Play ball!
In the face of choppy markets that have knocked down Morgan Stanley stock by a third since June, generated $11 billion of losses and cost him a bonus, Chief Executive John Mack had baseball on his mind.
Just before shareholders reaffirmed their faith in their captain, voting back all directors to the board and beating down a “say on Pay” uprising, Big Mack told Reuters that investments banks are in the final innings of what has been a grueling game.
“If you put it in a baseball analogy, and you look at the subprime problem in the U.S., you would say were in the eighth inning or maybe the top of the ninth.” (For our friends in England and other locales bereft of baseball’s blessings, there are nine innings in a game.)
Later: “Leveraged lending, as we know it, is in the ninth inning.”
And for those still keeping score at home: “The last thing we need to figure out is the commercial market, CMBS. In that, we’re in about the fifth inning.”
European markets are a whole other ball game [Editor’s note: maybe rounders?]:
“We just don’t know. We don’t have enough info yet,” he said. “We keep getting disclosures that surprise us.” (While Mack declined to name names, he hinted at a bank with the initials U, B and S.)
In the same interview, Mack drew a picture where trillions of dollars of cash and a shot of confidence would inspire investors to once again come out swinging.
Anyway, let’s just hope this credit crunch doesn’t go into extra innings. Wall Street may not have that many strong bats left on the bench.
Trackback
2 comments so far
The battle against the Board of Directors for the global investment firm Morgan Stanley saw another new round of fighting as a key institutional investor moved to have several of the firm’s Directors replaced. “The California State Teachers’ Retirement System has withheld votes for eight Morgan Stanley directors, including the Chairman, John J. Mack, because the company has underperformed both the market and peers,” The New York Times reported on Monday. “The California fund, known as Calstrs, withheld votes from Mr. Mack, Roy J. Bostock, Erskine B. Bowles, Howard J. Davies, C. Robert Kidder, Donald T. Nicolaisen, Charles H. Noski and Charles E. Phillips Jr., according to an e-mailed statement,” The Times article added. An IntellectSpace Knowledge Map depicts the numerous affiliations of Mr Mack, including his tenure as the CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston, his membership on the Board of Trustees of New York Presbyterian Hospital, and the fact that he is a graduate of Duke University. We can also see that Morgan Stanley Director Roy Bostock is the current Chairman of Yahoo! Inc as well as a Director for Northwest Airlines Corp. In addition, the Map shows the past and current affiliations of two other Morgan Stanley board members whom most people know as being former heavy weights in the Clinton Administration: We see that Director Laura D Tyson, the former Chair of the White House Counsel of Economic Advisers to President Clinton, is affiliated with AT&T Inc, the Eastman Kodak Co, and the University of California at Berkeley; and similarly, we also see that Director Erskine B Bowles, the former Clinton-era White House Chief of Staff, has links with the General Motors Corp, Cousins Properties Inc, and The University of North Carolina.
- Posted by NewsVisual[…] game, they would be in the final innings, says Morgan Stanley’s John Mack, according to Reuters’ DealZone
- Posted by Deal Journal - WSJ.com : Afternoon Reading: WaMu and the Emerald City