questions

  • 03 May 2013 at 5:15 PM

This Would Be Bob Chapman Asking Inteliquent CEO Ed Evans To Comment On His ‘Essential Ass Raping’ Of AT&T

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Follow-up questions: 1) Would you agree or disagree that you’ve been prove to be “something of a weapon of mass destruction”? 2) Can you justify your continued employment? Read more »

  • 08 Feb 2013 at 12:20 PM

Financial Services Employee Asks New York Times For Help Decoding Hidden Message In Boss’s Thong

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Suspending disbelief for a moment and pretending this scenario* actually occurred in real life…

I am a 22-year-old man working at a new job on Wall Street. My boss is a very attractive 30-year-old woman. We happen to exercise at the same gym at the same time. We both swim, and the first time we ran into each other, she was wearing a one-piece bathing suit, and I was wearing a classic Speedo. I saw her look me up and down. The next week, she started wearing a thong bikini. Isn’t this a power thing?

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  • 30 Aug 2012 at 12:37 PM

New Barclays CEO May Or May Not Have The Balls To Take An Ax To Bob Diamond’s Baby, Says Guy

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Antony Jenkins said he will outline his plans for Barclays in the first quarter of next year. “The challenges that confront investment banking as an industry are driven by regulatory change and the economic environment,” the new CEO said by telephone today. “It requires us to think strategically about the direction of investment banking.” The investment bank is led by Rich Ricci, a Diamond appointee. With increased regulation from Europe and the U.K., volatile market conditions for mergers and acquisitions and continuing criticism of bankers’ pay by politicians, Barclays has faced calls from analysts and shareholders to either sell the division or reduce its size. “The Barclays Capital decade and Bob Diamond will be confined to history,” said Simon Maughan, a financial industry strategist at Olivetree Securities in London. “What investors want to see is far more dramatic cost cutting, and the question is will Jenkins be enough of his own man to do it. It’s not Barclays’s style.” [Bloomberg]

  • 03 Apr 2012 at 11:02 AM

What? It’s Not Like He Hit The Button For Every Floor To Make The Ride As Awkward As Possible

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A few months ago, I was standing in a crowded elevator when Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, stepped in. When he saw me, he said in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear: “Why does The New York Times hate the banks?” It’s not The New York Times, Mr. Dimon. It really isn’t. It’s the country that hates the banks these days. [Joe Nocera/NYT]

  • 29 Mar 2012 at 1:54 PM

What Do You Think Of This, Dealbreaker: Burgers, B-Units, Dead Sheep

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Do you have a question for us? About anything? Send it here with the subject line “What do you think of this, Dealbreaker?”

Q: If you had to assemble hedge fund all-star team, that would invest together for a year or five or whatever time-horizon we decide on (the All-Star Game, it’s them versus the market), which managers would be on it? Read more »

  • 06 Dec 2011 at 6:10 PM

Citigroup To Keep The Layoffs Coming Next Year

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Last month, Citigroup announced that it was mulling over the idea of relieving 3,000 employees of their commitments to the firm. A couple weeks later, it decided that yes, that sounded like a good idea, and began giving people the signal. Perhaps to a) send a message that no one should get comfortable yet and b) make it clear to existing staff holding out hope that it was true their direct report just ran out for a pack of smokes and would be “back in 10″ that no, Daddy’s not coming home, Uncle Vik announced today: Read more »

  • 01 Dec 2011 at 12:28 PM

A Modest Proposal

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A reader/FEC enthusiast asks: “Today’s Living Social deal for five Big Macs and five large fries BEGS for a New Normal eating challenge. Someone has to have a hungry analyst, right?” Read more »

  • 08 Jul 2011 at 10:17 AM

David Einhorn Has A Question

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  • 17 Mar 2011 at 1:17 PM

Charlie Gasparino Has A Question

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“Is Lloyd Blankfein ready to leave the firm?” Chaz has apparently hunted down some of Lloyd’s “friends,” who may or may not have told him LB might be ready to leave the firm, might not be ready to leave the firm or hasn’t decided what he’s feeling at the moment. Read more »

  • 07 Mar 2011 at 10:45 AM

Raj Rajaratnam’s Defense Leaves Nothing To Chance In Jury Selection

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As you may have heard, the Galleon insider trading trial kicks off this week, with Raj Rajaratnam himself expected to take the stand at some point. Like every trial by jury, the process of selecting jurors will prove a formidable task, given the complicated nature of the case, and that the defense needs to make sure the fate of their client will not be left to biased individuals, with certain opinions about Wall Street and Raj in particular. The thing about prejudice, though, is that it doesn’t always present itself in the most direct possible way. Few people will probably offer, for example, that they’re “of the mind that anyone working in the financial services industry is a greedy, corrupt bastard guilty of whatever he or she has been accused of,” but if you took a gander at their reading material and saw highlighted and underlined articles by a certain writer for Rolling Stone you might get an inkling of their point of view. To that end, the questionnaire potential jurors will be asked to fill out for the Galleon trial hit on every possible area where one’s bias could be revealed. Here’s a sampling of the questions:

* Do you like to read books? ______ Yes ______ No If yes, What types of books do you read? ___________________________________

* What TV shows, newscasts, radio shows and internet websites do you enjoy on a regular basis?

* Do you have strong positive or negative views about any of the following individuals. Federal law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI? ____ Yes ____ No Wall Street Executives? ____ Yes ____ No Technology Company Executives ____ Yes ____ No Prosecutors? ____ Yes ____ No Defense Counsel? ____ Yes ____ No If Yes, what are your views? ___________________________________

* Hedge Funds have been reported in the news over the past few years. Do you have any feelings concerning this industry? ____ Yes ____ No If Yes, please describe your feelings: _________________________

* How knowledgeable or familiar do you consider yourself to be about Hedge Funds? Please explain.
_____________________________________________________________

* How honest do you think Wall Street Executives are?
1 Not at All Honest
2 Below Average Honesty
3 Average Honesty
4 Above Average Honesty
5 Extremely Honest
Please explain your answer. ________________________

And here are some questions that will be posed in a follow-up session: Read more »

  • 27 Jan 2011 at 2:20 PM

Jamie Dimon Will Scratch The Eyes Out Of The Next Journalist To Paint All Bankers With The Same Brush

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Earlier this week in Davos, Jamie Dimon said that when his and other banks are asked to comply with ‘irrational regulation,’ the sensation feels a lot like taking it in the ass. Which is to say, he doesn’t like it. His dislike for the figurative equivalent of anal rape, however, pales in comparison to what he feels for idiot reporters who think everyone on Wall Street is the same, i.e. reckless, greedy and responsible for taking down the economy with their bare hands. JPMorgan and its commander and chief couldn’t be more different than the fuck-ups at places like, say, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns (and Citi). Just because they’re in the same industry doesn’t mean they’re the same. One ignorant twit at Davos panel entitled “The Next Shock, Are We Better Prepared?” was unaware of the distinction; and after asking the JPMorgan chief about what he thought of “Americans who had directed their anger against the banks for the bailout” was offered an explanation a media person could understand.

Dimon visibly turned more animated, replying that “it’s not fair to lump all banks together.” The TARP program was forced on some banks, and not all of them needed it, he said. A number of banks helped stabilize things, noting that his bank bought the failed Bear Stearns. The idea that all banks would have failed without government intervention isn’t right, he said defensively. “I don’t lump all media together….There’s good and there’s bad. There’s irresponsible and ignorant and there’s really smart media. Well, not all bankers are the same.”

Clearly “aggrieved by the question,” he went on. Read more »