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Reminisces of a Wall Street programmer
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Lubow
Apr 30, 2012, 7:17:05 AM4/30/12
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I saw the CNBC production of the failure and subsequent liquidation of
Lehman Brothers. It was the biggest business failure in the history of the
US. Doesn't it seem that in every decade that record gets broken?
Anyway, that got me to think of my life with another mainstay of Wall Street
albeit a little smaller, Bear Stearns. Y2K work for the Bear was our
company's second largest account. Our largest was management of the City of
New York's Y2K Test Lab which covered the software of over 30 mayoral
agencies. Management of the Lab account was given to a guy who commuted
between the US and Israel depending on where he could get the best deal. I
took control of the Bear account. Midway through my work at Bear I was
offered a full time job there but the guy that offered me the job quit Bear
to work at Paine Webber. No mention of a full time job at Bear was ever
mentioned until two months passed.
During those two months Bear's chairman, Alan C. "Ace" Greenberg, proudly
announced to the press that his ten highest paid executives exceeded the
payroll of the world champion Chicago Bulls including that of its star,
Michael Jordan. Not only that but Mr. Greenberg also announced the
construction of the 56 story Bear Stearns Tower to be located in midtown
Manhattan between Park and Lexington Avenues. "Wow," I thought to myself,
"I could be a part of such a successful company!"
Bear's employees warned me that Bear is notorious for verbally offering its
software people one deal then delivering a substantially inferior deal.
Typically Bear would lavish millions of dollars in bonuses to its top
salespeople but failed to deliver promised ten thousand dollar bonuses to
the software people. And at Bear no job offer to software people is ever
put down on paper. According to one boss, "We make billion dollar deals on a
handshake."
Yeah, but if Bear reneges on a billion dollar deal, Bear is in serious
trouble. If Bear reneges on an employment deal with me, I'm in serious
trouble. Anyway, a second offer was made and sure enough it was
substantially lower than the first offer. This whole thing sounded really
flakey to me. When the Y2K project at Bear was completed I moved to Reuters
in Stamford CT to work on its Y2K initiative.
Ten years later Bear Stearns was history.
Lehman Brothers. It was the biggest business failure in the history of the
US. Doesn't it seem that in every decade that record gets broken?
Anyway, that got me to think of my life with another mainstay of Wall Street
albeit a little smaller, Bear Stearns. Y2K work for the Bear was our
company's second largest account. Our largest was management of the City of
New York's Y2K Test Lab which covered the software of over 30 mayoral
agencies. Management of the Lab account was given to a guy who commuted
between the US and Israel depending on where he could get the best deal. I
took control of the Bear account. Midway through my work at Bear I was
offered a full time job there but the guy that offered me the job quit Bear
to work at Paine Webber. No mention of a full time job at Bear was ever
mentioned until two months passed.
During those two months Bear's chairman, Alan C. "Ace" Greenberg, proudly
announced to the press that his ten highest paid executives exceeded the
payroll of the world champion Chicago Bulls including that of its star,
Michael Jordan. Not only that but Mr. Greenberg also announced the
construction of the 56 story Bear Stearns Tower to be located in midtown
Manhattan between Park and Lexington Avenues. "Wow," I thought to myself,
"I could be a part of such a successful company!"
Bear's employees warned me that Bear is notorious for verbally offering its
software people one deal then delivering a substantially inferior deal.
Typically Bear would lavish millions of dollars in bonuses to its top
salespeople but failed to deliver promised ten thousand dollar bonuses to
the software people. And at Bear no job offer to software people is ever
put down on paper. According to one boss, "We make billion dollar deals on a
handshake."
Yeah, but if Bear reneges on a billion dollar deal, Bear is in serious
trouble. If Bear reneges on an employment deal with me, I'm in serious
trouble. Anyway, a second offer was made and sure enough it was
substantially lower than the first offer. This whole thing sounded really
flakey to me. When the Y2K project at Bear was completed I moved to Reuters
in Stamford CT to work on its Y2K initiative.
Ten years later Bear Stearns was history.
Frank Kafka
May 1, 2012, 8:09:55 AM5/1/12
to
On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:17:05 -0400, "Lubow" <dynami...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
Do you have a link and a source for this story?
Oh, and BTW, the next time do not forget the quotation marks.
wrote:
Oh, and BTW, the next time do not forget the quotation marks.
horme...@gmail.com
May 1, 2012, 9:30:15 AM5/1/12
to
On Tuesday, May 1, 2012 5:09:55 AM UTC-7, Frank Kafka wrote:
> On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:17:05 -0400, "Lubow" <dynami...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
<presumably completely fake autobiographical drivel elided>
> On Mon, 30 Apr 2012 07:17:05 -0400, "Lubow" <dynami...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
>
> Do you have a link and a source for this story?
>
> Oh, and BTW, the next time do not forget the quotation marks.
The source is almost certainly the usual source for a
> Do you have a link and a source for this story?
>
> Oh, and BTW, the next time do not forget the quotation marks.
"Dumb Mikey Lubow" Tenenbaum autobiographical story: his
rich pathological lying imagination. The same source
where he got the stories about his 10,000sq.ft. mansion,
Lincoln Town Car, super-expensive watch collection, being
a "professional commodity trader" for 20 years, running
the company his father founded, paying pensions to the
numerous retired employees of the company, etc., etc.,
etc....
---
William Ernest Reid (however, I can confirm that
Bear Stearns was a real company, just like the company
bearing the "Lubow" name that Tenenbaum claimed to
own, causing the real owner of the company to call
the cops on Tenenbaum for identity theft)
Lubow
May 1, 2012, 9:36:39 AM5/1/12
to
>
> Do you have a link and a source for this story?
Absolutely.
> Do you have a link and a source for this story?
http://misgame.webs.com/remininscesofwallst.htm
>
> Oh, and BTW, the next time do not forget the quotation marks.
Do you even know what a quote is? Do you know what a question mark is?
Thought so.
Lubow
May 1, 2012, 11:22:42 AM5/1/12
to
"Lubow" <dynami...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:jnoot8$cq0$1...@dont-email.me...
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/1996/Bear-Stearns-Beats-Bulls-With-Huge-Pay-Packages/id-bc41eccb805cb3a02d85b5fbc6cf5f96
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