Posted on 08/17/2007 7:42:13 AM PDT by Hydroshock
LONDON (CNNMoney.com) -- Job cuts have begun at Bear Stearns and that could mark the start of a broader wave of layoffs across Wall Street as firms survey the damage caused by the recent downturn in financial markets.
Some 240 employees at a Bear Stearns lending unit were laid off Wednesday, according to a company spokesperson.
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The pink slips come a little more than a month after two of the firm's hedge funds blew up, ultimately costing Bear Stearns co-president Warren Spector his job.
The meltdown in financial markets is likely to lead to more job cuts on Wall Street, headhunters say.
"Certainly some departments are going to be hurt," said Danny Sarch, president of Leitner Sarch Consultants, a New York firm which specializes in the financial services industry.
Credit contagion: Is the worst over? In many cases, the divisions which have been hit most by the recent downturn are the ones that have been aggressively growing their headcount. The prime brokerage business, which services hedge funds, for instance, has grown dramatically in recent years, Sarch noted.
(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...
It’s a Bentley Continental GT500, $170K plus or minus new. And every 25 year old MBA, former Lacrosse player, M & A account executive, must have one in the livery.
ping
I’m going to have to steal that!
Excerpt:
Two days before the Federal Reserve stunned markets with a cut in the Discount Rate, governor William Poole said that nothing short of "calamity" would cause the bank to make an unscheduled change in policy. So do we now face calamity, or was Mr Poole being flippant?Stock market Geee Gaaaws getting you down? Experts recommend moving to safe havens and getting out of the way. Things will get worse before they get better. The lending fraud tape worm is eating away at our economy. But nobody wants to talk about what is really going on.All we know is that Japan's Nikkei index crashed 5.4pc overnight on Friday, and that the US commercial paper market seized up last week as borrowers failed to roll over $91bn (£46bn) in short-term loans.
We have hints that the request for the rate cut came from the San Francisco branch, so watch out for bank distress on the West Coast during the next few days. Source Here
Let's all hope Congress will have the stones to really investigate what is going on with all those garbage mortgage tranches. But don't hold your breath. Congress has been bought and paid for by the BIG tape worm. Check my posts if you are not doing so regularly.
Excerpt:
Rather than being a liquidity crisis like the 1998 failure of Long-Term Capital Management -- which was more like a run on the bank and was stemmed by the powers that be -- Roubini describes the current situation as a "liquidity crisis that signals a more fundamental debt, credit and insolvency crisis among many economic agents in the U.S. and global economy." * * *"Now is the time to act. Let the crooks go bankrupt. Central banks should bury the Greenspan 'put' for good." * * *
"It's always possible that this time around, the central banks will let capitalism work. That could help hasten the cleansing process -- aka creative destruction -- which would be a positive development, for sure."
Don't bet the house on good things happening. But if you refinanced your home to buy new a SUV or play the stock markets -- better seek a safe haven right away.
Irvine and Costa Mesa. The loansters from New Century are having them repo'ed.
Sounds like sour grapes of a loan broker, blaming all those nasty people for wrecking the frau.., the 'business model'. Cheese with that whine?
Don’t be too surprised to find that some of these are coming in the the big boys compliance departments. Remember, at the end of July NASD and the regulatory part of NYSE merged, so now the big firms are only reporting to one SRO.
And I assure you, the compliance schlubs getting laid off were’nt buying Bentlys or Ferraris when they employed and the markets were booming. I can guarantee that...
Excerpt:
Capital One Financial Corporation today announced that it will cease residential mortgage origination operations at its wholesale mortgage banking unit, GreenPoint Mortgage, effective immediately. Current conditions in the secondary mortgage markets create significant near-term profitability challenges, given the company's "originate and sell" business model. Further, recent and continuing developments in the mortgage markets reduce the long- term outlook for profitability in the business, as the company expects markets for prime, non-conforming mortgage products are likely to remain challenged for the foreseeable future.Capital One and Thornburg Lose $1.8 BGreenPoint Mortgage will cease making new loan commitments immediately, however, it will continue to meet its contractual obligations to customers for loan commitments that are in the pipeline with rates locked.
The US mortgage meltdown continued to spread on Monday as two big lenders announced expected losses of a combined $1.8 bn.
Capital One Financial, one of the largest US credit card providers, said it would close its wholesale home lending unit, GreenPoint Mortgage, and take an after-tax charge of $860m, most of it coming this year.
Capital One said it would reduce its 2007 earnings guidance by $2.15 to $5.00 per share and would eliminate 1,900 jobs.
Meanwhile, Thornburg Mortgage, which provides big mortgages on expensive properties, said it would record a $930m third quarter loss on the sale of mortgage-backed bonds.
And yada, yada, yada . . . More of the same.
Wow ! 5 Updates already on Bloomberg.
Cannot excerpt the link But I can tell you that CFC was downgraded to ``underperform.'' KBW said a liquidity crisis was spreading to the company's bank.
CFC stock price fell over 7.5% today in heavy trading.
Nohing to see here, people. Move along, move along. If you have money there . . . don't know what to tell you.
This is just the beginning of the bear market.
800 layoffs in Chandler AZ.....
the Countrywide Bank in California is having a run on its money....and these are people taking millions out.
No, the beginning of a recession.
I agree, although most in the business media will down play the ‘R’ word, and never use the ‘D’ word.
The only people whining are the Marxists who oppose open markets in debt obligations.
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