Money Laundering In 1994 I was asked by my superiors at Bankers Trust to take over the global private banking business. I had mixed feelings about the assignment since I had only been in my prior job for eighteen months (just about the time one gets a head of steam going) and private banking had been one of the backwaters of banking for years, being what was called a “walk the dog” service business. …
Remote Control If you are like me, you grew up with a romantic notion of what remote control meant. It involved gas-powered airplanes, speedboats, race cars, and even the Zenith TV in your living room. It implied this amazing and exciting ability to sit back and relax while you do minimal work to make your fun take place in hyper-speed. In that dream, you know exactly how the machine (whatever it is) operates. You understand…
Getting Over It I recently had breakfast with an old friend. This is someone who I had participated actively in recruiting for his job. I thought he was both highly qualified and appropriately aggressive, and that he would “move the needle” on leading the organization forward. There is a reason leaders are highly paid and much sought-after. Organizations need this impetus to progress and it is quite hard to accomplish. The euphemisms abound about…
Even the Vikings Had to Stretch Make no mistake, Wall Street is a battle zone. There is excess aggression and emotion everywhere you look. I have often thought that the only thing that separates successful Wall Street professionals from the rest of the world is their level of drive and ability to withstand pain. Sometimes the battle rages for gain alone, but often the battle is for the battle sake. Worst of all is…
Camel Money In the world of finance, everybody understands the term Camel Money. It means money that has, what we call on Wall Street, a high talk-to-ticket ratio. It is the money that has supposedly been flowing from the middle east since the Oil Embargo of 1973 and OPEC’s wanton thrashing of the U.S. consumer. That was when Petrodollars first came into visible existence and we began to understand that people who had scads of…
About the Battle Battles rage every day in every aspect of life. I am reminded today of a past battle which I feel is instructive and which I will characterize vaguely and with pseudonyms and made-up settings. It is a battle fought over a decade ago, so I suspect the statute of limitations (defined by law and by life) has long expired. Most involved in the battle probably wish it would just be forgotten, but…
The Inbox Years ago, when I came out of the bank training program I attended after Business School, I remember talking to a young British colleague who explained the experience he was having on the line for the first time. He was assigned to the Latin America Department and was the junior member on the Brazil Desk. That’s what we used to call coverage of s specified region or country, the _______ Desk. His comment…
A Foggy Morning It was a dark and stormy night and the morning barely became visible through the fog. This sounds like the start of a Sherlock Holmes novel, but it is only the start of a typical Monday morning here on New York Harbor. I awoke last night several hours into my sleep with an unspecific nightmare plaguing me. Something must have changed during the night because I awoke at my regular hour with…
The Potential of Those Around Us Carly Fiorina is out with a new book and I heard her say something like this during an interview. This is a grand statement that is intended to be very positive. I know how to draw conclusion about my potential, but for those around me the best I can do is assume the best. The question is whether that is a wise thing to do or a not. I…
Diminishing Returns Marvin had been a killer economics student. He had been an engineer who transferred into economics the moment he had finished hearing his fist macroeconomic lecture. He had not gone to one of those progressive high schools that offered courses that went beyond the basic reading, writing and arithmetic courses offered in every high school in the country. None of this Advanced Placement curriculum nonsense. And certainly nothing approximating an economics course. Given…