Results tagged “wallstreet”

Main St. v. Wall St.! Some New Yorkers are up in arms upon finding out that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have received numerous doses of the much-coveted H1N1 vaccine. The two banks each received a several hundred doses for at-risk employees (pregnant women, etc...), but the city's Health Department has had to explain themselves to citizens who believe companies shouldn't get preferential treatment over people waiting in line for the vaccine. "Wall Street banks have already taken so much from us," union official John VanDeventer wrote on the Service Employees International Union website, "But they should not be allowed to take away our health and well-being."

Good news all around today! The unemployed will probably get another five months to choose a barrel-and-suspenders combo that doesn't make their butts look big, and a new study shows that Wall Street holiday bonuses are set to return to pre-recession levels. So everybody's happy, and there's no need for any pitchfork riots or bricks through Park Avenue windows. Go Yankees!

The Obama administration is set to ask that executive compensation be dramatically lowered at seven companies which received the most government help. While the plan hasn't been made public yet, it's expected that pay will fall an average of 50% for the top 25 paid executives at Citigroup, Bank of America, American International Group, General Motors, Chrysler, GMAC and Chrysler Financial.

To no one's surprise, traders at the Galleon Group have been working on their resumes and calling their lawyers, after the hedge fund's founder Raj Rajaratnam was arrested on insider trading charges last week. However, he was in the office yesterday (out on $100 million bail) and also offered a letter to employees, friends and clients: "As I am sure you understand, I am not able to respond in detail to the charges recently brought against me. But let me be clear: they are, without exception, entirely baseless. I am innocent and will vigorously defend myself and our firm."

The upside of being a billionaire when you're accused of insider trading? You can post the $100 million bail! Hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam, who was arrested on Friday after feds said he and five others shared inside information and tips to make $20 million, posted the bail on Saturday. The NY Times says that he's expected to be at his hedge fund's offices today to address his employees.

A hedge fund founder and five other people were arrested in what the federal authorities say is the "biggest insider trading scheme ever involving a hedge fund" (NY Times) and the "biggest insider-trading ring in a generation" (Wall Street Journal). Those involved allegedly made $20 million on inside information about stocks like Hilton, IBM, Google and Advanced Micro Devices.

In case you need more cause besides Balloon Boy to vomit, then revel in details of Goldman Sachs' success. The NY Times reports, "Only months after paying back billions of taxpayer dollars, Goldman Sachs is on pace to pay annual bonuses that will rival the record payouts that it made in 2007, at the height of the bubble. In the last nine months, the bank set aside about $16.7 billion for compensation — on track to pay each of its 31,700 employees close to $700,000 this year. Top producers are expecting multimillion-dollar paydays." The Times adds, "This much is indisputable: Goldman Sachs is minting money."

Arthur Cashin, director of floor operations for UBS Financial Services, is basically part of financial history, if only because of his Dow 10,000 baseball cap. Cashin got the hat on March 29, 1999, when it first broke the 10K barrier.

Thanks to news like JP Morgan Chase's big 3rd quarter earnings, the Dow Jones has been up over 100 points and is thisclose to hitting the 10,000 point mark—right now it's at 9,980.79. CNBC points out, "The Dow was last at the 10,000 level on Oct. 3, 2008. It is up more than 52 percent since early March, when the Dow hit a low of 6,547."

Many of the Depository Trust and Clearing Corp.'s employees will have to leave their 55 Water Street offices, because the company has agreed to move 1,600 jobs to Jersey City. Of course, those employees won't need to pack up that soon—the move is planned for 2013.

Today, as some economists said the recession was over (unemployment will still hit 10% though!), the Dow Jones crossed the 9,900 mark. According to CNBC, stocks were "fueled by earnings optimism, but then pulled back as investors took some profits." Another fun fact: "This came after the Dow logged its highest close in over a year on Friday, which, coincidentally, was also the two-year anniversary of its record close above 14,000." Jeez, 14,000—that seems so long ago.

Just when we were so happy to have Sad Panda back in our lives, reader Daniel Albanese sends us these photos of Spongebob Squarepants. Our first thought was, no big deal, it's not like this city isn't big enough for the two of these guys. However, prepare to have your minds blown here: Sad Panda and Spongebob Squarepants are one in the same. Right?

Back in July the lovable Sad Panda went missing from his regular spot downtown, leaving the city traumatized by his sudden disappearance. But miracles do happen, people, and as of today he has returned! And it looks like he even got himself a new set of hands.

A survey done by eFinancialCareers.com of 1,074 Wall Street workers said that 83% of people expected some sort of bonus, 36% expected a bigger bonus, and 11% expected that bonus to have increased by half from last year. This of course comes after a year of credit collapse and soaring unemployment, which many say was fanned by ridiculous pay packages.

