Holiday Bell: 12.27.16
Why Jamie Dimon Didn’t Get Treasury — A Job He Wanted (NYP)
The revelation this week that Carl Icahn has been helping President-elect Trump choose Cabinet nominees might help explain why JPMorgan Chief Jamie Dimon is not going to Washington. Icahn liked Treasury pick Steven Mnuchin, and did not favor Dimon, who desired the job, a source close to the situation.
Unloved Stockpickers Hoping 2017 Will Be Their Year (FT)
While the election of Donald Trump has triggered a rally in more cyclically exposed stocks, helping the portfolios of value-focused fund managers, this rotation has also resulted in other shares being left behind. This, in the eyes of some stock pickers, will provide opportunities for patient investors to buy quality companies that are momentarily out of fashion.
Hindsight Capital: The Trades A Clairvoyant Would Have Made In 2016 (FT)
Brazil entered the year in the grips of economic and political crisis. With riots on the streets and a president facing impeachment, Hindsight saw that it was time to buy. Brazil’s Bovespa rose more than 70 per cent in dollar terms. Meanwhile, China — a far healthier economy — still had to deal with the fallout from its burst equity bubble in 2015. Shorting the Shanghai Composite and putting the proceeds into Brazil’s Bovespa yielded 92.6 per cent in dollar terms.
Why Barclays CEO Staley Opted for War When Dimon Chose Surrender (BBG)
When the U.S. was seeking a record-breaking payment from JPMorgan Chase & Co. for the sale of toxic mortgage-backed securities three years ago, Jamie Dimon went to Washington to sit down with Eric Holder, then the attorney general, seeking to make peace. Jes Staley, Dimon’s former deputy, is taking a more combative approach at Barclays Plc. The U.S. sued the London-based bank on Thursday after the Barclays CEO decided to hold the line in settlement negotiations.
The Markets Say Inflation Is Coming. The Data Show It Isn’t True (WSJ)
“The markets have the wrong narrative” on inflation, said David Rosenberg, chief investment strategist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates Inc. “Anyone who thinks one man can reverse on his own the structural forces that led to the multiyear disinflation trend—and I’m talking about excessive debt, globalization, aging demographics and technology—needs to go back to economics school right away.”
What It’s Like To Be Something Other Than White And Male In The Hedge Fund Business (BI)
"African American traders, except for the lowest positions of clerks, were underrepresented. It was a very racist and prejudiced place. But I experienced only a slightly higher level than I’d experience naturally. What I did observe, when you’re experiencing some form of discrimination, you are unaware of it, but what I was acutely aware of was the anti-woman perspective ... They would crumble up a girl's resume."
Trump’s Financial Deregulation Might Be Bad News for Banks After All (WSJ)
At least two candidates for the job of Federal Reserve vice chairman in charge of bank oversight, arguably the single most powerful bank regulatory position in the world, are supporters of tougher capital rules. So is House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R., Texas), who will next year be at the center of reshaping the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law.
ECB Tells Monte dei Paschi It Needs To Raise $9.2 Billion (Reuters)
Last Friday the Italian government approved a decree to bail out Monte dei Paschi after Italy's No. 3 lender failed to win investor backing for a desperately needed capital increase. The bank said on Monday it had officially asked the ECB last Friday for go ahead for a "precautionary recapitalization" — a type of state intervention in a struggling bank that is still solvent. It means only a modest bail-in of investors though the government can buy shares or bonds only on market terms endorsed by EU state aid officials in Brussels.
Prat-Gay Fired as Argentine Finance Minister After One Year (BBG)
President Mauricio Macri requested Prat-Gay’s resignation following disagreements over economic policy, Pena said. The economy has sunk into recession this year, defying President Mauricio Macri’s forecast that it would return to growth in the second half, while the inflation rate has risen to about 40 percent. Prat-Gay had pushed to focus more powers in the Finance Ministry as he tried to revive growth.
Platinum Partners Arrests Are Scant Consolation For Alleged Victims (Reuters)
One such person is Houston-based energy entrepreneur John Hoffman. In the charges, prosecutors alleged what Hoffman had long believed - that Platinum had illegally profited from the failure of Hoffman's company, Black Elk Energy. Hoffman said in a telephone interview that he did not expect to recover anything and that his involvement with Platinum had cost him the company he founded and at least $500,000 in legal fees. He also described stress-related health problems and difficulty fundraising for a new energy venture.
Nobel Economist Angus Deaton On A Year Of Political Earthquakes (FT)
He is scathing about the Clintons, and Hillary Clinton in particular, for their links to a broken establishment. “One of the great benefits of the election to me is that I don’t have to pretend that I like her,” he tells me at one point, even as he confesses he reluctantly voted for her.
Tech Billionaire Mark Cuban Still Has No Idea How Tweets Work (Gizmodo)
“For as long as my Twitter feed is private,” tech billionaire Mark Cuban tweeted, “all original tweets are copyrighted and can’t be posted elsewhere without my permission.” But Cuban’s “notice” is the rich cousin of those bullshit Facebook copyright statuses you see your most gullible friends post every couple years.