Famous Days in Finance

Bloomberg Markets’ March 2008 edition—already on a pixel-stand near you—brings detailed coverage of the financial rapine and pillage visited upon unsuspecting Pennsylvania school districts by the corporate descendants of John Pierrepont Morgan. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS) got special mention for captaining the longboats, eagerly crewed by conflicted investment advisors and welcomed ashore by alleged guardians of the public weal whose common distinguishing mark was utter ignorance of the contents—mostly wet newspapers—of the over-priced bags they purchased.

But, huzzah! Look who allegedly left money on the table:

JPMorgan's gross markup on the swaption was 0.82 percentage point of the rate compared with a 0.16 percentage point charge Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS) collected from the Philadelphia School District on a comparable swaption the city had bid competitively in March 2004. [Emphasis added.]

So that would explain why Hank Paulson was let out to pursue other opportunities.

Schools Flunk Finance
by Martin Z. Braun and William Selway
Bloomberg Markets March 2008