An Investment Banker's Take On Life

Resource: Deutsche Bank Summary And Analysis Of The Dodd-Frank Act On Wall Street Reform

2010-07-28T16:47:00.001+08:00

I've been wanting to blog about the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform & Consumer Protection Act which was finally signed into law by US President Barack Obama on July 21, 2010. The problem is even if I can get hold of this 2,319-page document, it might take me until the next financial crisis just to read it and write on whatever I understood from it. Ayn Rand's novel "Atlas Shrugged," which run up to

Key Compromises Reached On The Financial Reform Bill

2010-06-29T14:44:00.000+08:00

Anyone interested in forming his own view on the impact or implications of the financial reform bill on Wall Street as well as Main Street would need to have a deep understanding of the issues involved, how these were addressed in the original versions (one for each house of Congress) of the bill, and what became of them in the final merged version. If you have immersed yourself on Wall Street

Financial Regulatory Reform: Crossing A Chasm

2010-06-29T10:05:00.001+08:00

The crucial penultimate stage in the law making process (i.e., crafting of the final bill) is like crossing a chasm in two small jumps, to borrow a metaphor from David Lloyd George. It sounds counterintuitive but that's how the system works. Take the case of the financial reform bill. The two small jumps I'm referring to are the merging of the two versions of the financial reform bill by the

Wall Street Reforms: What If The Bank Lobbyists Fail?

2010-06-23T10:35:00.001+08:00

In their New York Times report here, Eric Dash and Nelson D. Schwartz walked us through how Wall Street banks would cope in a worst-case scenario whereby the industry's best lobbying efforts ultimately fail to water-down legislation: UBS has prepared a 20-page “action plan” outlining various options, while senior managers at Goldman Sachs have had preliminary discussions on eventually dropping

Resource: Free Hedge Fund Webinar and More

2010-06-22T23:17:00.000+08:00

A few months back, I downloaded Richard Wilson's free Hedge Fund E-Book at HedgeFundBlogger.com. Since then I've received updates of the Hedge Fund Group's online activities and events that those interested in the hedge fund industry could participate in. Today, I received a notice for a free Hedge Fund FAQ Webinar to be held on Thursday, June 24th from 12PM - 1PM EST. I thought I'd share this

Early Estimates On Impact Of Financial Reforms On Wall Street Banks

2010-06-22T16:24:00.001+08:00

In a recent note to clients, a team of Citigroup analysts, led by Keith Horowitz, indicated that the proposed financial regulatory reforms could cost the top Wall Street banks billions of dollars in foregone profits once passed into law. Here's how much of their annual profits each top Wall Street bank could lose according to the Citi analysts, based on their set of assumptions: Goldman Sachs

Status Of Wall Street Reforms

2010-06-17T18:49:00.000+08:00

It's been a year since US President Barack Obama proposed in June 2009 sweeping changes in the financial regulatory system after the near-collapse of the world financial system in the fall of 2008 and the global credit crisis that followed. If you've lost track of just where we are now on these needed reforms, you've got me for company as I'm wondering about the same thing too. This is why I

Blankfein On The Way Out?

2010-06-17T00:06:00.000+08:00

In a recent interview at Tech Ticker, Barron's contributing editor and author of Chasing Goldman Sachs, Suzanne McGee, said that Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein is "on his way out the door" and that this will be part of a settlement between Goldman and the SEC. It will be recalled that the SEC accused Goldman of fraud last April. Here's the video clip of that interview by Henry Blodget:

Three Banker Jokes To Brighten Your Day

2010-06-08T15:49:00.001+08:00

My good friend Vic emailed to me this morning a short compilation of Biblical humor. I found the following three particularly suitable as banker jokes. See if you agree: Q. Who was the greatest financier in the Bible? A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation. Q. Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible? A. The Pharaoh's daughter. She went down

Debrahlee Lorenzana: An Exception To The Halo Effect

2010-06-06T21:24:00.003+08:00

I've always thought that good looks are a ticket to success, following the logic behind what psychologists call the "halo effect" ( an allusion to the perfection associated with angels). After all there is research to prove that attractive people indeed have more occupational success than their unattractive counterparts. Debrahlee Lorenzana (see above photo), a 33-year old ex-Citibanker, is

Is There A Link Between Success And Food?

2010-06-04T11:12:00.001+08:00

Vedran Vuk's piece in the June 3 edition of Casey's Daily Dispatch caught my attention this morning. His premise is interesting: Our daily food choices reveal our risk preferences. From here, he goes on to argue that there's a connection between success in life and food. I have reproduced in full Vuk's piece below to make sure I don't lose the context of what he's saying: Put Down the Burger

Goldman Securities Fraud Case: Wanna Bet?

2010-04-28T12:39:00.001+08:00

There are two opposing views on the robustness of the securities fraud case filed against Goldman Sachs by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Skeptics say that the SEC's case against Goldman is apparently weak. Henry Blodget, a former Wall Street analyst and now CEO and Editor-in-Chief of The Business Insider, typifies this pessimistic view. There are others, however, who believe that

Resource: Valukas Report On The Lehman Brothers Collapse

2010-03-14T22:44:00.001+08:00

Lehman Brothers is back in the news in a big way after the report on the reasons for the investment bank's collapse in September 2008 submitted by Anton R. Valukas, the examiner appointed by the US Bankruptcy Trustee, was released the other day. According to this website, the 2,200-page report took one year to prepare by a team of 70+ contract attorneys and cost $38 million. There are quick

Derivatives Debate: On Which Side Are You?

