Apparently it involves going long the US housing market. [PDF via Whitney Tilson]
Archive for December 2010
As was expected, the Justice Department announced just now that is has charged 500 people in its “largest-ever crackdown on scam artists.” According to officials, the losses cost victims millions in some cases with the total tab coming to $8.3 billion “These are staggering, staggering numbers,” Attorney General Eric Holder said. But you know what hurts more than the money? The lost of trust. Never again will these people be able to believe a money manager when he promises huge ass returns or when he says he has no idea why that tramp was sending him nude text messages. Thus, the name of the 3.5 month long investigation was appropriately named: Operation Broken Trust. Continue reading »
First off, Chaz knows a guy who saw the documents in question. Unfortunately, this character had no idea what anything in there meant.
…one source who claims to have read some of the documents held by WikiLeaks confirms that they do in fact involve Bank of America. Adding to the mystery, however, this source says that they found it difficult to determine just what they mean. Given that Wall Street’s straightforward business—buying and selling, borrowing and lending—now requires a math Ph.D. to understand, this shouldn’t be too shocking.
And so it falls to Gaspo, naturally, to come up with something. Continue reading »
“Bonus downgrades” are coming. Continue reading »
Caption Contest Monday: What Did The Photographer Say To Coax The Following Poses Out Of John Paulson?
By Bess Levin
Casting A Long Shadow In Hedge Funds [Dan's Hamptons via BI]
There’s a rule on Wall Street that says if banks are considering doing something a little outside the box, something that might rock the boat a bit, they wait for Goldman’s signal. Whether it’s sartorial choices (Zubaz), internal protocols (the initiation of a buddy system between the prime brokerage and prop desk in order to facilitate front running of clients), or grooming (shorn scrotums), everyone waits for Goldman to go first and they then follow.
In some cases, the rationale comes down to the fact that the other firms really want to go for it (Deutsche, for one, was pushing hard for the hairless balls, telling anyone who would listen that “there’s really nothing like it”) but realize that if there’s any blowback, Goldman Sachs is best equipped to take the heat (by telling those who criticize to go fuck themselves). In others, the move being considered may not be something management at other shops want to do at all; they hold out for as long as possible until Goldman has to screw by doing it, at which time the other firms must follow suit, lest their employees get jealous of, for instance, their GS counterparts’ newly aerodynamic sacks.
To that end, the Times reports that Wall Street is “discussing whether to move up their bonus payouts from next year to this month,” out of fear that “lawmakers will allow taxes to rise for the wealthiest Americans beginning next year.” Apparently executives “at two large banks said their companies tentatively decided not to speed payouts, unless Goldman did. Then, these two executives said, they would consider paying early as a competitive measure, so that their workers were not upset.”
Mind you, Goldman itself has not yet decided anything and it would be a bit crunched for time on coming up with the numbers if it did in fact decide to accelerate the bonus timetable, to say nothing of the fact that the same paper reported on the same day that it’s looking like the tax cuts will be extended (not just for those making up to $250,000 but higher-earners as well).
So, you know, what will happen remains a bit unclear. Also unclear: what’s going on in the article’s accompany photo: Continue reading »
Inflation Risk Is Low, Fed Says (WSJ)
In a rare television interview, on CBS’s “60 Minutes” news program, Mr. Bernanke warned that the economic recovery “may not be” self-sustaining. He said the chance of unemployment staying high for a protracted period was “the primary source of risk that we might have another slowdown in the economy.” He also said “it’s certainly possible” the Fed could expand a program to buy $600 billion in Treasury securities beyond the initial target it announced about a month ago. “It depends on the efficacy of the program. It depends on inflation. And finally it depends on how the economy looks,” he said of the program aimed at lowering interest rates and stimulating growth.
Bank of America Says It Met Condition of TARP Exit (FT)
Bank of America has told US regulators that it has sold enough assets this year to meet the final condition that was set on its landmark plan to repay $45 billion in government bail-out funding…If BofA fails to satisfy the Federal Reserve Board, the lender will have to issue additional common shares, diluting its per-share earnings.
