I retweeted today 5 posts with different takes on Daniel "Dan" S. Loeb's Second Quarter 2010 Investor Letter, as you can see from my Twitter widget on the right sidebar. I did so to highlight the various lenses through which to read the said letter.
Dan Loeb is an activist investor who founded Third Point LLC in 1995, a New York-based hedge fund named after the biggest break in Malibu Surfrider Beach, now with approximately $3.4 billion of assets under management. In 2005, Bloomberg published a revealing 9-page write-up on Loeb by Deepak Gopinath, titled "Hedge Fund Rabble-Rouser," that profiles the man from way back when he was still a boy of 12. Apparently, his "Wall Street's merchant of venom" image is a deliberately cultivated one. His aim is really "to shame companies into replacing their CEOs, shaking up their boards--whatever it takes to boost the value of his investments." (for example, check out his letters to Ken Griffin and Salton,Inc., both written in 2005).
True to form, in his latest investor newsletter, Loeb railed at "inept executives in regulated institutions" and at the "incompetence of many boards of directors." But this time, however, he opened a new front--Washington. After what The Huffington Post calls "grandiose, introductory quotes from the likes of Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson and President Obama," Loeb then proceeded to lambast the Obama Administration. His litany of government "sins" include: the lawsuit filed against Goldman Sach's (which, to him, is "politically-laced" and a "tipping point for shaky investor confidence"); laws/regulations that "promote redistribution rather than growth"; and a "rigged" system where former executives and regulators who admit to not seeing the crisis coming walk away with millions or move up to higher positions in government.
You may want to check out the following links to better appreciate these issues:
* Paul Krugman's "The Unbearable Pettiness Of Being Rich" - http://nyti.ms/d4zYLj.
* Bess Levin's "Paul Krugman: Dan Loeb & Co Are Mad At Obama Because They’re A Bunch Of Petty Little Rich Boys" - http://bit.ly/ajlw0P.
* Andrew Ross Sorkin's "Why Wall St. Donors Are Deserting Obama" - http://nyti.ms/9PLNCD.
*The Huffington Post's "Daniel Loeb, Hedge Fund Manager, Blasts Obama Administration's 'Redistribution Of Wealth'" - http://huff.to/c48dCD.
* Tech Ticker's "Hedge Fund Manager Dan Loeb: The Whole System Is Rigged" - http://yhoo.it/amFZPR.
(Photo courtesy of Google Images)

















