Criminal Law

Citigroup faces $15 billion writeoff: GS

Posted on November 19, 2007
Goldman Sachs & Co on Monday downgraded Citigroup Inc to 'sell' from 'neutral,' and said the largest U.S. bank may have to write off $15 billion over the next two quarters as mortgage losses reduce earnings." Reuters

What Were They Smoking?

Posted on November 16, 2007
So screams the front page of next week's Fortune magazine, with pictures of Wall Street CEOs and their subprime losses -Chuck Prince - Citigroup - $9.8 billionJimmy Cayne - Bear Stearns - $450 millionJohn Mack - Morgan Stanley - $3.7 billionStan O'Neal - Merrill Lynch - $7...

The Height of Political Correctness

Posted on November 15, 2007
I sincerely hope we have reached the top of this wave of political correctness and that we are headed back to normalcy. If this isn't the top, we are in quite a bit of trouble.Santas warned 'ho ho ho' offensive to women: "Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional 'ho ho ho' greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday"

Majority of Associates Leave BigLaw

Posted on November 14, 2007
Legal Times has piece Why Associates Bail Out of Law Firm Life -- and Why It Matters: "The National Association for Law Placement recently released statistics indicating that almost 80 percent of attorneys at large law firms no longer work there five years later...

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Merrill Names NYSE Chief Thain As New CEO

Posted on November 14, 2007
Reuters is gushing - "Merrill Lynch & Co Inc on Wednesday named NYSE Euronext Chief Executive John Thain as its new CEO, bringing in an outsider with a Goldman Sachs pedigree to repair an image battered by wrong-way bets on subprime mortgages."Uhh, how about "...

Genuis Level Blog?

Posted on November 14, 2007
A complete aside, but interesting. Have you seen this blog readability test? You plug in the name of a blog, and it tells you what level of education is required to understand the blog, from genius, down to elementary school.This blog came back as genius, which has more to do with using big words like "securities" and "regulation" and "arbitration" rather than any great writing skills or intellectual ability of the author, but the results of plugging in other blogs is interesting...

Subprime Losses Could Reach $400 Billion

Posted on November 14, 2007
Banks worldwide may lose as much as $400 billion from subprime mortgages, as at least one in four of the risky home loans go into default, analysts said on Monday. Mike Mayo, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities, estimated $150 billion to $250 billion of losses based on $1...

Goldman Folks Still Getting Bonuses

Posted on November 11, 2007
Not everyone on the street is being stiffed this year. Goldman Sachs has put aside $16.9 billion for year-end bonuses. To put the number in perspective, its larger than Bear Stearns?s market cap and Panama?s gross domestic product. Deal Journal

Wal-Mart Says No To BigLaw

Posted on November 03, 2007
All of those salary increases at BigLaw are starting to have an effect. Law Blog - WSJ.com : Wal-Mart Memo To Law Firms: No More Rate Hikes!Powered by ScribeFire.

Citigroup CEO Prince to Resign In Subprime Woes

Posted on November 03, 2007
Citigroup Inc (C.N) Chief Executive Charles Prince plans to resign this weekend, the Wall Street Journal said, as the widening subprime mortgage crisis deals a final blow to a reign long under attack. The largest U.S. bank by assets plans to hold an emergency board meeting on Sunday, at which Prince will step down, the newspaper said on Friday, citing people familiar with the situation...

Merrill Lynch Responds to Wall Street Journal Story

Posted on November 02, 2007
Merrill Lynch has denied the story in the WSJ. A few minutes ago it sent out a press releaseThis morning, an article in the Wall Street Journal about Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., (NYSE: MER - News), relying on unidentified sources, speculated about inappropriate transactions that ?may have been designed? to avoid write-downs that ?might have been? required earlier in the year...

Merrill Shares Fall as Credibility Questioned

Posted on November 02, 2007
Apparently I was not the only one who noticed the parking violation in the story reported by the WSJ this morning. Reuters just released another piece Merrill shares fall as credibility questioned: " Merrill Lynch & Co Inc's credibility is coming under increased attack after an analyst said the biggest brokerage sought to mitigate write-downs by parking subprime-related assets with hedge funds"I obviously do not know the facts, and there could be a rational explanation for this conduct, or the WSJ could have gotten it all wrong...

Merrill Parking Its Bad Subprime Loans?

Posted on November 02, 2007
Everyone is waiting for the other shoes (plural) to drop at Merrill, including an accurate count of its subprime losses, which are expected to go higher. Reuters posted a story this morning with the headline "Hedge Funds deals postpone Merrill losses" which references a Wall Street Journal story that claims that a hedge fund bought $1 billion in commercial paper issued by a Merrill-related entity containing mortgages, and the hedge fund had the right to sell back the commercial paper to Merrill after a year for a guaranteed minimum...

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