01.08.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:41 pm by optionplayer
What is this ? Appointing an ex executive of McKinsey and Co to streamline the bureaucracy and eliminate unnecessary programmes- so to control spending ! wow after 8 years of Republican reckless spending on Wars Housing Bubble banks ( select club) defence Toys etc and now wish to review social programs , elderly and medicare programs – fromm a suppsoed Democrat – or as we see from the luncheon photo , of the 5 Presidents ,have we really any change here – or just a clever continuation ! of course markets will find the bottom and stage a recovery but at whose cost and who really lose , even with whatever recovery takes place ! losers now continue whilst winners take all!
Some could say such management consultants have been part of the problem these last 16 years plus with so many reckless decisions and many coming from consultants as companies abused this source of running corporations and have built small empires !! on both sides !
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Posted in Uncategorized at 6:40 am by optionplayer
All the Presidents’ lunch: Barack Obama meets past presidents
President George W. Bush stands with President-elect Barack Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter at a historic lunch.
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01.05.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:14 pm by optionplayer
Wall Street ‘red light’ on Madoff
By Henny Sender in New York
Published: January 4 2009 23:31 | Last updated: January 4 2009 23:31
Large Wall Street firms privately harboured suspicions about Bernard Madoff’s investment business, in some cases steering clients away from dealing with him, but were reluctant to share their concerns with regulators, according to US bankers.
Banks were sceptical that Mr Madoff could deliver the consistently high returns that he reported, and they were also put off by a lack of transparency at his investment firm. For these reasons, big Wall Street firms are notably absent from the long list of victims of Mr Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
In depth: Madoff scandal – Dec-29In depth: US banks – Oct-15Fabio Savoldelli, chief investment officer of Merrill Lynch Investment Management prior to its 2006 merger with BlackRock, sounded the warning internally years ago. One of Merrill’s financial advisers, who deals with clients worth tens of millions of dollars, recalled Mr Savoldelli’s suspicions of Mr Madoff’s returns eight years ago.
Two years ago, an internal Merrill report drawn up in connection with Merrill’s European fund of funds group, concluded the group should not deal with Mr Madoff, the financial adviser said. “We had a red light on doing business with him. There was no transparency.”
However, a fear of alienating clients who had invested with Mr Madoff prevented many Merrill executives from voicing their concerns too loudly. “You sell your product but you don’t bad-mouth others. You don’t say bad things about Bernie Madoff. That is where you cross the line,” one former Merrill staffer recalled being told by a senior executive.
The large surviving investment banks did not put Mr Madoff’s funds on the recommended list of their investment arms and never dealt directly with him in their prime brokerage arms.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management said it “never felt comfortable with Madoff”, because it “never understood the investment process or the returns … if clients wanted to invest with him, they did not do it through us”.
Goldman’s scepticism extended to Tremont Group Holdings, a fund of hedge funds based in Rye, New York, that gave more than $3bn to Mr Madoff through several channels. In 2001, when Tremont was sold to Oppenheimer, the brokerage, Goldman was representing another potential buyer. But Tremont did not let Goldman’s team have a close look at the firm’s operation, so Goldman’s client backed out.
Goldman never sounded the alarm with regulators. However, investment banks have no obligation to report suspected wrongdoing, lawyers say.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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