When CLSA abruptly deprived Mike Mayo of his longstanding position as Wall Street's official shit-stirrer, he took about fifteen seconds to grieve, declared himself a “free-agent analyst” and continued pursuing his art in an unofficial capacity. Even Jamie Dimon had to show the guy some respect – and on JPMorgan investor day, no less, which Mayo had come to crash.
But showing up stag to shareholder confabs doesn't exactly pay the bills, so Mayo has turned to the final redoubt of so many financial minds before him: a CNBC column. Now, we don't know the pay – nor if there was any, actually – but evidently the world's most trusted name in business news is willing to devote some digital column-inches, at the very least, to stuff that won't exactly surprise Mayo's fanbase: a polemic against Citigroup.
The guy now known as “Outspoken Bank Analyst” is just digging through his back catalog for his CNBC debut. The column – Here are my questions for Citi management – reads like a best-of record more than a set of genuinely new material. Telling the CEO how to run the bank that once personally ostracized him? Check. Questioning the company's ever-elusive financial targets? Check. Opining about who the chairman should or shouldn't be? Check. Tutting about executive pay? Hell yeah.
Keep on keepin' on, Mike.
Outspoken bank analyst: Here are my questions for Citi management [CNBC]
