On the one hand, Brian Moynihan et al plan to cut staff next month, which hurts. On the other, they’ve been suggesting to certain at risk employees that they might want to see if they can find a home elsewhere inside the bank prior to D-Day, so that’s nice. Read more »
chats
Earlier this morning, Fortune hosted a breakfast with Vikram Pandit to pick his brain on what’s been a’ poppin’ at Citi and the economy in general. According to Pandit, the Big C will report a profit for the third quarter and he does “not expect the U.S. to go into a recession,” which is all very exciting news. When asked about the individuals occupying Wall Street, he said that their grievances are “completely understandable” and that “trust has been broken between financial institutions and citizens.” And that’s not all. Read more »
The meeting is said to be scheduled for 3PM, leaving the staff, Beamers girls, Morton’s bartenders and the guy who “sells a whole lot of brown-bagged bottles of liquor to UBS employees every evening” plenty of time to freak out that they’re going to potentially told the bank is leaving the state. Alternatively, those who dream of a giant Costco taking over the 100,300 square foot space will have the entire day to salivate over potentially pillaging delicious and moderately priced cheesecakes every day after work. Read more »
When Lloyd Blankfein agreed to attend Obama’s speech this morning, only because he absolutely had to and not because he just has buckets of free time to mosey up to Astor Place, he knew there’d be some people there he didn’t want to see. Bob Diamond. Shmuck reporters. Obama’s favorite banker who can do no wrong (who actually turned out to be a no show, which rankled LB even more that his presence would have, because Fabio can do whatever he wants and nobody gives him shit for it).
Lloyd did not anticipate coming face to face with the guy who supported Matt Taibbi’s little attempts at fiction writing, because really, who the fuck invited the publisher of Rolling Stone? And yet, there he was. Jann Wenner. The guy who gave Taibbi-cat the green light to sit at his typewriter trying to come up with theories for how Goldman Sachs has been able to take over the world, pausing only to periodically make sure the Thermos of horse semen in the fridge hadn’t congealed.
In truth, when Blankfein first spied the guy across the room, he was stunned. Not because it was Taibbi’s boss but because, as he whispered to Gary Cohn, “Damn, Kurt Russel has put on weight.” After the GS president corrected him and yanked his arm back anticipating what was about to happen (reader poll: would it really have been that big a deal for LB to do a crotch grab in Wenner’s direction?), it was decided that Blanks would walk over and say hey. Read more »
Hank Paulson had a little chat last night at the 92Y with GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. This must’ve been a tad on the uncomfortable side, since just last week, the two had a spat about the passage in Hank’s book mentioning the September 2008 convo regarding GE’s commercial paper woes they may or may not have had. (Paulson chalked it up to having a bad memory, stress, bird-deprivation, etc).
Anyway, no matter, because the ice was broken by starting with a less controversial topic Hank’s unaccomplished desire to be a forest ranger. “I never wanted to be a forest ranger more than during the crisis,” the former Treasury Secretary said wistfully.
They all agree it sucks. But which one sounds the smartest saying it?
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