Bess Levin

Posts by Bess Levin

  • 30 Apr 2013 at 3:49 PM

Lloyd Blankfein Explains How, In Their Own Little Way, Commodities Are The Gay People Of Asset Classes

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Attending Harvard, surrounded by classmates with trust funds and blue blood, who had no idea what it was like to grow up in the projects. His years with those same WASPs, many of whom had probably never met a Jew. The period in which there was a lot more Lloyd to love, which coincided with the ‘You can never be too rich or too thin’ era. All experiences that likely made Lloyd Blankfein acutely aware of the fact that he was different, and maybe made him feel like a little bit of an outsider.

None of them, however, can compare to the most ostracizing experience of his life: working as a young commodities trader in an investment bank. Some might say it was the equivalent of being gay in a world that is yet to fully accept homosexuality. Read more »

  • 29 Apr 2013 at 6:08 PM
  • meatballs

Sit Your Ass Down And Hold The Garlic: Charlie Gasparino Is Cooking Here

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Back in January, we made an open pitch to any and all TV networks for a cooking show staring Fox Business reporter Charlie Gasparino, called Charles in Charge (Of Dinner). Despite having all the trappings of a surefire hit– including a pretty damn catchy theme song1– nearly three months later and we’ve seen nary a bite.

It strikes us now that the Food Network brass and other TV execs may have hesitated to jump on this out of skepticism that Charlie can cook. “Sure,” they probably said to themselves. “CG is a snappy dresser and knows how to eat but what does he know about the culinary arts?” A lot, apparently, as evidenced by a recent interview with the Times in which he demonstrates his deft understanding of what makes a great meatball. Read more »

  • 29 Apr 2013 at 2:50 PM

CBS Introduces Veeven A. Cohen To The World

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Hedge fund honcho Steve Cohen made the jump from Wall Street to Main Street this week when a character loosely based on him appeared on a CBS crime drama. In a story ripped from the headlines, Thursday night’s “Person of Interest” centered on a hedge fund’s insider-trading scandal gone awry. The show’s hedge fund was called VAC Capital. Cohen’s firm is SAC Capital. “I almost fell off the couch laughing,” one viewer told The Post about the show’s thinly veiled reference to Cohen’s $16 billion fund. There were more similarities. The show centered on a doctor who told a young trader at VAC that a drug trial he was overseeing was “about to fail.” The trader earned VAC $500 million on the insider tip, which he called “black edge.” SAC’s traders have also reportedly called such tips “black edge.” In the show, the doctor confronts the trader, who blames his boss, the head of VAC. “You don’t understand. The boss is on my ass 24/7. Either [I] get black edge or [I’m] out.” “Black edge?” the doctor asks. “Inside information that no one else has,” the trader replies. [NYP]

  • 29 Apr 2013 at 1:22 PM

Who Said It: “For many women, the act of a bowel movement is enshrouded in fear and anxiety.”

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A) Sigmund Freud

B) Sheryl Sandberg

C) Charlie Gasparino

D) Jamie Dimon’s daughter Read more »

  • 26 Apr 2013 at 4:49 PM

SAC Capital Wants To Make Sure No One Makes Any Rash Decisions Here

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If anyone was considering redeeming from the fund, just slow down and think things through; you don’t want to wake up in the morning and realize you’ve made the biggest mistake of your life, walking away from all this [gestures to warehouse full of fleece apparel]. Read more »

  • 26 Apr 2013 at 3:57 PM

Galleon Group Co-Founder Went From The Hedge Fund Capital Of The World To The Cutting Horse Capital Of The World And God Damnit, It’s Not About The Money Anymore

