This is a ChatGPT-free Zone
So I was travelling a little bit and wandered around in a large mall nearby (living in NYC, I don’t do malls that often) and took some interesting pictures. OK, maybe not so intesting to most of you. There is nothing new here as this is something we all know: Apple stores are always packed and…
(Warning: The above title is a title of a blog post, not a news headline!) OK, so I asked in my last post if GS would be better off as part of a bigger bank and I couldn’t put that thought away. In the past there were rumored merger partners like Wachovia (that was just…
Bank of America announced their earnings and it looks OK. Of course, there is still an issue with low interest rates and loan growth like at other banks. This is not intended to be a full recap of BAC’s second quarter. I don’t want to comment on every quarterly announcement of companies I talk about…
So I keep hearing people say that Wall Street firms exist only for their employees. One guy on Bloomberg TV said that GS only exists for it’s employees; why not get that compensation down and return some of it to shareholders? As proof that GS exists only for the employees, he states that compensation is…
Howard Marks was on Bloomberg TV yesterday and it was a great interview. I think Bloomberg TV is way better than CNBC these days as they seem to ask better questions and give the guests more time to answer questions (rather than trying to make them say things that the interviewer wants to hear, or…
This must have been one of the most anticipated corporate conference calls ever. I have to admit to looking forward to it too. Anyway, we finally see the big number. This is not a summary of the conference call which lasted two hours, but just some thoughts. Whale Loss Rumors of losses were as high as…
OK, I have to stop with these misleading post titles. You can’t really do a stub trade on Bank of America (BAC) as a stub can only happen when the piece you want to back out is publicly traded. Anyway, with News Corp breaking up (after repeatedly saying it’s not going to happen) and many…
Nelson Peltz’s Trian Partners bought a 5.1% stake in Lazard recently and has supported Lazard’s new strategic plan. I haven’t looked at these independent advisory firms too closely in the past as they have usually traded at very high levels. The other independent advisory firms are Evercore Partners (EVR) and Greenhill & Co (GHL). Also, revenues are correlated to…
OK, so that’s a dramatic statement. This post will no doubt come across as way too sympathetic to banks, but since I see that the SEC is looking into money market funds, I thought I’d make a post about it. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while. The banks have been…
I mentioned recently that what I fear most for U.S. banks is what happened in Japan; low interest rates for a long time. If long term interest rates keep going lower, this will put pressure on bank net interest margins and therefore profits. So I decided to take a quick look at this and found…