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RIP John Gutfreund

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by lcjjdnh, Mar 10, 2016.

  1. lcjjdnh

    lcjjdnh Well-Known Member

  2. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Not much to add. That whole situation with Salomon and the treasury market was a cesspool of government intermingling with markets and how it leads to misallocation of risk and a lot of slithery-type people making a lot of money (until overleverage creates a shitstorm) in a rigged game. Gutfruend became a high-visibility scapegoat that allowed the game to continue and expand (by serving him up as a sacrificial lamb). What was going on then was quaint compared to where we have gotten today. He brought it on himself, so when I say he is a scapegoat, I am not saying it wasn't his own hubris that really brought him down. He thought he was bulletproof and found out he wasn't.

    One thing that always amazed me about his downfall is how Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger profited ridiculously from it all (they were just as slimy about taking a billion dollars out of Salomon as the "saviors," as Gutfreund ever was in playing his own rigged bond market game). Yet, Gutfruend is remembered as a face of "greed" while Buffett goes down a folksy hero: America's lovable billionaire uncle. It just goes to show that the bullshit face you put out to the public is way more important than what you actually do. Gutfruend apparently had no interest in pretending to be anything other than a gruff prick. To me, though, he was actually the honest one. RIP, I guess.
     
    Last edited: Mar 10, 2016
  3. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

     
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