Every now and then Hollywood makes a difference that’s bigger than Leo before and after his Oscar. Apparently, the plot and popularity of the The Big Short—the critically-acclaimed Adam-McKay directed adaptation of Michael Lewis’s book—rattled some analysts at Morgan Stanley.
Morgan Stanley is a $63 billion Wall Street firm with an 80-year history and almost $2 trillion in assets under its control. It's shocking to discover that the place is run by a japester of Loony Tunes proportions!
Morgan Stanley today posted a 42% rise in quarterly profits, just the latest in this week's nonstop parade of big banks announcing huge earnings. Remember this moment, when the bad times come.
Two years ago, a series of odd billboards greeted passers-by in New York, Atlanta, and the San Francisco Bay Area. They showed a cuddling, smiling couple under the title "Charles & YaVaughnie" and listed a website documenting the couple's romance. Research only deepened the mystery: The man was an Oracle president…
Remember William Bryan Jennings, the Morgan Stanley banker who stabbed a taxi driver over a fare dispute earlier this month? Allegedly while shouting racial slurs? Yes, well. Reuters has a long story about the case with quite a bit of fascinating background. For example:
Remember credit default swaps? AIG? Hopelessly entangled exotic financial instruments tied to esoteric asset valuations that caused cascading defaults in 2008 and threatened to tank the global financial system unless taxpayers ate all the losses? Remember how we reformed Wall St. to make sure that never repeated…
Are you looking forward to experiencing strong feelings of rage, or possibly schadenfreude, as you learn how much money Wall Street bankers made this bonus season? Sorry; Morgan Stanley's CEO will keep it all quiet, using nothing but frightening threats.
The Wall Street Journal has discovered a weirdo... riding the New York subway! Except this weirdo is weird in a different way. He's not a weird poor person begging for change. He just wants to make friends!
Charles Phillips is leaving the board at Morgan Stanley after four years. Chalk up a win for YaVaughnie Wiliams, the mistress—and ex Morgan Stanley intern—who used billboards to expose her eight-year affair with the executive.
Tax time is fast upon us, so New York's Department of Taxation and Finance has released its list of top delinquent taxpayers. One of them is Frederick Whittemore, a recently retired lifelong bigwig at Morgan Stanley. Taxes are for suckers!
Charles Phillips was just humiliated in billboards across the country for two-timing a wife and eight-year girlfriend. His marriage is ending. But the Oracle co-president had a big merger to close today, so cue the horribly awkward humor.
Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack was gracious enough to forego a bonus for 2009. But pretty much everyone else did just fine. Despite the fact the bank reported its first annual loss in its 74-year history this morning, the firm said it set aside $14.4 billion to pay employee bonuses and salaries, "an astonishing…
Credit where credit's due: Not every Wall Street chieftain is planning to take home home an eight-figure bonus at the end of the year. Outgoing Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack announced today that he is foregoing a bonus in 2009 for the third year in a row. "That makes him the first of the major banking chiefs to do so,…
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, Citigroup chairman Dick Parsons, and Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack all skipped out on a scheduled dressing-down today from Barack Obama because "inclement weather" made it physically impossible for them to travel to Washington. Convenient!
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and JPMorgan Chase are all on track to pay record bonuses this year, as you've probably heard. "The firms—the three biggest banks to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program—will hand out $29.7 billion in bonuses, according to analysts' estimates. That's up 60 percent from last year and…
Did you hear that a handful of large Wall Street banks have been getting the swine flu vaccine to give to their "high-risk" employees, even though area hospitals have yet to receive it or are now running low on their supplies? A little public pressure seems to be paying off. Morgan Stanley says it will return its…
Wall Street CEOs make a fortune, as you're undoubtedly aware. Even the chief executives of banks that have been bailed-out by Washington or have gone bust usually end up doing nicely. But despite the riches and perks these men have accumulated and massive egos they've developed along the way, few of them would do all…
Former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain is no friend of Ken Lewis, the outgoing chief executive of Bank of America. Thain worked with Lewis last year to engineer the merger of Merrill and BofA, but was kicked to the curb shortly after the deal was complete and almost instantly turned into the fall guy for the messy…
• Jonathan Benno, Per Se's acclaimed chef de cuisine, has confirmed his plans to move on: He'll be part-owner and executive chef at a new (and as-yet unnamed) restaurant under construction in the plaza of Lincoln Center. [NYT]
• Has Minetta Tavern stopped accepting reservations from people who don't happen to be…
