• Phibro mum after White House slams reported $100 million payday – “Phibro LLC, the energy trading arm of beleaguered bank Citigroup, was mum Tuesday after the White House criticized a reported $100 million pay plan for its top trader Andrew Hall as ‘out of whack.'” [Reuters]
• Sprint-Nextel to acquire Virgin Mobile USA – “Sprint Nextel, the third-largest US mobile network operator, unveiled a $420m deal on Tuesday to acquire Virgin Mobile USA, the wireless phone company in which Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is the largest shareholder.” [FT.com]
• House Panel Approves New Rules on Executive Pay – “Marking an important victory for the White House, a congressional committee approved on Tuesday legislation closely resembling the Obama administration’s proposal that attempts to impose new restraints on executive pay.” [New York Times]
• Baldness Not a Requirement for Working at Goldman Sachs [Daily Intel]
• Backdating Returns to the Spotlight – “The IRS released new tax guidance this month related to so-called backdated stock options. But discounted options are still not considered ‘qualified performance based compensation.'” [CFO.com]
Category: Review Comments
Review Comments | 07.27.09
• U.S. Rep. Frank sees finance reform by year-end – Weekend pool parties with friends will remain fluid until the end of summer [Reuters]
• Loans Shrink as Fear Lingers – “The total amount of loans held by 15 large U.S. banks shrank by 2.8% in the second quarter, and more than half of the loan volume in April and May came from refinancing mortgages and renewing credit to businesses, not new loans, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows.” [WSJ]
• N.F.L. Grants Vick an Opening – Unfortunately for Vick, he’ll remain completely unmarketable for endorsement purposes [NYT]
• U.S. Economy: New-Home Sales Up 11%, Most Since 2000 [Bloomberg]
• SEC to Limit ‘Naked’ Short-Selling – “The Securities and Exchange Commission issued new rules to govern short selling, promising investors new information about the volume and velocity of negative bets placed against companies but dropping a requirement that hedge funds disclose details of short positions to regulators.” [WSJ]
&bull U.S. Said to Focus on UBS Banker Visits to Clients [DealBook]
Review Comments | 07.24.09
• Geithner urges end to ‘dumb regulation’ – “Tim Geithner, Treasury secretary, said there was “a lot of dumb regulation in our country” and urged lawmakers to act quickly in spite of resistance from the financial industry and other regulators to the administration’s plan.” [FT.com]
• California Senate Approves Budget Plan – “The California Senate early Friday approved a plan to close a $26 billion budget shortfall through steep spending cuts and a medley of one-time solutions and accounting moves.” Creative accounting, Cali? FTW! [WSJ]
• Buffett: I’m keeping my Goldman Sachs warrants – But thanks for asking. [Reuters]
• Madoff Trustee Battles Israeli Charity Over $4.7 Mln – “A charity for homeless and runaway Israeli children that lost money in Bernard Madoff’s fraud told a U.S. judge that the trustee liquidating the con man’s business wrongfully rejected its $4.72 million claim in the case.” [Bloomberg]
Review Comments | 07.23.09
• Council fired Scott Janke after learning of marriage to porn star Anabela Mota aka Jazella Moore – Last we checked, this was still America and bagging a porn star is in the Declaration of Independence or something [NYDN]
• Dozens Arrested in New Jersey Corruption Probe – “Federal agents swept into New Jersey towns across several counties Thursday morning, charging 44 people, including three mayors and religious leaders, in a federal investigation into public corruption and money laundering.” [WSJ]
• Wall Street Journal Coverage Of Crisis Finally Gets Serious – Cankles. Page one. Yes. [DealBreaker]
• Microsoft revenue misses, shares tumble – In other news, Bill Gates is still rich. [Reuters]
Review Comments | 07.22.09
• Amazon to Acquire Zappos.com for $847 Million – “Amazon says it is paying for the acquisition with 10 million shares of stock worth approximately $807 million. In addition, Amazon said it will provide Zappos employees with $40 million in cash and restricted stock units.” [Bits/NYT]
• UK ‘is losing 52 pubs each week’ – Where will the UK accountants go for lunch? [BBC]
• Who needs audit? [Accountancy Age]
• Chrysler says dealer legislation could force liquidation – “Chrysler Group could again face the prospect of liquidation if legislation aimed at reversing its decision to terminate contracts with 789 dealers becomes law, a company executive said on Wednesday.” [Reuters]
• Goldman Sachs Payments to U.S. Give 23% Return to Taxpayers – LB says “you’re welcome” [Bloomberg]
Review Comments | 07.21.09
• Bernanke Sheds Light on Exit Strategy – “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke shed light Tuesday on the toolkit the central bank can employ to unwind its crisis measures, but he made clear to lawmakers that the economy remains too weak to start tightening monetary policy.” Better than no exit strategy [WSJ]
