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$$$ House Prices Fall to New Post-Bubble Low as More Rent (NYT)
$$$ Consumer confidence drops in May (Reuters)
$$$ House Set to Reject Debt Ceiling Hike Democrats Dismiss as “Political Charade” (ABC)
$$$ Bernie Madoff Is Ruining Divorces Now, Too (Daily Intel) Continue reading »
Planning on getting out of town most weekends the next few months but not going points further than a 300 mile radius? Perhaps out East, on Shelter Island or Martha’s Vineyard? If you answered yes, please be sure transport doesn’t involve helicopter or, god help you, a car, because roads as a means of transport have been declared “over.” Continue reading »
Zarti, reprising the role of Jake LaMotta
In early 2008, Libya’s sovereign-wealth fund controlled by Col. Moammar Gadhafi gave $1.3 billion to Goldman Sachs Group to sink into a currency bet and other complicated trades. The investments lost 98% of their value, internal Goldman documents show… In July 2008, Mustafa Zarti, the fund’s deputy chairman, summoned Mr. Kabbaj, Goldman’s North Africa chief, to a meeting with the fund’s legal and compliance staff, according to Libyan Investment Authority emails reviewed by the Journal. One person who attended the meeting says Mr. Zarti was “like a raging bull,” cursing and threatening Mr. Kabbaj and another Goldman employee. Goldman arranged for security to protect the employees until they left Libya the next day, according to people familiar with the matter.
Update: According to Lucas van Praag, the Libyans’ anger was misplaced: Continue reading »
Last month, we noted that a group of UBS employees who “worked in operations and were responsible for securities movements and payments” had been escorted out of the building and told not to come back “pending an internal review into their conduct.” Now we’ve been informed they were recently told not to come back, period. If you’re a current employee or about to join the firm and are unclear on the rules, know this: it turns out UBS does in fact frown upon skimming some off the top for yourselves. Continue reading »
If you watched the HBO version of Andrew Ross Sorkin’s book last week, what kind of tears did you shed while watching? Continue reading »
On February 11th Goldman issued four warrants tied to Japan’s Nikkei index which were described in three separate filings amounting to several hundred pages. Buried in the instructions to determine the settlement price was a formula that read “(Closing Level – Strike Level) x Index Currency Amount x Exchange Rate”. It is Goldman’s contention that rather than multiplying the currency amount by the exchange rate, it should have divided by the exchange rate. Oops. [Economist via BI]
Unless the Wilpons think they can come up with $200 million, in which case they’d better start sending Irving Picard a daily Edible Arrangement now. Continue reading »
