Today’s your lucky day! This guy actually exists. Continue reading »
Archive for March 2011
Who Wants To Work With An Insufferable Prick That Plans To Make Management ‘Aware’ Of All Employees Filling Out March Madness Pools?
By Bess LevinRaj Rajaratnam Did Not Appreciate Rajat Gupta’s Attempt To Leave The Goldman Board, Join ‘The Billionaire Circle’
By Bess Levin
As previously discussed, one of the bigger revelations that could cause issues for Raj Rajaratnam is that his “business associate and friend,” Rajat Gupta, passed him inside information obtained from Gupta’s post as a board member of Goldman Sachs, which the Galleon founder proceeded to (allegedly!) trade on. In one particular instance, on October 23, 2008, Gupta rang up Rajaratnam twenty three seconds after an informative call with Lloyd Blankfein about the company’s financial situation. The swiftness with which Gupta funneled information to his pal presumably pleased Raj greatly, as it was a characteristic he looked for in all of his tipsters, going so far as to put it at the top of the ‘must haves’ in the listing for the gig. So you can imagine that the hedge fund manager was not at all pleased when Rajat tried to resign from the Goldman board and dry up his well. Continue reading »
Hacker group releases BofA employee correspondence (Reuters)
Anonymous, a hacker group sympathetic to WikiLeaks, released on Monday emails that it obtained from someone who said he is a former Bank of America Corp employee. In the emails dating from November 2010, people that appear to be employees of a Balboa Insurance, a Bank of America insurance unit, discuss removing documents from loan files for a group of insured properties. A BofA spokesman said on Sunday the documents were clerical and administrative documents stolen by a former Balboa Insurance employee, and were not related to foreclosures. “We are confident that his extravagant assertions are untrue,” the spokesman said.
Quake Toll May Top 10,000 as Japan Fights Nuclear Accident (Bloomberg)
“The situation at the Fukushima nuclear plant continues to be a concern,” Prime Minister Naoto Kan said at a meeting of the government’s crisis response team in Tokyo. “Everyone connected with this is working with all their might, without regard to day or night, to prevent further damage.” The cooling system failed at Fukushima Dai-Ichi station’s No. 1 and No. 3 reactors after the earthquake, and it stopped working today at the No. 2 reactor, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, citing information received by Fukushima prefecture.
Japan Adds $183 Billion to Economy, Doubles Asset Purchases (Bloomberg)
The central bank pumped 15 trillion yen ($183 billion) into money markets today to assure financial stability amid a plunge in stocks and surge in credit risk. Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his board also enlarged a program buying assets from government bonds to exchange-traded funds to 10 trillion yen.
Berkshire Hathaway To Buy Lubrizol (WSJ)
Berkshire is buying specialty-chemicals company Lubrizol Corp. for about $9 billion in cash, making it one of the biggest acquisitions in Berkshire’s history. The companies said Monday that the transaction also includes about $700 million in net debt. Berkshire will pay $135 a share, a 28% premium to Lubrizol’s Friday closing stock price of $105.44.
Moody’s: Insurers Face Heavy Losses (WSJ)
The ratings agency said the sectors and market participants that will be most affected are Japanese domestic insurers, Japan Earthquake Reinsurance Co. Ltd., international insurers, global reinsurers, retrocessionaires and catastrophe bonds. A retrocessionaire is a reinsurer of a reinsurer.
Tarantino sues neighbor over noisy birds (ABC)
Tarantino filed a lawsuit last week in Los Angeles Superior Court against “True Blood” screenwriter Alan Ball. The lawsuit alleges Tarantino is fed up with Ball’s exotic birds. He claims the birds’ screams are making it difficult for him to work at home. Tarantino says he tried to talk with ball about the noisy birds but nothing was resolved. Continue reading »
Over 3,000 have been moved out of the area that could pose radiation ‘issues.’ Continue reading »
“We are asking the almighty gods to chase the demons out of Chase.” Continue reading »
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Communiqués
Dennis Gartman Just Wants To Point Out That He Sooooo Called This Earthquake
By Bess Levin
When discussing the horrible tragedy this afternoon, please, remember to give Gartman credit. Here’s what he wrote in a note today: Continue reading »
Former Goldman Board Member Accused Of Passing Info To Raj Rajaratnam Will Be Taking Some Time Away From The Firm They Founded Together
By Bess LevinIn 2006, Rajat K. Gupta founded New Silk Route, a ‘hybrid private equity and hedge fund vehicle,’ which counted people like Raj Rajaratnam as partners. Today, perhaps but not definitely in light of the news Gupta called the Galleon founder with inside information he’d obtained from Lloyd Blankfein 23 seconds after getting it, Rajat has decided to take some time away from the firm. Continue reading »
Tsunami Slams Japan After Record Earthquake, Killing Hundreds (Bloomberg)
Japan was struck by its strongest earthquake on record, an 8.9-magnitude temblor that shook buildings across Tokyo and unleashed a seven-meter-high tsunami that killed hundreds as it engulfed towns on the northern coast. As many as 300 people were killed, a Japanese police official said. Many are missing after the quake and waves as high as 23 feet swept ashore, according to state broadcaster NHK, which showed footage of flood waters sweeping away buildings and vehicles. Airports were closed and bullet train services suspended, and an emergency evacuation order was issued for a nuclear power plant north of Tokyo.
