Wall Street Folly

• Lehman Channeled Risks Through ‘Alter Ego’ Firm
• Dimon’s Syracuse Commencement Speech Fought in Student Petition
• Morgan Stanley CEO calls for partnering with regulators and legislators
• Galleon Insider Case Widens
• AIG ’strongly objects’ to pay tsar’s restrictions on executive pay-outs
• Donald Trump Beats Carl Icahn in Bankruptcy Battle for Casinos
• Consumer Reports calls Lexus GX460 unsafe
• Twitter to Start Rolling Out Advertising Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Accounting gimmicks, AIG, Autos, Carl Icahn, Casinos, Compensation, Donald Trump, Galleon, Insider Trading, James Gorman, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, Pay czar, Raj Rajaratnam, Toyota, Twitter

Tags: Activists, Atlant City, Barack Obama, Carl Icahn, Casinos, Citigroup, Donald Trump, Hedge funds, Paul Volcker, Politics

Tags: AIG, Apologies, Bank of America, Bernie Madoff, Bonuses, Citigroup, Compensation, Credit Crunch, Donald Trump, Fed, Gold, Goldman Sachs, John Paulson, Politics

Crain’s NY published a piece on Ivanka Trump and her new hubby Jared Kushner.  Doesn’t seem like she’s so pleased with the piece given her Twitter tweets from a little while ago: Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Lucky Sperm club, Real Estate, Wealth

• Khadafy booted from Camp Trump
• Palin Attacks Fed on Hong Kong Visit, Wants ‘Responsible China’
• Ken and Linda Lay’s condo for sale for $12.8 million
• MCapital delays launch amid lack of seed funds
• Yale Endowment Posts a 25% Loss
• Harvard, NYU Law Students Left Hanging as Firms Slash Offers Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump, Endowments, Fed, Harvard, Hedge funds, Ken Lay, Law School, Moammar Khadafy, NIMBY, Real Estate, Revolving Door, Sarah Palin, terrorist thugs, Yale

• Problem bank list tops 400
• Bernanke Falls Victim to Identify Theft
• Bank of America Told to Stop Hiding Behind Lawyers: Ann Woolner
• Fed Raises Mortgage-Bond Purchases as Lacker Suggests Slowdown
• A.I.G. Rises, and Many Ask Why
• Stanford Remains Hospitalized After Pulse Hits 300 Before Court
• Plea deal signals more charges in Stanford case-lawyer
• Banks ‘Too Big to Fail’ Have Grown Even Bigger
• No SEC Penalties in Amaranth’s Failure Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Allen Stanford, Amaranth, Apple, Autos, Bank of America, Banks, Ben Bernanke, Casinos, Chrysler, Donald Trump, Fed, Identity Theft, NYSE

• New York Seeks Millions in Tax From Lehman
• Ban on Flash Orders Is Considered by SEC
• Economists Upgrade Second-Half GDP Forecasts
• Two Traders Will Urge Changes in Gas Market
• Citadel to Return $250 Million After Funds Gain 44%
• Sontag Said to Leave Merrill as Krawcheck Is Hired
• Gruebel Says Fixing UBS’s Investment Bank May Take Until 2010 Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Autos, Bank of America, Citadel, Donald Trump, Economy, GM, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, SEC, Taxes, UBS

• Goldman Princes Told: Spend Like Paupers
• AIG Selects Ex-Chief of MetLife as CEO
• FDIC warns banks may need more home equity reserves
• TARP profit claim bugs skeptics
• Pump prices are on the rise
• Bank of America Pays $33 Million to Settle Merrill Bonus Charges
• Bank of America Hires Former Top Citigroup Executive
• Bank of America CEO Scrum Begins as Lewis Revamps Management Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: AIG, Autos, Bank of America, Bernie Madoff, Casinos, Donald Trump, Ebay, FDIC, GM, Goldman Sachs, Google, TARP, UBS

• JPMorgan Profit Rises 36 Percent, Beating Estimates
• Paulson Expected to Face Hard Questioning on Merrill Deal
• Banks Ramp Up Pay Packages to Top Talent
• Schwarzenegger, California Lawmakers Fail to Reach Budget Deal
• U.S. Regulators to BofA: Obey or Else
• U.S. Foreclosures Rise 33 Percent From June 2008 Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Apple, Bank of America, Banks, Barack Obama, California, Donald Trump, Earnings, Fed, Foreclosures, Hedge funds, Henry Paulson, JP Morgan, Lawsuit, Merrill Lynch, Politics

