First, some background:
Sandy Weill
Sandy Weill
From 1965 to 1984, he was in charge of a firm that merged through 15 acquisitions to become Shearson, a brokerage firm at the time only second to Merrill Lynch. In 1981, he sold Shearson to American Express, and began his relationship with Jamie Dimon, his protégé and the leader who got JP Morgan through the financial crisis in great shape until the whale knocked them off their high horse this spring with his over- the- top trading that cost JP Morgan $5billion.
So back to Sandy.
Sandy was booted out of American Express, tried to get in the top spot of Bank of America (then a much smaller firm). It didn’t work.
In the 80’s he did get going in finance and insurance companies, and through acquisitions, ended up at the top of Primerica, the parent company of Smith Barney. He bought back Shearson, an interest in Traveler’s (which ended up being the whole firm before long), and then merged with Citigroup.
HE WAS THE FATHER OF THE FINANCIAL SUPERMARKETS!!!!!!!
He put Robert Rubin(Clinton’s Sec. of Treasury) and former President Gerald Ford on his board as he pushed the repeal of Glass- Steagall, a law on the books since the Great Depression which was put in place to keep bank deposits safe from riskier financing activities.
Guess what. It was repealed. And away he went.
Then he was out in 2003 as Charles Prince took over.
So the guy who engineered the first big concentrated financial firm was on CNBC , and shocked me as I was drinking coffee when he said: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000105251&play=1
Is he still mad at Jamie Dimon as he was in 1998 when he fired him before Jamie got back in the game at Bank One?
Does he see it clearer now that he is out of the business?
What is he involved in now that makes him think this way?
He is famous for “talking his book.”( a term in finance that means you are speaking in your own best financial interests). So know that you must understand when ANY CEO tells you something, there is very often an agenda, and although I don’t know what Sandy is thinking, I probably won’t take these comments at face value until I hear more.
And you should think about this anytime you hear someone come out with a bold statement.
Why this?
Why now?
This man spent his entire career building up financial firms with acquisitions. He is a changed man. Or not.
