Wall Street Folly

• Galleon fears raised in 2001
• Hints of Missed Chance to Pursue Galleon Case
• Investor boutiques put under scrutiny
• Rajiv Goel freed on $750,000 bail
• Intel Hires Orrick to Probe Employees’ Galleon Leaks Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bail, Galleon, Hedge funds, Insider Trading, Intel, JP Morgan, Raj Rajaratnam

• Regulator says GMAC must pay £10.5m for treating customers unfairly
• Geithner: Economy Can Withstand Commercial Real-Estate Woes
• Bankers fear transatlantic pay split
• Stanford receiver pinpoints $1.5bn
• White House fights back on Cash for Clunkers
• Moody’s May Downgrade Mortgage Bonds With New Outlook
• CDR Financial Products, 3 executives charged in bid-rigging case Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Allen Stanford, Autos, bailout, Bonuses, Compensation, Fed, GMAC, Mortgage Bonds, Tim Geithner

• Deutsche Bank Boosts Banker Pay After Record Sales and Trading Share Business Exchange
• Citadel Securities Head D’Souza Leaves After a Year
• F.D.I.C. Chief Criticizes Reform Plan
• Tanking Gov. Paterson may ‘reassess’ his election bid
• Sex show host Robin Byrd forks over $500 to Sen. Schumer’s campaign Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bonuses, Citadel, Compensation, Deutsche Bank, FDIC, New York, Political Contributions, Politics, Porn, Revolving Door

Raj Rajaratnam thinks that his $100 million bail is too high, so he’s asked the judge to reduce it — to $25 million.  He’s also asking that his travel, currently limited to within 100 miles of Manhattan, be unrestricted within the continental U.S.  According to the WSJ: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bail, Galleon, Hedge funds, Insider Trading, Legal, Raj Rajaratnam

Tags: Humor, Jon Stewart, Political Humor, The Daily Show, Videos, Wall Street

• Galleon paid banks millions for edge
• Pay Czar Tells House Panel He Wants No Wider Authority
• Not Running Against Wall St.
• Future of Lazard remains uncertain
• Judge delays decision on bail for Madoff aide DiPascali
• Goldman Sachs Sees 30% Gain for China Stocks Through End-2010
• Ravitch Says States Face Total Deficits of $500 Billion in 2011
• K1 Hedge Fund Said to Be Linked to FBI Money-Laundering Sting
• GM to Draw Down More U.S. Funds
• Government report expected to mark end to recession
• Yahoo Returns To Make Its Case To Wall Street
• Versace to Cut 26% of Workforce, Aims for 2011 Profit Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bernie Madoff, Compensation, Eric Dinallo, Galleon, Hedge funds, Insider Trading, Pay czar, Raj Rajaratnam

Wal-Mart not only wants to be there for your from the time you’re born, but now they aim to get your business when you cross over to the great beyond.  Following Costo’s lead, they’re selling caskets and urns online:

Prices range from $999 for models like “Dad Remembered” and “Mom Remembered” steel caskets to the mid-level $1,699 “Executive Privilege.” All are less than $2,000, except for the Sienna Bronze Casket, which sells for $3,199.

Caskets ship within 48 hours. Federal law requires funeral homes to accept third-party caskets.

Wal-Mart starts selling caskets, urns online – AP

Tags: Death, Retailing, Wal-Mart

Gawker has his page from the 1974 Browning School year book:

Yearbook Page Reveals Jamie Dimon’s Lifelong Tight-Jeans Obsession – Gawker
Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: High School, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, Yearbook

The NY Observer has a piece on Julie Macklowe, the 31 year old high fashion socialite wife of Billy Maclowe (of the real estate family).  A ‘99 graduate of UVa, she did LBO’s (in some unstated capacity), then worked for Metropolitan Capital, landed at one of Steve Cohen’s funds at  SAC Capital — Sigma Capital  — as a portfolio manager and was ultimately laid off when the economy fell apart.   Now’s she’s seeded with $250 million from Millennium Capital’s Izzy Englander at her own firm, Macklowe Asset Management (JMACK Capital).   And she wears lots of designer labels.   Zac Posen.  Chanel. Balenciaga.  Dolce & Gabbana. She wears thigh high boots.   And she’s been known to dress outrageously in Lady Gaga-esque get ups (“a pant-less Lady Gaga look with the Rodarte blazer and Chanel combat boots”).  Does she make money?  Who knows — the article doesn’t really go into that.  But her specialty is retailers (who knew?), and they’ve mostly rocked this year. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Fashion, Hedge fund chicks, Hedge funds, SAC Capital, Steven A. Cohen, Women

Bloomberg TV interviewed the always candid Sam Zell earlier today.   We still think he’s one of the smartest guys in the room, Tribune clinker purchase nothwithstanding:

On looking back at the purchase of the Tribune company:

DEIRDRE BOLTON (Bloomberg): Can we ask you if you regret this decision? Is this the worst business decision you ever made?

SAM ZELL: It’s certainly the most amount of money I’ve ever lost in a single deal. But the answer is -

BOLTON: So if you could turn back time….

ZELL: If you could. It’s like maybe I should have married somebody else.

