Too Big to Fail [305]
“Every banker knows that if he has to prove”: Bagehot, Lombard Street, 69.
reversed his earlier decision: On Friday, August 17, 2001, the Fed issued a statement lowering the rate on discount window borrowings, which buoyed the market. “S&P 500 Futures Sharply Higher On Fed Statement,” Dow Jones, August 17, 2007.
“at this point, the troubles in the subprime sector”: Bernanke delivered this speech via satellite to attendees of the 2007 International Monetary Conference in Cape Town, South Africa. See Ben Bernanke, “The Housing Market and Subprime Lending,” June 5, 2007. See http://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bernanke20070605a.htm
“I’ve got some fairly heavy background in mathematics”: Faber, And Then the Roof Caved In, 95.
was also a die-hard Sox fan: Stanley Reed, “Barclays: Anything But Stodgy President Bob Diamond has turned the once-troubled investment banking unit into a powerhouse,” BusinessWeek, April 10, 2006.
they joined the board of Barclays at same time: On June 1, 2005, Robert Diamond Jr., chief executive of investment banking and investment management, joined the board as an executive director, while Robert Steel, former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, joined as a nonexecutive director. “Barclays PLC—Directorate Change,” Regulatory News Service, May 27, 2005.
Diamond had so abruptly left Morgan Stanley in 1992: “‘Coach’ Proud of His Trading Floor Origins,” Financial News, December 4, 2000.
losing an expensive bidding war for Dutch bank ABN AMRO: Seven months after its initial bid for ABN AMRO, and following a battle involving investors in China, Singapore, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and even Bank of America, Barclays withdrew its bid for the Dutch bank on October 5, 2007. Carrick Mollenkamp, “Barclays’s CEO Shifts to Plan B—U.K. Bank Pursues Emerging Markets As ABN Bid Fails,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2007.
CHAPTER FIVE
breakfast meeting with Dick Fuld: Took place on Thursday, April 2, 2008.
counted as one of his best friends Eliot Spitzer: When the prostitution scandal broke, Cramer had this to say about his Harvard Law School pal: “Eliot’s one of my oldest friends, so is Silda. You know, look, I hope it’s not true. You know, I read it like you did—I hope it’s not true…. Eliot’s my friend. So he’s my friend, he’ll be my friend after.” “DealBook: Wall Street on Spitzer: ‘There Is a God,’” New York Times, March 10, 2008.
“the uptick rule”: After the rule’s repeal on July 6, 2007, Cramer continuously lamented the loss on his show Mad Money. “Cramer Is Uptick’d Off” and “Out with Cox, in with Uptick Rule,” Mad Money, CNBC, May 4, 2009, November 21, 2008.,
unbelievable portfolio from Peloton: Founded in 2005 by Ron Beller and Geoffrey Grant, the London hedge fund Peloton Partners was forced into a fire sale in February 2008. Cassell Bryan-Low, Carrick Mollenkamp, and Gregory Zuckerman, “Peloton Flew High, Fell Fast,” Wall Street Journal, May 12, 2008.
Tickets as much as $3,250: Hugo Lindgren, “The Confidence Man,” New York, June 23, 2008.
Tomorrow’s Children Fund: Ira W. Sohn conference proceeds go to this fund, which helps children with serious blood disorders and cancer (Sohn, a trader, died of cancer at twenty-nine). See http://www.atcfkid.com/.
“We start by asking why a security is likely to be misvalued in the market:” Einhorn, Fooling Some of the People All of the Time, 14.
“The Nonrecurring Room”: Jesse Eisinger, “Diary of a Short-Seller,” Condé Nast Portfolio, May 12, 2008.
had announced that it was stopping investors: At 2:30 a.m. on August 9, Dow Jones posted a press release from BNP Paribas: “The complete evaporation of liquidity in certain market segments of the US securitisation [sic] market has made it impossible to value certain assets fairly regardless of their quality or credit rating. The situation is such that it is no longer possible to value fairly the underlying US ABS assets in the three above-mentioned funds. We are therefore unable to calculate a reliable net asset value (“NAV”) for the funds. See BNP Paribas Unit to Suspend NAV Calculation