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Mr. Rosenbach was never charged with any wrongdoing. He resigned from Galleon just months before prosecutors Mr. Rajaratnam’s arrest, citing family health reasons. He briefly made news in early 2011 with reports that he was starting his own firm, but it never materialized and he all but disappeared from Wall Street. Mr. Rosenbach has finally resurfaced, in Texas, as an accomplished amateur “cutter,” a sport in which horseback riders separate one calf from the cattle herd. Earlier this month, in Fort Worth, he won the National Cutting Horse Association Super Stakes Derby Amateur Championship aboard his horse, a mare, Scooters Daisy Dukes. After the competition, Mr. Rosenbach was interviewed in a video featured on YouTube. According to the clip, Mr. Rosenbach, a New York native and graduate of Queens College, owns the Rose Valley Ranch in Weatherford, Tex., a town about an hour east of Dallas that calls itself “the cutting horse capital of the world.” The amateur competition earlier this month earned Mr. Rosenbach — who made tens of millions of dollars at Galleon — about $5,138 in prize money. “You won a little more than $5,000,” the reporter said. “This win, for you, means what?” “You know I don’t want to sound terrible, it wasn’t about the money,” said Mr. Rosenbach, wearing a cowboy hat, “it’s about the buckle, it’s about the saddle, it’s about the exciting feeling, the adrenaline rush of when you finish and you put your hand down and you’re done cutting.” [Dealbook]

  • 26 Apr 2013 at 3:20 PM

Taking Chairman Title Away From Jamie Dimon Is The Craziest God Damn Thing Ken Langone’s Heard Today

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As you may have heard, recently some JP Morgan shareholders have been making a lot of noise about their desire to strip Jamie Dimon of his gig as JP Morgan Chairman. Their argument centers largely on last summer’s incident in which one of the bank’s employees lost $6+ billion on a trade. So far the board has rallied behind JD, but until today, we hadn’t what veterans of the business community thought of the matter.

What, for instance, is Ken Langone’s reaction to the idea that Jamie can’t hold down two jobs at the same time? It’s horse shit, is what! Read more »

Fabrice Tourre Will Beat These Financial Crisis Charges, Just Like He Beat The Fightin’ Friedmans

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(Before a season-ending injury that might’ve strained his tendons but never broke his spirit!) Read more »

  • 25 Apr 2013 at 6:33 PM

Confidential To J.C. Penney: Lock Up Your Light, Cheap, Practically Disposable, And Most Importantly Throw-able Lamps!

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Financier George Soros has bought a 7.91% stake in J.C. Penney Co., a vote of confidence in the beleaguered retailer as it tries to reverse a deep decline in sales. Soros Fund Management LLC disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday that it had acquired 17.4 million Penney shares. [WSJ, related]

Paulson And Co’s Favorite Investment Will Lose (More) Money Before It Makes Money, Says Paulson And Co

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Billionaire investor John Paulson told investors on Wednesday he is staying the course on gold even though there may be more short-term volatility in the price of the metal. The New York-based hedge fund manager has long stuck by his thesis that gold will someday be a powerful hedge against inflation, and it was no different on the investor call he held, two people who listened to the call said. John Reade, a partner at Paulson & Co, said that the firm, which oversees about $18 billion, is not veering off its course even as he cautioned that there could be more price fluctuations in the short term. [Reuters]

  • 25 Apr 2013 at 3:56 PM

Spandex-Clad Roller Girl Was Not Only Prepared To Put Citi Execs Over Her Knee But Read Them Their Rights

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Yesterday the Financial Times reported that one of the twenty protesters at Citigroup’s annual meeting appeared in spandex, on rollerblades, holding a sign re: bankers’ need for spankings. Many of you, as is your wont, commented that photographic evidence was necessary to confirm this really happened. So: Read more »

  • 25 Apr 2013 at 1:17 PM

Underappreciated Sorority Girl Now Free To Take Her Considerable Talents Where They Belong

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Confidential to anyone in charge of hiring across Wall Street: Rebecca Martinson, she of “I WILL FUCKING ASSAULT YOU” and “tie yourself down to whatever chair you’re sitting in, because this email is going to be a rough fucking ride” fame has suddenly found herself a free agent. Snap her up while you still can. Delta Gamma’s national headquarters1 evidently does not approve of spirit, but surely there is a bank or hedge fund out there looking for someone to berate its employees like they’ve never been berated before. Read more »