Opening Bell: 02.12.10
Buffett Covers Dinner Tab for Fund Manager Who Shared Research (Bloomberg)
Want to have dinner with the Oracle of Omaha? Just shoot him a quick note: " Cara Goldenberg, 29-year-old New Yorker who's worked at Morgan Stanley, Highbridge, Brahman Capital, Carlyle Blue-Wave Partners, and co-founded Periam Investment Partners, sent her stock research to the 79-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in November with a note saying she'd heard he likes to spend the Thanksgiving weekend scouring for investment ideas. Buffett was intrigued enough to invite her and her business partner, Alex Duran, to his headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, for a chat and dinner, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting...The fund manager's profile on social-networking site FaceBook features a picture of her holding a grinning Buffett's wallet."
UK Banker Bonuses Jump 40%, Salaries Surge (Reuters)
57 percent of 694 UK banking and finance professionals quizzed about their 2009 payouts said bonuses had risen on average by more than 100 percent -- taking the industry rise to two-fifths of 2008 payouts. Nearly two-thirds of those asked said they had also received a base salary rise 26 percent on average last year.
'Volcker rule' gives Goldman stark choice (FT)
"The implication for Goldman Sachs or any other institution is, do you want to be a bank?" Mr Volcker said in a video interview video interview with the Financial Times. "If you don't want to follow those [banking] rules, you want to go out and do a lot of proprietary stuff, fine, but don't do it with a banking licence."
Trump Ponders WTC Bid (NYP)
"Trump loves the concept [of owning what used to be known as the Freedom Tower], but doesn't know where the tenants would come from -- and it's such a target," one source explained. "He keeps saying, 'There's a big red target painted on it.'"
Ross Said to Get $1.1 Billion From Einhorn, Elliott to Buy Bank (Bloomberg)
Stephen Ross and two partners raised about $1.1 billion from investors including David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital Inc. to help their SJB National Bank acquire a seized U.S. lender, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs, clicking in the votes? (The Guardian)
Supposedly 5,000 extra votes for London's "Robin Hood tax" came from 2 computers at Goldman in a span of 20 minutes.
Is Greece A Sovereign Version Of Bear Stearns? (BV)
And if so, who plays the stoner role?