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Much belated personal news: I am writing a book!
Captain of Industry is the story of Jamie Dimon’s rise to the top of Wall Street and Corporate America, chronicling how he rode a wave of immense consolidation in financial services and survived successive crises to become the preeminent CEO of our times.
It hasn’t been a smooth ride, with plenty of mistakes and miscalculations along the way. But his ambitions have only grown with age, as he now looks to use JPMorgan Chase as a kind of corporate state, using its massive $4 trillion+ balance sheet to influence domestic and foreign affairs, harkening back to the financiers of the Gilded Age.
Can’t wait to share it with everyone. If you have a Jamie story to share, get in touch.
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News! Today is my first day on the banking beat @WSJ, where I'll be covering the banking system & focus on JPMorgan and Bank of America. Ready to get started on this leviathan of a beat!
Reach out at alexander[dot]saeedy[at]wsj[dot]com with tips, ideas, & unsolicited opinions.
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Scoop: KKR's Envision is soon filing for bankruptcy, capping off one of the biggest losses ever on an investment by the private equity giant. KKR, which bought the company at a $10bn valuation, has written its stake down to zero. w/@miriamgottfried wsj.com/articles/kkr-backed-…
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Bank of America capped employees’ hours when an intern died after working multiple all-nighters in a row. Today, those policies are often ignored, leaving employees at the investment bank to work 15-to-16 hour days off the books for weeks a time.
wsj.com/finance/banking/bank…
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Tomorrow, it will have been two years since I joined @WSJ, and what a wild ride it’s been!
Tonight, my first A-Hed (this one’s about people who obsess over their sleep) has published, and it was a real joy to write. Read it before you hit the hay! wsj.com/health/wellness/slee…
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EXCLUSIVE: We sat down for the 1st interview with @FTX_Official's new chief, John Ray. He became known as a "cleanup guy" during the Enron scandal, collecting billions from WallSt banks that abetted Enron's fraud.
Here's what he had to say about FTX🧵...
wsj.com/articles/new-ftx-chi…
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SCOOP: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick took advantage of a rare window of time when Peter Navarro wasn't camped outside of the Oval Office to get Trump to pause tariffs last week. w/@jdawsey1
wsj.com/politics/policy/trum…
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Bankers on Wall Street work long, long hours - and many of them use Adderall and other ADHD meds to cope with workdays that can run as long as 22 hours.
We spoke with over 50 bankers to understand how pervasive stimulants have become on the job.
wsj.com/finance/banking/youn…
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NEW: A group of hedge funds are devising a plan to cut $1 billion meant to help victims of opioid addiction, and they may wind up keeping some of that money for themselves. A wild tale behind the death of a landmark $1.7 billion settlement. Have a read!
wsj.com/articles/hedge-funds…
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New: We analyzed around $8 billion of spending that FTX executives like SBF made with suspected customer funds.
That includes purchases of luxury real estate in the Bahamas, political donations, and personal loans that were never repaid.
wsj.com/finance/regulation/s…
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Scoop: Big banks are under investigation for their response to scams and fraud on Zelle. Regulators are probing if banks do enough to stop bad actors who facilitate Zelle scams, which have proliferated in recent years.
wsj.com/finance/banking/regu…
w/@AAndriotis @amacker
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5. Ray said he doesn't agree, since @ledgerx was purchased using $ wrongly appropriated from customers. Losses at the U.S. exchange would thus be subsidized by money that belongs to them.
“This is the problem,” Mr. Ray said. “He thinks everything is one big honey pot.”
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Big banks including Credit Suisse, BofA, and Goldman Sachs are on the hook for more than $500m in losses after they struggled to place around $8b of debt with investors on Tuesday - w/DD partner @LCooperReports
wsj.com/articles/citrix-debt…
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Scoop: Vice Media has attracted a new buyer to buy the company out of bankruptcy for approximately $300 million. wsj.com/articles/bankrupt-vi…
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Happy New Year! My first story of 2024 is about the growing number of Americans who believe that aliens have visited the Earth in our lifetime and that UFOs are not a sci-fi fantasy.
