case total as much as €50 billion ($68 billion), or about a third of the country’s economic output last year. That’s much higher than the government’s previous commitment of a total of €33 billion for the bailout. As a result of its bank rescues, Ireland’s budget deficit will rise to 32% of its economic output this year—roughly 10 times the European Union limit and the biggest in the euro zone’s 11-year history.
Nassim Taleb: Don’t Listen to Geithner or Krugman (The Atlantic)
Taleb explained his simple metric for judging whose economic opinions are worth his time: “Did someone predict the crisis before it happened? … If the answer is no, I don’t want to hear what the person says. If the person saw the crisis coming, then I want to hear what they have to say.” Other unlucky economic figures who failed Taleb’s test included writers Paul Krugman and Thomas Friedman.
Greeks Rush Through Law Giving Tax Amnesties (FT)
The legislation has provoked sharp criticism, including from members of the governing Socialist party, which pledged when it came to power a year ago to avoid a long-standing practice by governments of agreeing across-the-board tax amnesties every three to four years. “The fines [in the legislation] are so small they effectively reward tax evasion…So owners of small businesses and self-employed professionals will go on disputing tax claims, hoping for another amnesty,” said George Florides, a Socialist former deputy minister.
Hedgies Nip And Tuck Fees To Please Clients (NYP)
Renaissance Technologies reduced fees for one of its funds amid recent dips in performance. Citadel has also been talking with large investors about possibly cutting some fees, although a person close to the firm said it has yet to make a decision. Balyasny Asset Management also moved to cut its fees to 2 and 30.
Carly Fiorina Wants More Transparency For Hedge Fund Holdings, Trades (Bloomberg)
“Hedge funds should be subject to transparency, I think we’ve got to see what’s going on in those capital flows,” said Fiorina, 56. The Dodd-Frank Act “punishes hedge funds, but it’s not clear to me we’ve created transparency in hedge funds.”
Carlyle’s Rubenstein Says Buyout Fees Are Declining (BW)
“I’m not sure anybody really gets 2 and 20 anymore,” said Rubenstein. Large buyout funds now probably charge management fees of 1 percent to 1.25 percent, he said. Deal and transaction monitoring fees that buyout firms had charged to the companies they acquired are “largely” going away.
Bayrock’s Arif Detained by Police in Turkish Prostitution Raid on Yacht (Bloomberg)
The Turkish military policeman who led the helicopter raid on the Savarona told Milliyet that the team found all the yacht’s guests in bed when they landed around lunchtime. The official, who declined to be identified according to the newspaper, said they found dozens of condoms in each room, and didn’t initially find any drugs, illegal weapons or video equipment that could be used for blackmail. Continue reading »
