Citi :: Spero Consulting

September 2010
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
« Aug	«-»
	1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30

Financial-overhaul, Bank Ratings & Scenario Analysis

Andy Spero | May 24, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) |

Have Banks or Regulators Required Such Analyses?

There’s an interesting article in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal with the title, Overhaul Puts Bank Ratings at Risk.

The article explains how the version of the financial industry regulation bill that was passed by the Senate significantly weakens implicit government support for banks that were or may still be presumed to be “too-big-to-fail.” If that version of the bill becomes law “TBTF” will have been transformed to “NTBTF,” depending upon the whims and fears of the regime in charge… Read the rest

Phibro and the Citi Hall Mess

Andy Spero | August 5, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) |

The Wall Street Journal has an excellent editorial in today’s edition: The $100 Million Banker.

Why do we say the editorial is “excellent?” For the usual reason; it is nearly identical to what we’ve written in the past: give Mr. Hall his money and ban prop trading at regulated banks.

If you missed those posts, see these two recent ones: Prop Trading and Pay at Banks and The Children Who Have Eaten Their Cake… Those two provide links to many related ones, too. The latter one promises… Read the rest

The Children Who Have Eaten Their Cake…

Andy Spero | August 1, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) |

We hate it when one of our favorite quotes is used against us, but that is the nature of our queen and chairman. (Although she does it in a good-natured, light-hearted, and humorous way, there is steely resolve in her teasing words.)

Actually, she didn’t use the exact quote; instead, she updated it and made it more relevant to the situation at hand. That made it all the more painful. Her version with reference to today’s lunch, or shall we say the absence of lunch was: “The children who have… Read the rest

Prop Trading and Pay at Banks

Andy Spero | July 25, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) |

There is an article in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal that attempts to frame Citi’s pay “dilemma” with trader Andrew Hall of its Phibro unit as some type of Gordian Knot: Citi in $100 Million Pay Clash. It’s not.

It seems that Citicorp will legally owe Mr. Hall about $100 million for his compensation in 2009, but Citi’s senior managers are concerned about the political ramifications of paying such a large amount. The last time we checked, Citi had taken about $45,000,000,000–yes, $45 billion–from wealthy, middle-class, and… Read the rest

What Is Citigroup Worth?

Andy Spero | January 14, 2009 | 1 Comment(s) |

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial in today’s paper–January 14–that seems to be ripped from our headlines: it calls for the dismemberment of Citigroup, and it implies that Citi has lost its right to exist. (See When Is Enough Enough?, for example, or any of our calls to nationalize it.)

As we’ve seen in various news reports, Citigroup has lost about $30,000,000,000 or so in the last five quarters and has received about $45,000,000,000 in TARP funds, and the… Read the rest

When Is Enough Enough?

Andy Spero | January 12, 2009 | 0 Comment(s) |

Last Monday, The Wall Street Journal published a small survey of mostly academic economists in Experts’ Rx on How to Get Out of This Mess. (Perhaps “academic economist” is redundant.)

We couldn’t tell whether a few of the replies were poorly edited or were inherently trite, e.g., to paraphrase we need long-term solutions, new risk measures, and the ability to separate the good and bad firms. You don’t say!

Anyway, we did like Douglas Diamond’s response: “You have lots of carrots and no sticks right now.”

The reporter, Justin… Read the rest

The Seventy-Year-Old Teenager

Andy Spero | November 29, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

The Curious Case of Robert Rubin

The weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal has a front page interview with Robert Rubin: Rubin, Under Fire, Defends His Role at Citi.

We’ve criticized Citi’s board in the (recent) past, and we’re still particularly fixated on the fact that few directors had financial industry experience. That seems neither wise nor even prudent for a financial institution with over $3,000,000,000,000 of assets. (That’s $3 trillion, but we like to write it out for effect, because it seems like a lot of money.)

As… Read the rest

Bill's and Bill's*

Andy Spero | November 24, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

Bill’s and Bill’s, Bill’s and Bill’s
It’s bailout time, for the Citi
Plead-a-ling, hear them sing
To-day, it is our bail-out day!

Citi sideways, Wall Street sideways
Dressed in bank hol-i-day style
In the air there’s a feeling of Christmas
Bankers laughing, taxes passing
Wasting pile after pile
And on every street corner you’ll hear…

Trill’s and Trill’s, Trill’s and Trill’s
It’s Christmas time for the Citi
Plead-a-ling, hear them all sing
“We want… Read the rest

Should Citi Be Nationalized as a Warning to Others?

Andy Spero | November 21, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

Note: We’ll likely expand and edit this post in the morning, but wanted to circulate the idea before bedtime.

We’re rather diligent–but not obsessed– about keeping up with financial new.¹ We’ve heard many financial firms announce lay-offs and have read how at a few, like Goldman, senior managers have decided to forgo bonuses.

As we recall, most banks have announced withdrawals from subprime mortgage origination and loans, which seems like a wise move, but given the magnitude of their errors and mistakes, we’re very surprised that we haven’t read… Read the rest

The Failure of Boards to Direct

Andy Spero | November 13, 2008 | 0 Comment(s) |

Analogously: The Gangs That Can’t Shoot Straight

Last week in The Understatement of the Year! we wrote, “The problem, dear reader, is that few senior managers (and almost no board members) understand the valuation and risk models used for securitizations…”

Today, there is an article in The Wall Street Journal, Citi Directors Mull Replacing Chairman, that provides additional evidence to support our claim.

To be frank, unless it is we, we don’t really care who Citi selects as a chairman, and we doubt that you do, also.

We’re… Read the rest

Search

Our Other Web Sites

Translator

Page Navigation

Categories

Previous Posts

Switch site

Sign-up for Our RSS Feed