Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Jon Corzine, foe of income inequality

Apparently he's trying to level the playing field by bankrupting his investors.
To read a recounting of Corzine’s tenure at MF Global Holdings is to wonder how he missed the 2008 financial crisis. Oh, yes! That’s right: he was the governor of New Jersey, a job he won in 2005 after one term in the Senate. Still, you would think that as a former Wall Street titan, he would have noticed that taking giant bets on shaky, long-term bonds while financing your operations with overnight loans that can be pulled at any second is not exactly a recipe for success.

But that’s exactly what Corzine did. After taking over the firm in March 2010 — just months after losing his re-election bid to Chris Christie — he decided to transform the derivatives broker into something sexier, something more like his old firm, Goldman Sachs. In particular, he wanted MF Global to risk its own capital, trading for its own account, just like Goldman had so successfully done when he was running it.

Stunningly, the risky bets he took at MF Global were on European sovereign debt.
Jeenyus!

7 comments:

sjff said...

Corzine is a boofhead.

(This is a test. The test is to test whether my comments, both to here, and to Blair's tuxedo dressed, limo driven, hoity toity snotnosed moderated clientele are acceptable, or not.)

sjff said...

I tried like hell to save myself but could not do so.

The internet, while tempting one with clips of Burt Reynolds in 71 Ford Customs, inevtitabally lets one down by not showing how to do the "this post erased by the author" thing.

JeffS said...

Corzine ran MF Global Holdings the same way he ran New Jersey. Into the ground.

TW: quaters. Yes, AI, I'm pretty sure Corzine is scrabbling for quarters about now.

RebeccaH said...

It would be interesting to take a closer look at Goldman Sachs' doings during Corzine's tenure there. As if anyone in this administration would, that is.

RebeccaH said...

Btw, sjff, when you first post your comment, a little trash can appears at the bottom which allows you a short period when you can delete your comment. But, frankly, I enjoyed what you said.

bruce said...

Well I go back to the days when Blairistan was an unmoderated free-for-all. Currency Lad was there too.

Sharing Blair's wit with a fun bunch of American bloggers was/is a highlight.

But I'm still waiting for the limo, I understand it's held up by the rigorous Pacoenterprises environmental testing.

Paco said...

Bruce: we're trying to figure out how to remove the catalytic converter.