FSA Warns Global Banks Over Bonus Levels (FT)
Global banks operating in London have been warned by the top UK bank supervisor that this year’s staff bonuses must reflect the mis-selling and market manipulation scandals that have damaged the sector in the past 12 months. Andrew Bailey, head of the Financial Services Authority’s prudential business unit, wrote to bank chief executives in late October ahead of this year’s bonus round warning them that the watchdog would be looking for evidence they had “clawed back” deferred bonuses from people involved in scandals. He also urged banks to consider firm-wide bonus reductions to account for the impact of the scandals. The letter went not only to UK banks but also global institutions with substantial presences in the country.
Blankfein Backs Higher Taxes (NYP)
“I believe that tax increases, especially for the wealthiest, are appropriate,” Blankfein wrote in his 1,000-plus-word column entitled “The Business Plan for American Revival.” He added that raising taxes needed to be coupled with “serious” cuts to discretionary spending and entitlements.
JPMorgan Energy Unit Curbed (WSJ)
U.S. energy-market regulators Wednesday handed J.P. Morgan Chase’s energy-trading unit a six-month suspension from some of its activities in electricity markets, the latest in a string of clashes with Wall Street. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cited false information it has said the company submitted as part of a probe into alleged market manipulation. It was a rare move for the commission and another signal that it is trying to assert itself as a regulatory heavy hitter. The agency, which oversees transmission lines and natural-gas pipelines, also recently proposed a record penalty of nearly $470 million against Barclays for alleged market manipulation. Barclays denies the charges.
FHA Nears Need For Taxpayer Funds (WSJ)
The Federal Housing Administration is expected to report this week it could exhaust its reserves because of rising mortgage delinquencies, according to people familiar with the agency’s finances, a development that could result in the agency needing to draw on taxpayer funding for the first time in its 78-year history.
Fed Moves Toward Tying Interest-Rate Decisions to Economic Data (Bloomberg)
Policy makers “generally favored the use of economic variables” to provide guidance on the when they are likely to approve their first interest-rate increase since 2008, according to minutes of their Oct. 23-24 meeting released yesterday. Such measures might replace or supplement a calendar date, currently set at mid-2015.
Israel Wages Twitter War With Hamas Over #Gaza Attacks (BusinessWeek)
The Israeli Defense Forces took to its Twitter account yesterday to announce “a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the Gaza Strip” even as its jets began attacking. Within minutes, Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, announced through its English-language account the assassination of its “top leader Ahmed Jabari” by “Israeli drones.” As Israeli jets bombarded suspected missile facilities and other buildings in Gaza, the service run by San Francisco-based Twitter lit up with 140-character chronicles of the assault and the reaction. Most of the messages known as tweets were identified with #Gaza, a “hashtag” with a pound sign before a key word that lets those on Twitter search for information. The two sides even fought for sympathy through the names they gave the operation. While Israeli tweeters called it #PillarOfDefense, Palestinians used #GazaUnderAttack. As airstrikes intensified, an IDF spokesman tweeted that “we recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces aboveground in the days ahead.” Hamas’s @AlqassamBrigades account quickly retorted, “@idfspokesperson Our blessed hands will reach your leaders and soldiers wherever they are (You Opened Hell Gates on Yourselves.)”
Hedge Funds Back Off Apple (NYP)
Lee Ainslie’s Maverick Capital, Chase Coleman’s Tiger Global, Eric Mindich’s Eton Park Capital, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital and Steve Cohen’s SAC Capital Advisors each pared their Apple positions during the quarter, according to reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission filed yesterday…Despite selling off Apple shares, the tech titan remains one of the biggest holdings for Maverick, Tiger Global and Greenlight. In fact, its slide pushed their monthly returns negative.
Jobless Claims Rise Following Storm (WSJ)
People seeking unemployment benefits increased by 78,000 to a seasonally adjusted 439,000 in the week ended Nov. 10, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected 375,000 new applications for jobless benefits.