Bush Tax-Cut Deal With Jobless Aid Said to Be Near (NYT)
A day after the Senate rejected President Obama’s preferred tax plan, officials said the broad contours of a compromise were in focus. Rather than extending the tax rates only on income described by Democrats as middle class — up to $250,000 a year for couples and $200,000 for individuals — the deal would also keep the rates for higher earners, probably for two years. In return, Republicans said they would probably agree to extend jobless aid for the long-term unemployed.
Ireland Relies On ‘Sugar Daddy’ For Budget Support (Bloomberg)
The government will lay out details tomorrow of 6 billion euros ($7.9 billion) of spending cuts and tax increases. Cowen’s Fianna Fail party has a minority of seats in parliament and may need the backing of independents such as Healy-Rae and Michael Lowry. They have yet to declare support for the budget. “It is a real possibility that Ireland will not pass the proposed budget,” Mark Grant, managing director at Southwest Securities Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, said in a Nov. 30 e-mail. “Then another tailspin down for the euro and for European bank and sovereign debt is in the gun sights.”
Groupon Prankster Mason Not Joking in Spurning Google’s $6 Billion Offer (Bloomberg)
Mason, Groupon’s chief executive officer, fretted that the sale would sap employee morale and alienate business clients, said two people with knowledge of the matter.
Assange: UFOs discussed in WikiLeaks files (FP)
Julian Assange: “Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the anti-christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant. However, as yet they have not satisfied two of our publishing rules. 1) that the documents not be self-authored; 2) that they be original. However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.” Continue reading »
Potential Collateral Damage From Insider Trading Fest(ivus) The Feds Probably Didn’t Stop To Think About
By Bess LevinAt Zayna’s Metro Cafe, a New York-style deli that opened earlier this year in Stamford, Chef Aly Allam says he hopes things go back to normal for Diamondback, where the traders are such regular customers he often puts a Diamondback Special on the menu. “They are some of my biggest customers, if they close that’s almost half my business,” the chef told Reuters, saying that maybe 20 Diamondback traders a day frequent his cafe’s busy lunch hour. [Reuters]
Earlier this afternoon, a link to a story about exchange traded funds landed in our inbox. The headline for the story was, “What did you do in the ETF war, daddy?” After feeling vaguely uncomfortable, we clicked over to see what kind of sexual undertones had been weaved into the article but found none. While some have pointed out there’s another reference at play here, I don’t think that’s what’s going on here. This was a deliberate attempt to get people turned on about ETF’s. Which is a good idea, but if you’re going to do something, why not really do it? Why not… Continue reading »
Stockbroker And Jets Fan Pete Mulieri Invites Patriots Fans Into His Home To Argue That One Super Bowl Win Is Better Than Three, Show Them His Paintings
By Bess LevinHey Patriots fans– have you seen a guy walking his Maltese around Boston lately on a Jets leash? No? Well take a little fucking notice, because he’s doing it for YOU. So get angry, god damn it. Come up to him and punch in the face or something. Seriously, he wants you to.
Pete Mulieri is an ex-New Yorker and now a stockbroker at Investment Technology Group in Boston, who walks his dog on a New York Jets leash and wears a Jets jersey to provoke New England Patriots fans.“I do rub it in,” said Mulieri, 52.
The leash and Jersey taunting, of course, is just part of Mulieri’s attack. Continue reading »
You know when you get wind of someone speaking flatteringly of you to a third party and rather than be happy they’re saying nice things, want to die because you are embarrassed that people know you know that person? And every time you’re told so and so was singing your praises want to be like, “God damn it, just shut up, stop talking about me to people”? That’s probably how John “Let me tell you about the time I refused to wear a wire for the Feds” Kinnuacan’s clients are feeling right about now. Continue reading »
