Opening Bell: 1.2.18

Inside the Eccentric, Relentless Deal-Making of Masayoshi Son (BBG)
SoftBank is largely a one-man show when it comes to deals, despite its ranks of bankers from Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Lieutenants pitch Son ideas, but he makes the final decisions – and he generates plenty of his own. Tellingly, he is the only so-called key man in the Vision Fund, while most investment funds have several people with the influential designation. (Limited partners have the option to withdraw from a fund if any “key men” leave.) “It's 100 percent Masa,” says one CEO who agreed to sell Son a stake in his company. “Okay, 99.9 percent Masa.”

Bridgewater Executive, Family Die in Plane Crash (II)
Bruce Steinberg, a senior investor at the Westport, Connecticut-based hedge fund, was traveling in Costa Rica with his wife, Irene Steinberg, and their three sons, Zachary, William, and Matthew, when their plane crashed, killing everyone on board. "Bruce Steinberg and his family were parts of our greater Bridgewater family,” the firm wrote in a statement provided to Institutional Investor. “Right now, we are each processing this devastating loss in our own ways and planning to gather in mourning and in support of his family."

Steve Cohen Prepares Return With Help of Big Brother Oversight (BBG)
Inside what will be his Stamford Harbor Capital sits a command center in the middle of the trading floor. There, a 50-member compliance team is strategically positioned to listen in on traders’ conversations in real time, comb through emails for suspicious language and even veto job candidates.

Why Are Mutual Fund Fees So High? This Billionaire Knows (NYT)
At the conference in November, with markets hitting new highs each day, investors were exultant. But there was a lingering concern. “The fees are very high,” one man said to a friend as they exited the Chris Rock comedy show. “You really have to have the market go up to do well.” Even longtime fans acknowledge they are paying up. “I won’t say performance warrants the fees they charge,” said Barry Edelman, a Las Vegas retiree and a 20-year Baron shareholder. “But I appreciate how they differentiate themselves from the competition.”

Putin considers ‘cryptorouble’ as Moscow seeks to evade sanctions (FT)
“This instrument suits us very well for sensitive activity on behalf of the state. We can settle accounts with our counterparties all over the world with no regard for sanctions,” Mr Glazev said. He added that the cryptocurrency would be “the same rouble, but its circulation would be restricted in a certain way”, allowing the Kremlin to track its every move.

Joke Cryptocurrencies Like ‘Jesus Coin’ Are Making Serious Money (Daily Beast)
“There over 600 cryptocurrencies currently traded,” a Jesus Coin representative told The Daily Beast. “None of them have any intrinsic value. Our point is that if you’re going to trade something with no value whatsoever, at least let’s make it about Jesus. He was a badass, after all.”

The Math Doesn’t Work (Irrelevant Investor)
The WSJ reports that Calpers has a target allocation of 50% to stocks and 28% to bonds, leaving the remaining 22% invested in things like real estate, private equity and other alternative investments. With stock valuations and interest rates where they are, and a target return of 7%, it’s probable that some tough decisions will need to be made in the coming years. If we assume that stocks do 5% a year for the next decade, and bonds return 3% over the same time, then the third bucket would need to generate 16.6%, net of fees, to hit the 7% bogey. And if we do enter an environment where stocks do 5% and bonds do 3%, then the chances that $75 billion can generate returns of 16% is slim to none.

New Year's revellers build sandcastle to avoid liquor ban (Stuff.co.nz)
Kiwis will do anything to drink at the beach, it seems. This group of New Year's Eve revellers got busy at low tide on Sunday and spent the early afternoon building a sandcastle in the middle of the Tairua estuary, a holidaymaker, who asked not to be named, said. A Coromandel-wide liquor ban is in place over the New Year period, which means no alcohol in public places, including beaches. Once the crew's creation was complete, they installed a wooden picnic table and chilly bin. The tide soon came in and they cracked open a few cold ones, the witness said.