FYIs

Paulson And Co’s Favorite Investment Will Lose (More) Money Before It Makes Money, Says Paulson And Co

By

Billionaire investor John Paulson told investors on Wednesday he is staying the course on gold even though there may be more short-term volatility in the price of the metal. The New York-based hedge fund manager has long stuck by his thesis that gold will someday be a powerful hedge against inflation, and it was no different on the investor call he held, two people who listened to the call said. John Reade, a partner at Paulson & Co, said that the firm, which oversees about $18 billion, is not veering off its course even as he cautioned that there could be more price fluctuations in the short term. [Reuters]

  • 06 Mar 2013 at 4:09 PM

Lloyd Blankfein Says You Can Look At His Beard But You Can’t–Oh The Hell With It, You Can Touch It Too!

By

Lloyd C. Blankfein nuzzled his beard against the cheeks of two ladies last night, Dina Powell, Goldman Sachs’s head of corporate engagement, and Liz Robbins, a Democratic lobbyist. “I was proving to women everywhere that it’s really soft, not coarse,” said Blankfein, 58, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs, the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets. At the nightclub Hudson Terrace, Blankfein was attending the first big fundraiser for Team Rubicon, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit founded three years ago to deploy military veterans to respond to disasters.  [Bloomberg]

  • 14 Jan 2013 at 6:15 PM

Goldman Sachs’ New CFO Only Looks Like He’d Break All Your Fingers With His Handshake, Assures Chief Of Staff

By

Goldman insiders said Schwartz, who is 6-foot-4 and holds a black belt in karate, has shown both the disposition and the ability to handle the CFO’s many responsibilities. “He’s a bear of a man, but he’s gentle in his presentation,” said John Rogers, Goldman’s chief of staff and secretary to the board. [Reuters, related]

  • 01 Nov 2012 at 11:55 AM

UBS Chairman: Other Banks Will Have To Fire Thousands Of Employees Too, Y’Know

By

Difference is, UBS is the only one that’s faced facts already, ’cause they’re consistently ahead of the curve like that. Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, all those other guys will get a cold hard dose of reality sooner or later, though, and when they do they’ll say, “Damn! UBS was all over this! We’re not worthy!” Read more »

  • 25 Oct 2012 at 5:32 PM

Westport-Based Investment Firm Just Wants To Let People Know None Of Its Principals Are Sexual Deviants, Nor Have They Given Birth To Weirdos

By


Investment Professionals [EIP]

  • 12 Oct 2012 at 12:56 PM

Layoffs Watch ’12: Brian Moynihan Wasn’t Joking About Cutting Thousands Of Employees

By

Would’ve been quite the gag but no, he was serious, in case there was a question in anyone’s mind. Read more »

  • 20 Sep 2012 at 3:31 PM

When Tim Pawlently Said Wall Street Needed To Get Its ‘Snout Out Of The Trough,’ He Just Meant That It Should Eat At A Table With A Fork And Knife, Not That It Should Go Hungry

By

Tim Pawlenty, the former Republican governor of Minnesota who criticized Wall Street while running for president last year, is joining the Financial Services Roundtable as president and chief executive officer…In a Bloomberg Television interview last year before he ended his presidential run and joined Romney’s campaign, Pawlenty said his “truth message to Wall Street is going to be, ‘Get your snout out of the trough’.” He was viewed as a potential Romney running mate before the former Massachusetts governor selected Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. “Obviously, I was one of the voices saying we need to fix the problems,” Pawlenty said in an interview today. “There’s been an attempt to fix them. Now we just need to make sure they don’t overreach and stifle economic investment and job growth.” [BloombergBusinessweek]

  • 12 Jul 2012 at 2:41 PM

Wells Fargo Wants To Be Clear The $175 Million It’s Paying To Make Allegations It Discriminated Against Black And Hispanic People Go Away Does Not Mean It Discriminated Against Black And Hispanic People

By

The settlement announced by the Justice Department Thursday involves at least 34,000 [black and Hispanic] borrowers who were charged higher fees or were steered into risky subprime mortgages when they could have qualified for a prime mortgage, ones offered to borrowers with the best credit. In settling, Wells Fargo said it “not only denies that it discriminated unlawfully, but affirmatively asserts that it has treated all of its customers without regard to race or national origin,” according to the consent order. The company is entering the settlement “solely for the purpose of avoiding contested litigation with the Department of Justice,” the order said. [WSJ]

  • 22 May 2012 at 3:34 PM

Citi Would Like To Make It Clear It Did Not Pay Debrahlee Lorenzana A Dime

By

Remember Debrahlee Lorenzana? For those with short memories, two years ago, Lorenzana sued Citibank for firing her for allegedly being “too hot,” a claim representatives of the bank denied several times, while also calling her an attention whore. After the initial hoopla, interest in Lorenzana, who once appeared on a TV show discussing her reasons for having her breasts enlarged (she wanted to look like “tits on a stick” in order to attract a “professional, well-educated man”) died down and many likely forgot about the story of T’s on an S versus Citi.  In a Daily News article today, though, Debs said that she passed on a settlement wanting instead to “press on.” While it’s not clear that anyone reading the piece took it to mean Lorenzana had in fact received damages for her hotness, Citi was not having it. Lest there be any confusion about whether or not she extracted jack from Vikram et al, the bank needs the world to know the following: Read more »

  • 15 May 2012 at 4:23 PM

Jamie Dimon: JPMorgan’s Balance Sheet Still Fortress-Esque

By

“We maintain a fortress balance sheet to manage surprises and setbacks like this,” Dimon said today. “I’m confident when we’re done here we’ll be a stronger company.” [Bloomberg, earlier]

  • 03 May 2012 at 4:38 PM

BusinessWeek: Most Companies Have A Pretty Lax Policy Re: Destruction Of Private Property, Actually

By

On Monday night, New York Knicks power forward and fashion-world darling Amar’e Stoudemire made a mess of the visiting team’s locker room in Miami. Following the Knicks’ defeat, Stoudemire punched through the glass encasement of a fire extinguisher. His hand suffered lacerations and he left the arena with his arm in a sling. He issued a perfunctory apology via Twitter, but the damage was done: After hand surgery he missed game three of the series and remains doubtful for game four. The Knicks organization, thus far, has issued no suspensions or fines. Let’s say a regular corporate worker had acted in a similar fashion—and essentially attacked his or her office building in an emotional outburst. He or she would be fired on the spot, right? Well, not so fast…“Most companies have policies that deal specifically with violence,” says Patricia Mathews, founder of Workplace Solution Pros, a human resources consultancy. “First of all, the employee would be sent out for a drug and alcohol test.” If the employee wasn’t revealed to be under the influence and didn’t have a history of violent behavior, there’s still a chance he or she would keep his or her job, according to Mathews. [BusinessWeek]