“Egypt will certainly move onto something new. The Egypt of tomorrow will not be the Egypt of eight days ago. The genie is out of the bottle — people feel empowered, people are looking for change and its critical that this change be managed in a positive way. So look for Egypt to go forward but it has yet to define fully its journey and its destination.” Continue reading »
Archive for February 2011
Looking To Get A Significant Other Off And/Or Irritating Colleague Off Your Back? Take A Page From This Guy’s Playabook
By Bess LevinPerhaps you have a spouse who you’ve just had it with. Or, a guy at work who sits twenty feet from you on the trading floor though you wouldn’t know it because when he audibly chews his food it’s like you’re inside his mouth. You can’t have them killed, you figure, but holy Christ if you have to see or hear them for one more second you’re just going to snap. Enter: a great idea. Next time they have to leave the country, get one of your influential friends with the Department of Homeland Security on the horn and have the offensive parties added to a list of terrorist suspects, like this guy did. They won’t be bothering you anymore. Continue reading »
A couple weeks ago, we met Toby Carroll, a New Zealand-born real estate analyst for HSBC currently stationed in Dubai, who’d spent the last two months in prison. Carroll had ended up there after his ex-girlfriend, Priscilla Ferreira, found him and a new girl, Danielle Spencer, in his apartment and proceeded to start slashing curtains, furniture, etc, and go after the Danielle with a knife. The police were called and all three were put in jail.
Carroll has since been freed but faces charges of “sex outside marriage.” Last week his ex spoke, denying reports she had been dumped by Carroll a day before she caught him in bed with Spencer, and claiming they were going to get married. Today Spencer, who “lapdanced her way across the USA and Australia” before relocating to Abu Dhabi where she found work “in the property business,” has been good enough to add yet more color to the story. The new details include the fact that she was on her second and not first date with Toby when she went back to his place for “coffee,” a vivid description of being splayed out on her stomach when Priscilla jumped on top of her and why she didn’t fight back. Continue reading »
“I’m surprised how fast the market bounced [Monday],” Tepper told Absolute Return today. “Shows you there’s a lot of money looking for any dip on the sidelines. Which is good, but I have to be a little more cautious than last week because I didn’t know how much this stuff could flair up. I’m still generally constructive but just a tiny bit more cautious than I was before because of this [Egypt] stuff.” As for the Super Bowl? The Appaloosa manager, who is a minority owner of the Steelers and pictured at left ready for the big game, is confident Ben Roethlisberger will pull one out. Continue reading »
UBS Needs To Make Sure It’s Not Violating Any Regualtory Rules Before Handing Out Bonuses
By Bess LevinEmployees will have to sit tight for another couple months. Continue reading »
Whitney doesn’t have specific numbers backing up her now- famous prediction, she said in a Jan. 30 interview. “Quantifying is a guesstimate at this point,” she said. “I was giving an approximation of a magnitude that will bear out to be correct.” A copy of the 43-page report doesn’t mention sizable defaults amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars. A person who has seen a long addendum that profiles the 15 top states said that the longer portion doesn’t, either. “We are not calling for any specific defaults within the scope of this report,” the document says on page 42. An opening summary says there will “invariably” be local defaults, without elaborating. “A lot of this is, You know it, but can you prove it?” Whitney said over a breakfast of scrambled egg whites with a chicken-apple sausage, a side of salsa and peppermint tea at the Four Seasons Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. “There are fifth-derivative dimensions that I don’t think I need to spell out to my clients,” she said. [Bloomberg]
Jordan’s King Abdullah Replaces Prime Minister (Bloomberg)
Jordan’s King Abdullah replaced his prime minister following street protests and asked former premier Marouf Bakhit to form a new government that will launch a “genuine political reform process.” Abdullah told Bakhit that he should put the country on the path “to strengthen democracy,” and provide Jordanians with the “dignified life they deserve,” the Royal Court said in an e-mailed statement.
Egypt Ratings Cut at S&P on Unrest; May Lower Further (Bloomberg)
tandard & Poor’s cut the long-term foreign currency debt rating on Egypt to BB, two levels below investment grade, and lowered the long-term and short-term ratings of local currency bonds to BB+/B from BBB-/A-3. “The ongoing political instability and unrest will hamper Egypt’s economic growth and adversely affect its public finances,” the rating agency said in a statement today. The long-term ratings were placed on creditwatch negative, indicating that more downgrades may follow, possibly by “more than one notch,” according to the statement.
Officials Warn Wall St. About Possible Terror Attacks (Reuters)
Security officials are warning the leaders of major Wall Street banks that al Qaeda terrorists in Yemen may be trying to plan attacks against those financial institutions or their leading executives, NBCNewYork has learned. Intelligence officials stressed the threats are general in nature and there is “no indication of a targeted assassination plot” against any Wall Street executive. But NBCNewYork.com learned that officials fear the names of some top banking executives have been discussed by terror operatives overseas.
Rising Rates Fuel Boomlet In Buyout (WSJ)
Increased investor interest “absolutely means we’re much more confident competing in sale processes,” said Adam Blumenthal, co-founder of private-equity firm Blue Wolf Capital, which specializes in transactions for smaller companies. “Sellers are confident that if we come in and say there will be a financing package on the table, it will be there.” Continue reading »
