I gotta tell you guys, I cracked up so hard on a couple of these that Bonus Bananas is quickly becoming my favorite thing of the week to write. Here we go:
1) Deutsche Bank Gets Record South Korea Penalty Over $26 Billion Stock Slump (Bloomberg) - Wow. Deutsche Bank's black box went haywire in the moments before the close of the South Korean Kospi Index on November 11 of last year, wiping out $26 billion in shareholder equity and netting the bank a $40 million profit in less than a half hour. The bank is now banned from trading Korean stocks and derivatives for six months.
2) Two Senior Equities Traders At UBS Got Into A Brawl On Trading Floor In Sydney (Clusterstock) - Leave it to the older guys to show the youngsters that it's still okay to throw down over a trading error. You know it's a great day at work when there's a donnybrook between an executive director and the head of institutional sales on the trading floor. Man, that shit takes me back.
3) The Homeless at College (Businessweek) - As though the homeless don't have enough problems, now they have to worry about the hard sell from recruiters at our nation's "for profit" colleges. You can't make this stuff up. The University of Phoenix is recruiting at a halfway house near you.
4) A Matter of Liquidity: Why The Black-Scholes Model over-values conversion options (Pluris) - This one goes out to my quant brethren. This is a free white paper discussing some of the flaws in the Black-Scholes pricing model, and how they can even lead to earnings misstatements. It all comes down to liquidity and the imperfection of thinly traded markets. Pretty heavy stuff, but very interesting.
5) SplitTheRent.org Gets Super-Precise on What Each Roommate Owes (LifeHacker) - For you poor bastards who have to live with roommates and want to make sure everyone is paying their fair share. Also comes in handy when you're looking for new roommates and need to show them the breakdown of household expenses. Yeah, that window in your room is gonna cost extra.
6) 10 Disgusting Ways Your Company's Cafeteria Is Violating The Health Code (Clusterstock) - The guys over at SeamlessWeb must be laughing their asses off. Wall Street cafeterias are some of the most disgusting places on planet Earth, according to New York health inpectors. The worst? Merrill Lynch racked up an astounding 83 violations including mice, flying insects, unwashed counters, and spoiled food. Bon appetit!
7) All Together Now: How Wall Street and Washington Keep Bankers Out of Jail (BNET) - For those who didn't have the time (or inclination) to read Taibbi's last piece, this is a short summary that highlights the revolving door between careers in regulation and careers on Wall Street. The apparatus in place now basically allows banks to break the law and negotiate a fine (at a tidy profit, naturally) in advance of any charges. Great work if you can find it.
8) It's the Inequality, Stupid (Mother Jones) - I posted this in the comments of Midas's post yesterday, but for those who didn't see it, it's worth a look. Very interesting set of infographics on the wealth disparity in America today. I think it's important to be able to visualize this stuff, so this is really helpful. Plus the 1,700 comments (are you shitting me?) are pure gold.
9) Home prices plummet in most big US cities (Yahoo! Finance) - There were a ton of stories about this over the past week. Here's the takeaway: home prices in most major cities have hit their lowest point since the bubble burst, and they still have plenty more to give up. That's not my opinion (though I don't disagree), that's the opinion of Robert Shiller of Case-Shiller Index fame. He says we've got another 25% to drop from here. Hold on to your hats.
10) After Rehab, Charlie Sheen Hits the Bahamas with a Porn Star, His Ex-Wife, and the Nanny (but no kids) (Daily Mail) - God damn, it's good to be Charlie Sheen. Here's what he had to say about his recent troubles on the Alex Jones Show yesterday:
“I have a disease?” he said. “Bullshit. I cured it… with my mind… it’s all good guys. Quit panicking. No panic, no judgment… You can kill me but you do not have the right to judge me.”“I’m so tired of pretending like my life isn’t perfect and bitchin’ and just winning every second,” he continued. “I’m not perfect, and bitching and just delivering the goods at every fucking turn. Because look what I’m dealing with, man — I’m dealing with fools and trolls. I’m dealing with soft targets.”
Rock on, brother.
