April 12, 2012 – Hilary Rosen Should Donate to Multiple Sclerosis Foundations
I thought I was done blogging for the day. But, like Ann Romney, my sister suffers from Multiple Sclerosis. So, even though Hilary Rosen has correctly apologized for attacking Ann Romney for staying at home, being rich, and not representing economically-challenged women in America, I am still furious about the saga in a way, I suspect, that only people who know firsthand about MS, as Multiple Sclerosis is known, can be furious. HP>>
April 12, 2012 – The Ultimate Appeal of ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
So, finally, thanks to a vacation, I got around to reading — well parsing — the bestselling phenomenon du jour: Fifty Shades of Grey by E. L. James, the romance novel that deals in S&M sex between the ludicrously named would-be dominator Christian Grey and his “oh-I-don’t-want-to-be-submissive-or-do-I?” partner Anastasia Steele. HP>>
January 21, 2012 – Marianne Gingrich Gave Newt Gingrich the Best Sound Bite of His Campaign
Yesterday the country watched or read about his ex-wife Marianne’s railings both against her ex-husband’s treatment of her. After 18 years of marriage he suddenly called her and said he wanted an “open marriage” so he could pursue his affair with then congressional aide Callista Bisek, now his third wife. Further, Marianne Gingrich claims, Newt was a hypocrite: He had no qualms giving speeches on the merits of family values while seeking a rather less conventional situation for himself. HP>>
October 14, 2011 – Enough With the Stupid Studies
Why does the US so spend so much money on stupid studies? “Does your child have the selfish gene?” ran the banner headline on the front of today’s Wall Street Journal. Like every parent, I suspect, I immediately ignored the rest of the front page about the world’s economic woes and headed, in a mild panic, straight for the really important stuff: are my kids helplessly biologically self-centered and, if so, can this be fixed? HP>>
October 5, 2011 – Heretical But True: The Very Polite are Not Digital
Today’s front page of the New York Times has the story that two cornerstone books on “etiquette” (What is that? some younger readers might be asking) have been updated or adapted for the Digital Age. In part this is because both were published many years ago when the word “tweet” referred to a sound only birds made. HP>>
October 4, 2011 – Frustration of Justice – Here and in Italy
Like many others I was gripped by the newscasts yesterday in the build-up to Amanda Knox’s release from prison after four years — which blissfully for the TV networks was delayed by almost two hours leaving plenty of time of suspenseful “filler”. The story had all the drama of a Shakespearean play. HP>>
September 12, 2011 – What Really Happened With Yahoo and Carol Bartz
At first I was horrified when I read what happened to Yahoo’s former CEO Carol Bartz. A phone dump? Like I think, most people, male and female, when I read the bare bones of the story — that out of the blue she’d been called by the chairman of the board Roy Bostock and given her marching orders — on the telephone — that after two and a half years in the seat she had to go — albeit with a $10 million payoff — I was appalled. HP>>
June 29, 2011 – Former Lehman COO Arrested for Forging Oxycontin and Ritalin Perscriptions
So today my phone has rung off the hook. Why? The Fairfield Patch, in Fairfield, Connecticut broke the news that Lehman Brothers former COO Bradley (Brad) Jack, who owns the most expensive home in Fairfield, Ct, worth $34.6 million had been arrested and was “charged with second-degree forgery and forgery of a prescription drug.” The New York Times Dealbook pointed out that if he is convicted, he faces jail time, which would make him the first Lehman senior executive to don a jump suit. HP>>
April 5, 2011 – The Whirligig of Time Fails to Bring its Revenges
A year ago, while Washington was grandstanding about the about lazy, unethical, risky banking practices that put the entire country at risk – I published a book. It was called The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal and the High Stakes Played Inside Lehman Brothers (John F. Wiley & Sons) and it chronicled, among other things, the lazy, unethical, risky banking practices that had put the entire country at risk in 2008. HP>>
May 20, 2010 – Lady Gaga Submits Resume to Philip Treacy, Prepares to Make Coffee
Just to show she is completely serious, pop icon Lady Gaga has just submitted her resume to London milliner Philip Treacy as part of her bid to intern for him this summer. A spokesperson at Philip Treacy said the resume was serious but also “pretty funny” — and that though there are many requests from media outlets to see what’s on it, for now, Mr. Treacy, who makes Lady Gaga’s hats is staying mum. HP>>
April 19, 2010 – Goldman Sachs Alum Receive Threatening Phone Calls From Their Alma Mater
So they are calling Goldman Sachs “Little Brother”….By “they” I mean the Goldman alum who have acted as TV pundits, bloggers or commentators on the firm in the past three days. Over the weekend they received repeated phone calls from their alma mater telling them to desist. HP>>
April 18, 2010 – Senior Goldman Exec Is Married to Former Head of ACA
Friday, as news of the allegations of fraud at Goldman Sachs spread, I got a call from someone who works in the insurance business. HP>>
March 28, 2010 – How Lehman’s Hidden Inner Circle Brought the Bank Down
Senator Spencer Bacchus, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee is quite right to write to Lehman bankruptcy examiner Anton J. Valukas and ask to review communications between the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission about Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, in preparation for an April 20 hearing into the Valukas report. He wants to know what exactly the SEC found out while it was inside Lehman — or more importantly what it missed.HP>>
March 22, 2010 – Regulation Has To Come From Within
So, in the wake of the damning report by U.S.-appointed bankruptcy examiner Anton Valukas, Dick Fuld, the disgraced former CEO of Lehman Brothers, has been called back to testify before the House. Summoned along with Fuld are the regulators — namely the Securities and Exchange Commission and the N.Y. Federal Reserve — who were supposed to be supervising Lehman as it limped towards its end, but who failed to flag any of the dodgy accounting the firm was busy using, despite inside warnings from people who were either ignored or fired (the whistleblower Matthew Lee for starters)…HP>>
March 12, 2010 – Why Did Lehman Behave So Idiotically?
