Allan Ash, pictured at left, is 95 years-old. He’s lived through the Great Depression. Hitler’s rise to power. Pearl Harbor. Korea. The assassination of John F. Kennedy. He’s got heart problems. Water on his lungs. No use of his legs. He lost his sight several years back. But you wanna know the biggest disappointment of his life? The fact that his grandson turned out to be a two-faced rotten bum who should count his lucky stars grandpa is only going after his ass in court and not on the streets. Read more »
disappointments
Convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff was “desperately disappointed” that the owners of the Mets chose to settle the fraud lawsuit brought on behalf of victims of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, CBS News reported Wednesday. “He wrote me last weekend that he was so looking forward to that trial,” said Diane Henriques, author of the book “Wizard of Lies” which detailed Madoff’s fraud. “He was hoping that the Mets’ defense would make the case he was making to me that they had no reason to doubt Madoff.” The trustee for Madoff’s victims, Irving Picard, was set to argue at trial that Mets owner Fred Wilpon, once a friend of Madoff and a longtime investor, was willfully blind and chose to ignore signs that Madoff was producing fraudulent returns. Henriques told CBS that in recent emails from prison Madoff blasted Picard, who was seeking more than $300 million at trial. “He calls Picard a fool, an amateur, says he doesn’t understand the market, says he never understood the market, that he’s just lost on Wall Street,” Henriques said. [NYP]
The past couple years have not been what one might characterize as the best of times for former RBS CEO Fred Goodwin. After retiring from his post in November 2008, he missed out on helping the bank collect the award for biggest loss in British corporate history (£24.1 billion for the year), the windshield of his Mercedes-Benz S600 was smashed by a bunch of hoodlums, a brick was thrown through his window, and the banging of an underling came to light. He’s also had quite a bit of trouble getting a new gig on account of being “overqualified.” No, he’s had it pretty rough but the one thing that kept him going? That made life slightly more bearable? That kept him warm at night? The fact that he could look himself in the mirror and see an official Knight looking back. “Fuck ‘em if they can’t take a joke [vis-à-vis bombing a bank from the inside],” he’d say to himself. “One of us is a Knight and the other? Not so much.” When the neighborhood kids would throw shit throw shit at his house and spray paint “royal bum” on his front walk, he could at least comfort himself by muttering, “That’s Sir Royal Bum to you, thanks very much.” And now? He can’t even do that. Read more »
“The only regulation that works is failure”? “I’ll buy you a big breakfast, just not your neighbor’s mortgage”? One measly foot stomp? Come on Ricky. Remember when these things had a hint of authenticity? When you threatened to throw synthetic CDOs into Lake Michigan? When we actually believed you might give yourself a hernia? It’s like you’re not even trying anymore. Short-Sleeves Shirt shouldn’t be laughing, he should be calling the cops. Read more »
Alleged Insider Trader Noah Freeman Has Likely Broken Hundreds Of Underage Girls’ Hearts Today
By Bess Levin
Reuters‘ Matthew Goldstein reports: Read more »
Management would like to remind everyone look on the bright side. Read more »
Yesterday it was suggested that bonuses at JPMorgan will be roughly equal to 2009. Apparently that’s only if you’re lucky. Read more »
Despite the fact that he is a rolly polly ball of smiles that had the good sense to sell his hedge fund to Citi for a billion dollars, as the CEO of the Treasury’s special needs child, Vikram Pandit does not have a lot to look forward to, other than the day he “makes more than $1.” So when the word got out several weeks ago that he was going to have the opportunity to meet one of his idols, he got pretty psyched Naturally, the idol I speak of is Mr. Jay-Z. Read more »
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Communiqués
Viking Global Is Greatly Disappointed In Its Returns, Not Blaming Self, But Still Looking Within To See What Went Wrong
By Bess Levin
To: Viking Investors
From: O. Andreas HalvorsenPerformance
Our second quarter performance was a loss of 5.0% for VGE and a loss of 11.9% for VLF net of all fees on a composite basisOn an unlevered basis, VGE’s long portfolio was down 11.2% and the short portfolio was down 10.3%, yielding a long-short spread of negative 0.9% (see the attached Base Case Analysis). In the quarter, five long positions cost us 0.5% or more while no short contributed an equal amount.
We are greatly disappointed in Viking’s returns both on an absolute basis and relative to the indices. We do not blame factors outside of our control, but acknowledge that changes in the global macro-economic, political, and regulatory environment; a broad-based fall in stock prices around the world; and unusually high levels of correlation among these prices have increased the degree of difficulty in generating a profitable long-short spread. We are paid to deal with such challenges at all times and are in a business that requires hard work and consistent processes every day. When the market gives us a disappointing score for our efforts, we examine our results and our methods to ascertain whether we need to make adjustments – this is the Viking way. Rest assured that our objective remains to achieve maximum capital appreciation commensurate with reasonable risk, and we remain firmly dedicated to meet this goal. In light of this, we have engaged in a thorough examination of our results.
Heartiest congratulations, Canada. Your recession is finally over.
The economic growth that pulled you out of the pit of despair in the third quarter wasn’t all it could be. But, as those of us not named “China” have learned, exiting a recession isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Canada edges out of recession in third quarter [AFP via Google]
He’s letting the homeland down. And, really, that’s so much worse.
The Indian presence is almost evenly divided among the private and state-run companies. While none of the Indian companies has managed to find a place among the top 100 firms this year as well, the elite club includes a firm run by person of Indian origin.
Lakshmi Mittal-headed steel behemoth ArcelorMittal is at 41st position. However, Vikram Pandit-run banking giant Citigroup has dropped to 472nd rank this year.
This must be killing his father.
47 Indian cos among Forbes ‘Global 2000 List’ [Business Standard]
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