Whither Europe: Greece’s center-right New Democracy party won 29.7 of the vote in parliamentary elections yesterday, claiming the 50-seat bonus for winning the most votes and positioning the party to form a coalition that would keep the country in the bailout-for-austerity agreement signed with European rescuers. Alex Tsipras’ Syriza party, which had promised to Read More
Whither Europe: “The Spanish government has very limited financial market access,” Moody’s said in a statement yesterday to announce the ratings company had cut Spain’s grade three levels to Baaa3, one level above junk. Spain’s borrowing cost on 10-year bonds hovered near 7 percent, up from 5.1 percent at the beginning of the year. Moody’s also cut Cyprus’s grade on fears of contagion following the results of the Greece’s June 17 elections.
The downgrade didn’t prevent Spain’s Amancio Ortega, founder of retail giant Inditex, from becoming Europe’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
“We have no sense that European partners will follow this tactic of blackmail heard from some quarters and stop funding,” Alex Tsipras, leader of Greece’s anti-bailout Syriza party told Bloomberg Television. Rather, Mr. Tsipras thinks that Greece can break the terms of the European rescue agreement signed by a previous Greek government without being forced to exit the eurozone. Read More
Whither Europe: Greeks are withdrawing $1 billion daily and hording dry foods ahead of June 17 elections that may hasten the country’s exit from Europe’s monetary union.
An ill-timed acquisition has made Credit Agricole the foreign bank with the most to lose in the Greek crisis.
Despite Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s assertion Read More
And it had nothing to do with Lloyd Blankfein, the Goldman Sachs chief executive officer whose presence in Judge Jed Rakoff’s courtroom last week lent a few light moments to what has been a tedious undertaking. No, we’re talking about news that Mark Schwartz, the banker who headed Goldman’s Asian operations from 1999 to Read More
Rajat Gupta, the former McKinsey & Co. chief executive accused of leaking corporate secrets to hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam, will not testify in his own defense, according to a letter sent by Mr. Gupta’s lead attorney Gary P. Naftalis to Judge Jed Rakoff yesterday:
“We have the spent the last day reviewing what Read More
As we remarked this morning, the wheels of justice have been turning slowly in the insider-trading trial of Rajat Gupta, the former McKinsey & Co. chief executive accused of funneling corporate secrets to Galleon Group hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam.
Indeed, so slowly that Judge Jed Rakoff has exhorted attorneys to liven up proceedings, Read More
For anyone who’d like to see the bank executives who led America into the teeth of the financial crisis strung up by the laces of their Prada wingtips, a trip to the Southern District courthouse in Lower Manhattan may be a deflating experience.
The Observer had come to the federal courthouse seeking succor. Late last Read More
To the list of difficulties in prosecuting securities fraud, let’s just say people who’ve pleaded guilty to insider trading do not make the most credible witnesses.
Exhibit A: Michael Cardillo, a former-Galleon Group trader who is cooperating with the government’s case against Rajat Gupta, the one-time McKinsey & Co. CEO charged with feeding tips Read More
After 16 years presiding over white collar cases in the U.S. District Court’s Southern District, you’d think Judge Jed Rakoff would be hard to disallusion. Not so. It only took six days for the insider trading trial of Rajat Gupta—the former McKinsey & Co. CEO accused of tipping Galleon Group hedge fund manager Raj Rajaratnam to sensitive corporate secrets—to cause Mr. Rakoff to hang his head in dismay. Read More
Squeeze play: JPMorgan has been selling profitable securities to prop up second-quarter results after the bank’s chief investment office and the trader known as the London Whale incurred billions in losses. The asset sales may be tax inefficient, and will deprive the lender of future gains, which is just too bad for Jamie Dimon’s firm. With its share price down 18 percent from the day before the trading losses were first reported, JPMorgan is under pressure to generate earnings. Read More