The UFO Movement Sees Otherworldly Growth
wsj.com/science/space-astron…
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Scoop: China is exploring a compromise with global development banks that could bring an end to long delays in debt-relief talks for struggling developing nations wsj.com/articles/china-in-ta…
w/@Lingling_Wei & @gksteinhauser
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Jumped back into the levfin saddle to analyze a deal you certainly haven't heard about: Twitter will take on significant amounts of debt as part of its deal to go private, exposing the company to rising interest rates wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-… via @WSJ
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Scoop: WeWork’s creditors are holding preliminary talks about next steps for the troubled co-working space company, including filing for bankruptcy and giving control to its lenders wsj.com/articles/wall-street…
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Musk tapped the debt markets and borrowed $13bil to buy Twitter in 2022. New analysis shows this deal ranks as the worst buyout banks have financed since the Great Financial Crisis. w/@DanaMattioli
wsj.com/tech/elon-musks-twit…
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Season 3 of HBO's 'Industry' was full of twists and turns - many of which left Wall Street types incredulous. I spoke with bankers about the most recent events at Pierpoint & Co. "Unfortunately, there was no gratuitous sex, at least in my experience."
wsj.com/finance/banking/indu…
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Almost eight months after first reporting on accounting irregularities at Crédito Real $CREAL, the company's management has admitted to inflating the size its balance sheet for years, with the sign off of its auditor, Deloitte Mexico: wsj.com/articles/deloitte-wa…
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Bank of America has told junior employees to report bosses who pressure them to lie about their hours to human resources or other managers, following a WSJ investigation into work practices at the investment banking arm of America's second largest bank.
wsj.com/finance/bank-of-amer…
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So grateful to SABEW for this award. This was a tough series to write and it was not easy to get it out. So proud of our team that worked together make it happen @CaraRLombardo @BethBlackshire
In the Banking/Finance category, large division, the 2024 Best in Business Award winner is @WSJ for “Overworked: How Wall Street Pushes Young Bankers to the Edge." #BIB24
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New: Massive crypto lender Genesis is considering bankruptcy and has laid off 30% of staff wsj.com/articles/crypto-lend… via @WSJ w/@ceostroff @Vlajournaliste !
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NEW: FTX is moving ahead with plans to restart its flagship crypto exchange, even as managers shed new light on the the theft of $9bn of customer funds. FTX likely to rebrand in connection w/the restart, and indications of interest are due this week.
wsj.com/articles/ftx-begins-…
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“You took $50,000 that didn’t belong to you...That’s not a life hack, that’s called robbery.”
Chase Bank is gathering evidence about thousands of incidents of check fraud linked to a recent TikTok craze and plans to share details with law enforcement:
wsj.com/finance/banking/jpmo…
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New on WSJ: @KamalaHarris has long touted how she held banks accountable after the financial crisis and secured $20b to keep Californians in their homes.
But most of that money didn’t wind up in their pockets or stop them from losing their homes 🧵: wsj.com/finance/harris-says-…
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Yellen admitted to smoking three packs of cigs a day until 1976... and also said crypto needs tighter regulation after FTX collapse wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-m… with the one & only @aduehren
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Scoop: Mexican shadow bank Credito Real SAB, a lender to some of the country's poorest and underbanked, has abruptly scrapped plans to file for Ch11 and fired its restructuring advisers ...
The company has faced major allegations of accounting fraud...
wsj.com/articles/credito-rea…
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Scoop: A grand jury is investigating criminal misconduct at Synapse, the fintech company at the heart of a $100 million scandal over missing customer funds, and has questioned an executive who raised alarms before the company collapsed. wsj.com/finance/banking/syna…
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New: Vice Media is preparing to file for bankruptcy. A chapter 11 filing would clear the way for the media company to be sold to creditors, including Fortress Investment Group w/@jtoonkel wsj.com/articles/vice-media-…
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JUNKYARD: Big banks lent Elon Musk $13 billion to pay for his purchase of Twitter last year. While it should have been a major windfall for the lenders, they are scrambling to contain the damage the deal caused, one year on. w/@CaraRLombardo
wsj.com/tech/one-year-on-twi…
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Evolve Bank, the Southern bank behind big names in fintech like Stripe and Affirm, is in turmoil after a business partner collapsed and as much as $96 million in customer funds went missing.
wsj.com/finance/banking/evol…
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🚨🚨 Banks are preparing to sell up to $3 billion of X loans next week and have just offloaded $1 billion to investors. Scoop w/@Justinbaer wsj.com/finance/banking/wall…
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Charlie Javice is on trial for defrauding JPMorgan when she sold her startup to the bank for $175 million in 2021. She said her company had over 4 million users, but in reality it only had about 300,000 people with accounts. But it really feels like JPMorgan is the one on trial:
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A group of Wall Street banks have dug themselves out of a quagmire that Elon Musk made for them.