Note: embedding has been disabled, you have to watch it at Youtube

Tags: Activists, Bankruptcy, Sam Zell, Tribune

Can this really be a surprise? With all of the abuse that CEOs at banks that are  still beholding to Uncle Sam have received (getting raked over congressional coals, earning non-competitive pay, etc.),  what sane superstar CEO type would want the headaches of being at the helm of B of A?  So of course the pool of candidates will be small.  Very small.   It’s a case of adverse selection.  According to Bloomberg:

Bank of America Corp.’s search for a new CEO has slowed as directors sift through outside candidates that are in short supply, according to people familiar with the process. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bank of America, Compensation, Revolving Door, TARP

• GMAC Asks for Fresh Lifeline
• Pay Czar Increased Base Pay at Firms
• Dem bill urges new US powers over financial firms
• U.S. home price gains may not be sustainable: Shiller
• Fears of a New Chill in Home Sales
• Icahn Sets Out to Derail CIT’s Revamp Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Autos, bailout, Carl Icahn, Compensation, GMAC, Pay czar, Real Estate, Retailing

Hector Ruiz, AMD’s former CEO, is apparently the latest to surface as someone who gave inside information to a member of the alleged Galleon insider trading gang:

An unnamed “AMD executive” was cited in a complaint filed against Danielle Chiesi, who is accused of using nonpublic information to trade stocks. The person identifying Ruiz as the executive asked to remain anonymous because those details of the case aren’t public. Ruiz stepped down as CEO last year and became chairman of Globalfoundries Inc., which was spun off by AMD, the world’s second-largest maker of personal-computer processors….

AMD’s Ex-CEO Ruiz Is Said to Be Executive Cited in Galleon Case – Bloomberg

Tags: AMD, Galleon, Hedge funds, Insider Trading, Raj Rajaratnam

Tags: Bernie Madoff, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, TV, Videos

Here’s a link to GMO’s Jeremy Grantham’s October 2009 Quarterly letter.

Tags: Hedge funds, Jeramy Grantham

……U.S. stocks will “drop painfully from current levels” in the coming year amid disappointing economic data and shrinking profit margins, according to investor Jeremy Grantham.

“My guess, though, is that the U.S. market will drop below fair value” before 2010 is over, said Grantham, 71. “Corporate ex-financials profit margins remain above average and, if I am right about the coming seven lean years, we will soon enough look back nostalgically at such high profits.”…

U.S. Equities Will ‘Drop Painfully,’ Grantham Says – Bloomberg

Tags: Bearish, Equities, Gurus, Hedge funds, Jeremy Grantham

“I always like to think about assets that are likely to experience a breakdown; the only thing I’m pretty comfortable with right now is U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. agency mortgage-backed securities,” he said in a telephone interview from Beijing today. “I think that those are overpriced so they are attractive shorts.”

Fund Manager Pellegrini Says Shorting U.S Debt ‘Attractive Bet’ – Bloomberg

Tags: Hedge funds, John Paulson, Paolo Pellegrini, Paulson & Co, U.S. Treasuries

• Tax refugees staging escape from New York
• Crisis to have ’serious and lasting’ impact-Soros
• Goldman Sees U.S. Housing ‘False Bottom,’ Merrill Sees ‘Treat’
• Nomura May Expand Use of Stock-Based Compensation Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Compensation, George Soros, Goldman Sachs, Housing, Merrill Lynch, New York, Nomura, Taxes

• Judge tosses e-mail in Bear case
• Ex-A.I.G. Chief Is Back, Luring Talent From Rescued Firm
• Lawyer: Heart Attack Killed Picower
• Goldman Sachs Tells SEC Dark Pools, Short Sales Help Cut Costs
• UBS Taps McCann to Lead U.S. Brokerage
• Cioffi ‘Upset’ When Told Bear Wouldn’t Permit Florida Loan Lien Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Bear Stearns, Bernie Madoff, Goldman Sachs, Hedge funds, Lawsuit, UBS

• Probe Widening in Galleon Case
• Galleon Wiretaps Rattle Hedge Funds as Insider Trading Targeted
• Galleon ‘given inside information about Intel as far back as 1998′
• Learning To Love Insider Trading
• ‘Outsider Trading’ and Too Much Information Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Galleon, Hedge funds, Insider Trading, Liquidations / implosions, Raj Rajaratnam, SAC Capital

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bernie Madoff, Legal, Ponzi Schemers, Scandal

• AIG May Face More Defections as Feinberg Limits Executive Pay
• UBS came off worst in crisis
• Sandy Weill Op Ed: Six Steps to Revitalize the Financial System
• U.S. Stocks 40% Too High, Set to Fall, Smithers Says
• ING to Raise $11.3 Billion, Sell Insurance Units
• Peltz Grabs Stake in Mutual Fund Firm Legg Mason Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Citigroup, ING, Legg Mason, Michael Jackson, Nelson Peltz, Sandy Weill, Sports, Twitter, UBS

One of Bernie Madoff’s buddies and who had benefited to the tune of billions from the fraud was found dead in his swimming pool.  According to the Palm Beach Post:

Billionaire Jeffry Picower, 67, whose reputation as a generous philanthropist was sullied when investigators claimed he was a beneficiary of Madoff’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme, was found by his wife and housekeeper shortly after noon at the bottom of the pool at his $28 million South Ocean Boulevard estate. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bernie Madoff, ponzi schemes

• Wall Street Reacts With Skepticism, Anger on Moves to Cut Pay
• Pay Master Navigated Some Conflicting Demands
• Fed Hits Banks With Sweeping Pay Limits
• Citigroup Taxpayer Ownership Doesn’t Prevent Lobbying
• CIT and Goldman Strike a Deal on Debt
• Apollo Pulls Off a Turnaround With Funds
• After a Decade-Plus Together, Calpers Reviews Apollo Ties Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Amazon, Apollo, Apple, Autos, Bonuses, Calpers, CIT, Citigroup, Compensation, Fed, GM, Goldman Sachs, Lobbyists, Nokia, Revolving Door

• Meriwether setting up new hedge fund
• TPG Plans to Return $20 Million in Fund Fees
• Hamptons Home Sales Surge Most in Five Years Amid 19% Discounts Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Fees, Hamptons, John Meriwether, liquidations, Liquidations / implosions, Real Estate, TPG