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Wall Street CEOs React to Killing of Bin Laden

Published: May 02, 2011

 Finance       

Warren Buffett, fresh off the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting during which he reversed course and finally threw David Sokol under the bus, had this to say after learning that Seal Team 6 had successfully taken out the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden: "It felt good, it was joy ... A mass murderer of almost incomprehensible dimensions has been eliminated, just as was the case with Hitler."

osama bin laden deadJim Paulsen, chief investment strategist of Wells Capital Managment, was also quite pleased. He said, "It is a great morning. I think that in some ways what we're doing in the last couple of years ... in the financial markets [we are] rebuilding confidence, which we utterly destroyed in the 2008 crisis, and a big part of that is to affect the mood and confidence. I think this is just what the doctor ordered for that."

But Robert Doll, chief equity strategist of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, was not as pumped over the slaying of Osama, saying, "I don't want to throw cold water on this but it's not the victory it might have been a few years ago ... As we've seen in Syria and other places, it's not just al-Queda that's operated in Muslim extremism ... So it's a positive but it might be transitory."

Meanwhile, two chief executives, whose employees were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks orchestrated by Bin Laden, were relieved.

John Duffy, CEO of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, said, "It's a very emotional moment for me but one of relief ... The world's a better place today ... We lost 67 people that morning. My son's death certificate says he was murdered, and I felt last night that we found the murderer and justice was done. So there is an element of satisfaction."

And Howard Lutnick, CEO of Cantor Fitzerald, which lost 658 employees (including Lutnick's brother), said, "I was afraid at first that he had died of cancer -- that sort of would've left a big open sore there -- but at least we got 'em."


(CBSNews: Cantor Fitzerald CEO Reacts to News of Bin Laden's Death)

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