BOJ Pledges Liquidity on Japan Quake as Toyota Shuts Plants (Bloomberg)
Japan’s central bank pledged to ensure financial stability after the strongest earthquake in at least a century forced Toyota Motor Corp. to shut some plants, knocked out oil refineries and sparked a plunge in stocks. “It’s early days,” Stephen Gallo, head of market analysis at Schneider Foreign Exchange in London, said in an e-mailed note. “But the horrific events in Japan bear very close watching from a financial perspective, given the bloated problems in Japan’s public sector.”
Japan Among Worst Record Ever Reported (Tribune)
The quake that hit Japan was a magnitude 8.9, the biggest earthquake to hit the country since officials began keeping records in the late 1800s, and one of the biggest ever recorded in the world, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck at a depth of six miles, about 80 miles off the eastern coast, the agency said. The area is 240 miles northeast of Tokyo.
Rajaratnam Jurors Told of Inside Tips by Ex-McKinsey Director (Bloomberg)
“I told him there were advanced discussions,” Anil Kumar told jurors on the first day of testimony in the case. “Mr. Rajaratnam kept asking me for that information and I felt that I owed him something given how much money he was paying me.”
Fed’s Dudley Plays Down Inflation Risk From Oil (Reuters)
“While rising commodity prices may be giving some of you a bad headache, they are not likely to lead to a sustained rise in inflation to levels inconsistent with our dual mandate,” Dudley told the Queens, New York chamber of commerce.
Fired Goldman Banker Seeking Deals Aided Massachusetts Campaign (Bloomberg)
Neil Morrison, a Goldman Sachs banker fired in December, began advising former Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill’s gubernatorial campaign in 2009 even as he was seeking to underwrite state bonds, according to e-mails obtained through a public records request. Continue reading »
$$$ Moody’s, Spain Disagree Over Banks’ Capital Needs [WSJ]
$$$ The Insider’s Guide To Insider Trading [BW]
$$$ Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack on his plans for Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch: “[We've] been working to restore it to its original greatness. The place is amazing. It has not only the beautiful spirit and softness of Michael, but a legacy of a thousand years of Indian culture that had transacted upon it. We have just been restoring it, renovating it. We have not really wanted to do anything commercial with it. The estate of Michael Jackson–they have done a great job in managing the estate. We are kind of waiting for them to decide what really they would like to do with us and with it. We are just being good stewards of a very special place.” [Bloomberg] Continue reading »
Remember Fred Goodwin? He was the CEO of RBS for a number of years (about 8) and for many of them, probably right liked being called a ‘banker.’ Like in 2000, when he was name Chief executive and in 2006, when he was voted the most powerful businessman in Scotland. Years from now he’ll look back on his tenure fondly but at this moment, he’s having some difficulty recalling all the good times, in light of how badly things ended, and the fact that people won’t stop making him feel guilty for putting the pieces in place the caused RBS to lose a spectacular amount of money and wind up with 82% of its ass owned by the government.
Goodwin’s been trying his hardest to move on and maybe even embark on a new career as a party planner but what’s making it so hard is that every time he opens a newspaper, he sees his name next to the word ‘banker.’ Refraining from reading papers doesn’t help either because of course you’ve got the internet and you can’t expect him to not have a Google alert set up for himself, now can you? Anyway, Goodwin tried to reason with the press and just get them to drop the ‘banker’ business altogether or at least swap it out for a better description like ‘genius’ or ‘piece of ass’ but they wouldn’t listen, so what Goodwin had to do was play hardball. Continue reading »
