Belly Of The Beast
Following up on this post, I attended a weeknight event in Manhattan's financial district recently. During pre-dinner cocktails, I overheard a loud conversation between two guys standing next to me. Mid-30's, well-dressed. I recognized one as an employee of a large sell-side firm considered to be one of the Street's most prestigious (#1 below); the other guy I didn't recognize (#2 below). Not verbatim obviously, but pretty close:
#1: You ever check out any of these stock message boards?
#2: What do you mean?
#1: People post messages about stocks.
#2: Oh yeah.
#1: I was looking at the messages for our stock. There was one complaining about owning it for something like ten years and not making any money on it and asking where all our profits went. I was like, they went into my pocket, it's called a payout, bitch.
A quick chortle, then on to something else. As context, this was after a nasty day in the financial markets.
More from the belly soon.
#1: You ever check out any of these stock message boards?
#2: What do you mean?
#1: People post messages about stocks.
#2: Oh yeah.
#1: I was looking at the messages for our stock. There was one complaining about owning it for something like ten years and not making any money on it and asking where all our profits went. I was like, they went into my pocket, it's called a payout, bitch.
A quick chortle, then on to something else. As context, this was after a nasty day in the financial markets.
More from the belly soon.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Monday, November 17, 2008
5 Comments:
More like this please! Posts like this add some interesting color to the headlines.
The funniest part about that conversation is the revelation that even the employees frequently don't understand what's happened.
In many cases those profits were financially engineered accounting entries. Smoke and mirrors.
Which was then used to justify massive leverage, which in turn generated the cash flow to support said payouts.
It's understandable normal people can't fathom such a house of cards.
Ignorance... arrogance... and entitlement.
I'm thinking they voted for McCain.
I have an IRB (Idiot Republican Boss) whose main claim to fame is that he has pale skin and can pee standing up.... he was horrified at the idea of "redistribution" (even though he's WAY under the likely threshold for a tax increase).
If your main talent is works of fiction, and verticality while urinating, you really are threatened by what's coming - the grand accounting.
God help you.
and, God bless the USA.
Couldn't these guys be prosecuted for fraud? OK, you sell stock in what is supposed to be a profit making enterprise. You incorporate, and corporation law states that the executives are agents of the shareholders. But your actual intention is to boost the stock price, sell stock in the company, and pocket the money. I'm pretty sure that under corporation law this is illegal.
Pitch forks anyone?
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