Category: Preliminary Analytics

• Stanford’s Private-Equity Stakes to Be Sold Over His Objection – “Court-appointed receiver Ralph Janvey won approval to sell several pieces of Stanford’s private-equity portfolio on an emergency basis to avoid meeting capital calls or diluting the investments, according to an order posted yesterday by U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas.” You don’t need investments in hell anyway. [Bloomberg]
• Volunteering Waning in Recession, Report Says – Cutting out the volunteer time to spend time feeling sorry for yourselves. Classy. [NYT]
• Blackstone Gem – Hedge fund of funds rockstar, Steve Schwartzman. His picture accompanies the article anyway. [NYP]
• Microsoft Cuts Price of Xbox 360 – Most of you gamer geeks probably need a back up system or something. [WSJ]

• How much money did JPMorgan make on Madoff? – According to one brainy prof, probably less than $500 mil. That doesn’t mean they did anything wrong though: ‘Few would say that the vendor who sold Mr. Madoff a hotdog on the street was doing anything wrong.’ Yeah, ’cause it’s the same thing. [FT Alphaville]
• Edward Kennedy, Senator and Democratic Icon, Dies [Bloomberg]
• Fight Brews as Proxy-Access Nears – “The largest U.S. businesses, law firms and business groups have stepped up their challenge to the ‘proxy access’ rule, which would let certain shareholders use a company’s board-election process to nominate directors opposed to management.” [WSJ]
• Colonial BancGroup files Chapter 11 – Shoe. Dropped. [Reuters]
• U.S. Postal Service seeks 30,000 job cuts via buyouts – As of now, no reports of gunfire at any post office locations. [Reuters]
• Swiss Bank to Leave U.S. Amid Tighter Restrictions – No, not UBS. Wagelin & Co., who’s obviously fed up with the newfound inability to dodge taxes. [DealBook]

• Obama to Reappoint Bernanke as Fed Chief – “Mr. Bernanke is seen by supporters inside the administration and in markets as a creative and steady hand who helped to keep the financial chaos, which became especially dangerous in the past year, from becoming much worse.” Now that the next four years are in the bag, the beard is getting grown out. [WSJ]
• Volcker: Money funds weaken financial system – Sounds like someone wants headlines on someone else’s big day. [Reuters]
• Appeals Court Says Stanford Must Remain in Jail – Let’s get this circus of a trial started already. [DealBook]
• GameStop says CFO will retire in March – Presumably to work on his GTA game [Reuters]

• GM Said to Be Close to Agreement on Sale of Hummer to Chinese – Because that’s EXACTLY what China needs. [Bloomberg]
• IMF set to decide on Serbia loan – “The 800m euros instalment is dependent on the government making reforms to comply with IMF conditions set out when the original loan was agreed.” Oh, Serbia. Take that money and you’re doomed. [BBC]
• Humour is an act of aggression, claims German academic – This guy obviously saw Inglorious Basterds over the weekend. [Telegraph]
• Common Sense 2009 – Larry Flynt says we all strike. It’s not the worst idea we’ve ever heard. [Huffington Post]
• Senator Seeks Broad SEC Market Study – “In a zero-based regulatory review, each part of the current market structure would be reviewed comprehensively, as opposed to a traditional review of one particular type of market structure.” Which is what Senator Kaufman is requesting. Sure. Why not? [WSJ]

• Switzerland’s Profit on UBS: $1.13 Billion – “On Thursday, Switzerland converted a note that gave it a 9.3% UBS stake and immediately sold the 332.2 million shares at 16.50 francs each, a 1.4% discount to the stock’s closing price Wednesday. The government said it earned an annualized return of 30% on the 10-month investment.” No doubt they went and bought… [WSJ]
• Madoff Yacht Up for Sale – Ninety footer named Leopard Bull. Sounds like Bern might have been describing his favorite undies combined with a self assigned nickname for a certain less than spectacular organ. [DealBook]
• Sale of Chicago Cubs to Ricketts family called ‘imminent’ – Yay, nay, or meh Cubs fans? [Chicago Tribune]
• #98 Sharon Allen – Forbes most powerful women list includes the Deloitte Chair. [Forbes]

• SEC Plays Keep-Up in High-Tech Race – “But by many accounts, the agency is outmatched by the traders and market venues with technology that is remaking the trading world.” [WSJ]
• Switzerland Selling UBS Stake After U.S. Tax Accord – UBS, you’re fired. [Bloomberg]
• Bernanke, a Hero to His Own, Can’t Shake Critics – But what’s a hero? [NYT]
• AIG Customers Sue Insurer for Not Covering Madoff Fraud Losses – Why not? Lump it on. [Bloomberg]
• Bring on the breakfast burritos: Taco Bell rolls out new morning menu – After the all nighter at the office, you’ve got new options and new digestive challenges. [NYDN]