I was kinda torn on a Friday video of the week, because I had this really inspirational one picked out until I saw this red band trailer for Bad Teacher. The inspirational one might have changed your life, but this trailer has a hot chick with a foul mouth in it (a character flaw of mine - I've married three of them). Enjoy:
Wow... great trailer. I can't wait to see that film.
That is going to take off like the Hangover.
As to Mr. Sheen, well... he's got more problems than even Jay-Z can rap about. Good for him that he has no problem doing what he's doing, but my concern is that he is unable to oblige on his contractual obligations for Two and a Half Men. At 1.2MM per episode, him not getting paid for the final four being shot is more interesting of a rant to read. The kicker, CBS reduced the remaining production order from 8 to 4 as a result of Sheen's antics. I mean, it's from the Examiner, but take notes of his quotes over show creator Chuck Lorre. This will be an interesting bit of drama that will play out hard for the fans of Two and a Half Men.
...or should you say The Hangover 2...
http://www.youtube.com/embed/dHdHImNAPmw
Regards
Hahaha, That's gonna be an awesome movie!
1,700 comments is nothing. I once saw an article about people believing Obama is a Muslim that racked up 37,000 comments. 37,000!!!!! That has to be an internet record.
Holy shit, I just found the link. It's actually one of those articles about his birth certificate...and it's up to over 47,000 comments!!!!!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110122/ap_on_re_us/us_obama_birth_certific…
If you're bored at work and want to feel a little better about your lot in life, feel free to read some of them. Pure gold.
Damn Son!
That's insane. 47,000 Comments is absurd. Chalk one up to the interwebs for that one.
Eddie,
The DB article is interesting. I'm not shocked that SKorea is doing that, but it definitely says something about the effects of blackbox meltdowns. The thing is, it reminds me of the CFTC Oil Algo that went rouge back in March/April of last year caused a massive spike in Oil prices in sole minute it was online. I think it's good that DB is getting the ban on trading for it's own accounts for this and that the SKorea regulators are still letting DB execute trades on behalf of their clients. You can't punish the clients for their bank's screw up.
prop desk in question is already in HK..
Bearcats,
The issue is whether they have banned DB Korea from trading in its own account or DB and all of its subsidiaries from trading for its own account. Banning the firm and its entities as a whole is the only way to keep that in effect. ?Having not read the ban notice, I can't say for certian that this is the case, but that's what I would do.
Well, then I'd say it's a pretty safe bet that's not what the regulators do.. It would make too much sense.
If you were talking about the SEC, I would be in full agreement, but we're talking about a Non-US/Non-UK regulators. I don't know much about them and am aware that certain foreign countries have regulators that are far tougher than our own. If Korea is one of them, then I would not be shocked if it went this way.
Jim,
I didn't know that, however it lends a bit more credence to SKorea's regulator's banning DB and it's subsidiaries as a single umbrella tied to the fact that DB is the controlling interest of the trading vehicle.
yup.. and korean regulators have a very draconian reputation.. particularly post 97. they nearly snuffed out the the onshore FX forward market last year.. doubt they would leave any exploitable loopholes in the name of 'free markets'.. they probably don't care abt the clients either cause there will always be other brokers.
Speaking of the regulators... the Overlords at CBS and Warner Brothers have decided that no amount of regulation Charlie Sheen is worth the production costs on Two and a Half Men. Therefore they have canceled the remainder of the season thats to Sheen's comments directed at creater and producer Chuck Lorre. While I'm sad to see the show go into Hiatus, I'm glad that CBS and Warner Brothers are standing behind Lorre on this. It also doesn't hurt Lorre or the Networks position as Lorre has been involved with some major shows from the past 20+ years that have brought the networks major revenue and I think he'll be just fine. He's had enough success without Charlie Sheen and he can do well without him.
Looks like Mr. Sheen's only TV Exposure and source of revenue will be in Syndication and on TMZ. Way to go Charlie!
What kind of a world do we live in when a man can't publicly enjoy his porn stars and blow?
I want this guy in the California state legislature a.s.a.p. his is the sort of mind that can lift that sinking ship out of the drainage with a few timely legalization initiatives. The levies on San Fernando Valley alone would cure their deficit disease.
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