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$$$ PIMCO launches hedge fund-like “go anywhere” bond fund (WSJ)
$$$ Nouriel Roubini: “We are entering a recession based on my numbers.” (Bloomberg TV)
$$$ David Tepper’s offices were reportedly closed this week due to a loss of electricity. (Opalesque)
$$$ Darren Rovell Gives the World an Insight Into His Hiring Process (Daily Intel) Continue reading »
Apparently he and the board had a difference of opinion on how the place should be run. Continue reading »
In his most recent letter to Pershing Square investors, hedge fund manager Bill Ackman dropped a bomb. The fund has added a new star to its portfolio and a big one at that. “In the past, we have made asymmetric investments which are not for hedging purposes, but which also offer large payoffs on relatively modest commitments of capital where we similarly believe that the market has mispriced the probability of a positive outcome,” Bill wrote excitedly. “We recently identified an investment that broadly falls into that category.” What, praytell, would that investment be? Continue reading »
The Ponz Master apparently emailed Gasparino to tell him as much last night and to let him know that their previously scheduled date? CANCELED. Continue reading »
LightSquared, the wireless-broadband company owned mostly by Harbinger and its disgruntled former investors has had a good run recently, announcing a spectrum deal with Sprint, helping with Hurricane Irene, and not actually killing anyone yet (that we know of). You might think that it’s well on its way to fulfilling its mission of increasing competition in the wireless broadband industry.
But it’s not enough for the Department of Justice, which today sued to block the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger. The DoJ’s suit relies on the conclusion that wireless is basically a 4-party national game (among T, VZ, S, and T-Mobile), and gives short shrift to the notion that smaller regional wireless companies can be counted on to provide competition and limit price gouging by an engorged AT&T. From the complaint:
Continue reading »
With the bridges out in Pittsfield, Vermont, and its 400 residents marooned, Wall Street trader Scott Redler took matters into his own hands: He hired a helicopter and was back home in New Jersey yesterday afternoon. Redler’s family were weekend wedding guests when Hurricane Irene’s heavy rains pushed the Tweed River over its banks, smashing at least 20 homes. With his 65-year-old mother running out of medicine, Redler, T3Live.com’s chief strategist, found a pilot charging $7,000 for the rescue. “I wasn’t going to wait for the state or federal government,” Redler, 38, said yesterday from his mobile phone as he waited for the chopper. “I can’t trust them, because I know I’m not a priority.” [Bloomberg]
From Forbes: “In a 15-page complaint filed in Manhattan’s New York state court earlier this week, Simon accuses his wife, Linda Simon, of hacking into a password-protected Twin Capital computer located in the Simon’s home in Purchase, N.Y. and duplicating the hard-drive. The lawsuit claims that the hacking took place shortly after Simon had vacated the residence in late July and Linda Simon initiated divorce proceedings in New York state court…“Highly confidential financial records, intellectual property, trade secrets, and attorney-client communications were unlawfully stolen,” a court document filed by Twin Capital Management says. “Continued possession and use of the highly confidential materials they stole from Twin Capital is likely to cause substantial damage to Twin Capital.” Simon’s Twin Capital says it is suing for $25 million and the return of all the materials copied from the computer.” Continue reading »
UBS invites you to get linguistic. Continue reading »
This is just a little public service announcement for anyone planning on hitting up a strip club with colleagues after work or during lunch today- the Hustler Club doesn’t have time for your bull shit about 1) being overserved and 2) blacking out to the point that you were “no longer capable of conducting financial transactions” that involved buying table servicing for the whole bar. Continue reading »
Here’s a perfect sentence to draw the ire of gold bugs: “But like paper money, gold is worth only what people believe it is worth, and because of this, it is sometimes referred to as the barbarous relic.” Look at all the buttons it presses: comparing gold to paper money! Saying that its value is just as much a convention – or, if you prefer, a “Ponzi scheme” – as that of fiat money! Using “barbarous relic” non-ironically!
That gem comes from a column last night by the Times’s Deal Professor Steven Davidoff, who set out to comprehensively annoy the Ron Paul crowd by arguing that U.S. regulators and exchanges should act to restrict leverage and limit holdings of gold because the metal is in a speculative bubble. The evidence for this includes that hedge-and-speculation demand has doubled in the last two years while industrial-and-jewelry demand is actually down, suggesting that gold is not so much trading on fundamentals. The recommendations:
Yet if regulators are going to stop the next bubble, they will need to act aggressively. Of course, they shouldn’t act in every circumstance, but when we see volatility and speculation as is the case of gold, acting to curb these forces through limiting leverage in cooperation with international regulators would be a prudent course. This would ensure that if a crash does come, it does not have aftereffects on banks and other institutions. Even if the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is hesitant to take such steps, it could, as an initial foray, take to the media to try to “talk down” the speculation.
For our own safety we’re not going to weigh in on whether gold is overpriced or underpriced, or on whether current gold demand is driven by (1) sensible concerns about inflation on the part of savvy investors or (2) Glenn-Beck-driven survivalist freakouts by financially illiterate retail buyers.* We’ll just point out that, if you’re going to have a bubble, this is a really sweet one to have.
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Angelo Mozilo, June 26, 2008: “Bank of America will reap the benefits of what we have sowed.”
August 31, 2011: Continue reading »