Bloomberg News says that Americans are hoarding $3.5 trillion in cash, "giving money managers increasing confidence that the stock market rally under President Barack Obama will continue through the end of the year." One investor said, "There’s an enormous stockpile of liquidity on the sidelines. The reinvestment of cash could help fuel the market." And there's even smack-talking about some cautious investors, with one sniffing, "Many of the fund managers I talk to that have missed this rally or underplayed this rally are sitting with way too much cash."

Gansevoort 69: Last summer, when Florent ended its decades-long run as a 24/7 Meatpacking District oasis, the building's owner Joanne Lucas saw her hopes of finding an upscale boutique tenant evaporate. Then Lucas's attempt at running a restaurant (under the original name R&L) came off like a depressing ghost of its former self, and the space closed again. The new venture, Gansevoort 69, looks a lot better than the previous effort, with a design that keeps some of the old (the original bar and terrazzo flooring) while creating something new.

There's bad news and slightly less bad news in the unemployment data for August, released yesterday at a grim press conference held by Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Paterson, and state labor commissioner M. Patricia Smith. First, the bad news, if you're the kind of person who likes prosperity and abundance: The city’s unemployment rate rose from 9.5 percent in July to 10.3 percent in August, its highest level since May 1993. NYC's unemployment rate is now well above the national rate of 9.7 percent, and more than 415,000 residents are jobless. Paterson told reporters that Ben Bernanke's recent Pollyannaish pronouncement about the national recession being over "doesn’t apply to us."

Federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff rejected the $33 million settlement that the Securities and Exchange Commission accepted from Bank of America over the $3.6 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees. BoA, which acquired Merrill, knew Merill was about to post $9 billion in fourth quarter losses yet went ahead with the bonuses; Rakoff found that BoA "materially lied" to shareholders about the losses.

This morning, President Barack Obama warned about Wall Street going back to its dangerous ways, "There are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment. Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we are still recovering, they are choosing to ignore them. They do so not just at their own peril, but at our nation's." Though he did say, "We can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break," Obama added, "Normalcy cannot lead to complacency... I want everybody here to hear my words. We will not go back to the days of reckless behavior and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses. Those on Wall Street cannot resume taking risks without regard for consequences, and expect that next time, American taxpayers will be there to break their fall." Here's the full text.

President Barack Obama will be speaking at Federal Hall in lower Manhattan to discuss financial reform today (it is the eve of the one year anniversary of Lehman Brothers' bankruptcy filing), so expect traffic diversions on the roads while some subway station entrances and exits may be temporarily closed and bus routes may be diverted. As for his pitch, Obama wants Congress to pass financial regulatory reform; the Washington Post reports, "He will urge members of the financial community 'to take responsibility, not only to support reforming the regulatory system but also to avoid a return to the practices on Wall Street that led us to the financial crisis,' an administration official said Sunday."

Bloomberg News has a long article looking at Lehman Brothers' collapse last year, reporting that Lehman executives actually predicated in the memo to government officials, "Massive global wealth destruction... Impacts all financial institutions... Retail investors/retirees assets are devastated." But apparently the banking executives gathered by Treasury Secretary Paulson and then-Federal Reserve Bank of NY (and now current Treasury Secretary) Geithner were thinking about themselves; former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain tells Bloomberg News, "The discussion among the CEOs was ‘How do we prevent the next firm from going under?’ There should have been much more discussion about the impact directly on the markets if Lehman went bankrupt." Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of Pacific Investment Management Co., "the world’s largest bond-fund manager" remembers, "I remember at the end of the week calling up my wife and saying, 'Jamie, go to the ATM, go to the cash machine, and take cash out.' She said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘I don’t know whether the banks are going to open tomorrow.’" And some believe the government hasn't learned the lesson, by allowing banks to stay big or get bigger without a thorough regulatory process.

The NY Times has a depressing front page article on what Wall Street is eyeing as its next big thing—bundling life insurance: "The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds."

Perhaps trying to tweak his rumored 2010 rival Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Governor Paterson said yesterday that maybe Wall Street bonuses aren't so bad. The Daily News reports that over the past few days, the governor has said things like "At the end of the day, when they shut those bonuses down, they were shutting New York State down... That's where we got our taxes," "I understand why the President is mad, but there are actually New York State officials screaming about the bonuses [and] they're killing our tax money...I'll bet if they knew that, they'd stop saying it," and "I'm not saying that anyone did or didn't deserve those bonuses, I'm saying New York State deserves its taxes." Of course, Cuomo has delivered blistering criticism of executive compensation over the past half year. Democratic strategist Hank Sheinkopf tells the News that if this is Paterson's way of winning support, it's a terrible idea: "If you said to the average New Yorker, 'Let's have pity for Wall Street guys,' they'd say: 'Are you kidding? Let's hang 'em.' Going after AIG and Wall Street is a lot more popular than worrying about state tax dollars."

