esrosedotblog

I TOLD YOU SO updated--link to Weill's Wikipedia listing

I have been a long time customer of CItigroup, particularly the Smith Barney division.

Over the years, I had a front row seat to the carnival wrought on the company by Sanford (Sandy) Weill, the founder and maker of the company and now, one of the founders and makers of the economic collapse.

I don't know what caught my attention many years ago. It was quite early. About the time that he wed the Travelers with the Salomon.

It might be the fond self regard, the arrogant empire builder who gloats in his victories, the anti-regulation stances, his reputation as the man who smashed Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era legislation that contained core financial regulations. The repeal allowed for the creation of Citi and helped feed the Wall Street boom.

Or maybe it was the sly look. The panache.

I saw a bullshit artist.

But a very good one.

Soon Salomon gobbled up my broker, Smith Barney.

I watched and commented frequently to my Smith Barney friends who even, from time to time, forwarded my diatribes to management. Or said that they did.

The company grew and grew. It took in Citibank and became Citigroup. Wow. More more more.

And then he was out. Gone but not forgotten. Still connected but not heeded. His decisions about his successors were as bad as many of his structural ones. They shut him out.

How do you spell hubris?

Sandy Weill was not only a pirate but an incompetent one.

He walked the plank.

This profile in todays NYT helps give some dimension to the enormous damage that Weill and his ilk perpetrated. And will never pay for it beyond their own financial losses. Half of a billion dollars is how much?

And, of course, the damage to his infinite self regard which will never be seriously dented. He is still pointing the finger.

What a shit.

Citi’s Creator, Alone With His Regrets.

Labels: evil bastards, finance