Archive - Feb 2009 - Story

Where is the Cristal?

Developing Story: Los Angeles Times reports Yellowstone Club regular Peter Chernin is leaving Rupert Murdoch's News Corp media empire.

The Vice Chairman of Doom, Nassim Taleb, was very eloquent today, claiming the next Black Swan event would be "for us to emerge out of this unscathed and return to normalcy. Compared with the Great Depression, this crisis is very different, and it requires much more drastic action.”

The Vice Chairman of Doom, Nassim Taleb, was very eloquent today, claiming the next Black Swan event would be "for us to emerge out of this unscathed and return to normalcy. Compared with the Great Depression, this crisis is very different, and it requires much more drastic action.”

Developing Story: statement out of Quadrangle Group.

Steve Rattner will be replaced by Michael Huber and Joshua Steiner who will serve as co-presidents.

Things in creditcardville are very, very ugly. The latest datapoint comes from American Express which will pay cardholders $300 each to close accounts so the lender can reduce the risk of defaults.

Developing bombshell: David Faber reporting that AIG has retained Weil Gotshal ahead of a possible bankruptcy filing this weekend. The reason is that the company will allegedly post a $60 billion loss, which will result in the usual cycle of credit downgrades, collateral postings, more capital needed to survive, and yet another mega systemic if not shock then question mark. Poor Geithner is likely about to follow Stamatis' example and just call it a day.

Stamatis Molaris, CEO of Excel Maritime just called it quits. The executive decided that dealing with ungrateful charters who are paying willy-nilly whatever they see fit is just not worth the trouble. The 45 year old Greek also resigned as President and Director.

Turns out NY AG Cuomo is pretty smart: he is seeking a court order that will force Thain to testify as to what really happened in early December when Merrill bonuses were paid out ahead of posting a huge loss, or otherwise he will hold the former Merrill chief contempt and possible further legal escalation. Thain has claimed he is worried he would be sued by BofA if he does talk to Cuomo, so the fan of gold-plated commodes is between a rock and very angry attorney general.

Odd news of the day: Russian General Nikolai Makarov was quoted on Interfax as saying Russia is closely watching the militarization of the Arctic circle, "as glob

Here come more scandals. Bloomberg is reporting that Quadrangle founder Steve Rattner, as extensively speculated here and elsewhere, is joining the U.S.

Cameraphilles rejoice: liquidation sales at the electronics retailer are poised to surge after Ritz Camera filed for bankruptcy in Wilmington over the weekend. The bankrupt company put itself on course for self destruction when it paid $85 million to buy Wolf Camera out of bankruptcy in 2001, only to see itself suffer the same fate 8 years later.

Cameraphilles rejoice: liquidation sales at the electronics retailer are poised to surge after Ritz Camera filed for bankruptcy in Wilmington over the weekend. The bankrupt company put itself on course for self destruction when it paid $85 million to buy Wolf Camera out of bankruptcy in 2001, only to see itself suffer the same fate 8 years later.

Rabid downgrader of everything leveraged, S&P, just woodshedded Denver mutual fund Janus Capital, downgrading its rating from BBB- to BB+ , resulting in its stock plunging to a new all time low. The downgrade will only make refinancing the company's over $1 billion in debt all that more interesting. At least current and soon to be former employees have full access to the Denver club scene, cheap rents and local ski slopes.

Short answer - just go back to work for a mutual fund. Or at least that is what David Glancy did, when he decided to leave the treacherous world of hedge funds, in which he managed to plant a nice little frag grenade in the form of Andover Capital, and jumped back on the mutual fund wagon. On Thursday Putnam announced it was willing to receive the former Andoverite and Fidelitite with open arms, despite his shady recent track record. According to the press release: