Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tales from the Meltdown

The barracudas on Wall Street are goin' mental:

“Fear and greed, fear and greed, the Street always goes back and forth,” he says. “And we’re as close to fear as we’ve been in the past twenty years.”

He stares at the screens again: An absolute shit show.

“Just look at the Forbes’ list of billionaires—they’re all screwed,” says another partner.

“Lakshmi’s net worth, cut in half. Rupert, cut in half. Cooperman from Goldman—”

“I was surprised Cooperman was on that list,” notes my
friend.

From crisis comes opportunity, but the opportunities right now are heinous. So they’re waiting—waiting for stupid prices, prices where a company’s stock can trade for the cash it has on hand, prices that don’t make sense in any economic environment.

The talking heads of CNBC prattle on in the background, interspersed with video of exhausted senators walking around the halls of the Capitol. “We should take pictures of the politicians who voted against the bailout and stick them on the Internet,” declares a partner. “If they get killed, so what? Work it out.”

He picks up a dainty silver die, with the sides marked buy, sell, and hold, and throws it on the desk. Then he picks it up, gingerly. “We got buy,” he says, putting it down, with a frown.



On the other hand, Andrew Lahde got an attack of sanity after an 837% return he obtained by betting against subprime mortgages. He's leaving the business for happier pursuits, and would also like to recommend that the government legalize hemp and marijuana. Hear, hear.

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