House Speaker John Boehner couldn’t hold back when he spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the White House lobby last Friday. It was only a few days before the nation would go over the fiscal cliff, no bipartisan agreement was in sight, and Reid had just publicly accused Boehner of running a “dictatorship” in the House and caring more about holding onto his gavel than striking a deal. “Go f— yourself,” Boehner sniped as he pointed his finger at Reid, according to multiple sources present. Reid, a bit startled, replied: “What are you talking about?” Boehner repeated: “Go f— yourself.” The harsh exchange just a few steps from the Oval Office — which Boehner later bragged about to fellow Republicans — was only one episode in nearly two months of high-stakes negotiations laced with distrust, miscommunication, false starts and yelling matches as Washington struggled to ward off $500 billion in tax hikes and spending cuts.[Politico]
OH NO HE DI’INT
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How Your Fiscal Cliff Deal Sausage Gets Made
John Boehner Is Sorry He’s Not Sorry
By Bess LevinColumbia University Students, Faculty, Alums Demand CU President Take Back All The Nice Things He Said About Jamie Dimon
By Bess Levin
As you may have noticed, Jamie Dimon has had some unwanted attention thrown his way over the last several weeks, on account of one of his employees losing a few billion dollars. Though the JPMorgan CEO has been dealing with public displays of hate previously reserved for Lloyd Blankfein and Goldman Sachs, and will certainly be on the receiving end of a lot more tomorrow when he testifies on Capitol Hill, he has had a few people come to his (and his bank’s) defense. Yesterday Stephen Schwarzman told Bloomberg to lay off JD and JPM, noting that “occasional losses are inevitable” and “publicly excoriating JPMorgan serves no purpose except to reduce people’s confidence in the financial system,” while former Goldman exec Bill Archer said the whale fail makes him just “kind of shrug.” Lee Bollinger, who is President of Columbia and chairman of the Federal Bank of New York’s board of directors told the Journal that Dimon shouldn’t step down from his post as a director, as some have requested, and that those who cite conflicts of interest have a “false understanding of how [the Fed] works.” Some individuals from the Columbia community read that comment and are not very pleased. Enter, a strongly worded letter. Read more »
As you may have heard, earlier this afternoon, Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38/share, valuing co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s stake at approximately $2.9 billion. Since Saverin conveniently renounced his US citizenship last week, he will avoid paying millions in capital gains taxes and hang on to an estimated $67-$100 million that would have otherwise gone to the government, news that did not sit right with Chuck Schumer. Did the Senator from New York call the guy a “piece of shit miscreant“? No. Did he send him an email that included the line, “fuck with me and you will have a huge asshole“? No (not that we know of…). But Schumer was inspired to draft legislation aimed at tax-dodging ex-pats like Saverin and to let the kid know he makes him sick. Read more »
Greek President Karolos Papoulias slammed Germany’s finance minister for recent comments about his country as stalled bailout talks stoked tensions between Greece and the northern European countries funding its rescue. “I don’t accept insults to my country by Mr. Schaeuble,” Papoulias, who fought in the resistance against the Nazis during World War II, said in a speech today. “I don’t accept it as a Greek. Who is Mr. Schaeuble to ridicule Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns? We always had the pride to defend not just our own freedom, not just our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe.” Papoulias’s comments came as Wolfgang Schaeuble and other European officials pushed Greece to gouge more cuts out of its budget to qualify for a new bailout that would stave off an economic collapse. Schaeuble today blamed Greece’s New Democracy party, the second largest, for holding up agreement on a new rescue package and his deputy, Steffen Kampeter, compared Greece to a “bottomless pit.” [Bloomberg]
Hedge Fund Manager Accused Of Insider Trading Reveals Inner 12 Year-Old Girl In Unleashing Nuclear Option On Partner In Crime
By Bess Levin
A Northern California hedge-fund manager was charged Friday with making more than $900,000 on trades in Google Inc. and other technology companies based on improper tips he allegedly received from a neighbor and a business associate. U.S. authorities alleged that Doug Whitman, of Whitman Capital in Menlo Park, Calif., shared information about other publicly traded companies or made payments in exchange for the tips. He also allegedly went so far as threatening to never speak to one co-conspirator if she wasn’t going to be a “slimeball” anymore, authorities said. [WSJ]
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
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. Read more »
They cut/piss people off on the morning commute and effectively ruin their days. Read more »
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? Read more »
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. Read more »
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