The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 6 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Ellis: David Swensen created the first derivative swap at Salomon Brothers
“The first derivative ever done was done by David Swenson when he was working at Salomon Brothers. It was an interest rate swap between IBM and the World Bank”
Ellis: David Swensen was the first person to execute a derivative swap
“David's the first person in the world to do a derivative swap. First person in the world”
Mullen: Goldman's leveraged finance desk took less risk than 1980s Salomon
“When I ran Goldman Sachs' leverage finance trading desk businesses, we weren't as big in some things as Salomon Brothers had been 15 years earlier. The scale of risk-taking was extraordinary.”
Blood: Major financial firm bankruptcies stem mostly from cultural failures
“Turns out that since I've been in finance now 35 years, there have been, I think, probably 10, 15 major organizations that have gone bankrupt, and they've mostly gone out of business for failures of culture and business principles”
David Swensen created the landmark $100M World Bank-IBM interest rate swap
“While he was at Salomon Brothers, he came up with a cockamamie idea that nobody had ever heard of. An interest rate swap, a hundred million dollars, principle, between the World Bank and IBM.”
Barber: Wall Street leaders in 1970s and 1980s rose through syndicate desks
“And if you go back in time, John Goodfriend, the legendary CEO of Solomon brothers had been the syndicate manager of Solomon brothers, Ralph D'Annunzio, the legendary CEO of Kidder Peabody had been the syndicate manager. Tommy Saunders, a very legendary Morgan…”