Wall Street Folly

Steve Schwarzman: In retrospect, maybe that over the top 60th birthday party wasn't such a good idea after all

Looking back, after having become the poster boy for Wall Street excess who enjoys $400 stone crabs and who took his company public at what turned out to be the top of the market, even Steve Schwarzman thinks that his 2007 60th birthday party may have been just a tad over the top:

"Obviously, I wouldn't have wanted to do that and become, you know, some kind of symbol of sorts of that period of time," Schwarzman lamented yesterday at a conference in New York. "Who would ever wish that on themselves? No one."...

It also eventually garnered Schwarzman considerable grief as many began to view the party as the beginning of the end of Wall Street's gilded age.

Indeed, the birthday celebration, followed a few months later by his $8 billion jackpot from Blackstone's initial public offering, and stories about a posh lifestyle that included costly crustaceans, transformed Schwarzman from a Wall Street king into what one magazine called a "poster child for greed.

The Party's Over - NY Post

Charlie Rose: A conversation with Ted Forstmann

Forstmann Little's Ted Forstmann talks about the credit crunch.

Chart: Libor continues to ease

WSF Headline Roundup - 10/31/08 - BOJ cuts rate; Auto industry pressures Fed, Treasury; Barclays raises Mideast $; MS sugar daddy warns; Fed ups AIG loans; NYSE profit drops; Google / Yahoo alliance in trouble?; Business method patent reversal

• Bank of Japan Cuts Rate to 0.3% to Fend Off Prolonged Recession
• Fed, Paulson Pressured to Assist Auto Industry or Face `Crash'
• Barclays chases £6bn Mideast cash boost
• Barclays to Raise $11.8 Billion From Investor Group
• Mitsubishi UFJ Cuts Profit Forecast 66% on Bad Loans
• Fed Adds $21 Billion to Loans for A.I.G.
• Pound Is Set for Biggest Monthly Drop Since 1992 as Slump Looms
• White House Said to Want Limit on Loan-Guarantee Plan
• NYSE Euronext Profit Falls as Derivative Trades Slow
• Odds Dim for Alliance of Google And Yahoo
• Ct Reverses Position on Biz Methods Patents — Which Industries Hurt?
• Justice Backs Verizon-Alltel Deal
• Sprint Plans to Keep and `Rejuvenate' Nextel Network
• CBS reports $12.5-billion loss on another write-down

Sounds like at least a couple of analysts suggested that Porsche could try to screw the Volkswagen shorters

Porsche, however, apparently dismissed those suggestions as a "fairy-tale".  Hmmmmm.  So it would appear that Porche fibbed.  According to the Economist:

Citadel shuttering $1 billion fund of funds

More pain for Ken Griffin's Citadel: The firm is shutting down Fusion, its $1 billion fund of funds which was set up only last year.  Instead of investing in hedge funds, the remaining funds will be shifted to another business that funds new managers.

``We have seen strong interest in the incubation and seeding strategies that we've developed,'' Katie Spring, a spokeswoman for Chicago-based Citadel, said today in an e-mailed statement. ``We believe these will be important components of expanding investment talent over the years to come.

About 95 percent of the money in the Fusion fund of hedge funds is Citadel's and is set to be reinvested in a unit that helps finance new asset managers. The remaining 5 percent is from outside clients and will be returned.

Citadel to Wind Down $1 Billion Fund, Shift Capital - Bloomberg

Hedge fund hell: Deephaven halts redemptions at two of its funds, including its flagship

Citing extreme market conditions and requests from investors who wanted their cash back, Deephaven Capital has suspended redemptions from two of its funds, including its flagship $1.6 billion Global Multi-Strategy Fund and its $70 million Volatility Strategies Fund. That's according to an SEC filing from Knight Capital Group; Deephaven is a unit of the firm.  Per Reuters:

Will Wall Street firms wave the white flag on bonuses? Chances are "slim to none"

That's according to former CEO of Salomon Brothers John Gutfreund:

Odds that Wall Street will forgo the payouts are ``slim to none,'' said John Gutfreund, 79, president of New York-based Gutfreund & Co. and the former chief executive officer of Salomon Brothers Inc. ``They're going to have to be a little bit sensitive because politicians, whether they like it or not, are part of their lives now.''

Stick a pin in him: Sarkozy loses court case over a voodoo doll in his likeness

Guess Nicolas Sarcozy doesn't have much of a sense of humor.  It seems that he didn't like a voodoo doll in his likeness that was introduced on October 9, so he sued to have it pulled from the market.  A judge in Paris said that the doll was "within the authorised limits of free expression and the right to humour", and he smacked the humorless French president down.   Sarkozy is gonna appeal. We think it's pretty hilarious.  Apparently, so do many of the French :

The doll comes with pins which users can stick into memorable quotes from the president printed on the doll, such as "work more to earn more". 

Mr Sarkozy took the makers of the kit - publishing company K&B - to the courts after it went on sale on 9 October. His lawyer said Mr Sarkozy had "exclusive and absolute rights" over his own image.

The company refused to stop selling the kit, saying Mr Sarkozy's reaction was "totally disproportionate". 

The case has attracted a fair amount of mockery in France and boosted sales of the kit, says the BBC's Alasdair Sandford in Paris.

Sarkozy loses 'voodoo doll' case - BBC

While many hedge funds are shrinking with losses and redemptions, SAC Capital, Elliott Management, Brevan Howard and Greenlight Capital are getting larger

While many hedge funds are getting materially smaller from big losses and redemptions this year, there are a few that have been able to raise money.  According to Bloomberg, funds raking in billions include SAC Capital, Greenlight Capital, Elliott Managemet and Brevan Howard....