Remember the underwear-clad guy atop the Charging Bull sculpture near Wall Street? Now Daily Intel reveals it wasn't a drunk intern or other victim of investment firm debauchery—"He was Peter Killy, a fortysomething actor who was making an indie movie, The Robber Barons of Wall Street. This particular pose was a shot they plan to use for the promotional poster." Killy said, "I am slightly disturbed that this opportunistic photographer never bothered to see if I was dead or alive. I had my photographer and director there, they said a police car drove by and didn't even stop. That was the funniest part of all ... It was just like another day in the financial district." Related: The Charging Bull's creator hasn't been thrilled with some commercial uses of his famous sculpture.

Congress voted yesterday to pass a bill curbing executive bonus pay, attempting to prevent what they call "perverse incentives" for execs in the face of a public outcry that came with news about big bonuses being handed out to bigwigs at some of the Bailout Babies of '08. The bill's passage came on the same day as a well-timed new report from Andrew Cuomo documenting how rampant big bonuses were at places like Citigroup and Goldman Sachs; AIG originally set off the bonus backlash earlier this year. The vote in Congress was primarily down party lines; Democrats tried to emphasize that shareholders would get a say in dictating just how much companies are warranted to dole out. It was also reported yesterday that CEOs have also lost out on another bonus—free lunch at the White House. In order to prevent any conflict of interest, the Obama administration has been billing executives who share a meal inside executive offices with the president. The News says there hasn't been a case of presidential penury since Jimmy Carter started charging Congressmen for coffee and danishes when they came to visit.

Dealbreaker was sent a photograph of an underwear-clad man on the Charging Bull sculpture by Wall Street—the photographer wrote, "I just took this ten minutes ago as I was about to walk into my office...I think it came out pretty well but that's a kid 100% passed out/maybe dead, on the bull, in his briefs. Two news reporters were just pulling up when I snapped this." Naturally, the site's commenters were happy to offer their commentary: "please be a goldman employee please be a goldman employee," "Oh man, that cant be real, thats too funny. Im sure the NYPD got a good laugh out of this one. Sad thing is, he will be working for Geithner in like 4 years," and a debate over whether it's an alum of Loomis Chaffee, Kent or Delbarton. Hopefully there's a cock-and-bull story that explains it all.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo released a report on bank bonuses, which he had previously sent to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair Eldophus Towns, yesterday, and in it, Cuomo continued to criticize Wall Street's compensation methods. The Wall Street Journal says the report gives a "rare window into the pay culture" of Wall Street:

Nine banks that received government aid money paid out bonuses of nearly $33 billion last year -- including more than $1 million apiece to nearly 5,000 employees -- despite huge losses that plunged the U.S. into economic turmoil...

Continue reading "AG Cuomo's Report Blasts Wall Street Bonuses"

It's not just the suits looking out for their money in the Financial District these days. The artist behind the Charging Bull sculpture near Wall Street is suing Random House for using an image of his work for the cover art of a book about the fall of Lehman Brothers. 1010Wins reports that Arturo Di Modica was filing the lawsuit in federal court yesterday, and seeking unspecified damages. He is also asking the picture be removed from the book, titled "A Colossal Failure of Common Sense." Indeed, he had the sculpture copyrighted in 1998, 9 years after its creation. Maybe Sad Panda can go on the new cover!

Some morning subway commute madness: A downed power line has caused problems with the 4 and 5 subway lines. According to initial reports, a subway entering the Wall Street station hit a low hanging power line. The wires sparked and fell next to the train car. The train's passengers need to be evacuated, but power needs to be cut off first. Additionally, when the wire fell, smoke filled the station, which was also evacuated. Here's the MTA's alert: "Due to hanging cables at the Wall Street Station, there is no 4 and 5 train service between the Nevins Street Station and the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall Station in both directions. Please expect delays in 4 and 5 train service at this time."

New York magazine's cover story this week is titled "Is Goldman Sachs Evil? Or Just Too Good?", giving the once-over to the investment bank that just reported $3.44 billion in second quarter profits less than half a year after receiving $10 billion in TARP money from the government. The feature by Joe Hagan examines the bailout, the culture, and the firm's relationship with D.C. Then there are quotes like this one from former "Sheriff of Wall Street" and Love Gov Eliot Spitzer—"If all we are getting are newly empowered and capital-rich hedge funds that benefit from market volatility, then we are not only rebuilding the same edifice, but we’re contributing to the underlying rot in our economy"—as well as one from GS's communications director, "The cult of the individual, which I think has been a disadvantage to so many of the firm’s competitors, really doesn’t exist here. The more you have acceptance, the easier it is to be effective." And another Wall Street veteran puts it this way: "The god is Goldman. You subjugate yourself to that god, and in return we will make you a gazillionaire."