As we mentioned a while back, part of my training as a new Dealbreaker editor involves getting a CFA charter so that I can use past returns to guarantee future results. To that end, I’ve signed up for the December Level I exam. Thanks for all of your helpful advice on studying, by the way – I didn’t get to read all of them, but I’ll just go ahead and assume that the overall gist was “read every hundredth page of the books, guess C when in doubt, and drink heavily before, during and after the exam.”
Nonetheless I did get the books last week, so I opened them up to see what I’m getting myself into. Study Session 1 is ethics. Coming from a job on Wall Street, this was all new to me. I was particularly interested to see the CFA’s a refreshingly straightforward fiduciary standard in its code of ethics:
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Earlier this morning, Rochdale analyst Dick Bové stopped by CNBC to chat about what’s been a’ poppin’ at Bank of America. First off, that report a few weeks ago about how the bank will be relieving 10,000 employees of their duties? According to Bové, that’s just the start. “You’re likely to see 30,000 people fired at Bank of America in the next 24 months,” he told the Squawk Box gang. Why the need for so many cuts? “The bank has made a policy decision to shift emphasis from the consumer bank to the commercial bank, because the regulations are more onerous on the consumer side, that’s why.” And what of yesterday’s unceremonious Krawcheck canning? Dick is sorry for his gal-pal but sees the firing as an opportunity from which they both stand to benefit. Continue reading »
Apparently Bri-Moy didn’t care for Ken Lewis’ hire. Continue reading »
Concern had spread among some of Merrill Lynch’s 15,500 advisers that they would face curbs like those imposed by the bank’s U.S. Trust unit, said the people. The policy bans associates who leave from soliciting the firm’s clients for eight months, starting with a two-month garden leave. The term refers to workers who are ordered to stay home after they give notice, leaving them little to do other than gardening. “Contrary to press and recruiter speculation, there are no changes coming from Merrill Lynch Financial Advisors on any type of garden leave,” Krawcheck wrote in a Feb. 25 memo, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter isn’t public. “Please put that one in the circular file.” [Bloomberg]
John Carney says yes. Charlie Gasparino says no, the story was planted by Bob McCann, this broad isn’t going anywhere, and if she wants to put an end to it, she should send McCann a message via horse head that she’s not to be messed with. CG’s knows where she can procure one, if there’s interest.
On October 6, Sallie Krawcheck appeared on CNBC to say that she is “very much focused” on her job running Bank of America’s wealth management unit. According to the Post, this SKraw’s way of “going public with her ambitions to run the bank.” A couple days later, the paper claimed this (fake) campaign for Lewis’s job somehow “got a big boost,” when shareholder Jonathan Finger stated that the board should pick an outsider to run the bank, despite the fact that The Kraw currently works on the inside. So you see everything was chugging along nicely and girlfriend probably would’ve gotten the gig she was so desperately and publicly begging for and them bam!
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Obviously the gut goes with Citi or Bank of America, but no! So this is going to be a tough one. According to the Kraw, who spoke Wednesday night at the Manhattan’s Museum of American Finance, before she took her current gig at as head of wealth management at BAC, she was considering a position at another firm (which she wouldn’t name but described as “troubled”). She was thisclose to signing with them and, truth be told, would’ve never before considered answering to Charlotte. But a series of hints from the universe that included a fractured jaw gave SK a moment’s pause and ultimately drove her into the arms of this guy [motions to Ken Lewis passed out over a toilet seat].
The first was that she overslept the morning of the initial interview, and almost missed her flight. And she’d never overslept in her life! She didn’t have enough time to shower, or even take her PJs off (WTF?) before putting her pantsuit but whatever. SKraw does remember thinking to herself, “this doesn’t feel very good,” but NBD. Water off a duck’s back. The meeting went well, and she scored a follow-up, this time in New York. The next time, things started out more auspiciously.
This was a beautiful spring day. Wearing a new suit and new shoes, she recalled, “I couldn’t have been feeling more pleased with myself.”
So she’s walking, she’s walking, she’s checking out her reflection of the old Bear building, thinking to herself, “Huh, I wonder Jimmy Cayne is up to these days? How weird was it that time he tried to pinch my ass? And what a fine ass it is, amiright? Get a load of that thi–” and BOOM! Girlfriend’s heel gets caught in the crack of a sidewalk and she is down for the count. And I’m not talking a little scrape of the knees fall, I’m talking Sallie Krawcheck, missing a tooth.
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