Business

Steve Cohen, the infamous billionaire hedgie who plead guilty to insider trading back in 2013 and paid a record $1.8 billion penalty, has never been shy about offering up his opinion on the lack of real trading 'talent' in New York.  Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference last May, Cohen said “Frankly, I’m blown away by the lack of talent...It’s not easy to find great people but we whittle down the funnel to maybe 2 to 4% of the candidates we’re interested in...talent is really thin.”

Authored by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

When something no longer works, it goes away: it costs more to maintain than its output is worth.

The fragmentation of political consensus (i.e. the consent of the citizenry) is presented by the Powers That Be and their media servants as being a disaster. The implicit fear is real enough: how can we rule the entire nation-empire if it fragments?

What is that saying about rats and sinking ships, we forget?  Irrespective, a trio of senior executives from Och-Ziff decided they've had enough fun after their fund lost $13 billion to withdrawals over the past 13 months and their stock tanked roughly 80%.

According to Bloomberg, among those departing are Drew Gillanders, a top European equity analyst; James Keith “JK” Brown, a partner and head of investor relations; and Paula Drake, chief compliance officer.

Billionaire real estate investor Richard LeFrak sat down with Bloomberg this morning and unloaded some rather disappointing predictions for New York real estate owners, namely that they should expect 10-15% rent reductions over the coming months/years.  As we have several times as well, LeFrak said the pricing weakness will come courtesy of a massive oversupply of new apartment capacity which was built in anticipation of "incomes that don't exist in the market now."

In the widely anticipated budget proposal to be released by President Trump on Thursday, the White House will call for spending cuts of 28% for the State Department and 31% for the Environmental Protection Agency, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing congressional staff who are familiar with the plan. The budget plan for fiscal 2018 will also propose a big reduction in the State Department's Food for Peace program and elimination of a Transportation Department program that subsidizes flights to rural U.S. airports.