So Lou Dobbs challenged Lloyd Blankfein to a fistfight last night on his show, based on Blankfein’s suggestion to Dobbs’s boss at CNN that he ought to fire LD’s xenophobic ass? And MSNBC reported the request for a duel on “Morning Joe” today? And sources close to the Little Guy say he’s been dropping hints he’ll accept? We tack on skepticism not because we don’t want to believe all of these magical things did and will indeed occur, but because we don’t want to feel the same searing pain of disappointment we experienced the last time something like this came up and both parties (Andersen Cooper, Vikram Pandit) pussied out at the last second (and because we haven't yet added "Lou Dobbs Tonight" and "Morning Joe" to our regular line-up). Obviously we would be eternally grateful to anyone that can give us some level of assurance here (Dobbs/Morning Joe clip, recently acquired Gold’s Gym memberships, Myoplex receipts, recorded conversations with Charlie Gasparino re: what it feels like to be hit in the face/how one would go about shattering another man’s knee-caps with minimal effort, etc.).
Bonus Watch '16: Goldman Sachs CEOs
If you're unhappy about your bonus this year, perhaps it'll make you feel less alone to know Lloyd Blankfein's dropped, too. (To $23 million.)
Bonus Watch '15: Goldman Sachs CEOs
...did pretty well for themselves this last go around, particularly compared to their counterparts at JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, BofA, and Citigroup.
Which Goldman Sachs CEO "Was Known To Challenge Subordinates To Impromptu Wrestling Matches"?
Was it: a) Lloyd Blankfein b) Hank Paulson c) Jon Corzine d) Stephen Friedman e) Gus Levy f) John Whitehead g) John Weinberg h) Sidney Weinberg i) Marcus Goldman j) other Hopefully you answered D, Stephen Friedman, as that was the answer we were looking for, per a New York Observer piece on financial services employees who feel more comfortable in a onesie than a suit. “I wrestled as well as I could wrestle, and if I lost, that was my own fault,” KKR’s Henry Kravis once told an interviewer about what he learned from wrestling. “I had nobody to blame but myself.” Apollo Global Management co-founder Josh Harris wrestled at the University of Pennsylvania before deciding that making his 118-pound weight class didn’t allow either the time or calories for the old “college experience.” Former Goldman Sachs chief executive officer Stephen Friedman, an AAU champion who wrestled at Cornell, was known to challenge subordinates to impromptu matches. Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain was a college wrestler, though Mr. Novogratz pointed out that Mr. Thain, now CIT Group CEO, wrestled at the Division III level. Fortress Chieftain Mike Novogratz Wrestles with Olympians, Youth…and Wall Street [NYO]