Bank of America Slashes $4.75 Billion Off Mortgages (CNBC)
The bank, which took on the burden of Countrywide Financial’s mortgage ills when it bought the company, has completed or approved a total of $15.8 billion in consumer relief for about 164,000 homeowners as of Sept. 30 and is on track, according to officials, to meet its total financial obligations within the first year of the three-year agreement.
South Africa holds diamond smuggler who swallowed 220 gems (BBC)
South African police have arrested a man who they say swallowed 220 polished diamonds in an attempt to smuggle them out of the country. The man was arrested as he waited to board a plane at Johannesburg airport. Officials said a scan of his body revealed the diamonds he had ingested, worth $2.3m (£1.4m; 1.8m euros), inside.
Hamas better watch out, Israel's a friend of mine.
Never trust a man that has matching socks.
-Hamilton
Don't you hate it when you wait years to get into an SAC fund, pay the usurious 3 and 50 tariff…and then they just go out and buy Apple stock?
@GWashington
Approaching the Brit gunners, troops are gettin' fired up!! Bring it @Cornwallis! #Yorktown #Independence #Fuckthebrits
I love that BW explains what a "hashtag" is, but not why the two sides are fighting.
November 13th: Hamas and Israel call a truce
November 14th: Israel Kills Hamas Military Leader
November 15th: Hamas Kills three Israelis
November 16th: (hopefully) People stop giving a fuck about Middle East Conflict and who's sleeping with who and help us avoid turning into Spain/Greece/Italy/Rest of Europe
Why is everyone who lives in the desert so angry?
"bonuses must reflect the mis-selling and market manipulation scandals that have damaged the sector in the past 12 months"
So the larger the fraud, the larger the bonus?
"…raising taxes on the wealthy will lead to a new generation of Accountants, Financial Advisors, and Lawyers that will go to great lengths to help their wealthiest clients reduce their tax burden. This article may seem hypocritical because I am the CEO of a company that works tirelessly to pay a tax rate no greater than 11%…”
- Not an OWS'er but tired of ass clowns asking to raise taxes simply to avoid them
"you tell that mother fucker that large Marge sent ya!'"
Clothing Bernanke since 1948.
Influencing him since 1980.
-JoS. A. Bank
Roadrunners!!
- Wile E
Sounds like someone has never wiped sand out of his buttcrack.
It's pretty much assumed that Israel and Hamas are going to be fighting over something.
An investment banker takes his stressed out electricity trading girlfriend to a secluded and romantic desert get-a-way. One night in the desert he suggests they make love out in the desert under the billions of stars of the Milky Way. Being a power trader, she asks, "Well, what's in it for me?" He thinks a bit and replies, "I don't know….sand?"
Always interesting to see the markets CRATER into bonus time isn't it?
So then, you cool with me doing your mom?
Do we need the joke briefer or is this just another not terribly funny joke?
Hey !
Which is actually good if you're getting paid mostly in RSUs, you keep on winning it though champ…er, actually, no, just kill yourself.
beyond awful. give me 10 seconds of my life back please.
Instead of higher taxes, maybe we should fix this problem…aka. the retirement compensation structure for fire, police & gov. employees. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/13/us-bern…
No problem here.
Looney Toney Liberal
That would actually require politicians to *do* something that might be unpopular.
He could have just opted out of the scanner.
- Easy button
He's so uptight . . .
I'm glad that whole MF Financial thing is behind us now. I was preoccupied there for over a year.
1,000+ words? Is Lloyd taking a freshman class?
ahem. You know nothing of our work.
-Actual liberal tired of tired caricatures from people who don't know enough to realize conservatives share as much/more of the blame
1. No bacon.
2. No beer.
3. No premarital sex.
That and their countries are generally shitholes.
How was it working with Michael Jordon in Space Jam
Recovering those stones is going to be a shitty job for somebody.
ahhh the ago old conundrum of "do what's right" vs "do what gets me re-elected"
What does my politics have to do with me creating a sketch of you sitting on a pony?
- guy in central park
#nervous
- Not Nervous Jew but a fan of his work
CRATER being the operative word here. Samurai, I got a feeling your whole family is going down… but now I got to study.
Buddy, enough already…
What do you mean? I hear Yemen is great this time of year.