32-Floors of Anxiety
Interesting take via Bloomberg on the Barclay’s takeover of Lehman:
"The name on the building is gone. So is the fast-moving video display of clouds in a blue sky over a wheat field combed by wind and followed by a message: “Delivering our firm to clients worldwide.”
In their place on the façade of the 32-story headquarters building of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. at 745 Seventh Avenue in Manhattan is the white and blue logo of Barclays Plc. Inside, former Lehman employees still wear the green and white security badges of the 158-year-old bankrupt investment bank and wonder if they’ll be gone.
Nine days after Barclays agreed to pay $1.75 billion for Lehman’s investment banking and capital markets, including its headquarters, former Lehman employees at 745 say they’re in limbo on whether they’ll be retained by Barclays and under what conditions."
These are strange and interesting days . . .
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Source:
Barclays Puts Logo on Lehman Office, Gets 32-Floors of Anxiety
Serena Saitto
Bloomberg, Sept. 26 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a3m8E8E2l93A&
September 26th, 2008 at 9:27 am
“These are strange and interesting days . . .”
Indeed. How is it that the Republican President’s bailout plan’s biggest supporters are Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank? dc
September 26th, 2008 at 9:51 am
does this world financial system have a Microsoft style Restore OS to Mar07 backup function?
September 26th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Our goal: is to destroy value for our share-holders and clients, by developing and delevering shity derivative-based-securities.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:52 am
My wife, who walks past Lehman every day, says that the building lighting has been changing in weird, ominous ways.
On Wednesday, she said that the images were gone. The lighting was all red, and THROBBING in intensity, like a slow heartbeat. Everyone in her office who saw it, thought it was very bad juju. As do I.
Who was the madman on the light board? Is he programming the settlement system too? Oh, my …
September 26th, 2008 at 9:54 am
if there were a single headline that sums up Vince Farrell’s attitude towards the whole crisis, it is the one he just wrote this morning: “Let the Leaders Lead: It’s time to act, and we have the right people doing the job”
September 26th, 2008 at 9:55 am
I INTERRUPT THIS THREAD WITH A VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE:
Bush to Wall Street: Don’t fret, a mortgage plan will pass
9:46 AM ET | Marketwatch
REMEMBER, HE IS THE DECIDER.
September 26th, 2008 at 9:56 am
Modern day GOP is the party that wreaked America’s middle class and McCain’s agenda is just more the same.
We’ll see on Nov 4 if more Americans can be hoodwinked and vote against their self interests 3 times in a row.
If so they win the trifecta to the poor house
September 26th, 2008 at 10:00 am
What happened to Neuberger? It was the crown gem (supposedly) of Lehman, and sell rumors swirled. Is it on the block, sold?
September 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
Fraud disclosure and Freudian slip of the tongue on world wide tv this morning:
There are…errrr, aspects of this that are suspic…. errrhh…
September 26th, 2008 at 10:30 am
“These are strange and interesting days ”
Nowhere near as strange and interesting as they will be if McRiskitallonawhim and Mrs Moosekiller somehow make it to the White House.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:30 am
“These are strange and interesting days ”
Nowhere near as strange and interesting as they will be if McRiskitallonawhim and Mrs Moosekiller somehow make it to the White House.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:27 am
Bush-haters should take note their own party was at the helm in Congress – Barack and Nancy included – when the storm was easily visible, and did NOTHING to stop it. Democrats Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are big advocates of the Paulson Plan. Barack Hussein Obama, Agent of Change, is essentially trying to sidestep the whole thing RIGHT NOW as a sitting US Senator. He, Barney, and Nancy will not save you.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:32 am
Affirmative Action home-loans were the root cause of the crisis that is taking down the American banking system. Imagine what an Affirmative Action president can do! Go Barry!!
September 26th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Politically, I think the GOP has to position itself as “against” the bailout. It’s a great move.
Their actual plan looks like “Skippy instead of Jif”. But, just the fact that they’re “against” something Bush proposed helps at a superficial level support the argument (within GOP circles) that Bush “is a liberal and not a conservative”. If the Dems appear to be more politically aligned with the Toxic President on the most important event right before the election, then people might conclude Obama — not McCain — represents “4 more years”.
At the very least, it makes matters so confusing that it might take away the political advantage Obama had on economic matters. Instead of talking about policy, now the MSM is discussing a narrow, inconsequential issue of “who parachuted in and did it help?”. It’s another “missing white woman” headline to entertain and distract.
I think the move will help the GOP, if it hasn’t already.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:41 am
McCain/Palin = Unstable/Unable
September 26th, 2008 at 11:45 am
@wunsacon: You might be right but unless they put a muzzle on Palin over the next 5 weeks, McCain is toast. She’s utterly clueless and even conservative hacks are starting to admit that.
If the race issue wasn’t a factor, this would already be over. That’s the only thing keeping the race remotely close (if you assume the polls are right, which I don’t because they’re vastly underestimating voter turnout) at this point.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:46 am
therealjg, the bubble peak was 2005. Since then, it’s been an unwind. As Mises says, there’s no way to avoid the pain post-peak. The only way to avoid the pain of the bust is to avoid the bubble.
Not to mention the fact that there was so much fraud by the GOP during the prior years that any subsequent party had the duty to investigate.
RW, don’t be a troll.
September 26th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
sweet! maybe i will go over to 7th ave later today and heckle those douchebags who’re still at the lehman offices. they have it coming.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Bonus pools drying up at investment banks
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are delaying decisions about year-end
compensation until they have a better idea over fourth-quarter revenue figures.
Compensation expenses are dropping sharply across the major firms. Credit
Suisse said compensation expenses for the first half were down 43% year-overyear
while UBS said compensation expenses were down 50%. For more, take a
look at page 4 of today’s FT, “Big Investment Banks Postpone Bonus Decisions.”