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Movement at the Top, Quiet at the Bottom

Published: Apr 21, 2009

 Finance       

Fannie Mae has appointed a new CEO to take over for Herb Allison, who’s expected to be confirmed as President Obama's TARP chief. Vikram The One Dollar Pandit might have led his last shareholder meeting as Citi CEO. And 65-year-old Morgan Stanley CEO Johnny Mack says he’s not getting any younger and the firm should start thinking about who will steer the ship when he bows out (Mack the Knife also said Morgan might be looking to scoop up some regional commercial banks in the U.S. now that it’s no longer an investment bank but a holding company).

In other news, a host of first-quarter earnings reports came out today. BlackRock and Bank of New York Mellon both posted steep declines in net income (but still turned a profit). And though not exactly (or at all) a finance company, everybody’s favorite bulldozer manufacturer Caterpillar reported a quarterly loss for the first time in 16 years, due to slow demand for construction and mining. In case you forgot (or missed it), Cat’s CEO Jim Owens (who’s been with the company for 37 years) predicted back in October 2007 that a recession was right around the corner, and today he had some more bad news, saying 2009 will be the worst year ever, economically speaking, for Mother Earth since WWII.

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