Same Missteps Felled 2 Wall Street Stars

As Citi, Merrill searches show, Wall Street is now a tough place to grow managers

(NEWSER) - With Citigroup and Merrill Lynch both suddenly searching for new CEOs, the Wall Street Journal looks at why the list of contenders for the top jobs at Wall Street's biggest firms is so short. Start with an earn-or-die corporate culture, which taints talented chief executives who fail to deliver in short order, as well as division heads who tend to be sacrificed to an unhappy board when they have a bad quarter. More»

It's not just the firings: others are leaving for safer jobs

(NEWSER) - The financial crisis is reshaping not just the landscape of Wall Street, but its face as well, reports the New York Times in a look at the hemorrhaging of the Street's top talent. Layoffs aside, finance's best and brightest—arguably the same daring risk-takers responsible for the recession—are seizing the chance to retire early, or more often, fleeing federally overseen big banks in favor of more cash and opportunity at smaller boutiques. More»

Top bankers, Obama advisers to skip Swiss summit

(NEWSER) - The swanky Davos economic summit was once a top destination for financial and economic power players, but many are skipping the glitz this year for fear of sending the wrong message in a tanking economic climate, Reuters reports. Treasury secretary-designate Timothy Geithner is sitting out the resort event, as are other top appointees, Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit, and recently ousted Bank of America chief John Thain. More»

Banks, like homeowners, refused to believe how bad things really are

(NEWSER) - The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the fire sale of Merrill Lynch are stunning developments, Joe Nocera writes in the New York Times, as is the fact Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are the only big investment banks standing. But the turmoil isn’t simply the result of complex trading instruments gone awry, Nocera writes; “what’s going on is something we are all familiar with: denial.” More»

(NEWSER) - Barclay's dropping out of a Lehman deal means that the Feds lost a game of chicken with the big banks holding Lehman mortgages, and now there will be a disorderly liquidation of Lehman assets, instead of the orderly liquidation that would have been possible with a real buyer, James Cramer writes on TheStreet.com. The question is how big a hit those owning Lehman mortgages will take. More»