earnings
Late last week, Bloomberg Markets profiled AQR founder Cliff Asness, who has continued his boyhood “obsession” with comic books and their characters into adulthood. His desk in Greenwich is home to Spiderman, Captain America, The Hulk and Iron Man, he has a Captain America shield on his right bicep and he “identifies with” many a super hero. In sum, Asness fancies himself one of them and to that end, is clearly dying for someone to make a character modeled after him. A very talented DB reader (and fellow hedge fund quant) did just that. As we were discussing possible sidekicks and a love interest for Quant Man, however, we realized there was a problem that needed rectifying. Before we can continue with Cliff, who is the one person who truly deserves her own action figure? Continue reading »
The following post is by InfiniteGuest, a regular reader and frequent commenter.
It’s earnings season, it’s bonus time, and now that the Angelides Commission has begun holding hearings and legislation is under way to form a permanent resolution authority for troubled financial institutions, the related topics of what caused the financial crisis and how to handle the next one have garnered fresh attention, to put it mildly. Juxtaposed against the sluggish real economy, the robust health of our financial sector makes it an easier target than ever for enemies of every stripe. Yesterday, under acute political pressure, President Obama used the bully pulpit to blame the financial crisis on the greed of financiers unfettered by ill-advised deregulation, advocating among other things the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. The Angelides Commission will need a strong constitution to keep from being unduly influenced in their investigation by the President’s statements. He has identified the causes, he’s found a solution, and he is, after all, the most powerful man on earth. One could be forgiven for believing that the final narrative of the Angelides Commission has already been written even though the inquiry has barely begun.
10:58 Hold music. “Highway To Hell” vetoed in favor of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony (I think?).
11:02 Gerald is our “facilitator” today. Everyone say hi Gerald.
11:04 Dane Holmes, 6’8″, 260lbs, takes the mic. Forward looking statements, yada yada yada.
11:06 David Viniar in the house. Goldman made almost $5 billion last quarter, in case you were unaware.
11:09 Reading of the slides.
Dick Bove’s weird love story with Citi is one that is complicated and needs a lot of nurturing. Although it will never reach the highs of the one he had with BofA (Ken Lewis was a “visionary and tactician” who “was torn from his post by politicians lacking any of Mr. Lewis’ skills and successes.”) our Rochdale analyst friend is still full of hope.
Bove said in a report today that Citi -which reported a $7.58 billion loss in the fourth quarter -needs to be destroyed before it can succeed. The firm will be able to “emerge from the rubble” once it sells what he delicately describes as its “remaining lagging operations”: commercial credit, The Associates, Primerica, the remainder of Smith Barney and large portions of its mortgage and other weakened consumer portfolios.
“This will complete the destruction and elimination of the old Citigroup.”
- Use the Bloomberg command
NH BLG_DEALBREAKER <GO>
to access Dealbreaker