On Monday, banks sold the final slug of the debt they lent for Musk’s takeover of Twitter. It took 2.5 years, and the election of Trump, to get it done.
wsj.com/finance/banking/elon…
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New: distressed debt traders are piling into bonds backed by Silicon Valley Bank's parent company, betting they might be able to recover more money through a liquidation than markets currently expect. wsj.com/articles/investors-b…
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COLLATERAL DAMAGE: Silicon Valley Bank's former parent is suing the FDIC for withholding access to roughly $2 billion of its own deposits at the bank, which the FDIC says could be used to help cover the costs of bailing the bank out wsj.com/articles/silicon-val… via @WSJ
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A first co-byline with @BenFoldy! Used-car dealer Carvana’s shares plunged Wednesday on fears it is headed for a restructuring wsj.com/articles/carvana-sha… via @WSJ
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Though marijuana is legal in some form in most U.S. states, most banks won’t do business with cannabis companies because it is federally illegal. That leaves them spending inordinate amounts of time & money moving cash.
New from me on the banking beat: wsj.com/finance/banking/the-…
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New w/@LCooperReports: SVB’s collapse has thrown a spanner in the works for banks who are trying to sell more than $25 billion of underwater junk debt wsj.com/articles/svb-collaps…
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Twitter reported a drop in its earnings as it has faced a pullback from advertisers - all the while, the growing interest burden from $13bn of buyout debt is starting to bite. W/@LCooperReports & @AlexaCorse wsj.com/articles/twitters-re…
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JPMorgan Chase, the biggest bank in America, says the U.S. economy is looking strong and consistent with a "Goldilocks scenario" as it reported earnings on Friday.
wsj.com/finance/banking/jpmo…
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Rest in peace, Conor. You were a brilliant mind, and I'm heartbroken that you left us so soon. nypost.com/2023/04/23/new-yo… via @nypmetro
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New: Donald Trump’s company is gearing up to sell financial products to the public.
Trump Media announced a finance venture aimed at "American patriots" today. President Trump owns 53% of Trump Media, which will seek regulatory approval for the venture.
wsj.com/finance/investing/tr…
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John Femenia went to jail for three years for running an insider-trading scheme while he was a banker at Wells Fargo. I spoke with him about how an addiction to Adderall inspired him to start the scheme and how he’s rebuilt his life after prison. wsj.com/finance/insider-trad…
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Whirlwind trip to LA but chilaquiles and a quick stopover with a good friend made it worth the while.
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Jefferies CEO says January death of a young employee working at his bank was the result of a drug-related overdose.
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From Torsten Slok at Apollo: “nearly half of small and medium-sized [American toy companies] state they may soon go out of business due to the current U.S. tariff policy.”
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3. FTX's recordkeeping was a mess, Ray said. Bankers have had to call companies in which FTX invested to discover how much they paid for the stake and what the underlying business is.
“Sometimes there were no purchase agreements, or they weren’t signed."
wsj.com/articles/crypto-exch…
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JPMorgan and Bank of America are making moves to crack down on junior bankers' workloads, months after the death of a 35 year-old investment banker sent shockwaves through the industry.
wsj.com/finance/banking/bank…
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Many current and former employees who spoke to me said that their bosses routinely asked them to lie about their hours and work more than the bank’s policies allowed. They said they didn’t want to speak out about how they were told to violate company policies…
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7. Overall, Ray said that @SBF_FTX's comments on how he's been managing the company through Ch11 haven't been helpful. “People are continuing to be victims right now. They are victims of misinformation,” Mr. Ray said. “It’s harmful.”
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Watch: Twitter is over $13 billion in debt due to Elon Musk’s acquisition of the company—so why does Musk think it can be cash-flow positive in just a few months? WSJ’s Alex Saeedy explains. on.wsj.com/3K0A2tw
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CHRONIC PAIN: Victims of opioid addiction are speaking out against plans to send OxyContin creator Purdue Pharma’s bankruptcy plan for review before the Supreme Court, further delaying disbursements under a $6billion settlement for victims and governments. wsj.com/articles/opioid-vict…
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New: The White House isn't interested in what the biggest banks have to say about Trump's tariffs.
In fact, Trump hasn't been interested in hearing from them at all. At a gathering of bank CEOs, most said they haven't spoken to him since 2020.
wsj.com/finance/banking/trum… via @WSJ
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thank you Ben!!
#Dopesick fans: A must-read by my friend @ajsaeedy. #PurduePharma was just the start. An outrageous story of generics maker Mallinckrodt illegally pushing cheap Oxy & abusing bankruptcy system to avoid consequences @papergirlmacy @Dannystrong @RexChapman
wsj.com/articles/hedge-funds…
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8. To get the full dish, check out the piece I have written with @aosipovich here: wsj.com/articles/new-ftx-chi…
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NEW: Behind the scenes of Sri Lanka's ongoing political crisis has been billions of Chinese debt, and Beijing's reluctance to take a haircut on its loans has exacerbated the country's economic woes. From myself and @PhilipWen11: wsj.com/articles/sri-lankas-…
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Breaking: Silicon Valley Bank's parent company filed for bankruptcy, the largest bankruptcy filing stemming from a bank failure since Washington Mutual Inc. in 2008 wsj.com/articles/silicon-val… via @WSJ
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He lost 25 pounds and started to forget what day it was because he was always high on Adderall.
