By its own estimation, Morgan Stanley’s bonuses are set to suck this year. The best employees have been told to hope for is a year on year decrease of 10 to 30 percent. And for his own part, chief exec James Gorman has been fairly vocal about the need for Wall Street to get to a place where failure isn’t rewarded isn’t rewarded as richly as success. Since some of Morgan Stanley’s business have not exactly succeeded with flying colors this year, it should follow that their staff will be compensated accordingly. Perhaps anticipating that there will be some unhappy campers, Jim has suddenly decided that while it’s no secret most people’s pay will be in the toilet, which he supports, Morgan Stanley must suppress this information from the outside world. How is Gorman planning on going about enforcing the new rule? Brute fucking force. Continue reading »
O RLY?
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman Threatens To Personally Fire Anyone Caught Leaking Bonus Information
By Bess LevinMoney Manager Bruce Berkowitz Was Just Kidding When He Said He Wants People To Tell Him When/Why He’s Wrong
By Bess LevinAs you may have heard, at the Value Investing Congress on Wednesday, David Einhorn revealed (in a 139-slide PowerPoint presentation) that he and Greenlight Capital are shorting real-estate developer St. Joe Co. This was at odds with investor Bruce Berkowitz who, through Fairholme Capital Management, owns a 29 percent stake in the company (having purchased an additional 0.1% following Einhorn’s presentation). When asked by audience members about taking the other side of the trade, Einhorn, because he has manners, said that he had sent Berk a letter stating his intent to short St. Joe, and asked if the two could debate the issue, which Bruce never responded to and as recently as today, Berkowitz told Reuters, “Why would I want to talk to him?”
Which is interesting! Given that less than two months ago, Berkowitz said this: Continue reading »
The (Alleged) Secret To Barclays’ Success: Strict Enforcement Of Hiring Rule Generally Waived At Other Banks
By Bess Levin
This is the first bold claim in a Financial Times article today on how Barclays Capital has done so well for itself over the last 14 years: “most investment banks claim to have a ‘no-jerk’ policy on hiring.” Of course, on occasion, said rule is overlooked. Not too many times, once, maybe twice at Goldman Sachs. But at BarCap? NEVER (“at BarCap the policy is taken seriously from the top executive suites on down.”) It’s just one of the many ways the firm keeps its people grounded and in doing so has been able to consistently make it rain. Others include: Continue reading »