Boy, did Joan and Melissa Rivers embarrass / humiliate themselves with their insult filled, venom spewing, expletive deleted laden rants after the whiny Melissa was fired on this week's Apprentice.  But it was sure entertaining! Jim Cramer was guest judge:

The shit hits the fan in part 2 below:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Bad behavior, Donald Trump, Embarrassing, Meltdowns, Videos

So much for happy endings.  At least so far.  The deal that Ed
McMahon made to sell his house has collapsed, with the buyer pulling out. 
Turns out that the guy who outbid Donald Trump never ponied up any cash for escrow.  So The Donald may be
stepping back in. Or not… 

So that leaves Ed with no place to live if the house does go into foreclosure … which again leads to the doorstep of Donald Trump. Trump has said he’d step in again and buy the house and lease it back to Ed for life. Our sources say Donald has offered a low ball offer already, but that’s it.
 
  We’re told Trump has had discussions with Ed’s realtor, Alex Davis, since the deal fell apart last Thursday. Will Donald save the day or is this a publicity stunt? We know the stumbling block with Trump is price — he hasn’t offered what Ed wants/needs to get the monkeys off his back.

Ed McMahon’s Home for Sale … Again
- ABCNews

Tags: Credit Crunch, Donald Trump

There’s a happy ending for former Johnny Carson sidekick and Star Search host Ed McMahon, who has for months been facing foreclosure of his Beverly Hills home. He had defaulted on his $4.8 million loan from Countrywide, and has been unable to work because of a neck injury he sustained 18 months ago.  Donald Trump is buying the property and will become his landlord,  leasing it back to McMahon.  And no doubt McMahon will now be worked into an upcoming episode of "The Apprentice".

"I don’t know the man, but I grew
up watching him on TV," Trump said in an exclusive interview with The
Times.

Trump said he stepped in because
helping McMahon "would be an honor." His plan is to buy the home from
the lender and lease it back to McMahon.

"When I was at the Wharton
School of Business," Trump said, "I’d watch him every night. How could
this happen?"

Donald Trump to buy Ed McMahon’s house – Los Angeles Times

Tags: Credit Crunch, Donald Trump

Attention men, you now have reason to hope: Page Six tells us that Ivanka Trump has shed her boyfriend of nearly a year, NY Observer publisher Jared Kushner….. 

New York’s hottest bachelorette, Ivanka Trump, is back on the market. We
  noticed Trump – who had been dating real estate mogul and New York Observer
  owner Jared Kushner for almost a year – was flying solo at a few recent
  soirees, and friends of the couple confirmed yesterday to Page Six that the
  power couple are no longer together. "It was mutual," said one pal.
  Another added, "It’s a sad thing." Neither had a response for Page
  Six.

Unattached – Page Six

Tags: Donald Trump, Eye Candy

This sounds like a cross between Surreal Life and "The Apprentice":  Page SIx says Donald Trump thinks he has a way to save his faded "Apprentice" concept.  For his upcoming "Celebrity Apprentice" he wants fallen publicity hos Britney Spiers, Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton to become part of his cast.  Interesting concept.  And way to go Donald, for coming up with an idea to breath some oxygen into a show already on life support.  And who else is already set to appear on the show?  None other than Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, for one (his ratings are reportedly down too). Also scheduled to appear: Carmen Electra, Joan Rivers, Naomi Judd, George Foreman, original "Apprentice" villain Amorosa, Kimora Lee Simmons, Pete Rose, Dana Patrick, Tony Hawk and Jeff Gordon.  The celebrities will raise money for charity along the way.

The Donald tells Page Six he’s talking with Britney Spears about appearing on his upcoming "Celebrity Apprentice," and that Paris Hilton has also expressed an interest in being scrutinized by the mega-mogul. He’s also planning to call Lindsay Lohan this week to see if she’d be willing to try to salvage her plummeting career on the show.

"We’re negotiating with Britney right now. Can you imagine her doing it?" Trump told Page Six. "We’re not sure what will happen. She’s a
[bleep]ing mess. And that little reality show she had did nothing. But she likes the idea of being on television and I think she’d be great." Hilton, he adds, "wants to be on, and we’re thinking about it, but I don’t know if we’re going to do it."

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump, Jim Cramer

Less than two years after Donald Trump launched Trump Mortgages, it’s shutting down.

Plagued by bad timing and the disclosure
that the firm’s chief executive, E.J. Ridings, had inflated his credentials, the
outfit never came close to reaching its financial goals, according to a report
today in Crain’s New York Business.

Instead of doing $3 billion in deals as
promised, it barely reached the $1 billion level, the report said.

