investment banks

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Goldman Analyst Bullish on Stocks' Recovery

Cohen predicts S&P to gain 10% by Jan 2010

(Newser) - A top Goldman Sachs forecaster predicts the recovery in stocks that began in March should hold, Reuters reports. The S&P 500 could rise as much as 10% from its current level to top 1,050-1,100, says Abby Joseph Cohen, the chief of Goldman’s investment policy committee. "...

JPMorgan Profit Jumps 36%, Defying Expectations
JPMorgan Profit Jumps 36%, Defying Expectations
EARNINGS REPORT

JPMorgan Profit Jumps 36%, Defying Expectations

(Newser) - JPMorgan Chase, the largest bank to repay TARP money, posted second-quarter earnings of $2.7 billion—smashing analysts' predictions with a 36% increase in profit. The bank became America's second-largest after hoovering up Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual, and like Goldman Sachs it has used a boom in investment banking...

Be Very Afraid: Goldman Sachs Is Smiling
Be Very Afraid: Goldman Sachs Is Smiling
OPINION

Be Very Afraid: Goldman Sachs Is Smiling

High-risk model hasn't changed, could lead to new crisis, says Reich

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs is back in the black, with trading and stock underwriting revenues at an all-time high—and that should scare you, former Clinton cabinet member Robert Reich writes in Salon. While Goldman's earnings may signal that the current crisis is abating, the bank hasn't modified high-risk strategies that forced...

Goldman Readies Record Bonuses

Recession doesn't curb bank's bounty

(Newser) - A wildly successful first half is pointing to the best year ever for Goldman Sachs, and that means record staff bonuses in the midst of the recession, the Guardian reports. Revenues have soared at the bank, which now has little competition; it promised in April that half of its nearly...

Top Subprime Lenders Owned by Bailout Banks

Analysis of gov't data reveals sources of the economic meltdown

(Newser) - Some 21 of the top 25 subprime lenders that triggered the global economic collapse were either owned or financed by banks that ended up needing bailouts, an analysis by the Center for Public Integrity finds. Among the backers, who make huge profits on the subprime business, were Lehman Brothers, Merrill...

Skirting Bailout Rules, Banks Send Foreign Hires Abroad

(Newser) - Banks who have taken TARP funds from the government are getting creative about the immigration restrictions that come with the bailout, the Wall Street Journal reports. Financial institutions relying on government assistance cannot hire foreign workers unless they prove that they have exhausted the supply of native talent. So they’...

$1.8B Goldman Sachs Profit Shocks Wall St.

Bank plans $5B stock offering to start repaying TARP loan

(Newser) - Goldman Sachs shocked analysts today by announcing a $1.81 billion profit for the first quarter of 2009, the Wall Street Journal reports. “Given the difficult market conditions, we are pleased,” CEO Lloyd Blankfein said. Goldman also announced plans for a $5 billion stock offering that would help...

UBS Shocks With Record $17B Loss

Swiss banking giant posts worst loss in nation's history

(Newser) - UBS today announced an annual loss of $17 billion—the biggest ever by a Swiss company—despite a government bailout and a surprise tax benefit in the fourth quarter. The loss was higher than expected, but the once-mighty corporation reiterated that it would not sell off its investment banking arm,...

Goldman Loses Top Spot in M&A Rankings

JP Morgan uses financing advantage to end 7-year reign

(Newser) - Ascendant JP Morgan Chase has knocked Goldman Sachs out of first place in the race for mergers and acquisitions, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dealogic, a merger data provider, says Goldman advised some 295 deals totaling $755.6 billion last year, as compared to JP Morgan’s 350 deals for...

Wall Street Execs Still Fly Private Jets

Costly travel rationalized as time saver

(Newser) - Six ailing Wall Street firms that eagerly took bailout funds still spend thousands to operate fleets of private jets that whisk their executives to company—and personal—events, AP reports. AIG, which scooped up $150 billion from the government, beats its peers with a seven-jet fleet. Fuel alone for a...

