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| Wall Street analyst gets death threats after downgrading Citigroup | |
| 2007-11-03 | |
| Meredith Whitney, the analyst who prompted a $369 billion (£177 billion) plunge in the value of US shares on Thursday by issuing a negative note on Citigroup, hit out at Wall Street’s culture of intimidation yesterday after receiving several death threats from investors in the bank. Ms Whitney, a CIBC analyst who is married to the former World Wrestling Entertainment champion Death Mask, prompted a near 7 per cent drop in Citigroup’s shares on Thursday, after suggesting that the bank needed to raise more than $30 billion to restore its capital cushion. She also downgraded her recommendation on Citigroup’s shares to “market underperform” in the note that set off America’s biggest stock market decline since August.
Ms Whitney, whose marriage to John Charles Layfield, the wrestler, 2œ years ago was detailed in The New York Times, said that she has never felt any pressure from the Wall Street firms themselves to be positive. But she said investors could be “nasty and belligerent” if they felt you had lost them a lot of money by influencing the price of their shares. “No one had the moxie to put in print what I put in print,” she said. Ms Whitney’s note came two weeks after Citigroup reported a 57 per cent drop in its third-quarter profits, following a $6.5 billion writedown, much of which related to the credit crunch. That writedown intensified recurring calls for Chuck Prince, Citigroup’s head, to stand down, although he remains at the helm of the world’s biggest bank. But in a move that will fuel speculation about his position, Mr Prince yesterday cancelled a speech he had been due to give tomorrow at the US Japan Business Conference. A Citigroup spokesman said he had cancelled the appearance to prepare for the company’s new listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Monday. Ms Whitney, 37, met Mr Layfield in 2003 when they were panelists on Bulls & Bears, a programme on Fox News. Mr Layfield credits Ms Whitney with helping to make him more sophisticated. The New York Times reported him saying at their wedding: “She took a country boy like me and kind of refined me. I know what fork to use now at the dinner table, and I drink my beer from a glass.” | |
| Posted by:lotp |
| #8 2x4, don't be fooled by the "country boy" act. His ring persona is a country rube in a Wall Street suit. ;-) |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-11-03 20:28 |
| #7 He is buying citigroup :) |
| Posted by: Ol Dirty American 2007-11-03 20:21 |
| #6 “She took a country boy like me and kind of refined me. I know what fork to use now at the dinner table, and I drink my beer from a glass.” IOW, based on the words "sophisticated" and "refined", she wussified him. In no time, he will become her wife. |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2007-11-03 20:10 |
| #5 OK - I've seen this guy - he's no amateur in investing, just didn't connect the two, like I did Wayne Rogers.... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-03 18:35 |
| #4 Actually, the writer got his ring name wrong. He was a regular on Bulls and Bears for a while and has at least one book out on successful investing. Who knew? |
| Posted by: lotp 2007-11-03 18:31 |
| #3 Mrs. Death Mask --- DO NOT MESS WITH MRS. DEATH MASK!! VERY VERY BAD JU-JU!!! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-11-03 17:19 |
| #2 I'm curious why a WWE wrestler was on Bulls and Bears, which is a market-oriented Sat AM show |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-11-03 16:52 |
| #1 IMHO, a Wall Street analyst ought not be married to someone named "Death Mask". |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2007-11-03 16:23 |