For the first anniversary of Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, Bloomberg rang up Oliver Stone to see what’s been a’ poppin’ with the director of late and pick his brain about how things have been going in the finance world since the premiere. The interview touched on the fact that the original script had Josh Brolin playing an evil hedge fund manager, before Stone realized that it was the banks that did most of the heavy lifting with regard to bringing the global financial system to its knees (“[Hedge funds] are just the tail,” the filmmaker says. “The dog is wagging them. The big dog is these seven banks”). “You can’t condemn the hedge funders for doing what they’re doing,” was Stone’s response to the question of whether or not the hedge fund industry is deserving of blame for the crisis, indicating rational, lucid thought, and not those of someone who’s been drinking. But he wasn’t finished. Continue reading »
Archive for March 2011
Oliver Stone Has Come To Accept That You Can’t Get Mad At Hedge Funds For Ruining Children’s Birthday Parties, Other Stuff; That’s Just What ‘Pigs’ Do
By Bess Levin
The $300 Million Blunder (WSJ)
Philippe Jabre, one of Europe’s best-known hedge-fund managers, bought Japanese stocks on news of the earthquake, and then suffered when the Nikkei Stock Average quickly tumbled 13%. Making matters worse, Mr. Jabre got nervous and sold his shares last week, just before a rebound in Japanese stocks. The miscues cost his firm about $300 million, the worst few days of his career…By Wednesday, the Nikkei had dropped 13% in four trading days. Several of Mr. Jabre’s funds faced losses, one of them as much as 10% for the month. To his traders, Mr. Jabre appeared calm. He wasn’t. “I felt horrible, but I don’t express happiness or frustrations,” he said. “Emotions are the enemy of a balanced person.”
Goldman Special Situation Profit Seen at Risk With Volcker Rule (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs already has shut two units that made bets with the company’s money because such proprietary trading by banks will be prohibited under the Volcker rule approved by Congress last year. Created during the late 1990s, SSG invests the bank’s money in the debt and equity of troubled companies and makes loans to high-risk borrowers. The effort to defend it illustrates how important the business is to Goldman Sachs and may be a test of how flexible regulators will be in defining proprietary trading. “It is proprietary trading, but the business can also be modified if you had to,” said Brad Hintz. The question, he said, is “Where will the regulators draw the line?”
Buffett Draws Fervent Fans in India With His Folksy Advice (Dealbook)
At one point, Mr. Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway kept about $10 billion in cash on hand just in case “Ben Bernanke runs off to South America with Lindsay Lohan,” a remark that of course drew laughter. “We have to be prepared for anything.”
Tech Bubble? Investing Like It’s 1999 (NYT)
Funds set up by Goldman and JPMorgan Chase have invested in Internet start-ups like Facebook and Twitter or in funds with stakes in those start-ups. Even the mutual fund giants Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price have stepped up their efforts, placing large bets on companies like Groupon and Zynga. Thomas Weisel, founder of an investment bank called the Thomas Weisel Partners Group that prospered in the first Internet boom, says he is “astounded” by the amount of money now flooding the markets. “I think it’s much greater today,” he said. “The pools of capital that are looking at these Internet companies are far greater today than what you had in 2000.”
Glencore To Seek Hong Kong Listing Approval Thursday (WSJ)
Swiss commodities trader Glencore International AG is scheduled to meet with the Hong Kong stock exchange’s listing committee on Thursday to seek approval for its plans for an inital public offering, people familiar with the matter said. Glencore has hired banks to pursue a dual listing in Hong Kong and London to raise up to $10 billion.
KPMG Executive Survey: Worst Is Over (CNBC)
The survey shows 68 percent of manufacturing executives believe business activity will be higher in the next 12 months. That’s up from 57 percent in October. Forty-one percent of those same executives say they plan to hire more in the weeks and months ahead. That number was just 28 percent five months ago. As far as revenue is concerned, 65 percent of manufacturers surveyed by KPMG expect revenues to rise in the next year.
Fed Should Consider Curtailing Stimulus Program, Bullard Says (Bloomberg)
“The economy is looking pretty good,” Bullard said to reporters in Marseille, France, on March 26. “It is still reasonable to review QE2 in the coming meetings, especially this April meeting, and see if we want to decide to finish the program or to stop a little bit short,” he said, referring to the second round of so-called quantitative easing.
