Oh Maria - How was your flight?

Todd Thomson clearly lacked good (or any) judgement. Good riddance!


ONE $WEET RIDE
BARTIROMO'S FLIGHT WITH THOMSON COST CITI $50K
By RODDY BOYD

PLANE FAIR? The costly one-way trip between Beijing and New York for CNBC's Maria Bartiromo and Todd Thomson (above) of Citigroup cost the financial giant $50,000.




January 24, 2007 -- The controversial trans-Pacific corporate jet jaunt that ousted Citigroup exec Todd Thomson took with glamorous CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo set the New York banking giant back almost $50,000.
Based on prevailing operating rates for a swanky Gulfstream executive class jet, Citi largely underwrote the ritzy flight of the high-profile "Money Honey" to the tune of between $2,300 and $4,000 per hour.
Assuming a $3,000 per hour average cost for the 16-hour flight to New York, Citi shelled out $48,000, not including the commercial airfare for the three execs Thomson bumped in order to fly alone with Bartiromo.
A CNBC spokesman said that Bartiromo only paid "prevailing commercial rates" for her seat, approximately $3,000 to $4,000.
A Citi spokesman did not return a call.
The late-autumn flight, for which Citi's former wealth-management boss Thomson bumped key lieutenants of CEO Chuck Prince, was "just about the last straw" for frustrated Citi execs, Citi sources told The Post.
A CNBC spokesman said Bartiromo sought and received approval in advance before hopping the pricey flight on one of Citi's jets, which gave her an opportunity for "source development."
"We review all of these travel requests on a case-by-case basis, and this was no exception," said the CNBC spokesman.
Thomson's rearrangement of the Beijing flight list irked some very senior Citi execs, especially Executive Board Chairman Robert Rubin, who is said to have directly chastised Thomson about the importance of appropriate corporate appearances.
Thomson did not return a message left at his residence.
Even before the controversial flight, Bartiromo and Thomson often appeared together on panels at financial conferences and have been quoted in articles about each other several times.
In a recent Success magazine cover profile, Thomson gushed that Bartiromo - who sits on a council with him at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School - "truly understands business and brings clarity and authenticity to the table."
For her part, the Brooklyn born Bartiromo, who writes a finance column for Reader's Digest, quoted Citi's Thomson - who managed private bankers and retail brokers - as an authority in global business competitiveness for an August 2005 story.
Long respected for her trademark live reports from the floor of the NYSE, Bartiromo once raised eyebrows by disclosing on air that she personally owned Citi stock.
More recently, she has won plaudits for breaking the news that Chairman and CEO Sandy Weill was leaving the firm.
roddy.boyd@nypost.com

Hedge Fund Assholes

After dozens of interviews and conversations over the years with people involved with money management, I am struck by the arrogance of those in the business. Give most anyone a "significant" amount of money to manage and once they have a few or even one good year(s) watch that person develop a king size ego. People on the "buy-side" are by and large the most obnoxious group of people I know of. It's a sort of misguided god complex only they are not saving lives. Somehow sitting in front of a monitor, pressing a few buy and sell buttons and generating a return for your investors gives many a feeling of supreme superiority. At our firm we are constantly mindful of how silly most of our peers are. Just listen to them with their big words and convoluted reasons for why things happen as the "i'll play dumb" business reporter laps it up. So cute!!!

Hedge Fund Strategy

Fresh slate, new year! What to do? We're doing nothing and loving it. We will not be making any big sector calls, rotating in and out of hot industry or companies and most importantly we will not be changing our strategy one iota. 2006 was not a great year for us but that does not mean we need to change our strategy. Many managers who lagged in 06 are rejiggering the portfolio - selling losers and probably adding to winners. Fine for traders - dumb for investors. A strategy not followed is worse than no strategy at all. After years of observing "smart money" I realize two things: there isn't much of it and what exists of it is not widely publicized. The people that are truly the "smart money" do not appear on CNBC, rarely speak at conferences, usually don't write books and generally are not widely known. They aren't "consummate marketers".

Real investment professionals treat their vocation as a profession instead of as a business.

Happy New Year Mr. Nardelli

Very interesting to hear rumblings that the board of The Home Depot, upon seeing the runup in the stock due to rumors of an LBO, were more inclined to fire Bob Nardelli. The market sent a clear signal to the board that the company was worth more without Nardelli than with him. Good for them for reading the signal. While Nardelli certainly lacked charm he was a good operator. Don't dismiss him as a chump just because the stock was down and don't blame him for making a ton of cash. Who are the directors that approved it? It's easy to find and you can then blame them.