From the San Francisco Chronicle: The crisis on Wall Street is plaguing Sesame Street. Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit producer of “Sesame Street” and other kids’ programs, is cutting 20 percent of its workforce because of the economic downturn. These are dark days indeed. This disastrous economy has reached the point where even MAKE-BELIEVE places are reporting…
Cuomo to Thain: I Know What You Did Last Christmas
Aww Yeah! Forget about that Jon Stewart vs. James Cramer noise…who cares? The real action is taking place in the New York State Attorney General’s Circle of Death between Andrew Cuomo aka Spitzer 2.0 and Merrill Lynch aka the Hamburglar of Wall Street. From DealBook (NYT) The office of Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo filed…
Jamie Dimon is a Dreamboat
I’m a happily married man, but Jamie Dimon’s Chamber of Commerce speech today set my heart aflutter and was EXACTLY what the market and the media needed to hear after the last few weeks. A lot of the mud that’s been hurled at Wall Street lately has been completely warranted but at a certain point, its…
I Can Haz LOLFed?
Today, we’re going to talk about one of my guiltiest pleasures on the financial web, LOLFed. I go through withdrawal when I can’t check in to see what Alyx and Jason have cooked up on LOLFed.com each day, as the economic and stock market news gets more and more ridiculous. For the uninitiated, LOLFed is…
Get-Tarp Hero: Take This TARP and Shove It
More banks giving the money back. Fabulous. I dont care that their reasons are selfish, the point is that there are winners and losers again and someone out there still has some fight left in them. From the New York Times: Financial institutions that are getting government bailout funds have been told to put off…
A Guide to Prison Gangs for Bernie Madoff
Dear Bernie, News of the 150 year jail sentence you may be facing has reached The Reformed Broker in his lair this evening and so I decided to take a moment out to offer some advice. Picking a prison gang is an important choice, not unlike choosing a Palm Beach country club or a Hebrew…
Coming Soon: The Uptick Rule
The word today is that The Uptick Rule, the best line of defense we haven’t had in place for the last year, may be making a comeback. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the head of the House Financial Services committee, said that the SEC should restore the so-called “uptick” rule within a month, Reuters is reporting….
Ritholtz: Get Long Torches and Pitchforks
Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture makes the case for Bank Nationalization, this time in a fantastic interview on Yahoo!’s Tech Ticker. Must-see whether you agree or not. Ritholtz on TechTicker
Don't Blame the Repeal of Glass-Steagall…Blame Risk Management
Over on Breakingviews, Hugo Dixon is taking issue with those who believe bringing back some version of the Glass-Steagall Act would prevent the financial collapse we’re now fighting through every day. Why would anybody run a casino and a utility under the same roof? That is the supposedly killer argument of those who want to…
TMI, Warren Buffett, TMI.
Are you kidding me with this guy? Get off the TV already! Enough! Is it me or has Warren Buffett made more television appearances lately than Ryan Seacrest? Today was a full court press with Warren on CNBC more than Erin Burnett. They asked him like 90 questions, he even sat there while they dissected…