Felony charge lodged against BK bikini brawler (Herald)
Assistant State Attorney Greg Wilson filed formal charges Friday morning against Kimesa Smith, 30, of Montgomery, Ala. She was charged with felony criminal mischief with damage of more than $1,000, two counts of misdemeanor battery, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. Smith was caught on a cell phone video as she climbed onto the restaurant’s counter, threw items and struck employees March 19. She damaged one of the restaurant’s $3,800 LED screens and a cash register, authorities said. The video shows Smith standing on the counter to shout at a cashier she’d argued with in the drive-through moments earlier. About halfway through the 101-second clip, the dining room explodes with flying napkins, trays, straws, food and what appears to be either a child’s booster seat or a large water bottle. Continue reading »
$$$ Radioactive Water Found in 2nd Reactor at Japan Plant [Reuters]
$$$ G.E.’s Strategies Let It Avoid Taxes Altogether [NYT]
$$$ Hedge Funds Crave Bonds That Almost Killed AIG [NetNet]
$$$ China detained Glencore trader in oil imports probe [Reuters]
$$$ John Paulson’s Sweet 16 (Billion) Party [Dealbook] Continue reading »
BusinessWeek is here to help! The magazine, for some reason, is offering tips for people interested in “picking-up” a co-worker. Continue reading »
According to the Oracle of Omaha, “Most [social networking websites] will be overpriced and are extremely difficult to value.” Buffet noted that “investors should be wary of the valuations as some of the industry’s biggest startups prepare for initial share sales” and while he didn’t specify any sites in particular, one could take a gander at which one he’s talking about. If we know Buffett, he loves a good Groupon deal and can’t get enough of Ice T’s Twitter feed, so Facebook it must be. But with Goldman Sachs et al pouring money into the site the question is why does Warren Buffett (rightly) think the ‘book isn’t as hot as everyone say it is? Continue reading »
Following his town hall speech to the JPMorgan staff in Tokyo, Jamie Dimon serves sake to employees.
And some bonus pictures from the trip. Continue reading »
Unfounded Rumor Of The Morning: Which Bank’s “Water Guy” Was Arrested For Installing Some Unauthorized Cameras?
By Bess LevinApparently “the guy that delivers water bottles to the trading floor” of a certain bank was escorted out of the building in handcuffs today, for “installing cameras in the men’s bathroom.” That’s all we know at this time. If you have any intel on the situation, or suspect you may have been filmed yourself, do get in touch! Continue reading »
Some words numbers from Pool Manager NakedShort and his spreadsheet: Continue reading »
As the Chairman of Citigroup, a position he’s held since February 2009, Dick Parsons sticks out a bit by comparison. Whereas Citi has at times been the world’s largest bloated, lumbering, diversified cathouse where, for a good while, nothing could go right, a highly flammable entity prone to one chaotic moment of shit hitting the fan after the next, that few wanted to get within 100 feet of Parsons is calm. Cool. “Flat-out smooth,” as BusinessWeek describes him (which is why he was hired to be the one to go make nice with Washington, according to Vikram Pandit). The magazine recently accompanied Dick to a jazz club where they got to know him a little better, on a personal level. Here’s what we’ve learned about DP:
* He thinks the city smoking ban sucks: “Michael E. Novogratz, a director of Fortress Investment Group, a New York hedge fund, gives Parsons a hug and presents him with a Montecristo cigar. Parsons looks pleased. “Oh man,” he says, “I wish we could light these up in here.”
* If you’ve lost ass-ton of money, he’s the guy you turn to for a pick-me-up: Novogratz and Parsons exchange condolences about the market, which is zig-zagging with the turmoil in the Middle East. “I lost more money this week than I did in any week in 2008,” Novogratz laments. Parsons tells him not to be so hard on himself. “Nobody knows what’s going on,” he says.
* Charm like this doesn’t need an undergraduate degree: He went to the University of Hawaii, where he partied more than he studied. After four years, he still needed six credits to get his diploma, but he discovered that if he aced his pre-law exams he could get into law school in New York state without a college degree. He did well on the test and was accepted to Albany Law School, where he graduated at the top of his class. Continue reading »
James Gorman is there too! While his reception was a bit less lively than Dimon’s, which included employees waiting on a 2 hour line to get an autograph and a picture with the JPMorgan CEO who they were said to have treated like a “pop idol,” Gorman ought to still get credit for being there. While some of his staff apparently feel differently, it appears as though they could have been easily swayed by some free pizza. Continue reading »
Did A Certain Hedge Fund Manager Have Inside Information About Elizabeth Taylor’s Death?
By Bess Levin
Earlier this week, actress and icon Liz Taylor died of congestive heart failure. She had been sick for since 2006 and few on the outside probably could have predicted when she would go. Which is why some of you cynical assholes will surely feel the need to note the auspicious timing of Steve Cohen agreeing to put his painting of the actress, Liz#5 by Andy Warhol, on the auction block just two weeks before her passing, and suggest the decision resulted from him being tipped off re: when it was going to happen. That’s because you’re all heartless individuals who just don’t get it. Continue reading »