I haven’t yet finished Anton Valukas’ 2,200-page report into Lehman, but I feel like I could have written it for him. The Chicago-based lawyer told me recently that he was greatly looking forward to my new book The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal, and the High Stakes Games Inside Lehman Brothers, just as I was looking forward to his report. I had a feeling we’d be on the same page. HP>>
March 3, 2010 – Former Lehman Women React to “Doozie” of a Story
On Monday night, in response to my article in this month’s Vanity Fair on Lehman’s Desperate Housewives (which was an excerpt from my forthcoming book, The Devil’s Casino: Friendship, Betrayal and the High Stakes Games Played Inside Lehman Brothers), hundreds (literally) of Lehman’s former women executives anxiously listened into a conference phone call helmed by Anne Erni. HP>>
September 20, 2009 – Libyans Picked the Wrong New York City Realtor to Try to Dupe
New York has a new hero in the form of 32-year-old realtor Jason Haber, the guy who told Moammar Khadafy’s representatives that he would only find them a lavish Upper East Side New York abode, if they returned the convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to Scotland and the prison he was sentenced to for life. (Megrahi was given a hero’s welcome in Libya when released by the Scots on compassionate grounds on August 20th, as part of an alleged oil deal between Britain and Libya.) HP>>
September 10, 2009 – President Obama, Gordon Brown, Deaths in Afghanistan and More British Deception Over Lockerbie
Earlier today the White House put out a press release noting that President Obama spoke with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and expressed his “disappointment” over the Lockerbie affair. (In case anyone has been under a rock these past few weeks, Brown has been at the center of a controversy over allegations that the Scottish government’s decision to release convicted Lockerbie bomber, the Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, 57, on compassionate grounds, was linked to Britain’s fears that not releasing him would block oil deals with Libya worth hundreds of billions of dollars). HP>>
September 7, 2009 – Outrageous Claims of American “Disingenuousness” Over Lockerbie By Britain Must Be Stopped – and Real Facts Found
Yesterday I wrote how Britain’s Sunday Telegraph claimed that Libya paid three doctors to give the Scottish government medical evidence that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, 57, the convicted Lockerbie killer had only two or three months to live, when in fact he may have more. HP>>
September 6, 2009 – The Lockerbie Cover-Up Must Be Investigated
In Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, the British reporter, Andrew Alderson claims that Libya paid three doctors to give the Scottish government medical evidence that Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, 57, the convicted Lockerbie killer had only two or three months to live. In fact, other doctors, according to Alderson’s report, said in June that Megrahi who suffers from prostate cancer could have nine months – or more – to live. But the three doctors whom Libya allegedly paid had their diagnoses included in the sealed files that Scotland refuses to open to the public, citing “privacy concerns.” HP>>
August 31, 2009 – The Truth About Lockerbie May Now Never Come Out Thanks to Gordon Brown’s Thirst for Libyan Oil
A few weeks ago, in July, US families of the Lockerbie victims gathered in front of a TV screen in both the British embassy in Washington, DC and in the consulate in New York. They were connected via video conference with Scottish justice minister Kenny MacAskill, who discussed with them both the options of prisoner transfer for Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, and a compassionate release, since the 57-year-old was suffering from prostate cancer. HP>>
August 25, 2009 – Why Britain Should Apologize for Releasing the Lockerbie Killer – and Why it Won’t.