Spitzer: Banks Are Too Big, Let Them Fail
Spitzer: Banks Are Too Big,
Let Them Fail
OPINION

Spitzer: Banks Are Too Big, Let Them Fail

Instead, back smaller entities, ex-gov says in first Slate column

(Newser) - The government has doled out trillions in rescue funds, but “so far, we are simply rebuilding the same edifice that just collapsed,” writes newly-minted Slate columnist Eliot Spitzer. For years we’ve concentrated capital, creating gigantic “financial supermarkets” that attempted to provide every service for their customers....

Thrift Helped Get Us Into This Mess
 Thrift Helped 
 Get Us Into 
 This Mess 
OPINION

Thrift Helped Get Us Into This Mess

"Wealth effect" is playing out in reverse

(Newser) - Three factors are playing into the financial crisis, and it's time to recognize the culprit that accompanies the burst housing bubble and banking meltdown, Robert J. Samuelson writes in the Washington Post. The wealth effect—"the tendency of people to adjust their spending as their wealth changes"—...

Financial Industry May Shed 350K Jobs

So far, 170,000 positions have been cut worldwide

(Newser) - Job cuts in the financial services sector could hit 350,000 worldwide by the middle of 2009, double the number so far, Bloomberg reports. "This is the financial equivalent of World War II," says the CEO of a major headhunting firm. If he's right, by summer, the industry...

Citi to Lay Off 10,000, Raise Credit Card Rates

Banking behemoth will shed 10,000 as it grasps for positive cash flow

(Newser) - Citigroup, seeking profitability after suffering net losses of $20 billion over the past year, is laying off at least 10,000 employees worldwide and raising rates on some credit card holders, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials were told to trim employee compensation budgets by 25%, allowing managers to minimize...

Better Than a Bailout: Boost FDIC Coverage to $1M

Higher deposit insurance would bring money in, help thaw credit markets

(Newser) - Congress should stop fighting over the Paulson bailout, writes BusinessWeek economist Michael Mandel, and approve an expansion of FDIC deposit insurance to $1 million. It should also triple deposit insurance reserves to $145 billion. It would solve the immediate problem, calming the hysteria in the market, and attract funds to...

Execs Were Paid $3B to Lay Credit Crisis Foundation

Wall Street chieftains were well rewarded for risks they took in 2003-07

(Newser) - More than $3 billion was paid to the chief executives of the five biggest financial firms on Wall Street in the run-up to the credit crisis, Bloomberg reports. While supervising bad mortgage-related credit bets that eventually brought the financial system to its knees, Merrill Lynch’s Stanley O’Neal took...

We Don't Really Need a Bailout
 We Don't Really Need a Bailout 
OPINION

We Don't Really Need a Bailout

With investment banks dead, the point of this is ... what, exactly?

(Newser) - Now that all the big investment firms are no more, why exactly do we need a bailout? Paulson’s plan involves buying assets that are illiquid, but not worthless. “But regular banks hold assets like that all the time,” writes James Galbraith in the Washington Post. “They’...

New Wall Street: Less Risk, Less Innovation, Lower Pay

Era of investment banks ends

(Newser) - When Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley ditched the investment banking model, it didn’t just mark the end of an era, it marked the end of Wall Street as we know it, the Wall Street Journal declares in an editorial today. And with investment banks gone, the US financial system...

Hedge Funds Poised to Profit as Banks Shun Risk

Private equity eyes trading territory ceded by changes at Goldman, Morgan Stanley

(Newser) - With the last two large US investment banks going commercial in an effort to stay afloat, private-equity and hedge funds are stepping into the void, the Wall Street Journal reports. Taking on roles previously filled by the likes of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, hedge funds like Citadel and private-equity...

As US Firms Stumble, Japanese Banks Step Up

Failing only a few years ago, Japanese institutions rescuing US system

(Newser) - Japan's big banks, themselves near collapse a few years ago, are reemerging as global powerhouses, Reuters reports, just in time to snap up stakes in foundering US banks.They've largely escaped Wall Street's credit meltdown by shying away from riskier investments since their own "near death," when they...

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