It’s been a bad week for the image minders in the private equity industry. First, Henry Kravis bemoaned the industry’s awful reputation, and now a tax-reform plan – floated by a Republican (gasp!) – threatens to axe its carried-interest tax goodie. Meanwhile, investors like Carl Icahn that once were reviled as “corporate raiders” have been […]
UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti bravely launched a defense of the banking sector and hit out at its critics in a candid interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In this post, we imagine the conversation Ermotti had with his PR chieftain when he returned from the mountains.
The surprise resignation of PIMCO’s Mohamed El-Erian rocked the investment world. Such an abrupt leadership change is almost unknown among investment firms, and with El-Erian’s sky-high public profile his departure was even more newsworthy. The change signals a big shift for PIMCO and a greater focus on restoring its performance after a poor few years. […]
You can count on the editorial page of the New York Times to spoil a good party. With Twitter’s IPO poised to raise nearly $2 billion, the market is looking healthier than it has in years. But a Times editorial said new-stock offerings should “raise suspicion, not excitement.” That’s a stunningly harsh assessment, even among […]
The kind folks at Fox Business invited me to join their conversation about Nasdaq’s response to its trading blackout and the performance of CEO Bob Greifeld: via Fox
The folks at Bitcoin have taken a very aggressive stance with regulators, who are eyeing the digital currency with suspicion. It’s following a path blazed by another upstart industry that operated in a grey zone of regulation – online gaming. That ended in a flurry of arrests and indictments. Will Bitcoin meet the same fate? […]
It has been quite a week for apologies. Hedge fund supremo Bill Ackman expressed regret over his money-losing bet on J.C. Penney. Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Bloomberg, released the results of an independent review of its data security and editorial practices and pledged steps to strengthen both. But when it came to the week’s biggest […]
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman used the F word – failure – to describe his disastrous investment in retailer J.C. Penney. Mr. Ackman’s admission was honest, surprising and very shrewd. It is a risk that likely will pay off handsomely in the months ahead.
Readers of the Sunday New York Times found a scowling, unshaven Larry Summers on the front page, accompanying an article that questioned his fitness to lead the Fed given his close ties to Wall Street. The article was a first-rate takedown – a savaging that was thin on facts and lacking any kind of balance. […]
There’s a fresh example of brand advertising by a big bank that is little more than self-congratulatory nonsense. This time it’s Caixa, the top savings bank in Spain.