I just received an email from a Madoff victim who is still reeling from the double-whammy of having watched his wealth vanish, and learning that the soft-spoken financier he considered a friend is in fact a crook – possibly it’s now been reported – with cancer. (Prison authorities deny this). HP>>
August 6, 2009 – Some Much-Needed Truths About Lehman
I have not yet finished David Wessel’s In Fed We Trust: Ben Bernanke’s War on the Great Panic – mostly because – full disclosure – I’m scribbling away on my own book: The Great Mistake: The Fall of Lehman Brothers and the Weekend That Changed The World for John F Wiley & Sons, due this Winter. However, there are things expressed in the review of Wessel’s book by Robert Teitelbaum that, I know from my own research into the reasons why Lehman fell, need to be addressed – fast, before they seep into the consciousness of the reading public as fact. HP>>
August 5, 2009 – Exclusive: Andres Piedrahita Shamed By Media Into Leaving Mega-Yacht
Last week I wrote how Andres Piedrahita, 50, the major shareholder of Fairfield Greenwich, the feeder fund that lost $7 billion of investor’s money to Bernie Madoff, was summering on his new $30 million yacht, Oxygen. His publicist, Tom Mulligan, insisted he was only on board to sell the boat to raise funds for a settlement pool for the fund’s ruined investors – which, as I pointed out, on both CNBC and MSNBC’s Morning Joe, seemed like a ludicrous excuse. Everyone knows you don’t need to be on a boat to sell it. HP>>
July 27, 2009 – Madoff’s Chief Feeder Fund Exec Shamelessly Sails the Seas in His New $30 Million Yacht
I have unwelcome news of Andres Piedrahita, the brash Columbian chief shareholder of Fairfield Greenwich, the investment group mostly owned by the Noel family, that gave half their money under management – 6.9 billion dollars- to Bernie Madoff, and yet who took one per cent of clients fees and twenty percent of their returns for supposedly doing “due diligence”. HP>>
April 27, 2009 – Manhattan’s latest parental punishment
I have seldom been as relieved to read an article as one that appeared last week by New York Times writer Andrew Das. It began: “In the moments after I felt the pop in my left shoulder, the sensation I felt was not pain. It was panic. How exactly does a 40-year-old man explain to his wife that he might have torn his rotator cuff during a midnight game of Wii tennis?” HP>>
April 6, 2009 – Hot Women and Pole-Dancing: Ingenuity in a Downturn
The Russian businessman I was having a drink with lived in London. “I prefer London to New York right now; in London not everyone talks about their depleted bank balance; in New York everyone does,” he said. I agreed. But then a friend took me for a late dinner at a restaurant I’d never heard of, Charles, in the West Village. HP>>
March 31, 2009 – Of Course Michelle Cannot Go Sleeveless To Have Tea With The Queen!
Anyone who thinks Michelle Obama should use tea with the Queen as an experimental fashion platform is sadly deluded. I cannot believe some of the suggestions I am reading on this site.HP>>
March 30, 2009 – Sex Appeal Takes Years to Master
Details magazine has dictated that the sexiest woman on the planet is not Scarlett Johansson, or Gisele Bundchen, but Jennifer Aniston — who is 40. HP>>
March 23, 2009 – If We ‘Kill the Rich’, Don’t We Kill the Dream?
My neighbor at dinner, a hedge-fund manager originally from Texas, was emphatic. “If your only identity is in your job or your money then there is no point living in New York any more,” he said. “Anyone who thinks like that will leave.” HP>>
March 16, 2009 – The Guillotines Aren’t Here Yet
These days it’s not just financial journalists who follow the movements of financiers. So, too, do the entertainment channels and press. Who could have predicted the day would come when OK! magazine would care what mode of transport Ken Lewis, Bank of America’s chief, uses? But according to the New York Times, these topics are now considered as interesting to readers as Britney Spears’s weight fluctuations. HP>>
March 11, 2009 – Ponzi Ponies are Safe
Following inquiries with locals in North Salem, I am happy to report that the ponies formerly stabled with Paul Greenwood, the alleged fraudster, are safe.
March 10, 2009 – Concern for Ponzi Ponies
For all those worried about the hundred or so valuable show ponies stabled in North Salem by alleged fraudster Paul Greenwood and his wife Robin, let me give them an update – with hopefully another to come. HP>>
March 9, 2009 – Pity the Poor Englishman in Manhattan
My English friend was worried. “I guess the next step is getting American-accent lessons,” she said over dinner the other night. She is a peer of mine — we were at Cambridge together — and she has wound up in New York working in a senior position for an American bank on Wall Street. We frequently joke that she must have done something appalling to be punished for her timing. HP>>
March 5, 2009 – Did Thierry de la Villehuchet Invest in Fairfield Greenwich?
Among the articles in Vanity Fair’s April issue is a report I did on the Noels, the infamously good-looking, gregarious family of Walter Noel, founder of the investment group Fairfield Greenwich, which had $6.9 billion—almost half of its assets under management—invested with Bernie Madoff. Now that that money is all gone, Fairfield Greenwich is being sued by investors. The piece shows how the Noels are being criticized for their seemingly callous behavior in the wake of the devastation that has been caused. HP>>
March 2, 2009 – Inside the Mini-Madoff Scam
New York’s latest financial criminal mastermind — and remember, we now have one a day being unveiled — is Paul Greenwood, 61, the bow-tied town governor of North Salem, New York’s horsey area. (Until recently it’s where the American Olympic equestrian team trained.)
