Before readers get too excited, let me be clear: this post is to discuss what circumstances might lead Bear Stearns to cease to be an independent organization. It is not an attempt to forecast the likelihood of that taking place. Despite their considerable prowess, investment banks are fragile organizations. It took only one major scandal […]
Read more...By happenstance, I came across a document, “Fixed Income Overview” from a May 29, 2007 Bear Stearns Investor Day presentation by Jeff Mayer, Co-Head of Global Fixed Income, and Tom Marano, Global Head of Mortgages and Asset Backed Securities on the Bear Stearns website. It’s a fascinating bit of reading and some parts are particularly […]
Read more...While it’s no news to anyone in M&A land that CEOs have considerable incentives to do deals, it’s nice to see that the wider world is taking notice. The dirty secret is that, at least the way the comp consultants cut the numbers, CEOs of bigger companies get paid more. So when a CEO winds […]
Read more...Mark Thoma quotes a Washington Post op-ed piece by Daniel Gross that gets worried about the current and prospective level of foreign ownership of US businesses: …In countries that are resource-rich or export powerhouses, governments and government-controlled entities have amassed huge pools of capital. A report issued last month by Morgan Stanley economist Stephen Jen […]
Read more...The Wall Street Journal reported on what appears to be a partial rebuttal by Wal-Mart of charges made by Julie Roehm, its deposed marketing executive. A quick recap: Roehm was ousted last December. She sued for breach of contract and unfair dismissal. Wal-Mart counterclaimed, asserting that she had had an affair with a subordinate, taken […]
Read more...An article in the New York Review of Books, “The Specter Haunting Your Office,” discusses three books, one by Louis Uchitelle, The Disposable American, meaning the disposable employee; one by Greg LeRoy, on the way corporations play states and muncipalities to extract economic concessions; and one by John Bogle, on “managers’ capitalism” and how it […]
Read more...Confession: I have a weakness for certain types of trash, and one category I enjoy is tacky corporate litigation. What constitutes “tacky” is very much in the eye of the beholder, but I particularly enjoy seeing the aggressor hoist on his own petard. And it’s even more fun when the party that overplayed its hand […]
Read more...This post from Conglomerate (a blog I generally like) is an articulate rendition of an appallingly conventional line of thinking: This Sunday’s Washington Post featured a story on the increase in socially responsible investing over the last decade…. According to the Washington Post, over the past decade the number of socially responsible investment funds has […]
Read more...This headline isn’t much of an exaggeration, as we learn from a front-page Wall Street Journal story, “Profit as We Know It Could Be Lost With New Accounting Statements.” The proposed changes (in the early stages of formulation and subject to quite a few approvals before it would take effect) would totally revamp income statements […]
Read more...I am beginning to suspect that many are reacting to the overstimulation of the modern world – the accelerating pace of change, data overload, time pressure, work and relationship instability – by turning off their brains. The rise of fundamentalism and the “family values” push, both efforts to turn back the clock, is one set […]
Read more...We made a couple of posts (here and here) on the subject of Wal-Mart’s threat research unit. Bruce Gabbard, a former member of the group (former by virtue of having been fired), spoke to the Journal about its activities, which reportedly included having Gabbard monitor board meetings (which as we discussed, at a minimum would […]
Read more...Oddly, there hasn’t been as much chatter in the blogsphere as I would have expected on the House passage on Friday of what is called the “say on pay” bill. The House legislation would give shareholders a non-binding vote on executive pay and golden parachutes. Initially, the Senate wasn’t expected to take it up, but […]
Read more...I have long been annoyed by the Wall Street Journal/Larry Ribstein party line that takes issue with long prison sentences for high profile white collar criminals. The argument boils down to “They weren’t violent.” That has always offended me, because it’s a class argument. As political philosopher Rodney Dangerfield said: If you steal $10,000 from […]
Read more...In her Sunday New York Times column, “‘For Sale’ May Mean ‘You Lose’,” Gretchen Morgenson notes in passing that bankruptcies don’t get as much attention as sexier mergers or IPOs (and it’s confirmed by the dearth of comment on the usual suspect sites in the blogsphere). But there is a lot of money made in […]
Read more...I don’t know about you, but every time I hear about a book on leadership by an ex-CEO, I cringe. They are almost without exception self congratulatory puff pieces with plenty of macho posturing. And they seldom offer useful advice. For example, one reader gave a capsule review of Jack – Straight from the Gut: […]
Read more...