By Barry Ritholtz - April 1st, 2012, 11:00AM
Last month, I posted a long discussion on the exodus of asset managers from Merrill. According to several dozen Merrill brokers who emailed me, that post was promptly blocked by Bank of America.
Which is a shame.
Anytime you see a corporate management put its head in the sand, it is a bad sign for the future of that firm. The preference is for transparency, honest responses to criticisms, some degree of self-reflection — not Big Brother censorship. Of course, BofA long ago committed suicide with their Countrywide purchase and other mortgage follies, and exists today only due to the largesse of taxpayers who bailed them out. With that sort of poor decision in the DNA of the company, I cannot say I am surprised by yet another example of bad judgment.
The investing wealthy have come to a similar conclusion. A new Reuters article this past week is titled Merrill, Morgan Stanley seen losing grip on rich. (I wonder if BofA is going to block Reuters as well?). As it turns out, its much easier to browbeat Congressmen into handing over billions than it is to get the top 1% to do the same.
Here are the key bullet points I picked out of the Reuters column:
• 2008 Financial Crisis: Have led big investors to lose faith with Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and UBS — all 3 were bailed out by taxpayers — and Merrill Lynch — which was rescued by a Bank of America takeover, which itself was eventually bailed out by taxpayers.• Technology: is leveling the playing field between smaller,more nimble frims and the industry giants.
• RIA and family-offices: were the fastest growing firms, increasing assets under
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2012/04/wealthy-to-wirehouses-buhbye/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheBigPicture+%28The+Big+Picture%29
The rich are different than you and I. Its not just that they have more money — they are much more careful with whom they trust it to . . .
Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.
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