RE: Salomon Brothers
Corporate Cowboys these bunch of people are.
Salomon was a partnership until the early 1980s, when it was acquired by the commodity trading firm then known as Phibro Corporation.
This proved a “wag the dog” type merger as the parent company became first Phibro-Salomon and then Salomon Inc.
Salomon trader Paul Mozer was caught submitting false bids to the U.S. Treasury, in an attempt to purchase more Treasury bonds than permitted by one buyer between December 1990 and May 1991.
Salomon was fined $290 million, the largest fine ever levied on an investment bank at the time, weakening it and eventually leading to its acquisition by Travelers Group
Eventually Salomon was acquired by Travelers Group in 1998, and following the latter’s merger with Citicorp that same year, Salomon became part of Citigroup.
Although the Salomon name carried on as Salomon Smith Barney, which were the investment banking operations of Citigroup, the name was ultimately abandoned in October 2003 after a series of financial scandals that tarnished the bank’s reputation.
Of course Citigroup eventually had to be RESCUED by the tax payers as a result of their involvement in the subprime debacle.
Anything new ??
Very good information there. Just as an FYI . . . Michael Lewis’ book focuses on the short period of time when he was employed there (the mid-1980s), with some historical references to the earlier days of the firm when he went into great detail about the history of the mortgage bond industry.