During the height of the financial crisis, like when the shit was really hitting the fan, one thing that was considered a serious faux pas, perhaps even more so than giving out bonuses, was use of the corporate jet by Chief Executives. And not just for pleasure trips but for business, too. If anyone so much as even entertained the thought of boarding that thing for work purposes they’d be shot dead by something worse than a gun- public opinion. Now, though, enough time has passed that one would consider it acceptable to use the plane from time to time, perhaps even to expedite travel to weekend homes where one is still on the clock, right? WRONG, BITCHES! The Wall Street Journal‘s been watching you and is here to blow up your spot. Continue reading »
CEOs
Over the summer, Colony Capital’s Tom Barrack penned a breathless letter to employees telling them about the “personal breakthrough” he achieved while reading Twilight. Almost a year ago, Stephen Schwarzman admitted to loving no film genre more than the romantic comedy. And yet, despite these well-known, well-respected and well-endowed (?) businessmen coming forward and sharing their feelings and views of books and movies, there’s remained a stigma vis-a-vis being a so-called “BSD” and wanting to curl up with, say, Maid In Manhattan. Doing her part today to let the men of the financial services industry know IT’S OKAY to love the Devil Wear’s Prada is Betsy Tobin, wife of Standard Chartered’s Peter Sands. Betsy told the Evening Standard: Continue reading »
“We have to face the fact that most of America’s CEOs don’t want the economy to get ‘better.’ Because for them, it couldn’t get better—they’ve got profit coming out their ears, while with 9.5 percent unemployment their entire workforce is too scared to ask for a 25 cent-an-hour raise. They’d be happy to have things stay just like they are now. Forever.” [TDB]
Following his pit-stop for wings in Buffalo yesterday, Obama spoke at a campaign fundraiser at The St. Regis hotel, which you might’ve assumed would be attended by top Wall Street brass. Jamie, since they’re buds. Lloyd, because he has to. Vikram, because his plans always fall through. But you would’ve assumed wrong! The bank CEO’s decided they were all good and opted not to pay the $50,000 entrance fee to hear the prez talk about buzz-kill topics like “reform” and “responsibility” (he also said “there are a lot of good people who work in the financial industry who do things the right way,” so they missed out on that free ego boost). Continue reading »
Literally, and not like, as a metaphor for the markets repeatedly slamming his nuts in a drawer. From today’s Sex Diary:
B, the CEO of a bank, likes for me to kick him repeatedly in the testicles. I threaten him with my two pink dildos, Fat Man and Little Boy. Sometimes I’m disturbed by the ease with which I perform acts of such egregious violence. He calls what we do making love.
It’s getting ugly in Davos. As we wrote previously, everybody is mad at everybody and the booze is missing, which is not helping people’s mood. (Except for Vikram, who, as a commenter noted, looks in the CNBC interview “like he’s sitting in the Zen garden of his dreams.”)
“Both the banks and the regulators think they hold all the cards,” said Harvard Economics Professor Kenneth Rogoff. “The bankers think that when the storm passes nothing will have changed and they can go back to business as usual. Regulators think banks have completely lost the political capital and are ignoring public opinion.”
So here’s what really’s pissing off Davos attendees. It’s not some bankers’ behind-the-door plotting. It’s not the endless convos about whether breaking up the banks is a good or a bad thing and it’s not how to help Haiti.
Nope. None of those trivialities. What people are really angry about is that this year -just like last – there won’t be a wine tasting, which has historically been the “highlight of the forum.”
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