April 2010

Criminal Charges Against Goldman

Thu, 04/29/2010 - 23:35

As the saying goes, "You can beat the rap, but you can't beat the ride." These things follow a scripted pattern. The point is to punish Goldman by putting the firm, its people and its reputation through hell until the firm is desperate enough to settle. The government is plenty mad at Goldman and they are going to make an example out of it and try to deter others by punishing the people. Part of the point is to intimidate other firms that will be named shortly. You cannot imagine how miserable and disruptive it is to go through one of these investigations.

Selling Greece to Disney Solves Europe's Woes

Tue, 04/27/2010 - 21:54

The scary thing about this new column is that the idea is actually plausible.

More News Than You Can Shake a Keyboard At

Mon, 04/26/2010 - 22:42

It's hard to blog when there's so much to read that your eyes are glazing over. Where to start... with Blankfein's prepared remarks? Financial services reform legislation? Fears over Greece solvency? 

Buffett and Goldman

Sun, 04/18/2010 - 21:41

Link to my latest Bloomberg column. As things are headed, Goldman will probably be the hottest topic at Berkshire's shareholder meeting. Buffett is in an uncomfortable place now. It is not serving him well when he comes to Goldman's defense. The best thing for him to do, in light of recent events, would be to execute a subtle but definite shift to disengage his reputation from being so closely associated with Goldman. 

 

Bankers’ Ailing-Client Deals End With Greece

Thu, 04/15/2010 - 08:07

Here's my latest Bloomberg column. This is an important topic that deals with a trend that is affecting all of modern life. It's addressed here specifically in terms of Wall Street.

Webcasting the Meeting

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 12:11

it's so obvious that the meeting should be webcast that this goes without saying. So why is the meeting not webcast?

> Warren wants people to come to Omaha. Not just to shop, but because it matters to him personally that people care enough to spend money on plane tickets and hotel rooms to come hear him talk.

Tweet, Tweet

Fri, 04/09/2010 - 17:10

Is that the Twitter bird on the shareholder credential for the meeting? At the very least it's a close cousin.

Maybe it's a subliminal cue to create a mass explosion of tweeting about the meeting :-)

The September Issue

Thu, 04/08/2010 - 22:35

We watched the DVD of the movie The September Issue this week. This is the story of Anna Wintour, editor in chief of Vogue magazine, her relationship with her creative director Grace Coddington, and the conflicts and choices that occurred in creating the mammoth (pre-crash) September 2007 issue of Vogue, which was thicker by 100 pages than any issue of the magazine ever published.