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New York, 2:17 PM
Sat Nov 28
12 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/06/09
But, hey, carry on, John. #aporkalypse
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
My family has swine flu now. It is unpleasant, but I'm able to care for three sick children and myself. It isn't pretty, but we're essentially okay.
I've been sicker with other flus, in fact. #aporkalypse
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
The biggest health risk with H1N1 is absenteeism. From work, at big companies. Babies and children will not die unless there are complications. Everyone in my family save my wife and I have had the virus, including an 8-year-old with asthma - it's easily combatted with Tamiflu.
Pulitzer-worthy post, John. #aporkalypse
11/05/09
Which, unless Goldman and Citi have recently taken to hiring teenagers and pregnant women exclusively, means that there is zero justification for them having, much less STOCKPILING these vaccines.
But it's not surprising that Wall Street once again has a tin ear for public relations. When the NY Fed, Goldman, Citi AND Chase get these vaccines while pregnant women wait for hours in lines, it's another great demonstration of how fucking clueless the bankers are. #aporkalypse
11/05/09
The CDC dispensed the vaccine - there is a limited supply and they are charged with determining how to distribute it.
[www.cdc.gov]
The report John linked indicates that the vaccine is for high-value personnel within corporations. Since absenteeism is the most critical highest risk presented by H1N1, prevented large losses by inoculating executives is numerically wise. Sorry! There are federal guidelines alluded to in this memo - we should see if Goldman's receipt of vaccine is somehow abnormal rather than distorting every piece of news related to the firm in some yellow fever of mudraking rage:
[www.opm.gov] #aporkalypse
11/05/09
11/05/09
I really do try to be the funny fatalist. #aporkalypse
10/22/09
You see how that works, right? The only way to keep people is to pay them millions of dollars. If you stop paying them millions of dollars, they will leave. Bank of America's evidence of this is that 45% of the people to whom it was paying the most millions of dollars left. Q.E.D.
They saw it coming. Top performers at notable TARP banks have been jumping ship at an incredible rate. Use the internet. #aig
10/22/09
10/22/09
You understand that banks have revenue streams all over the place, right? There's the bond shop. The equity shop. Client service. The back end. All of them have wildly different, easily individualized performance - and the guys doing well want to be paid. If they aren't, they'll take their clients to another firm that's willing to compensate them. It may shock you, because the media covers this very poorly, but corporations aren't one big box where everyone shares. #aig
10/22/09
10/22/09
It's not "funding" if it's printed money covering sour bets. That's called a mirage. New York is basically a national debt citadel - it's doomed. Philly should be so grateful that it's already dealing with massive shortfalls and burgeoning crime. At least it will have a leg up! #aig
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
Summary of massive screed deleted: there are unintended consequence to this populism. Pay restraints have to get everybody, not just TARP guys, or you screw the taxpayer even harder. Non-TARP firms are feasting on the Phibros, Mitch Coxes, Bob McCanns, etc.
Proposed solution: wanna limit banker pay? Don't bail the banks they work for out. Liquidate the paper wealth.
07/21/09
The St Regis
There's a New Project in Town.
07/21/09
Now compare that with the same time period last year where they lost $2.5B. You might think that $2.4B is better, however keep in mind the economic climate was much worse last year.
Citi is pretty much in the toilet...
07/21/09
07/21/09
07/21/09
The rot starts in credit, and the knock-on effect is that whole sections of the economy fail exactly in the manner you described. The bailout constitutes a bet that those zombies will be restored to life when normal economic function returns. It's like anything else in finance, a risk taken with the expectation of reward - only in this case, taxpayers stand to benefit.
If, as you stated, rich people aren't booking things because of recrimination fears, fear is the only thing preventing Citigroup from making money to pay AIG to pay the Fed back. Meaning that the recrimination in this piece is just a self-fulfilling hateful anti-wealth screed that is legitimately damaging to the economy!
(This is why your boss believes that the media caused the recession in part. Congratulations, now you're the media!)
07/21/09
07/21/09
How is the profitable operation of the St. Regis hotel contingent upon the existence of a class of "extravagantly wealthy people?"
You're hitching your arguments against the bailout to what I see as a broad thesis that our economy was reliant upon huge disaparities between rich and poor. That isn't true - there is no economic truism on display in the simple operation of swank hotels, and it's not like the post-recession period will be characterized by gray movie theaters and fast food restaurants that our homogenous society shuffles off to. I'll agree that the economy was dependent upon the rich and those who were rich enough to borrow their way into extravagance. I'll agree that we built too many chintzy fake-glam hotels, high-end retail outlets, and luxury SUVs. But does a narrowing in the rich/poor gap mean splitting the pie more fairly or growing the pie? Global economic output is not some zero-sum game, and this hotel will gladly open its gilded doors to a new generation of affluents in a decade.
Maybe the St. Regis falls victim to a world stalked by fewer wealthy individuals and this money is lost. But maybe it doesn't, and we do well on the deal as taxpayers. There's every expectation that money will be lost during the bailout but remember that its primary function is to delay and defer losses. The thought is and remains that banks can survive on their profitable businesses/subsidiaries while absorbing commercial real estate and credit losses. And keep in mind, the existence of Citi as a creditor is keeping everyone at the St. Regis off unemployment.
The idea that these Federal loans will never be paid back is narrow and self-serving. The world isn't coming to some ignominous post-wealth end. I'm not saying it's all going to be great - there WILL be losses, and pain, and suffering - but it's only theft if there's no upside.
07/21/09
07/21/09