Not hungry anywayDozens of prominent Indian-Americans were among the 338 guests at President Barack Obama’s first state dinner, in honor of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. One was notable by his absence: Vikram Pandit.
To be sure, it is possible that the Great Pandito was invited to last night’s black-tie bash, and was simply unable to attend. There may have been hiring binges to attend to, failing businesses to rename or top business lines to sell to appease certain pay czars (also not at the state dinner).
On the other hand, maybe the White House thinks Vikram has eaten at taxpayer expense quite enough over the past year. Maybe Barack didn’t want the stench of failure hanging over his first state dinner. Maybe Tim Geithner (at the dinner) insisted on a big, fat bailout repayment check before Vik could be seated. Whatever the reason, Nagpur’s favorite son seems unlikely to have rated an invite.
Vikram Pandit’s gotta eat
You deserve it, and your $25 (JPM), $20 (Goldman), $8 (RBS) meal allowances will only get you so far. The Wall Street Journal shows us how it’s done:
Enter Midtown Manhattan steakhouse Maloney & Porcelli’s “Expense-a-Steak” tool. The premise is simple: enter the amount of your restaurant bill, click “EXPENSE IT!”, and the program automatically generates a print-ready page of fake receipts for work-related expenses like office supplies and cab fare totaling the same amount — so power-lunchers can enjoy their steak frites without drawing the boss’s ire.
“We can tell it’s been kicking around those places,” said Mr. Webster. “Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, Citibank, American Express, J.P. Morgan all have like 100 unique visits from their offices.”
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