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 There's been a lot of chatter this week about who's on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's speed-dial, Merrill Lynch & Co.'s ignorance on derivative products, possible replacements for Bank of America Corp.'s (NYSE:BAC) Ken Lewis, as well as some regulators' and bankers' take on social issues. So here's a roundup just in case you might have missed anything.Geithner has some of Wall Street's superstars on speed-dial, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s (NYSE:GS) Lloyd Blankfein, Citigroup Inc.'s (NYSE:C) Dick Parsons and Vikram Pandit, and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.'s (NYSE:JPM) Jamie Dimon, according to the New York Post. Speaking of Geithner's speed-dialing, he did plenty his first day in office. Deal Journal highlights the agenda of his first day with a tongue-and-cheek interpretation of the Treasury secretary's initial phone conversations: Geithner (speaking to Larry Summers, senior White House economic advisor) : Larry, I am torn. Do we keep pouring more money into BofA and Citigroup and the other banks, if the losses get worse, or do we nationalize them? I am afraid if we nationalize, they will call us socialists. If we keep injecting capital, they will call me a Wall Street lackey. Meanwhile, Vanity Fair has some noteworthy select quotes excerpted from Andrew Ross Sorkin's book "Too Big to Fail" between Geithner and prominent banking heads during the crisis mode last year: "I haven't been able to reach you for four hours," Geithner barked into the phone to [Pandit]. "That's unacceptable on a day like today!" "Well, Vikram," he [Blankfein] said briskly, "I'm not calling with any flattery towards you in mind." "I did Bear," Dimon objected, referring to JPMorgan's taking over Bear Stearns the previous March at Paulson's behest. "I can't do this." Talking about crisis, Clusterstock points out that John Thain admits that no one at Merrill Lynch & Co. understood the derivative products they were trading: We think it's good news that Thain is now emphasizing the knowledge problem when it came to banking--highly paid, well-educated people at the top of their field just didn't understand the credit derivative products they were buying and selling. "To model correctly one tranche of one CDO took about three hours on one of the fastest computers in the United States. There is no chance that pretty much anybody understood what they were doing with these securities. Creating things that you don't understand is really not a good idea no matter who owns it," the former Merrill Lynch chief executive said in a speech this month. Meanwhile, Thain may have felt "vindicated" that Ken Lewis plans to retire, but Lewis' decision surprised plenty of his colleagues, according to Deal Journal: " 'WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' wrote Thomas Montag in a 5:37 p.m. email, according to people familiar with the email. That was just minutes after the Charlotte, N.C., bank put out its news release disclosing Lewis' decision to step down at the end of 2009." Sallie Krawcheck was apparently on the list of names to replace Lewis, but she was vague about being a contender for the position and the bank's strategy with Merrill Lynch on CNBC per Bloomberg: Sallie Krawcheck, Bank of America Corp.'s head of wealth management, said she won't do "stupid things" to pay policies that might spur financial advisers to leave the bank. ... "We are not doing any of that stuff," Krawcheck, 44, said, referring to changes in compensation and speculation that she would "smash U.S. Trust and Merrill Lynch together." American Banker celebrated the most powerful women in finance where the FDIC's Sheila Bair spoke on being a woman in banking, according to The New York Times: "Always keep your cool," she said, stating that being known as the
"emotional woman" is not in a professional's best interest if she cares
to move up the corporate ladder. Don't be a pushover either, she added. Ms. Bair said women should
"stick to their guns" and confront their male colleagues if they
disagree on company policy. That's the latest gossip this week on Wall Street. If there's any we missed, please feel free to leave it below. - Maria Woehr
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