• Reluctant Shoppers Hold Back Recovery “Retail executives said they don’t expect conditions to improve until next spring. Some stores are girding for slow back-to-school and Christmas seasons by cutting inventories.” [WSJ]
• California to get $1.5-billion loan from JPMorgan Chase – Oh Jamie Dimon, you can do anything! [Los Angeles Times]
• Anschutz Sues Bond Raters, Banks Over Auction Rate Securities – You show ’em Phil. [Bloomberg]
• More Banks in Europe Identified in Tax Probe – “Among the banks named in the voluntary disclosures are Swiss banks Credit Suisse Group AG, Julius Baer Holding AG, Zürcher Kantonalbank and Union Bancaire Privée, known as UBP.” [WSJ]

• UBS tax deal may pave way for bank’s recovery – Actually we really thought the best course of action would to be to drag the whole thing out until armed IRS Agents descended on Zurich. [Reuters]
• Schwab Vows Court Fight in Cuomo’s Auction-Rate Securities Suit – Who’s doing all this work? God knows it isn’t AC. [Bloomberg]
• Hertz to Photograph Cars in Dent Scan to Boost Damage Payments – Could this be the death of, “It’s just a rental.”? [Bloomberg]
• German investor optimism at 3-year high – Zee Germans are leading us out of this? [FT.com]
• CalPERS Backs S.E.C. Move to Open Corporate Ballots – Look out, someone supports a move by the SEC. [DealBook]

• What Buffett’s Firm Bought and Sold WB continues to be long on folksy yet risque analogies. [DealBook]
• US banknotes show cocaine traces – 95% of dollar bill in DC have traces of cola which we find hilarious and just solidifies any preconceived notions we had about our esteemed elected officials. Other cities that had cash with high levels of the llello are Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit. [BBC]
• UBS Tax Crackdown Widens to Hong Kong -“On Friday, John McCarthy, a UBS client in California, agreed to plead guilty to one count of failing to file an annual report to the Treasury Department. A document filed with the plea shows the tax scheme relied in part on channeling funds to a Swiss UBS account held in the name of a Hong Kong entity, the second time accounts in the Asian financial hub have figured in these cases.” [WSJ]
• BB&T Plans $750 Million Share Sale After Colonial – Things already going swell for BB&T. [Bloomberg]

• Obama Considers Raising Fees on Larger Financial Institutions – In other news, the President giving consideration to anything appears to be news. [Bloomberg]
• Tax-Cheat Showdown: Fess Up or Stay Quiet? – The Journal seems to think that playing Russian roulette with the IRS is an option worth considering. [WSJ]
• Blackstone’s Schwarzman Tops Best-Paid Chiefs With $702 Million – In case you were wondering, it was only $2.3 mil in actual comp and $700 mil in vested options. Not too shab. [Bloomberg]
• Bernie Madoff’s biz partner Frank DiPascali beats drug and gun raps – Man. Dude would have been in some real trouble had this gotten slapped on him too. [NYDN]

• Retail Sales Dipped in July Despite Clunkers Program – “U.S. retail sales unexpectedly fell in July despite the debut of the government’s ‘cash for clunkers’ program meant to jump-start the auto business and help turn around the economy.” [WSJ]
• France and Germany exit recession – FTW. [BBC]
• U.S. Initial Jobless Claims Increased to 558,000 Last Week – “Applications rose to 558,000 in the week ended Aug. 8 from a revised 554,000 the week before, the Labor Department said today in Washington, while staying under 600,000 for a sixth time. ” Under 600k? Does that mean the recession is over? [Bloomberg]
• Cheney Uncloaks His Frustration With Bush “[Bush] showed an independence that Cheney didn’t see coming.” [Washington Post]
• Ex-AIG CEO, others to pay $115 million to settle lawsuit: source – Tough month for Hanky [Reuters]
• UBS shares climb further on U.S. tax case deal – Closure helps. [Reuters]

• Economists Call for Bernanke to Stay, Say Recession Is Over – “Economists are nearly unanimous that Ben Bernanke should be reappointed to another term as Federal Reserve chairman, and they said there is a 71% chance that President Barack Obama will ask him to stay on, according to a survey.” Sure, why not? [WSJ]
• U.S. Firms Probed in Mexico Oil Scam – “The probe is part of a broader two-year joint U.S.-Mexican investigation into a network of Mexican oil smugglers supported by the Gulf drug cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful and brutal criminal organizations.” Appears reasonable. [WSJ]
• Lying Low After a Layoff – Are you really going out of your way to look employed? [Washington Post]
• Amex, Discover to end fees going over credit limit – Back to maxing out! [AP via Miami Herald]
• Feinberg’s Pay Decisions May Set the Template for Wall Street – “companies must tell him how they plan to pay the 25 top-earning employees. Feinberg will rule on the plans within 60 days after they’re completed.” Uh oh. [Bloomberg]