“Moody’s Investors Service downgraded six European nations and became the first ratings firm to warn the U.K.’s rating could be at risk, citing the area’s weakening ability to implement measures aimed at reducing debt…Where Moody’s did deviate from recent actions by other ratings firms was in changing the outlook for the U.K. There had been no indication the U.K.’s outlook was necessarily in danger based on how other ratings firms view U.K.’s debt. Both S&P and Fitch have a stable outlook on their U.K. rating.” [WSJ]
oh no they di’int
Some employees are preemptively miffed and, frankly, insulted.
“Deutsche bonus structure for Associates-Directors was revealed today:
*Up to eur50, all cash.
*Eur50-100, 70% deferred. Yes…
*Eur100+, 85% deferred.”
Earlier this week, a Dartmouth College undergraduate wrote an opinion piece for the student newspaper in which he recounted “vomiting in my mouth” after hearing an anecdote about Bridgewater Associates supposedly paying a girl $100 to write an essay about why she chose not to participate in their summer recruitment session. That the hedge fund would be so aggressive in its attempts to convince Dartmouth’s best and brightest to waste their potential “manipulating capital” and “perpetuating class-based systems of power and dominance” sickened him, as did the fact that, as he sees it, Dartmouth has become a “vocational school for investment bankers” and those learning the skills necessary to work at “faceless hedge funds.” A ravenous reader of The Dartmouth, alum and Bridgewater co-CEO Greg Jensen saw the op-ed and today chose to take the young man to task re “impressions,” via a letter to the editor. Continue reading »
John Carney says yes, by running around with Dan Sontag, her sworn enemy. Continue reading »
Fund Of Funds Guys Are Worried About What Will Happen To SAC Capital If Steve Cohen Buys The Mets
By Bess Levin
As you may have heard, Steve Cohen recently put in a bid for a minority stake with the Mets. Should he be successful, the SAC Capital founder’s partial ownership will please a great many people- the organization, which needs the money, the players, who need the discipline, the SAC employees, who will have the honor of taking turns filling in for Mr. Met when his performance is deemed shit and most of all, the fans, who stand to benefit the most from Steve’s leadership, as you don’t win rings without having a guy around who will light a fire under everyone’s ass. It’d unquestionably be a win-win situation for all. And yet.
A coupla guys named Brad and Brett are worried. Worried that Steve will lose focus. Worried that he won’t be able to handle owning a Major League Baseball team and running SAC Capital.
“Owning a team can be a function of ego, it is very high-profile, and it could prove to be a distraction,” says Brad R. Balter, head of Boston-based Balter Capital Management, which farms out money to hedge funds. “As an investor, I have to consider that.” Words to bear in mind for Steven A. Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund manager who is bidding for a minority stake in the New York Mets. Investors such as Balter are watchful for signs fund managers have become less attentive to their day jobs. “We don’t begrudge managers getting rich, but we want to invest with people who are motivated and are concentrating full-time on managing money,” says Brett H. Barth, a partner at New York-based BBR Partners, which invests in hedge funds.
The little brains on Brad and Brett– most likely not SAC investors though they’d kill a man in cold blood for the privilege– seem to think that it takes constant monitoring of all markets as well as an extreme attention to detail to run an ultra successful hedge fund manager, and that were Steve to start going out on school nights and not put in 100 hours a week keeping up with his stocks, that the whole thing would fall apart. What they fail to get? Is just how easy this is for SC. Trading these markets? It’s a fucking joke to him. He could do it from the dugout during the 8th inning of a Johan Santana no hitter, whereas Brad and Brett could be given could be given an order to cover a short position and all they’d do is fumble around and fuck it up. Continue reading »
Hank Paulson Apparently Still Somewhat Defensive About Criticism Over Taking Ski Vacation While Wall Street Burned To The Ground
By Bess Levin
As you may know, in December 2008, when things were getting really fun on Wall Street and Ken Lewis was calling him in a fit of drunk tears to ask if it was too late to pull out of the whole BAC-MER thing, Hank Paulson was in Aspen was hitting the slopes. No big deal the former Treasury Secretary figured, telling Congress as much during his testimony in 2009. Continue reading »
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