Carlos Slim has been crowned the richest man in the world, by Forbes, with a net worth of $74 billion. Bill Gates clocked in second place, with Warren Buffett backing up the trio. In related news, put your hands up for billionaires in general, whose total wealth rose 25% to $4.5 trillion! Here’s the Top 20: Continue reading »
Archive for March 2011
The following excerpt is from The Asylum: The Renegades Who Hijacked The World’s Oil Market, a new book by reporter Leah McGrath Goodman.
The board’s first trip to Dubai did not go smoothy. After meetings with city officials and the DDIA executives, the Nymex directors were looking forward to a night out on the town. They were told that alcohol was hard to come by in a Muslim city, but they’d also been informed Dubai had an impressive selection of exotic prostitutes. “You know what the pecking order is for prostitutes in Dubai? Arab women are the most expensive, followed by the European and American women, then Asians, then Latinas, then, well pretty much everyone else,” says the Nymex straffer who was asked by the board to look into the rates of sex workers for the night (the exchange’s budget, after all, did have a line item for “board entertainment”).
About eighteen of the twenty board members on the trip, according the staffer, wanted to go to the local brothels. “We were staying at the Emirates Towers. When I got back to the hotel that night, a board member was coming in who had two girls with him. At the hotel, you can sign in one hooker, but you have to pay a fee of $100. You can’t sign in two hookers because apparently that would be un-Islamic. The board member wanted me to sign the second girl under my name, because I didn’t have anyone with me. I didn’t want a prostitute under my name, so I wrote another board member’s name instead, and also his rom number. Then I went to bed. Hours later, I get a panicked call from the front desk. They’re telling me to come down, there’s been a big problem.” Continue reading »
At his high school graduation last year, Tyler Coyner told the audience his goal in life was to become a hedge fund manager. Coyner was the class’s salutatorian and finished his time at Pahrump Valley High School with a 4.54 grade point average. That number may be slightly higher than it ought to have been, as Coyner was the founder of a business that charged students money to raise their GPA’s, by breaking into the school’s computer system. Continue reading »
A few hundred will be told their services are no longer necessary. Continue reading »
Jury selection for the trial of hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam has been officially completed and opening statements will be heard this afternoon. The details on the final group are scant, but here’s what’s known: Continue reading »
Bloomberg reports that former SAC Capital trader Donald Longueuil, who was accused last month of securities fraud, has been named in a new indictment concerning information that originated with ex-Primary Global consultant Winifred Jiau and was passed around among Longueuil, his former friend/colleague Noah Freeman, and an unnamed hedge fund manager. Continue reading »
Bill Gross Would Rather Leave An Undeserved Tip For Slow Service Than Invest In Treasurys
By Bess Levin
Bill Gross has unloaded all U.S. government-related holdings, including Treasurys, in the world’s biggest bond fund. Mr. Gross, founder and co-chief investment officer of Newport Beach, Calif.-based Pacific Investment Management Co., slashed such holdings to zero by the end of February from 12% in January in the Total Return Fund, a Pimco representative said Wednesday. The selling reflects Mr. Gross’s stance as a major Treasury bond bear. He has fretted about the U.S. fiscal deficits in recent months, saying that a 30-year bull run in the Treasury market was over. [WSJ, Related: Bill Gross Tells Investors About The Time He Stiffed A Waitress]
Asked yesterday about Icahn’s decision to return outside capital to investors, and if Icahn was correct in the opinion the current state of the market ‘poses a threat for hedge funds,’ Soros said: “Carl Icahn has his own problems.” Continue reading »
PIMCO, Jeff Gundlach Get Run For Their Money From Bond Vigilantes Team At M&G Investments
By Bess Levin
You guys want to hang onto your clients? Get video production on the horn and find an empty parking garage ASAP (turn your volume down, this one’s on auto-play). Continue reading »
US Jury to Hear Gripping Opening of Rajaratnam Trial (Reuters)
A jury of New Yorkers on Wednesday will hear U.S. prosecutors outlining how they believe Sri Lankan-born Rajaratnam broke the law by designing a complex web of stock tippers who helped him reap $45 million in illicit profit between 2003 and March 2009. For the first time, the jury and observers of the high-profile case will be given an insight into the defense trial strategy, which faces seemingly overwhelming evidence of leaked corporate secrets, tapped telephones and friends-turned-government witnesses.
Arrests Made Over Icelandic Bank Collapse (WSJ)
The U.K.’s Serious Fraud Office, or SFO, said Wednesday that it has arrested seven individuals as part of its ongoing investigation into the collapse of the Icelandic Kaupthing Banking Group. The arrests were made after searches at two business properties and eight residential addresses in London. They follow extensive searches in London and Reykjavik, which the SFO has carried out in tandem with the City of London and Essex Police and with the assistance of Icelandic investigators.
RBS’s Hester Earns Half A Diamond (Guardian)
A pay package of £7.7m, including a £4.5m bonus, for Stephen Hester at Royal Bank of Scotland can hardly be described as modest. But one way to view this sum is as a half-Diamond: it’s a little more than half the package awarded last year to Barclays’ chief executive, Bob Diamond.
Buffett Takes $2.25 Billion in Burlington Dividends Since Biggest Takeover (Bloomberg)
Berkshire Hathaway took $2.25 billion in dividends from Burlington Northern Santa Fe in less than 13 months of ownership, almost triple the railroad’s payout rate prior to the February 2010 acquisition.
Man Group Hopes German Mandate Will Stem Outflows (Reuters)
The firm has won a mandate to run 1.2 billion euros (1.0 billion pounds) for German pension fund BVK, as the world’s biggest listed hedge fund firm tries to woo clients after bleeding assets during the crisis.
The Most Expensive Town In America (WSJ)
The average home price in Aspen has increased over the past four years, to $6 million in 2010 from $5.4 million in 2006, according to multiple-listings data. The median price for single-family homes is now the highest in the country at $4.6 million, says San Francisco-based Altos Research, surpassing the Hamptons, Beverly Hills and Palm Beach.
Demand Grows for ‘Synthetic’ Junk Bonds (FT)
Hedge funds are buying the riskiest parts of instruments linked to bonds. This demand reflects more bullish views on the US economy, which investors believe will translate into lower corporate defaults. “We see much interest in synthetic high yield, more than we would have predicted just a few months ago,” said Sivan Mahadevan, managing director at Morgan Stanley.
Jon Cryer “A Turncoat, A Traitor, A Troll,” Sheen Says (CBS)
Charlie Sheen has already lashed out at his “Two and a Half Men” bosses, and now he has some harsh words for costar Jon Cryer. “Jon has not called me,” Sheen said Tuesday. “He’s a turncoat, a traitor, a troll… Is it gonna take me calling him a ‘traitor, juvenile and scared’ for him to get it?” “Like I said: You’re with me, or you’re with the trolls,” he added of Cryer. “Obviously he’s with the trolls.” Continue reading »
$$$ Judge Holwell read the names of dozens of people who will testify or be mentioned during the trial, and asked the group whether they had heard of any of them. The names mentioned included Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein, who may be a witness for the prosecution. Not a single juror had heard of Blankfein, who testified before Congress last year about his firm’s role in the 2008 financial crisis. And the judge mispronounced Blankfein’s name. Instead of pronouncing the second syllable as “fine,” Holwell rhymed it with “bean.” [Bloomberg]
$$$ Spitzer Flirts With Mayoral Bid [Politico]
$$$ Hedge Fund to Predict Markets Using Twitter [CNBC] Continue reading »