2010-03-11T15:11:00.005+08:00

On the occasion of the Pittsburgh summit of the Group of 20 (G20) last September--the third since the inglorious collapse of Lehman Brothers--I wrote here on the need for the G20 to hurry up its work on reforming financial regulations because of some evident "red flags" that I thought could trigger the next financial crisis. Honestly, the Greek debt problem was not the kind of crisis that I had

Greek Debt Crisis: Wake-up Call For Goldman

2010-03-02T21:23:00.001+08:00

Are you up to speed on the ongoing Greek debt crisis? It has taken an interesting turn after the role of Wall Street in the run-up to the crisis was exposed. Based on media reports, Goldman Sachs, in double whammy fashion, first helped Greece conceal some of its debt from budget overseers in Brussels after it was admitted into the EU, and then helped exacerbate Greece's fiscal troubles by

Musings On Leaving One's Comfort Zone

2010-02-01T16:32:00.002+08:00

If you are too engrossed with work and the business of living, maybe this story could make you pause and reflect on your own life: UBS AG senior currency strategist Benedikt Germanier decided that he had become just another factory hen on a trading floor where money was everything that counted. So he ditched his bonus and banker life in the U.S. for a pair of handmade skis. “I feel much more

Wall Street's Derivatives "Casino" On A Roll Again

2010-01-28T22:12:00.001+08:00

The role played by arcane financial instruments like CDOs and credit default swaps during the 2008 financial meltdown should, by now, be a well-worn story full of valuable lessons for regulators and market players alike. If that were so, what then does the following recent Bloomberg report mean? Wall Street is marketing derivatives last seen before credit markets froze in 2007, as the record

Will The Volcker Rule Abet The Next Financial Innovation?

2010-01-23T00:23:00.001+08:00

Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced a surprise proposal that would impose new restrictions on the size and scope of banks and other financial institutions, in a move designed to rein in excessive risk taking and to protect taxpayers. This comes on the heels of a new tax or, more appropriately, a "financial crisis responsibility fee" to be charged on banks, aimed at recovering all

Wall Street Bonuses As Financial Tea Leaves

2010-01-19T22:43:00.001+08:00

Today I came across an article written by Prof. Karen Z. Ho, University of Minnesota, on Wall Street bonuses. It is a timely find given the current outrage over the reported multi-million dollar bonuses that will be handed out by Wall Street banks to its executives and employees early this year for performance achieved last year. Prof. Ho sees a link between Wall Street's bonus and compensation

Are Investment Bankers Overpaid?

2010-01-15T23:17:00.002+08:00

Sorry guys, but it's a question one is bound to ask after reading about Lusha, who outperformed 94% of Russia's investment funds in 2009! The interesting part ? Lusha is a female circus chimpanzee (shown in above photo), owned by legendary Russian trainer Lev Dorov. From a possible field of 30 companies (represented by 30 cubes), the money-wise chimp picked eight where to invest her one

What Will The New Year Bring?

2010-01-12T23:00:00.002+08:00

I live in a country where we celebrate two New Years--January 1st and the Chinese Lunar New Year, whose exact timing changes from year to year. For this year, the Chinese New Year happily coincides with Valentine's Day, February 14th. In the Chinese lunar calendar, 2010 is the Year of the Metal Tiger. According to this Chinese geomancer, Tiger years bring adventure, exploration and

Dubai World Debt Crisis: Keynes Was Right

2009-12-12T18:35:00.000+08:00

“If I owe you a pound, I have a problem; but if I owe you a million, the problem is yours”, so said John Maynard Keynes. That’s the exact same predicament the creditors of Dubai World and its property unit, Nakheel, find themselves in right now. Only that here we are not talking of just a million, but a cool $26 billion in the aggregate. Worse, if we factor in all creditor risks, including the

A Hat Tip to Facetime.com

2009-11-16T21:59:00.001+08:00

I noticed a couple of visits from Face-time.com yesterday, so I checked out this new site which appeared in my blog stats. As it turned out Face-time.com included this blog in its Blogroll, together with the likes of Bankers Ball, Deal Breaker, Wall Street Oasis, Leveraged Sellout, Mergers & Inquisitions, and seven other ibanking blogs. To say the least, I find it humbling to find my blog in

Free Email Trading Course For You

2009-10-15T22:27:00.003+08:00

I want to make it up to blog readers who stumble upon this blog, expecting that they could get advice or pointers that may be useful to their trading activities, either as a career or as a personal interest, but often walk away empty handed. Well, I occasionally have trading-related posts, but these are admittedly far between and mostly macro issue-oriented in nature, hardly useful to a

A Parable On How Wall Street Works

2009-09-29T21:52:00.000+08:00

My good friend Vic shared this with me today. Somebody else forwarded it to him, so I don't know where the original came from and whom to give the real credit to (hopefully, I'm not infringing on any copyright restrictions). Regardless, enjoy the story:Once upon a time, in a village, a man appeared and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.The villagers, seeing that