Trump Mortgage Flop Tied TO Credentials Flap – New York Post

Tags: Donald Trump

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend: Donald Trump’s little girl is branching out into retailing, selling diamonds in a new Madison Avenue, NYC store, one in Las Vegas and a third location yet to be disclosed:

 

Trump has formed a partnership with
  Dynamic Diamond Corp., a Diamond Trading Co. siteholder, to create a complete
  line of diamond jewelry under her name. The venture, which was first reported
  by WWD in December, is not a license but rather a partnership between Trump
  and Moshe Lax, principal of Dynamic Diamond, who became friendly through the
  real estate world. Three Ivanka Trump boutiques are planned to open this year.
  The first, a 1,100-square-foot unit, will open on Madison Avenue in September,
  followed by one in Las Vegas. She declined to give the exact addresses or the
  third location.

 

"I remember going to the couture
  shows as a little girl with my mother," said Trump, decked out in a black
  skirt suit from Brioni, Christian Louboutin pumps and, of course, several
  pieces from her line. "I always had an appreciation for fashion and
  [especially] jewelry."

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump, Retailing

The Donald has, at least for now, moved on from mouthing off at Rosie O’Donnell.  His latest target: Mark Cuban, who he dissed last week on ESPN radio:

Trump said, "Mark Cuban is a guy who .
. . puts so much pressure on the players. He wants to win so much, ya know, he
wants to put himself in the position of the players. He wants to be a player, I
guess. And he’s not a player . . . [Cuban] probably always wanted to be a winner
all his life, and if ya look like him, you can’t be a winner. So he wants to put
himself in the place of the players, so what happens is, the team
choked."….

"Mark Cuban was extremely embarrassed
when he copied ‘The Apprentice’ and failed," Trump raged. "They threw
him off television like a dog.

"I wrote him a note and I said, ‘Mark,
you have absolutely no television persona. I wish you would have spoken to me
previously or before you did this. I could have told you it was gonna fail.’ And
he failed.

"Same thing with the Mavericks. The
Mavericks have a great team. They’ll never win with Mark Cuban as the owner
because he is not a winner."

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump, Mark Cuban

Premiering tomorrow night on the Sundance cable channel is a new movie for all of you follically challenged men who seem to think that they’re fooling everyone with hair-dos (er…don’ts) that comb hair from one side of the head waaaaaaaaaaaaay over to the other.  Combover:The Movie is on at 9pm.  Page Six tells us:

DONALD Trump’s weird hairstyle takes a beating in the new documentary "Combover: The Movie," which debuts tomorrow on the Sundance Channel. A veteran toupee maker tells director Chris Marino he believes Trump’s locks are combed over and, "by borrowing too much from the back, too much from the sides, it gives it a too-heavy look, too heavy for a middle-aged man." One stylist adds, "If I saw Donald Trump, I would definitely say something."

Here’s a clip from the movie:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump, Film

Is Donald Trump discriminating against the over 40 set in his search for an Apprentice?  Yes says the quickly spurned wannabe Joseph Hewitt, 49:

A New Hampshire man hit Trump with the age-discrimination suit Thursday, claiming he was quickly brushed aside as a potential contestant on "The Apprentice" TV show after interviewing for a slot in 2005 because, at 49, he was considered too old.

Joseph Hewett, a technology manager, also wants to get class-action status for his suit. That would mean thousands of rejected "Apprentice" applicants would join him as plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, The Donald is repeating himself — breaking no new ground — in his nasty war of words with Rosie O’Donnell, but this time on his blog.  Bla bla bla:

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump

Not only can you watch Donald Trump and Rosie O’Donnell duke it out on tv and in the press, but you can also play the game where they have at each other!  Click on the link below to get to it.  It loads with music, so we coudln’t put it out in the open where it would automatically start. (You can disable it with the volume control once it starts).

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Donald Trump

We couldn’t agree more:  Page Six tells us that The Donald was recently awarded the dubious title of "Most Annoying Money Personality" in a poll of AOL’s Money & Finance readers.  Runners-up included Suze Orman, Jim Cramer and Mark Cuban.

The site said, "His pricey Learning Annex lectures were more annoying than insightful." AOL also blasted his "blatant comb-over." Paris Hilton got the nod for "most overpaid celebrity" followed by Tom Cruise, Oprah Winfrey and Britney Spears.

Annoy Vey – New York Post Page Six

Tags: Donald Trump

Here’s footage of the Donald Trump firing back at Rosie O’Donnell from Access Hollywood: