As those of you who keep up with the trials and travails of Wall Street’s celebrity analysts know, Citigroup has not always had the best relationships with these sensitive and highly-strung individuals. At one time or another, Meredith Whitney, Dick Bové, and Mike Mayo have all had their emotions toyed with and, particularly in the case of the men, have not responded well. Bové got drunk and sent out a mass email detailing the ways in which Citi defiled her and treated her like a cheap whore not deserving of respect and a couple years back, Mike Mayo went public with his own drama, wherein he and Vikram went from being super close in 2007 to the Citi CEO going radio-silent. FOR NO REASON. FOR TWO YEARS. Continue reading »
OH NO HE DI’INT
That’s Interesting, Because Just The Other Day, Vikram Pandit Was Telling Someone That He’d Rather Hear Alec Baldwin’s Opinions On Airplane Etiquette Than Mike Mayo’s On How To Run A Bank
By Bess Levin
Nothing but love for the Oracle of O but whoa there big boy! Lloyd Blankfein doesn’t come into your Dairy Queen and trash talk the buxom milkmaids, AKA the Blizzard Babes, does he? Continue reading »
When one is a best-selling author of many popular books and can work at his leisure, he is afforded the time to marinade on things that tick him off. Whereas others must let life’s annoyances roll off their backs rather than spending hours on end working themselves into a lather over, say, the guy who cut them off in the parking lot this morning, the barista who put too much foam in his vanilla bullshit latte cappa thing or the thieving investment bank downtown, this person has the inclination and the free afternoons to think about the stuff that’s pissing him off. Today we find out that a couple of things have been sticking in Michael Lewis’s craw. First, off there’s the leeches at Goldman Sachs. Sayeth Mike:
“The world would be better off without Goldman Sachs, and I don’t think it is just Goldman Sachs the world would better off without. If you waved a wand and wiped out Goldman Sachs, someone would step in and occupy that place. I think the world would be better off without the idea that Goldman Sachs embodies, which is that financial manipulation is a legitimate way to get really rich. If you look at the story of Goldman Sachs in the last six or seven years, you’ll see that they made an awful lot of money getting people to do stuff that never should have been done.”
Bothersome, really bothersome, yes, but not something he’ll have to worry about much longer, as the Oracle predicted back in June that Goldman is doomed and it’s only a matter of time before they shutter that dump. What has really been riling Lewis is a little thing in Greece called the Acropolis and its utter mismanagement. So poorly is it run that Lewis knows of a former businessman-cum-writer who could do a better job with the place if someone thought to ask. Continue reading »
“I had two things going against me. I was a reporter with a camera and I was a woman,” she says of her early days reporting live from the bedlam of the testosterone-fueled boys’ club on the exchange floor. “One day, I was standing by the General Electric post and there were maybe 25 guys within earshot when one of them who was about three times my age said, ‘Run along, little girl, and don’t come here again.’ I had knots in my stomach. I looked at him and said, ‘Don’t talk to me that way’—and I ran along! But I came back! And I kept coming back. And 20 years later, I’m still there.” [VF]
He says it’s his policy not to do walk and talks but Charlie Gasparino knows better. This guy’s got something to hide. Continue reading »
Here’s one: in an online survey of current and former employees, Goldman Sachs beat out a whole slew of financial services firms to be named– wait for it– the second best place to work. Now, I know a lot of other banks and institutions would be sending out congratulatory emails about how great an achievement this is and so on and so forth right about now. That’s because these banks and institutions are losers, just as second place is (the number one loser, in fact). Reuters is trying to make a big deal of the whole thing, offering Goldman a pat on the back, going on about how this is great news in a time that Goldman could really use it, which is of course just making things worse. Why not draw attention to the fact that GS is the best place to work after freaking Susquehanna International Group, Reuters? You know what Goldman could really use, Reuters? You stuffing it. This is not great news. Goldman finishes second to no one and it certainly doesn’t finish second to companies headquartered in Lower Merion Township. Today, though, the bank did.
[Breathe] Continue reading »
CNBC reports the first bits of news from Bernie Madoff’s latest prison interview. First off, he cannot express how crazy it is that he got away with all this but if he had to identify one reason it was probably so easy was the fact that “everything the SEC did before 2006″ was a “waste of time.” Also? That broad running the new and improved Securities and Exchange Commission? Mary Schapiro? She’s “a dear friend” of the Master o’ Ponz. So basically this is how it’s going to work. Every few months, for remainder of his sentence, Bernie’s going ruin someone’s reputation by claiming they are one of his close personal friends, trusted advisor or fuck buddy. Who’s next? You tell us.
Update: Oh god it keeps getting better. Whistleblower “Harry Markopolos” was “a joke inside the industry” and “jealous” of Madoff’s returns.
