Posted on 02/15/2009 9:03:47 PM PST by marshmallow
Every bank has risk officers. But amid the egos and clamour of a Square Mile boardroom scenting profits, the voices of caution were all too easily drowned out.
It was the ultimate proof of the City's burgeoning power over New York. At least that's what it looked like when London-based Roger Nagioff replaced Wall Street's Michael Gelband as Lehman Brothers' global head of the firm's fixed-income division in May 2007.
Dick Fuld, the chairman and chief executive of Lehman Brothers, told his PR minders to portray the appointment as a sign of how his booming empire had broadened into a truly global operation.
And, before the first signs of the banking collapse that was to sweep America and Europe appeared, it was faithfully reported that Gelband, who had been at the bank for 24 years, was running an underperforming division and that one of London's finest could do better. Gelband, it was said, was leaving the firm "to pursue other interests".
The truth, though, was somewhat different. Gelband was, according to Lehman insiders, at loggerheads with Fuld's lieutenants. He had railed against a huge buying of a collection of sub-prime mortgage lenders, and also in particular a $15bn property consortium bid, led by Lehman, to buy America's biggest apartment company at the top of the market.
That deal was signed off by the bank's entire executive committee - but not by Gelband, because he no longer sat on it. According to Lehman insiders, he was almost alone among the 26,000-strong organisation in being prepared to stand up to the now disgraced former chairman and chief executive of what has become the world's biggest bankrupt company.
Almost alone, but not quite: there was one other. Madelyn Antoncic, a 12-year veteran of Goldman Sachs, a former board member at Barclays Capital -.....
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
They just roll in the wheelbarrows of cash when the game ends.
As I recall, there were a number of FReepers who were dinging the warning bell since even before the Enron wipeout.
Some were banned.
All were harassed and derided. (Esp the “tin foil hat” canard, which is older than dirt now, but no matter)
Nobody wanted to hear anyone rain on their parade.
Well, get ready. There’s a few inches in the forecast now...
Banking like Congress cannot police itself.
“Stop me before I lend again!”
Any names of the banned Freepers of whom you speak?
Big BANKING IS government....why would they stop themselves? They are intertwined...
“
As I recall, there were a number of FReepers who were dinging the warning bell since even before the Enron wipeout.
Some were banned.
All were harassed and derided. (Esp the “tin foil hat” canard, which is older than dirt now, but no matter)
Nobody wanted to hear anyone rain on their parade.
Well, get ready. There’s a few inches in the forecast now...”
Amen!
It's probably a good example of what you're talking about.
1960-1979 = 170 mergers per year
Prior to 1980’s Prohibition against interstate banking and state-level restrictions on branch banking and multiple bank ownership
DIDMCA (1980) and Garn St. Germaine (1982)
1980-1989 = 498 mergers per year
In 1980’s mergers and acquisitions were means for banks to penetrate new markets.
1990-1998 = 514 mergers per year
The Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching (IBBF) Act of 1994 allowed bank holding companies to acquire banks in any state after September 29, 1995 and allowed mergers between banks located in different states after June 1, 1997.
After Riegggle-Neale Act, banks have the full freedom to acquire another out-of-state bank in order to expand geographically across state lines and to diversify geographically and by product.
Pretty much! But multiply that thread by a hundred or more!
A couple of them kept saying Greenspan had nothing to do with the bubble and was pure as the driven snow, even AFTER we found (and quoted) the Greenspan speech to Congress where he urged “non traditional mortgage products”.
It’s a mess. And all those shysters have “plausible deniability”. Maybe in this life.
But karma’s a bitch!
These days, despite appearances, banks are doing their best not to look stupid.
; )
BTW, they are Tsunami Warnings with a sightings right off the port and starboard sides.
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