• CIT Expects Loss of $1.5 Billion, May Seek Bankruptcy – “CIT Group Inc., the 101-year-old commercial lender seeking to avoid collapse, said it expects to report a loss of more than $1.5 billion for the second quarter and may need to file for bankruptcy if it’s unable to tender for notes maturing next month.” [Bloomberg]
• Apple’s quarterly profit tops forecasts – The good results… [Reuters]
• Yahoo sees drop in income from operations this quarter – …and the bad. [Reuters]
• Which Of Alan Greenspan’s More Quotable Quotes Will Bite Him In The Ass On The Big Screen? [DealBreaker]
• The Goldman Way to Celebrate: a Parody – Well played LB. Well played. [DealBook]
Review Comments | 07.20.09
• Lawyer: Ernst auditing helped sink Hinsdale’s Superior Bank – Plaintiff Alan Schein is still claiming conspiracy on E&Y’s part. [Daily Herald]
• Securities Lawsuits Plummet in 2009 – Because they’ve all been filed already [CFO.com]
• Stanford case spreads its tendrils – For a Ponz that simply offered CD’s with out of this world interest rates, the international law and jurisdictional aspects will turn your head in knots. [FT.com]
• TD Ameritrade Settles Securities Case – “TD Ameritrade Inc. agreed to buy back $456 million of auction-rate securities from its clients as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the Securities and Exchange Commission and Pennsylvania securities regulators.” [WSJ]
Review Comments | 07.17.09
• Swedbank Losses Show Deeper Troubles in Baltic – Souls as collateral in Latvia. Enough said. [DealBook]
• Citibank, BofA Results May Not Point To Recovery – Duh. [NPR]
• Fox Biz: Jorge Posada’s Wife Talks Healthcare Reform – Much more interesting perspective than say, anyone in DC [Clusterstock]
Review Comments | 07.16.09
• Lawmakers End Questioning Of Sotomayor – “The Senate Judiciary Committee wrapped up Thursday its questioning of Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Republican senators asked Sotomayor again whether she would rule on cases based on her beliefs, and she assured them she would apply the law and court precedent.” [NPR]
• Donaldson, Levitt Back FASB Off-balance-sheet Rules – “An ‘investors’ working group’ co-chaired by former Securities and Exchange Commission heads William Donaldson and Arthur Levitt Jr. has called for new Financial Accounting Standards Board rules on off-balance-sheet transactions and securitizations to be implemented ‘without delay.'” Without delay to the FASB means, sometime before the next decade. [CFO.com]
• Jamie Dimon on CIT’s Troubles – Natch, he’s cool with them biting the dust [DealBook]
Review Comments | 07.15.09
• US to unveil hedge fund legislation – “The Obama administration will on Wednesday unveil draft legislation that will require all US hedge funds with more than $30m in assets under management to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission.” You knew it was coming. [FT.com]
• Private Equity Industry Says It Poses No Systemic Risk – “The private equity industry’s main lobbying group said Wednesday it supported legislation that would require all firms of a certain size to register as investment advisers with the Securities and Exchange Commission, but urged lawmakers to avoid onerous regulations.” [DealBook]
• Fed Upgrades Economic Projections, but Expect Worse Unemployment – Minutes did not show the over/under of minutes it takes for Hank Paulson’s dismembering of all the members of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing tomorrow. [WSJ]
Review Comments | 07.14.09
• HSBC Sued Over $578 Million ‘Fake’ Profit From Madoff – Simply stated, clawbacks are a bitch. [Bloomberg]
• House Health Bill Slaps 5.4% Tax on Top Earners – “House Democrats Tuesday proposed new taxes on the wealthy to help fund an expansion of government health benefits. But the bill also includes a mechanism to peel back the tax increases if the revenue isn’t needed to fund the bill.” [WSJ]
• IASB promotes ‘fair value’ rule change – “A radical shake-up of how banks and insurers report the value of financial instruments has been proposed by international accounting rule-setters in a bold attempt to resolve an intense dispute at the heart of efforts to prevent a repeat of credit crisis.” Don’t hold your breath on this. Banks won’t be down for it. [FT.com]
Review Comments | 07.13.09
• US budget deficit at $1 trillion – But the trade deficit is at a nine year low. Hoo-RAH! [BBC]
• Ronald Crawford Named SEC’s First Chief Counsel For Diversity Initiatives – Because M Schape’s troops are sick of talking about stuff they don’t do right, they needed to make an announcement that wouldn’t have anything to do with actual watch-dogginess. [SEC.gov]
• Even in Downturn, a London Banker’s Party Goes On – Even Homer Simpson has said, “It’s a party. It doesn’t have to make sense” [DealBook/NYT]