RSS Feed
Twitter
Facebook
Email
HomeHappy St. Paddy’s Day . . . What’s the Craic?
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 16th, 2012 6:30 AM |
With a name like Doyle and more siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews than I might possibly count, I beg your indulgence if I maintain that . . . with the greatest of all holidays falling on a weekend this year, prudence dictates that to gain a full appreciation of the special day and all it means that we celebrate it over a 48 hour time period.
Knowing full well that many of the boys and girls on “the street” will be in full festive attire –and demeanor — right from the get go this morning, I recommend you put a little splash in your coffee and forget about what troubles you.
What’s the craic?
Put simply, having craic is having a good time or a laugh.
Oppenheimer’s Al Loewenthal: Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool…
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 15th, 2012 8:06 AM |
Reactions I heard to the Jerry Maguire type bombshell launched by former Goldman exec Greg Smith ran the gamut yesterday.
There are those who questioned Mr. Smith’s sanity at committing career suicide. Others appreciated his airing of dirty laundry and “come to Jesus” expose. I personally believe if Mr. Smith wanted to lash out at those at Goldman who created the culture he came to detest, he may have been more laser like in his approach.
The hand grenade he launched into the Goldman camp was the equivalent of friendly fire and also hit plenty of very good people who work very hard to make an honest living everyday. I know very honest and very good people in the firm.
I welcome being the harshest critic of those who deserve to be called out. (more…)
Goldman’s Greg Smith Skewers Firm, Airs Dirty Laundry
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 14th, 2012 8:25 AM |
Thanks to a regular reader for sharing a New York Times editorial which will captivate Wall Street today.
Our friends at FINRA who may be faced with real backlash from the news spreading of their losing 8 hours of testimony in an arbitration case might want to buy lunch and dinner for Goldman Sachs’ senior executive Greg Smith.
Perhaps I should say former senior executive Greg Smith as he admits that today will be his last day at the firm. What else does Mr. Smith have to say? A LOT and if you see smoke rising off the top of 200 West Street today it is likely the steam rising from the heads of Lloyd Blankfein, Gary Cohn, and the other chiefs at Wall Street’s dominant firm. (more…)
A Chinese Official’s View on America
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 14th, 2012 6:55 AM |
A regular reader of Sense on Cents recently returned from three weeks in the People’s Republic of China. I hold this individual in very high regard for his understanding of our economy, markets, and national psyche.
We exchanged messages recently in reaction to a commentary I had run. With his permission, I welcome sharing what he defines as:
An Obituary for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
When Washington houses the worst offenders, where are the people to turn?
I just returned from three weeks in China. The citizens there are proud of their country and proud to be a citizen of the PRC. While their confidence level in their own form of government is not 100 % (no country rates itself that high) it is certainly far higher than in the US, where “honest politician” and “public servant” have become oxymorons. (more…)
How Does FINRA Lose 8 Hours of Testimony? Wall Street’s “Kangaroo Court”
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 13th, 2012 11:03 AM |
I will admit that having written extensively and aggressively about Wall Street’s self-regulator FINRA over the last three years, I did not think there was anything more I could see that would surprise me.
Today I am surprised, shocked, and saddened.
For those in our nation who have a semblance of decency and a desire to see due process reflected in legal hearings and financial arbitration, I believe you will be similarly dismayed.
The case to which I will refer strikes deep into the core of Wall Street arbitration. (more…)
Mortgage Settlement Defines Racketeering
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 13th, 2012 5:51 AM |
If the Wall Street mortgage settlement is supposed to define justice, then crime certainly does pay.
Having asked repeatedly in 2011 whether Wall Street mortgage servicing practices qualified as a racket and thus the charges filed should have been addressed as a RICO violation, yesterday we received our answer.
By any measure of ‘sense on cents’, the evidence provided screams of a RICO violation. The verdict delivered? (more…)
James Koutoulas: JP Morgan Insult Added to MF Global Injury
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 12th, 2012 8:24 AM |
Going on five full months and with MF Global customers still waiting for a glimmer of justice on the horizon—and the return of THEIR money—we awake to read that CME executives believe no further regulation could have prevented the debacle that is MF Global.
Why is that?
Most rational and ordinary Americans already sense those running the show at MF Global ‘broke the rules’. CME executives now seemingly maintain as much as well.
Let’s give these CME execs a gold star for a tremendous grasp of the obvious. Let’s also quickly review The Wall Street Journal story and then a further fascinating story highlighting what happened to somebody in the arena who spoke out on this debacle. (more…)
Weekend Entertainment
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 11th, 2012 7:53 AM |
With credit to NRG, I submit the following comical exchange regarding our unemployment situation.
Unemployment Definition – Abbott and Costello
U.S. Unemployment Up in February | Underemployment is 19.1%, up from 18.7% in January
PRINCETON, NJ — U.S. unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, increased to 9.1% in February from 8.6% in January and 8.5% in December.
COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America .
ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible times. It’s 9%.COSTELLO: That many people are out of work?
ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. (more…)
Trading Volumes Plummet, “Choose Not To Play”
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 9th, 2012 8:58 AM |
“The problem here is, when the public becomes aware of the nature of the game, they may choose not to play. This is the problem not only for Goldman but for Wall Street as a whole if people choose not to play.”
I made that statement in the midst of an interview two years ago with CNBC’s Mark Haines (may he rest in eternal peace) about Goldman Sachs. (For those interested you can access that interview here. My comments about Goldman specifically and this topic begin around the 3 minute mark.)
What have trading volumes done on the NYSE over the last two years? (more…)
Adding Fuel to Goldman Exec Greg Smith’s Fire
Posted by Larry Doyle on March 18th, 2012 10:06 AM |
While I believe Smith should have been more pointed in directing his fire, for those impugning Mr. Smith, including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, I would offer that what Mr. Smith asserts is HIGHLY unlikely just a Goldman issue.
Why do you think JP Morgan’s CEO and Morgan Stanley’s CEO James Gorman informed their troops to hold their own fire in response to the bombshell launched by Mr. Smith? (more…)
Tags: derivatives on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs business model, Goldman Sachs Greg Smith, Goldman Sachs JP Morgan Morgan Stanley, Greg Smith, Greg Smith bombshell, Larry Doyle, Larry Doyle comments on Goldman Sachs, Larry Doyle interview on CNBC, Lloyd Blankfein Jamie Dimon James Gorman, Michael Bloomberg comments on Greg Smith, need for transparency on wall street, reputation risk with Goldman Sachs, TRACE, Wall Street oligopoly, Wall Street post crisis
Posted in General, Goldman Sachs, Wall Street | 1 Comment »