“Longer-term, AIG shouldn’t exist,” Golub said in an interview airing today on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop with Betty Liu.” [Bloomberg]
Archive for January 2011
“You really have to have a hard shell,” said Moore, who plays a CRO in“Margin Call,” a new financial drama that premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday night. “It really is somebody who’s stepping into a position that without a doubt will be the scapegoat, and I think that takes a lot of courage and maybe even perhaps a little bit of being an adrenaline junkie.” Ms. Moore’s compensation for playing a chief risk officer in the movie was not disclosed, although it is likely far lower. “Margin Call” was made for less than $4 million, according to one of the producers. So, who is more overpaid – Wall Street bankers or Hollywood stars? Ms. Moore paused for a second, before flashing a winsome smile. “I would say bankers,” she shot back. [Dealbook via BI]
With few exceptions (thinking about how they could do things like buy a random restaurant just to fire the rude waiter who serviced them, having an IHOP built in their bedroom), few things are more satisfying to financiers than buying multi-million dollar pieces of art to hang above their toilets. Every now and then it’s important to recognize who the most important people in this game are; today the Observer has ranked the Top 50 New York buyers who “move the art world.” You’re allowed two guesses as to who comes in at number one but you”ll only need one. Hint: no profile of him shall be written without mentioning that he owns expensive art; his tastes range from Warhols to animals-in-formeldahyde to pieces of ass; if he so much as smells a drop of grease within 200 feet of his pictures he’ll shut down the area and interrogate every suspect; and his greatest gift to the world, upon retirement, will be a self-created multi-media nude, expected to fetch upwards of 9 figures. Continue reading »
The Swiss are trying something new this year. It’s called four-figure bonuses if you’re lucky. Continue reading »
In Era Of The Pitchforks, Goldman Sachs Employees Wanted To Give The Ignorant Twits Of The World A Piece Of Their Mind
By Bess Levin
When asked by Fortune why people could possibly want to work at Goldman Sachs, which doesn’t have a free cafeteria like Google or a super nice gym or compensation wildly better than those of some other Wall Street firms, one employee defensively answered, “People on the outside are not aware of the feeling…The sense of family and belonging that comes from working here is like none other.” People, it seems, just don’t get what it’s like to work at a place where you feel safe and warm. Where you can go to Lloyd Blankfein if you’re in trouble. Where everyone’s got your back. And where you have theirs. Meaning you would do anything for them. And by anything, we mean an-y-thing. And not just the standard getting rid of hookers stuff but, just, as an example, putting a cap in the ass of a guy who cut them in line at the movie theater and then suggested they were to blame for the near-collapse of the economy. Which is what some GS employees have been wanting to do for a while, and would’ve if Papa Blankfein hadn’t held them back. Continue reading »
Typically, when you read reports from Davos, it’s about the Men of Davos. When you do hear about women, it’s generally a complaint that their attendance is sparse in comparison to the males. Such, however, is not the case. There are tons of women at the World Economic Forum, but we never hear about them because they’re hidden behind their men, invisible– like second class citizens– and in some cases worse than that. Confused? Joseph Stiglitz’s wife, Anya Schiffrin, explains.
In Davos, you see, there is a tiering system for the ladies, each one worse than the last. At the top you have The Wives. Being a Davos wife is not much fun, Schiffrin says, because people only care what your husband has to say. Everyone gets a name tag with their name, occupation and affiliation. But if you’re just there because of your husband only your name is printed. No one cares about your job or interests or what you bring to the table and adding insult to injury? The wives’ name tags aren’t even colored-coded like their man’s. Just white.
The wives’ name tag guarantees that the Davos man in question will instantly decide you are of no value and so he immediately looks over your shoulder for the next best opportunity, i.e. someone without a white name tag who is, by definition, more important than you. Many wives refuse to be Davos wives and the white name tag is the reason they most often cite for their decision to stay home.
If you thought The Wives had it bad, though, you should check in with The Mistresses of Davos. Not only are The Mistresses there with men who keep promising they’re going to leave their wives and never do but they don’t even really get introduced to people as the ho this guy is banging.
Typically the Mistresses’ men are swallowed up by a tsunami of meetings and interviews and don’t have the time or inclination to take their mistresses around with them. Often these men go to high-level dinners to which wives and mistresses are not invited.
What is a mistress to do? Her options include sitting in her hotel room crying. Finding a gay boyfriend. Or using her time wisely to scope out the scene for a new sugar daddy. Continue reading »
The tech-focused hedge fund apparently just started notifying people this morning, though investors have not been formally told yet. Performance has been “solid” and apparently no explanation has been offered for the shuttering at this time.
When Jamie Dimon Is Asked To Comply With Unreasonable Regulation, He Feels Like He’s Taking It Up The Tailpipe
By Bess Levin
Mr. Dimon insisted that he was not against banking regulation, just irrational regulation. He also said it was unfair to criticize banks for trying to block new rules they did not like. “To say we’re supposed to bend down and take it, that’s wrong,” Mr. Dimon said. [Dealbook]
No, just messing with you. Banker pay “fueled risk that hobbled the economy,” according the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission’s report, released today. Continue reading »
New Yorkers Told To Stay Home As Snowfall City (Bloomberg)
While the storm was over in time for the morning commute, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said heavy snowfall had left streets too treacherous to travel. New York City almost never takes a snow day, but today is one of those rare days,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “People should stay at home and off the roads.” The storm broke New York’s 86-year-old record for January snowfall. A total of 36 inches (82 centimeters) had fallen in Central Park this month as of 1 a.m., compared with 27.4 inches in 1925, the National Weather Service said.
Snowstorm Wallops Northeast, Piling On Mercy (AP)
Run for your lives!
Goldman President Warns On Bank Rules At Davos (FT)
At the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Gary Cohn, Goldman’s president, criticised regulators’ focus on traditional institutions and urged them to look at the effects of new rules on the whole financial system. “In the next few years, the unregulated sector will grow at an exponential rate,” he said. “Risk is risk. My concern is that … risk will move from the regulated, more transparent banking sector to a less regulated, more opaque sector.”
McDonald’s No Match For KFC In China As Colonel Rules (Bloomberg)
On the edge of Tiananmen Square, just across the street from Mao Zedong’s tomb, He Yingying munches on a piece of chicken and gazes at the benign-looking figure beaming down at her. “We love him,” she says, bursting into an impish smile. The 21-year-old student from Beijing’s Capital University of Economics and Business isn’t referring to Mao, whose iconic official portrait dominates the square. She’s talking about a long-dead, white-bearded Kentucky colonel on the logo of the KFC restaurant where she’s feasting on her favorite fast food.
Fed Closes Ranks As Improving Economy Won’t Derail QE2 (Bloomberg)
“They’re trying very hard in their statement to get people to stop jumping the gun” with an expectation that the record stimulus will end before the planned conclusion in June, said Ethan Harris, head of developed-markets economic research at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in New York. The Fed is saying, “we’re continuing our buying program and we’re not going to move for a long time,” he said. Harris put the odds of completing the purchases at 95 percent.
Pot-firing catapult found at Arizona-Mexico border (AP)
National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening. Continue reading »
