- Wall St. Giants Giving Little to Obama Party Fund-Raiser
- Bank of America Was Told U.S. Aid May Help Shares, E-Mail Shows
- Bear Manager Tannin Allegedly Said He Was Putting Money in Fund
- Lehman Fees for European Insolvency Work Climb to $363 Million
- Icahn Floats $6 Billion CIT Rescue
- Einhorn Says U.S. Should Make JPMorgan, Wells Shrink
- Einhorn shorts US ’short-term thinking’
- Wasserstein Lived for More Than Just the Next Deal: Mark Green
- Lawyers Worry Blagojevich TV Role Will Taint Jury
- CBOE Membership Cost Doubles to $2.8 Million in Repeat of NYSE
- France Seeks Fee on Banks to Recoup Costs of Bailout
- Paper cuts, again
- Polanski Is Refused Bail by Court Over Flight Risk
Wall St. Giants Giving Little to Obama Party Fund-Raiser – NY Times
The Wall Street giants that received a financial lifeline from Washington may have no compunction about paying big bonuses to their dealmakers and traders. But their willingness to deliver “thank you” gifts to President Obama and the Democrats is another question altogether…..
But from the financial giants like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup that received federal bailout money — and whose bankers raised millions of dollars for Mr. Obama’s election — only a half-dozen or fewer are expected to attend (estimated total contribution: $91,200)……
Bank of America Was Told U.S. Aid May Help Shares, E-Mail Shows – Bloomberg
Bank of America Corp. signed off on its government-assisted purchase of Merrill Lynch & Co. after U.S. regulators assured the deal should boost the shares, e- mails from two bank finance executives showed. Instead, the shares collapsed.
“The chairman of the Federal Reserve indicated it would be structured in a manner such that BAC stock should go up when announced,” Chief Financial Officer Joe Price said in a Dec. 29 e-mail to top executives of the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank, including Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis…
Bear Manager Tannin Allegedly Said He Was Putting Money in Fund – Bloomberg
Matthew Tannin, who helped manage two Bear Stearns Cos. hedge funds that collapsed in July 2007, told Stillwater Capital Partners Inc. in March 2007 he was adding more of his own money to the funds, prompting Stillwater to increase its investment, a former manager testified.
Bella Borg-Brenner, who was a risk manager at the New York investment fund, was called yesterday by prosecutors to describe what Tannin and his fellow Bear Stearns manager, Ralph Cioffi, told investors before their funds failed at a cost of $1.6 billion. Both men are on trial accused of securities fraud for misleading investors about the health of the funds…..
Lehman Fees for European Insolvency Work Climb to $363 Million – Bloomberg
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s European unit paid bankruptcy administrators and lawyers $363 million for the first year of work coping with the investment bank’s collapse.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the administrators for Lehman Brothers International Europe, has billed 153 million pounds ($251 million) since Sept. 2008, according to a report posted on the accounting firm’s Web site. Law firms advising the administrators, led by Linklaters LLP billed $112 million for the year, PwC said…..
Icahn Floats $6 Billion CIT Rescue – Wall Street Journal
Investor Carl Icahn offered to underwrite a $6 billion loan to CIT Group Inc., complaining that a proposed solution hammered out by the commercial lender and its largest creditors is too expensive and detrimental to CIT’s smaller bondholders.
In a letter to CIT’s board dated Monday, Mr. Icahn, who refers to himself as CIT’s largest creditor, said the company is “shamelessly” offering to sell certain large bondholders $6 billion of secured loans “well below their fair market value.”….
Einhorn Says U.S. Should Make JPMorgan, Wells Shrink – Bloomberg
Hedge-fund manager David Einhorn said JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. are among banks that the government should break up to ensure no company is “too big to fail.”….
Einhorn shorts US ’short-term thinking’ – NY Post
Famed short-seller David Einhorn is bullish on gold because he’s bearish on Obama.
Members of President Obama’s prized economic team, including Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, are “quintessential short-term decision makers,” Einhorn said, explaining his sudden fondness for gold.
Watching Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and White House economic advisor Larry Summers on television recently, “my instinct was to short the dollar,” Einhorn joked at the Value Investing Congress, a star-studded investment conference held in Midtown…..
Wasserstein Lived for More Than Just the Next Deal: Mark Green – Bloomberg
I met Bruce Wasserstein in 1967 in our first year at Harvard Law School and stayed friends with him until our last conversation a week before his untimely death on Oct. 14 at age 61.
One of our earliest experiences was not as pals but rivals when we ran against each to be the editor-in-chief of the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review. I won, he became the managing editor (probably one of the last times that he took a subordinate position to anyone) and for years afterward we would joke at each other’s expense that if at that decisive career moment he had won and I had lost then perhaps I’d be the one living in a large Easthampton estate by the ocean and he’d be a terrific assemblyman in Manhattan!….
Lawyers Worry Blagojevich TV Role Will Taint Jury – NY Times
Prosecutors are worried that a planned television appearance by Rod R. Blagojevich, the indicted former governor of Illinois, may prejudice the potential pool of jurors for his trial on corruption charges scheduled for June……
CBOE Membership Cost Doubles to $2.8 Million in Repeat of NYSE – Bloomberg
The rising value of Chicago Board Options Exchange memberships shows growing speculation the 36- year-old U.S. derivatives market will be taken over.
A CBOE seat changed hands for $2.8 million yesterday, more than double the three-year low of $1.2 million in March and 17 percent higher than the prior sale on Sept. 22. CME Group Inc., the world’s largest futures market, is “putting out feelers” to acquire CBOE for about $5 billion, Crain’s Chicago Business said Oct. 18, citing people familiar with the discussions…..
France Seeks Fee on Banks to Recoup Costs of Bailout – Wall Street Journal
France is considering levying a new charge on its banks, in the latest effort by a government to recoup money spent over the past year to bail out the financial sector.
According to the Finance Ministry, the government plans to introduce a fee on banks and insurers registered in France to help pay for the cost of financial supervision. A Finance Ministry spokesman said the amount and form of the new fee hadn’t been set…..
Paper cuts, again – NY Post
The New York Times plans to chop another 100 journalists from its newsroom by year’s end, through buyouts and — if necessary — layoffs.
Executive Editor Bill Keller broke the news in a staff memo, because of a bout with the flu…
Polanski Is Refused Bail by Court Over Flight Risk – Bloomberg
Roman Polanski was denied bail by a Swiss court that said the filmmaker might flee the country to avoid extradition to the U.S. for sentencing in a sex-crime case.
The Swiss court in Bellinzona said in a ruling today that there is a “high” risk Polanski would flee. The measures offered to ensure Polanski, 76, remained in Switzerland weren’t appropriate, the court said…..
Tags: Bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Bear Stearns, Bruce Wasserstein, Carl Icahn, CIT, David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital, Hedge funds, Lehman Brothers, NY Times, Political Contributions, Politics, Ron Blagojevich
