“First of all, this is a personal choice. From a corporate perspective, we have a lot of Democrats at the firm and my partner, Tony James, has been a supporter of the president. This is my choice, not a Blackstone choice. When we started Blackstone in 1985, the first investment we made in private equity was a joint deal with Mitt Romney at Bain. This turned out to be a marvelously successful deal with a profit of a company making aluminum wheels which expanded very rapidly. We made about 16 times profit. The second deal we did, Mitt led that one – we did that deal at Blackstone and we invited him to be the minority partner and we made 24 times our money. In finance, that’s a way to make friends.” Continue reading »
those were the days
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Posted in:
Election 2012
There’s Only One Person In This World Stephen Schwarzman Would Give A Bite Of His Soft-Shell Crab Sandwich And His Name’s Mitt Romney
By Bess Levin
Thornton
For his new book about Goldman Sachs, Money and Power, William Cohan goes inside to figure out the Masters of the Universe’s secrets to success. Speaking to FINS recently, Cohan noted that the firm subscribes to a “work hard, work hard” mantra (as opposed to “work hard, play hard”) and that it goes to great lengths to nail the idea into employees’ heads that failure is not tolerated. For instance, former president John Thornton once mentioned, while pitching a potential client, “If we do not get this mandate, I will personally slit the throats of all my team and drink their blood.” This of course got us nostalgic enough to break into the GS archives for some other motivational quotes by Thornton, all of which, as was the case on the throat slitting deal, got the job done. Continue reading »
As Wall Street bonuses bulged and housing prices were peaking in 2005, Daniel Mudd found himself dreading his top job at Fannie Mae. Going to work felt like “a choice between poking my eye out and cutting off a finger,” Fannie’s former chief executive officer recalls in Bethany McLean and Joe Nocera’s new tome, “All the Devils Are Here.” [Bloomberg]
Retired CBOT Traders Wax Nostalgic For Days When Biting A Colleague’s Nose Off Wasn’t Considered Taking It Too Far
By Bess Levin
“The biting of the nose and the fights, sure, when you’re throwing around that kind of money, people tend to lose it sometimes,” said Doug Pringle, 42, who traded corn, soybeans, 10- year Treasury notes and 30-year bonds for 17 years. “I miss the excitement.”
Trading-Pit Glamour Dims as Computers Ascend in Film [Bloomberg]
Floored Official Site [Floored the Movie via DI]
As previously mentioned, one of the unforeseen consequences of the Galleon insider trading bust was credibility taking a hit. Specifically that of the individuals who’d told their friends and colleagues that Danielle Chiesi was a dime piece, and who were slightly dismayed to see the picture of her from a Bridget Nielsen (Flavor Flav Years) look-a-like contest. Luckily, they were saved when Bloomberg reported Danielle Chiesi was in fact named Miss Southern Tier Teenager in 1981, with the photo of DC in a tiara following shortly thereafter to prove it. Today another pic has emerged, from the sorority files.
From: Bob Wood
Sent: Fri 10/9/2009 5:06 PM
Subject: Galleon Group September 2009 Commentary and Performance Reviews
Please find attached Galleon’s monthly investment letter together with the package of the September performance reports. All of the funds recorded solid returns for the month as we continue to see evidence that we are moving into a stock pickers market. If you have any questions or wish additional information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Robert Wood
Managing Director, Business Development
The Galleon Group
590 Madison Avenue, 34th Floor
You Have Charlie Gasparino To Thank For The Image Of Ace Greenberg Trying To Dip His Wick In Something Sweet
By Bess Levin
You know, we were fairly certain that the first time we wrote about octogenarian Ace Greenberg’s sex life (by way of Barbara Walters’ who was also banging Alan Greenspan at the time) was going to be the last. Thanks to Charlie Gasparino, not so! Perhaps taking his Italian deli meats beat a bit too literally, Gasparino’s latest report involves the former Bear Stearns chairman attempting, unsuccessfully, to slip a BSC employee the salami. Sadly, Ace Not In The Hole was unsuccessful, and Jimmy Cayne was forced to pay off the girl to the tune of $2 million.
The allegations, which centered around “inappropriate touching,” according to people with direct knowledge of the matter, didn’t result in a lawsuit. Instead, reeling from the bad press of the firm’s role in the burgeoning financial crisis, Cayne settled the matter with the woman, a much younger employee who worked in sales capacity, and who had initially demanded a much higher payment. The employee also claimed to have had a witness to this behavior. In an interview, the 81-year-old Greenberg said, “I can’t comment on something as ridiculous as this.” When given another opportunity to comment on either the unproven allegations or whether the payment was actually made, Greenberg said, “I’m not going to dignify” the matter with a response. He referred to the entire issue as “bullshit,” and said my sources were “pathological liars.”
Shockingly, JPMorgan, which every day must get down on its knees and thank god it paid the privilege to be saddled with “these people,” declined to comment when Gasparino came a’ calling. Regardless, and not to minimize sexual harassment, can’t we all just come to the conclusion that of course this happened? In his last years at Bear, Greenberg was doing magic tricks and getting broken up over the fact that his puppy wasn’t placing well in dog shows. Which is to say, he was dipping his toe in senility, if not jumping right in, and more than likely thought that stuff like, I don’t know, pinching girls’ asses on the floor still fell under the umbrella of “appropriate” touching, which it was when he first started at the firm, back in 1821.
Earlier: Barbara Walters Has Done 80 Percent Of Wall Street’s Living Dinosaurs
Sir Stanford, cricket y fraud fan, in presumably happier times.
