In King of Capital, a new book out this week by David Carey and John Morris, the authors chronicle the deals and personalities that shaped the Blackstone Group, starting with how its founders, Steve Schwarzman and Pete Peterson, met at Lehman Brothers. We’re told many times that Schwarzman had a drive like no other to make money and absolutely “hated to lose it,” which informed the firm’s approach to risk taking and helped it to “avoid the kind of brazen, outsized gambles that caused some high-flying rivals to run aground.” But Steve is not just about the coin; he, too, loves to get his freak on. Continue reading »
dancing feet
This Is A (Kenny Powers-Inspired?) Music Video Nominating Elizabeth Warren As “Sheriff” Of The Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection
By Bess Levin
[WW via Heidi Moore]
No comment on the lyrics but tell me the dancing moves aren’t extremely reminiscent and most likely inspired by these? Continue reading »
As you’re more than likely aware, the World Economic Forum at Davos kicked off this week. Though Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon will sadly not be able to attend, Gary Cohn, John Mack, Vikram Pandit, Bob Diamond, Brady Dougan Brian Moynihan will all be there, in addition to Nouriel Roubini, who’s been known to add a certain je ne sais quoi* to most soirees, as well as his wingman, George Soros, and Dan Loeb, who arrived today. Obviously they’re all going to be expected to have some “serious talks” about “real solutions” for how we can make this global financial system thing work, have some sit-downs with Maria, play in the snow and what have you. But if I may, I’d like to offer that perhaps you should take this week as an opportunity to do something more important than all that. Like Dance. Dance, puppets, dance! Dance like nobody’s watching. Dance like Andrew Ross Sorkin’s not taking careful notes regarding who busted out the lawnmower (Vikram) and who got low (Soros). Dance like you’re on ecstasy. At the very least dance like Bill Gates. Promise me that.
By now you’ve probably heard that a lady named Christine Mancision has filed a couple lawsuits over being “clobbered” on a dance floor at wedding last year. The first is against James Graeber, the guy whose actions supposedly put a metal plate and five screws in Christine’s wrist. The second is against the Hyatt Morristown in New Jersey, which the victim claims encouraged Graeber to grab her arm, spin her around the dance floor and then fling her off to the side where she went “flying,” by overserving the guy when he was “visibly intoxicated,” adding “fuel to the fire” in Graeber’s dancing feet. Mancision, who works investor relations at Luxor Capital Group, wants a million in damages. Now, up front, let us just say it’s obviously a shame the girl had to go through surgery and “eight months of grueling rehabilitation.” But with the office holiday party season fast approaching, let us also say this:
Yesterday afternoon, Matthew Goldstein suggested there was a possibility that Twinkle Toes Aleynikov had felt he’d been stiffed by Goldman re: compensation (Serge was paid $400,000 as a computer programmer last year), supplemental income from dancing apparently not covering the bills. That’s presumably why he left 85 Broad to go work for Teza Technologies, which was set to throw $1.2 million his way before he ran in to some legal issues and was suspended without pay. Rob Cox at BreakingViews is now thinking that, while Teza probably (though not definitely) didn’t explicitly tell ‘Nikov his take-home was getting tripled with the expectation he’d show up for the first day of work having ripped off his former employer, there might’ve been some nodding and winking to that effect. If not the secret codes than something, anything from the building that the start-up could’ve gotten some mileage out of, be it GS pens or Lloyd Blankfein’s essence, sucked out by Serge during one dangerous (but worth it) mission to the men’s room. And if you think about it, instead of getting their panties in a bunch over a coupla jacked megabytes of data, the Masters o’ the U should be looking at this whole thing as a source of pride. Everybody wants a piece of their shit.
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A Goldman Education [BreakingViews]
Obviously Goldman Sachs is behind this, somehow, but why? Above, the “Love Story” of Sergey and Elina, a video that’s been available since 2007, and was up until some point last night. Now, alarmingly, the audio’s been stripped, supposedly over copyright infringement, though we have it on good authority there’s more to this than meets the Blankfein. Is this some sort of coded message via LB? The WSJ suggested earlier that Serge and the wife should be embarrassed about the video, which tells how workaholic Aleynikov found love via a genie in a lamp, and would perhaps want to bury evidence of its existence. With all due respect, the Journal clearly has no idea what it’s talking about– this is nothing to be embarrassed over. It’s the sort of thing you shout loud and proud.
Bail for Sergey Aleynikov, the programmer accused of stealing trading codes from Goldman Sachs (his former employer) has been set at $750,000. Red needs “three financially responsible people” to post bond. If his promise of innocence isn’t enough to convince anyone here to put up the money, how about his dancing feet? Surely the big hearted individuals willing to lay out the cash would be treated to at least one or two private performances by Sergey and his wife, Elina, who are competitive ballroom dancers. Don’t say no, just say maybe and have a look-see at what you’d be in for:
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