Wall Street Folly

Tags: AIG, Autos, Citigroup, Distressed, FSA, Greece, Hedge funds, Lazard Freres, New York, Political Contributions, Sovereign debt, Taxes, Tim Geithner, Toyota, U.S.. Treasury, Yahoo

• 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

• 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’ Read the rest of this entry »

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

As House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel was raging on and on and on to CNBC about how heinous bonuses are on Wall Street and how they're going to tax them all away we were seething about all of the reports of his own alleged tax improprieties (chalked up to "errors").  Then Mark Haines and Erin Burnett cornered him on the issues.  He cried bullshit as one would expect.  But it was great to see him called out.

Tags: Bonuses, CNBC, Compensation, Political Contributions

Turns out that Stanley Druckenmiller, who runs hedge fund Duquesne Capital, was one of those behind the move.  Page Six tells us that he wrote a $250K check to the Draft Bloomberg Joint Fundraising Committee on January 14 when Mayor Bloomberg was noodling over becoming a third party candidate.
Mike’s Boosters – Page Six NY Post

Tags: Bloomberg, Hedge funds, Political Contributions, Politics

According to ABC News, Hillary Clinton would have everyone believe that Wall Streeters don’t do "real work":  The presidential hopeful got all uppity about the comments that she and Bill were pimping daughter Chelsea out for the benefit of her campaign. (For the record, we think the ‘pimp’ comment was just fine — the ‘pimping’ expression has become part of the vernacular) .

Now Hill is talking smack about the Wall Streeters that she has so freely crawled into bed with, like Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack and Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who have so generously fed her now dwindling cash coffers. And more pointedly she’s dissing her dutiful daughter’s chosen profession — as everyone knows, she works for hedge fund Avenue  Capital (part owned by Morgan Stanley).  Marc Lasry is one of her largest donors. We find the smack talk pretty shameful.

It’s always seemed to us like Hillary will do and say anything for a buck.  What do they call people like that?  Hmmmmm.  It has something to do with the "oldest profession"…..

ABC News’ Jennifer Parker and Eloise Harper Report: Sen. Hillary Clinton took a swipe at her daughter’s profession today at an economic roundtable discussion at a restaurant in Parma, Ohio, suggesting wealthy investment bankers and hedge fund managers on Wall Street aren’t doing real ‘work.’

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Tags: Goldman Sachs, John Mack, Lloyd Blankfein, Morgan Stanley, Political Contributions, Politics

Not really a surprise, given how the Democrats have jumped on the taxation bandwagon, but private equity is throwing more cash at Republican candidates these days according to the Wall Street Journal:

Newly released campaign-finance reports show former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain received a total of $262,000 in contributions from employees of private-equity companies since January. The top Democrats in the 2008 race,
Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards received a total of $231,000, the reports show.

The numbers could be the first indication that private-equity managers are reversing their trend of giving most of their donations to Democrats. Since the 2000 election, the same private-equity firms were the source of an increasing share of their donations to Democrats, according to historical data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

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Tags: Blackstone, Carlyle, KKR, Political Contributions, Politics, Private equity

Hillary Clinton’s war chest is now at least $1 million richer thanks to the fundraiser hosted last night by Warren Buffett in New York. 

Buffett, a Democrat, has not formally
endorsed Clinton, but guests at the dinner said he called the New York senator
"the person to run the country."

Central to Buffett’s message was the notion that he and other privileged
Americans – those who had drawn the "lucky tickets" – had an
obligation to provide for those less fortunate.

"We have the chance in 2008 to repair a lot of damage," Buffett said.
"We have a wonderful economy, the market system works in this country. Our
problem is how we conduct ourselves in the world."

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Tags: Political Contributions, Politics

Warren Buffett will host a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in New York City on June 26, hoping to hook well-heeled donors who’ll write four figure checks.  He’s also trying to attract newbie Wall Streeters to the cause:

An invitation for the June 26 cocktail
party, whose location is still to be announced, says a limited number of tickets
will go to “young Wall Street” at $500 each. Other attendees are asked to give
between $1,000 and $4,600, the legal maximum.

Buffett, who built Omaha, Nebraska-based
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. from a failing textile maker into a holding company with
a market value of $168 billion, said last month that he would help either
Clinton or Illinois Senator Barack Obama with their presidential campaigns if
asked. He will also host a fundraiser for Obama, said Obama spokeswoman Jen
Psaki.

