When Whole Foods co-CEO John Mackey’s book, Conscious Capitalism, came out in January, Claude Arpels and Winsome Brown hosted a book party for about 150 people at their gorgeous and expansive Tribeca apartment. It was a fitting venue. While America’s hard right continues to find new ways to make people hate big business and the Read More
As far as mysteries go, this one kind of disappoints. Michael Dell and his private equity partner, Silver Lake, want us to believe that they have a secret plan for reviving the fortunes of the struggling PC maker, a plan they insist they can only pull off if they take the Austin-based company private in Read More
The lead story in The Daily Beast on April 11 asked the question on many people’s minds: “How Scared Should You Be About North Korea?” I’m no political scientist, but I’ll give you my answer anyway: not at all.
While China may have wider-ranging ambitions than most people realize, it has always been Read More
It seemed like a good idea at the time. When J. C. Penney hired former Apple retail chief Ron Johnson in late 2011, pretty much everyone agreed that things could only get better for the struggling department store chain. The man’s track record spoke for itself—he worked for Apple, for God’s sake! What could go wrong? Read More
It’s easy to hate bankers these days. The latest outrage? According to a March 2 article in The New York Times, the financial services giant JPMorgan Chase encourages its so-called private client advisers to suggest in-house investment products to its well-heeled clientele. The gall! And this was no thinly reported story, either. The Times got its scoop from Read More
In the ocean of money that is Wall Street, things come in waves. Consider the first big merger wave of the modern era: in 1965, there were 2,000 M&A transactions on the U.S. In 1969, at the height of the go-go years, there were more than 6,000. And then in 1974, the number dropped back Read More
When David Einhorn, the poker-playing hedge fund superstar, decides to publicly take on a company whose stock he owns (or has shorted), he usually gets results. Once you establish a reputation for astute calls on Wall Street—Mr. Einhorn’s most famous being his bearish call on Lehman in the spring of 2008—the lemmings can’t help but Read More
When you’re learning a new language, the best sign that you’ve got a lock on it is when it’s in your dreams. It’s a pretty sure thing, then, that many among us have used the new language of “i
Phone” or “iPad” while asleep—because we all speak Apple now. Investors, too. But whereas Read More
In 1987, I began my rookie assignment on the stock sales and trading desk for Morgan Stanley. A few weeks later the stock market crashed, and I learned my first important lesson about the pecking order on the Street. As a newcomer, my senses were on high alert. Across the floor, a trader named Chuck stood with a phone pressed hard against his ear as he barked out ear-piercing commands. Closer by, I found an island of serenity as the carnival of capital plunged into chaos. His name was Lou, and he was a smooth-talking senior salesman with a magnificent collection of suspenders. Read More
It has a 24-hour doorman and river views, but the real appeal of 377 Rector Place—a building that is about as bland as a luxury tower can be—lies in its name: Liberty House. Particularly if one is about to start a 10-year prison sentence.
The New York Post reports that Peter Madoff and wife Marion have moved into a $3,200-per month one-bedroom rental in the Battery Park City building. For someone who has agreed, as part of plea bargain, to the criminal forfeiture of $143.1 billion, including all real estate and personal property, a rental is definitely the way to go. Read More
