If I’m a PM at BlackRock, Wellington Management, State Street, GAMCO, Citigroup, Two Sigma, or AQR, all of which own a significant number of shares in the restaurant chain, my takeaways are: 1. Crowded as hell, that’s good 2. Patrons are not strictly meth addicts, that’s good 3. Professional conflict mitigation services available on-site (check out how calm, cool and collected the waiter who breaks things up is), that’s good 4. Apparently the cost-cutting through syrup sparsity program is being effectively implemented. So the answer would be hell yes. Continue reading »
Archive for February 2011
Will Denny’s Largest Shareholders Increase Their Stakes After Seeing This Clip Of Two Women Brawling Over Syrup?
By Bess LevinMove over, white boys. Continue reading »
According to Charlie Gasparino, who’s been tailing him. Continue reading »
Jeffrey Gundlach’s Self-Described “Stunning Market Insight” Has Taken A Toll On His Sex Toys
By Bess Levin
Those of you who are familiar with superhero culture know that there is always a downside to have special powers. Sure, there are the highs of being able to, for instance, fight crime and fly, but more often than not, you can’t have a normal life and often times are forced to put aside the people and things you love in order to use your gift for the greater good of society. Spiderman and Batman, for example, at various times in their lives had to give up being with the women they loved due to concerns for their safety and because it wasn’t fair to the girls, always being put second to humanity, which needed their respective man’s help. Someone who knows this conflict all too well? Jeffrey Gundlach. Continue reading »
Last March, we got a glimpse into Erin Callan’s post-Lehman life. It included living in East Hampton in the house she bought for $3.9 million in 2005, dating firefighter Anthony Montella, who she met in high school at St. Francis Prep, taking spin classes at Ride the Zone, where her instructor said she’s “the best student in the class” and looks “so great on her bike,” and just generally looking happy and “better than ever,” likely a result of 1) getting laid on the reg and 2) the fact that she’s been working on her ass, an effort that has apparently not gone unappreciated.
What’s she been up to of late? A lot of the same, though things with The Firefighter seem to have been taken to the next level. John Carney did a little investigating and reports that Erin is featured in Tony’s Facebook and Twitter profile pictures (so huge!); it also appears as though they’ve moved in together. Montella, for some reason, posted pictures of the love nest they’ve been co-habitating in on the internet, including one of where the magic happens. Continue reading »
If you’ve been keeping up with your firearms news, you probably learned over the weekend that Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack counts himself among the 37,000-plus people licensed to own up to 25 handguns in New York. And not just in his home in Westchester where he might need protection from the Chappaqua riffraff– Mack has permission to bring his gun into the city. Naturally, this revelation brings up a couple of questions. Continue reading »
Memo to the Feds- if you’ve tapped any hedge funds’ phone lines, they’re paying good money to find out. Continue reading »
BofA Doubles Writedown for Credit-Card Unit to $20.3 Billion (Bloomberg)
“This is another sign that the quality of the bank’s consumer-credit book is weaker than what they previously indicated,” said Tony Plath, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. “It’s a huge number, and the way they’re disclosing it erodes the bank’s credibility. Why are we waiting until 2011 to do an impairment charge for two years ago?”
Saudi Oil Minister: “We Will Protect Supply” (CNBC)
“The market knows that Saudi has a good chunky excess capacity and a record of using it when needed,” Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud said in an interview. “There is no qualms, what needs to prevail is no shortage of supply,” said the prince, who is hosting a meeting of ministers from the world’s major oil producers.
IEA Chief: $100 Oil ‘Very, Very Bad’ for Economy (Reuters)
“That is our concern, regardless of the margins of disruption, if the $100 per barrel of oil is continued in 2011, the burden of oil to the global economy is as bad as 2008,” Nobuo Tanaka, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency said.
Italy Exchange Halted for `Technical Issues’ After Plunge (Bloomberg)
Trading on the Italian exchange remained halted because of “technical issues” after the benchmark FTSE MIB Index fell the most in eight months yesterday on concern Libya’s unrest may affect Italian companies. Borsa Italiana SpA, owned by London Stock Exchange Group Plc, said in a statement on its website that “restoring operations” are underway after stocks failed to open and the futures market was halted at 12:10 p.m. All markets are suspended, the Milan bourse said in a separate statement.
US Arrests Credit Suisse Banker In Tax Probe (FT)
Christos Bagios was arrested about two weeks ago on entering the US and is in transit to a detention centre in southern Florida, according to the Bureau of Prisons’ website and people familiar with the matter. In December, Renzo Gadola, the first UBS banker to be charged since the settlement, admitted to conspiring to help wealthy US clients evade paying taxes. Mr Gadola worked at UBS from 1995 to 2008.
FDIC May Sue Former WaMu Execs (WSJ)
The FDIC has discussed damages of $1 billion in relation to the potential Washington Mutual lawsuit, says a person familiar with the matter. The person said a decision against former executives of WaMu, the largest institution to be seized by regulators during the financial crisis, could be made within the next 30 days. It is unclear which former WaMu executives would be charged.
Moody’s Cuts Japan’s Outlook (WSJ)
Moody’s sent a warning to Japan’s political leadership Tuesday, announcing that it was cutting the outlook on the nation’s Aa2 bond rating to negative from stable, citing the political gridlock that is dimming chances for action soon to rein in the nation’s ballooning debt load.
Thin Mint melee lands Naples woman in jail (ABC)
A Naples woman was arrested Sunday after deputies say she attacked her roommate over a box of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies. Hersha Howard was charged with Aggravated Battery with a Deadly Weapon. Howard’s roommate, Jasmin Wanke, told deputies she was asleep when Howard burst into her bedroom and accused her of eating the cookies…The women began to argue, then Howard reportedly jumped on top of Wanke and struck her in the face. The two continued to fight until Wanke’s husband separated them. When Wanke walked out of the bedroom, Howard grabbed a pair of scissors and began chasing and threatening Wanke, the report said. As women ran down the stairs, Howard reportedly dropped the scissors, picked up a board and struck Wanke. Continue reading »
$$$ Rabbi Who Tried To Extort Steve Cohen Gets 4 Years [WSJ]
$$$ Nasdaq, ICE and CME Discuss Hostile Bid for NYSE [CNBC]
$$$ We’ll be off Monday for the holiday- enjoy the long weekend! Continue reading »
At a talk at NYU earlier this week, Alan Greenspan told John Paulson, “Whenever I get gloomy, I think of Winston Churchill. America always does the right things … after it has tried every other viable alternative.” Being pressed for time they had to go on to the next question, but if they’d had longer, Big Al would’ve shared all his tricks for turning that frown upside down. Continue reading »
J.P. Morgan Chase fired back at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s attempt to dismiss a J.P. Morgan lawsuit against it, citing emails it says suggest Lehman knowingly misled J.P. Morgan into keeping “goat poo” securities that Lehman brokerage buyer Barclays Group PLC didn’t want. In a bankruptcy court filing made Thursday, J.P. Morgan says two Lehman employees “referred to both RACERS and another security called Fenway [commercial paper securities] as ‘goat poo’ to be scattered in ‘other people’s backyards.’” The J.P. Morgan suit is in response to a lawsuit Lehman filed in May, alleging that J.P. Morgan illegally siphoned billions of dollars from Lehman as it collapsed in September 2008. [Dow Jones]
