Archive for April 2011
Obama Demands Budget Deal To Avert Government Shutdown (Bloomberg)
fter meeting with House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Obama said issues remained unresolved and he hoped for a breakthrough that would prevent a shutdown, set to begin at midnight tonight. “I’m not yet prepared to express wild optimism but I think we are further along,” he told reporters. “My hope is, is that I’ll be able to announce to the American people sometime relatively early in the day that a shutdown has been averted.”
SEC May Relax Limits On Shares In Private Firms (WSJ)
According to the letter and people familiar with the matter, the likely changes would include raising from 499 the number of shareholders private companies can have without being required to open their books, and also making it easier for such companies to publicize share offerings.
Portugal To Face Strict EU Aid Terms Amid Political Storm (Bloomberg)
In an unprecedented intervention in national politics, euro-area finance ministers said Portugal can win relief by mid- May as long as it makes cuts that go beyond measures that failed to pass parliament in March and led to the government’s downfall.
EU Stress Tests To Examine 90 Banks, 5% Capital Pass Rate (Bloomberg)
“Make no mistake, 5 percent of Core Tier 1 is harder in comparison with last year,” James Babicz, head of risk at SAS, a business analytics company, said in telephone interview in London today. “But I think you have to look at how risky a bank is rather than look at a static capital threshold.”
Marc Faber: Gold Is Still Cheap Despite Record Surge (CNBC)
Faber rejected the notion that gold is in a bubble even as it begins to approach $1,500 an ounce. “If it were a bubble a lot of people would have gold. The whole world would be trading gold 24 hours a day,” he said. “But I don’t think it’s really a bubble. I think gold is maybe cheaper today than it was in 1999, when it was $252.
Why London Can Live Without Its Big Banks (Reuters)
“One or two of them might change their corporate headquarters for tax purposes but if they do go we probably won’t even notice. There won’t be a great outflow of workers and Canary Wharf won’t turn into a ghost town.”
Corporate Jets Often First Thing To Go After Leveraged Buyouts (Bloomberg)
Companies bought by private-equity firms are 32 percent less likely to have a jet in the three years after the deal closes than in the year before, according to a paper written by the Federal Reserve Board’s Jesse Edgerton. The study, published Jan. 21, found that jet fleets at LBO-backed companies are at least 40 percent smaller than at similar publicly traded firms. Continue reading »
$$$ Wall Street Would Be Hit Hard By a Long Federal Shutdown [NetNet]
$$$ Jamie Dimon said potential rewards of investing in five European nations including Greece and Ireland outweigh the risk of losing $3 billion if the countries default. “In the unlikely occurrence of extremely bad outcomes in all these countries, JPMorgan Chase ultimately could lose approximately $3 billion,” Dimon said today in a letter to shareholders. “But we are in the business of taking risks in support of our clients and believe that this is a risk worth bearing since we hope to be growing our business in these countries for decades.” [Bloomberg] Continue reading »
Yesterday Forbes published an article that discussed Patriarch Partners founder Lynn Tilton (allegedly) telling an employee “You expect me to believe that, like I’m going to believe you’re not going to cum in my mouth,” among other anecdotes. Today Tilton has responded on her company website. Continue reading »
As he’s got time on his hands and there’s something cathartic about letting it all out, Bernie Madoff’s been on a little media tour of late (which will culminate with an appearance on Jerry Springer in a paternity episode you don’t want to miss). His last stop was at New York, where Berns told reporter Steve Fishman it irks him that no one ever cares to mention that he “had a successful business and did wonderful things for the industry” during the so-called “legitimate years.” Most recently he sat down for a little chat with the Financial Times and in an interview that will run in the upcoming weekend edition, told the paper that UBS and HSBC are going to have “big problems” and that JPMorgan? Should run and hide.
“I am not a banker but I know that $100bn going in and out of a bank account is something that should alert you to something,” he said from federal prison in Butner, North Carolina. “JPMorgan got all the financial statements…JPMorgan doesn’t have a chance in hell of not coming up with a big settlement [with trustee Irving Picard, who filed a lawsuit against the bank.”
But enough about them. Let’s get back to Berns. Why did he do it? Apparently in the full interview, Bernie says it wasn’t about the money but rather that he was a people pleaser. Continue reading »
Are you a wealthy individual who hasn’t exactly paid taxes, per se, or as much as you should have, in quite some time? Did you do so via HSBC India, which set you up with some secret accounts? Did you think you were being pretty clever, not going with UBS, which would’ve been like sticking a sign on your back proclaiming “I owe the government millions in taxes and unpaid parking tickets”? The DOJ would like to let you know that time’s up, smart guy. Continue reading »
Specifically its not so hot US-based RBC Bank unit? Because the Canadians want to get rid of this thing and fast. Continue reading »
Early last month, Forbes released its annual list of the richest people in the world. 65 alternative investment managers made the cut, with John Paulson leading the pack at a networth of $16.0 billion and Pete Peterson bringing up the rear with $1.0 billion. Ever wondered how the living/breathing rich would stack up against the fiction and in some cases illustrated rich? Wonder no longer. Forbes has put out a ranking of the richest fictional characters today, a list executive editor Michael Noer says the team goes to “great lengths to calculate, similar to how we calculate real billionaires.” Continue reading »
This one was a 7.4, according to CNBC, and a tsunami warning has been issued.
Reuters reports John Paulson’s Advantage Fund was down 1.24 percent for the quarter (-3.10 in March); the Advantage Plus Fund was down 1.74 percent (4.4 percent in March); and the Gold fund was down ‘a smidgen,’ losing 0.87 percent (-0.43 in March). Paulson Partners was up 3.86 percent for the quarter; Paulson Enhanced was up 6.94 percent; and the Credit Opportunities Fund was up 6.44 percent.
Enter [insert name here]‘s offices…and you walk into the [insert name here] show. A life-size cardboard cutout of [insert name here] greets you at the door; photos of [insert name here] line a side table; a giant close up of [insert name here]‘s face stares from the waiting room wall. [Forbes]