In 2022, he quit his job, moved in with his parents, and detoxed. He got cold sweats and couldn’t sleep for many nights as his body experienced withdrawal from the amphetamines.
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Confused by the President and First Lady's 'meme coins'? Learn more here from @Vlajournaliste about the First Family's latest business venture: wsj.com/finance/trump-meme-c…
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New: Banks providing around $13bn of debt to help pay for Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover are planning to keep the debt on their books rather than sell to investors, in what could be the biggest 'hung' deal of all time wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-… w/@LCooperReports
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Ukraine has used unorthodox tactics to achieve its goals since the war began - both on & off the battlefield. Our take on how Ukraine pulled off a $6b debt holiday & netted $30b in aid amid one of the harshest periods in its history: wsj.com/articles/ukraine-tak… w/@MattWirz @ceostroff
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New: A record buildup of debt in the developing world over the last decade is leading to blackouts and healthcare cuts, denting economic growth and hurting the world’s poorest. wsj.com/articles/global-poor… via @WSJ w/@gksteinhauser
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Charlie Javice was found guilty of defrauding JPMorgan Chase. She faces the prospect of decades in prison. Read here: wsj.com/us-news/law/charlie-…
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best of all - there is an OPPENHEIMER connection to Mallinckrodt!
Before becoming the top producer of opioids in the US, they built America's first uranium refining plant - 40 tons of Mallinckrodt's uranium were used at Los Alamos during the first nuclear reaction in history.
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6. A hack of $400 million in crypto hit Ray's recovery efforts very early into his gig. The hacker still isn't identified and the crypto has been blended and laundered onto other exchanges, he said. More on that hack here: wsj.com/articles/ftx-disclos…
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Scoop: Banks wrapped up their sale of $5.5 billion of loans backing Elon Musk’s takeover of X after a dramatic two years. Musk's power in Washington and the return of big advertisers like Amazon have Wall Street clamoring to get a piece of X
wsj.com/finance/banks-sell-5… via @WSJ
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“I went in understanding the downside risks” of using Adderall, he said. “But the reward was making managing director and pulling in a seven-figure salary. I felt that I had to have an edge to make it.”
Read Jonah’s story and many more here: wsj.com/finance/banking/youn…
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Scoop: BlackRock and Pimco are planning to ask for Ukraine to resume debt service and start paying them millions of dollars in debt payments as soon as next year. The governments that are bankrolling Kyiv’s budget aren’t so sure that’s a good idea.
wsj.com/finance/ukraine-debt…
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A deep dive on Sri Lanka's financial ties to China and Beijing's lending practices that I wrote with @PhilipWen11 last year has been nominated as a finalist for best business reporting for the SOPA awards - along w/four other WSJ nominations. Take a read! wsj.com/articles/sri-lankas-…
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Had the pleasure of joining @kate_linebaugh to discuss this story on The Journal. have a listen, and thanks to @piercesinggih for helping shape the story!
wsj.com/podcasts/the-journal…
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NEW: Vice will no longer publish new original content as the company lays off hundreds more in staff. That and more in our story w/@alexbruell
wsj.com/business/media/vice-…
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JPMorgan Chase is working on building 100 new bank branches in low-income areas, including neighborhoods and small towns where banks are few and far between these days.
“This is not just ‘do-gooding,’ this is business,” Jamie Dimon said in an interview.
wsj.com/finance/banking/jp-m…
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Our latest on the Musk/Twitter saga with @CaraRLombardo ! All eyes on Friday…
New: Banks Begin to Fund $13 Billion in Debt Backing Elon Musk’s Twitter Takeover with @ajsaeedy wsj.com/articles/banks-begin… via @WSJ
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Zambia has clinched an agreement with creditors, including China, to start a restructuring of billions in public debt.
Zambia was the first ctry to default after the Covid-19 pandemic began, so this is good news for other countries seeking debt relief 🧵wsj.com/articles/zambia-reac…
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Breaking: @SBF_FTX arrested in the Bahamas following notification that the U.S. has filed criminal charges against him wsj.com/articles/ftx-founder… via @WSJ w/@Vlajournaliste
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New: Allegations that Bank of America employees in India shared nonpublic information ahead of stock sales are costing the bank business. Two bankers have also been put on leave since the Journal reported on an investigation into the matter.
wsj.com/finance/bank-of-amer…
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2. Ray worked directly with @carolinecapital and Gary Wang to find assets after taking over in November. In the absence of any register of where FTX kept its money, Ray said he and his team have had to comb through 30 terrabytes of data just to find crypto wallets and keys.
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