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Tags: Political Contributions, Politics

Tudor executives say they don’t yet know how much money they hope to raise for their PAC or whom they will support. The giving pattern of individual Tudor executives in the past has tilted Democratic.

Tudor employees have made more than $1 million in donations in the last decade, most of which has gone to Democrats. Paul Tudor Jones II, the company’s founder and chief executive, has contributed $570,000 since 1992, about 90% of which has gone to Democrats, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

Mr. Jones donates to some Republicans. In late March, he contributed the maximum $2,300 to the presidential campaign of Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor. Last year, he gave $4,200 to New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s re-election campaign. Born in Memphis, Mr. Jones contributed $4,000 to the Tennessee senatorial campaign of former Democratic Rep. Harold Ford — and $2,000 to Mr. Ford’s Republican opponent, Bob Corker, who won that race.

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Tags: Hedge funds, Political Contributions

The New York Times profiles some of the big hedge fund money backing ‘08 presidential president hopefuls, including Perry Capital and Elliott Associates:

Lisa Perry loves Hillary Rodham Clinton.

So much so that two large portrait photographs of the senator by Chuck Close grace the hallway of her 1960s-themed penthouse apartment on Sutton Place in Manhattan.

“It’s a beautiful picture because Hillary is beautiful,” said Ms. Perry, a top Democratic fund-raiser, whose husband, Richard, runs a prominent $12 billion hedge fund. “I will be there for her emotionally, and I will raise.”.

There are no Pop Art portraits of Rudolph W. Giuliani in the home of Paul E. Singer, a longtime hedge fund executive and a primary fund-raiser and policy adviser to Mr. Giuliani, but his support is no less ardent.

“Rudy Giuliani is the right leader for the times,” Mr. Singer said.

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Tags: Avenue Investments, Elliott Associates, Hedge funds, Perry Capital, Political Contributions, Politics

Which company’s employees are the biggest political givers?  According to the Wall Street Journal, the biggest suck-ups are by far at Goldman Sachs.  In this political cycle, they’re leaning heavily Democratic, with 60% of their money going to that party and 39% going to Republican candidates and causes.  (Goldman’s employee funded PAC, however, is leaning toward Republicans with $200K thrown in their direction with $95K thrown at Democrats).  The industry’s political giving in general has been more evenly split than Goldman’s.

The bank’s employees and its related political action committee have given approximately $2.6 million in contributions during the current cycle, well above that of other investment banks, according to the online donor database run by Center for Responsive Politics.

Goldman’s nearest rivals are the employees and PAC of Morgan Stanley, which have given around $1.6 million in political donations, followed by UBS, which accounts for $1.5 million in donations. Goldman has dominated every cycle since 1994, a year in which the top slot was held by the employees and PAC of Morgan Stanley, according to the database.

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Tags: Goldman Sachs, Political Contributions

Not only are hedge funds placing more bets on the Democrats these days, so are the top executives at the big Wall Street banks including Lloyd Blankfein and John Mack:

Democrats received $3.1 million from executives and employees at 11 leading securities firms in the first half of 2006, compared with $1.95 million for Republicans, according to Federal Election Commission figures. Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., is among the biggest Democratic givers; John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley and a former Bush fund-raiser, has given more to Democrats than Republicans this year.

“Wall Street is always trying to back winners,” said Gary Goldstein, chairman of the Whitney Group, a New York-based executive-recruitment firm specializing in securities personnel, and a self-described political independent. He and others say investment bankers see the Republicans dragged down by such issues as the war in Iraq, Bush’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the slowing U.S. economy.

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Tags: John Mack, Lloyd Blankfein, Political Contributions

Democrats are the big winners this season in the quest for contributions from hedge funds.  More than two thirds of the monies collected in 2005-2006 have gone to the Dems.

Of the $7.4 million contributed by employees of the 100 largest hedge funds and 50 biggest buyout firms in 2005-06, Democrats received $5 million, Federal Election Commission records show. The biggest checks went to congressional campaign committees led by New York Senator Charles Schumer and Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel, which took in $2.8 million.

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Tags: Hedge funds, Political Contributions