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Bronx ‘ghetto’ tours stop amid residents’ outrage

A company that promised sightseer tours to the Bronx that included a New York City “ghetto” has stopped the bus rides under protest from an outraged neighborhood.

Real Bronx Tours, which took mostly European tourists from Manhattan to see life in the South Bronx “from a safe distance,” issued a statement this week saying it would immediately cease all tours there.

Three times a week, the $45 ride took visitors past food-pantry lines, a housing project and a park a guide described as a pickpocket hangout.

Tourists were told they’d get a look at the Bronx that reflects one of the darkest chapters of the city’s history, the 1970s and ’80s, when the tour website said “this borough was notorious for drugs, gangs, crime and murders.”

The Bronx lost hundreds of buildings to fires intentionally set by landlords to collect insurance money, hence the phrase, “the Bronx is burning.”

But residents say the tours are a misrepresentation of the area where former Secretary of State Colin Powell and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor lived in as children.

“Those days are over, the Bronx is being rebuilt, it’s rising again,” said Bronx resident and Grammy-nominated musician Bobby Sanabria.

On Monday, Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. and City Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito sent an open letter to the company owner, Michael Myers, saying they were “sickened by the despicable way” the borough was being portrayed to outsiders.

“We strongly urge you to stop profiting off of a tour that misrepresents the Bronx as a haven for poverty and crime, while mocking everything from our landmarks to the less fortunate members of our community who are availing themselves of food assistance programs.”

The tour company did not respond to calls and emails requesting comment. It was not clear whether they would resume any of their tours. And by Thursday, the website of the company was no longer accessible.

Other companies in the city still offer regular guided trips to the Bronx.

Three weeks ago, NYC & Company, the city’s tourism bureau, launched a promotion of the South Bronx as “one of our safest, most exciting boroughs,” with highlights including Art Deco architecture and the Yankees.

Real Bronx Tours has been booted from the bureau’s membership list as a result of the language they’ve been using, NYC & Company spokeswoman Kimberly Spell said.

Elena Martinez, an anthropologist and Bronx resident, offers visitors walks through the same neighborhood that was on Real Bronx Tours’ itinerary.

The human struggles on these still gritty streets have produced urban styles and sounds copied around the world, from hip hop music and outdoor murals to clothing.

“Many young Europeans come here as a pilgrimage,” Martinez said. “This was the incubator for hip-hop, salsa, jazz, Afro-Cuban music, R&B.”

She points to theaters, lavish dance halls and clubs where salsa came alive, along with some of the biggest names in music. Sanabria, a famed drummer, says he comes from a borough “that has an incredible, majestic music culture.”

And although many of the buildings now house stores and offices, or were demolished or burned down, new ones mingle with restored historic ones “and people are helping to bring the neighborhood back,” Martinez said.

“We’ve had enough of the gawkers who come to ghettoize us,” says Al Quinones, caretaker of a community park that features a garden with fruit trees and a stone outdoor amphitheater. “Their timing was bad. The Bronx is not burning, not now! Now, it’s resurgence.”

On the door to his shack on the grounds is a sign that reads: “Don’t dump on the Bronx.”

Sanabria, Martinez and other Bronx residents are meeting Friday to kick-start a counter-campaign to what they call the Bronx’s “negative image.”

They’ve calling their action “Bronx Rising.”

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/bronx-ghetto-tours-stop-amid-residents-outrage-6C10042731

Filed under Bromx Ghetto Tours

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Insider’s Guide to the North Fork, Long Island One of the last places you might expect to experience a “wine country” getaway is the easternmost end of the Long Island Expressway. But if you follow I-495 long enough—about 75 miles east of New York City—the highway will eventually dissolve into a chain of country roads. Soon you’ll start passing vineyards. And that’s when you will have arrived in Long Island’s North Fork. One of the youngest wine-producing areas in the country, as well as the smallest, Long Island certainly isn’t poised to compete with Sonoma or Napa. But here, along the quieter, more rural stretch of Eastern Long Island, safely insulated from the seasonal frenzy of the Hamptons, something exciting is underway. Just as the rise of Napa’s vineyards in the seventies coincided with a whole new culinary consciousness (i.e. “California Cuisine”), the North Fork has spent the last couple decades creating a unique epicurean identity from its three key assets: strong agricultural roots, a thriving local wine industry, and the Peconic Bay’s bounty of saltwater-fresh eats. With its charming galleries, antique shops, and nautically themed boutiques, not to mention a vibrant restaurant scene, the quaint bayside town of Greenport functions as an ideal home base from which to explore. Although the town is home to a handful of delightful family-run B&Bs, if you’re looking to be pampered, book a room at The Harborfront Inn, located on Front Street, Greenport’s main drag. A luxury take on the classic beachfront hotel, it offers thirty-five spacious, elegant rooms and suites, plus a large gym, and heated outdoor pool. You won’t regret splurging on the Deluxe and Premier rooms, which have private balconies with stunning views of the Peconic Bay and Shelter Island.  Read the full Fodors story here: http://www.fodors.com/news/insiders-guide-to-the-north-fork-long-island-6803.html

Insider’s Guide to the North Fork, Long Island

One of the last places you might expect to experience a “wine country” getaway is the easternmost end of the Long Island Expressway. But if you follow I-495 long enough—about 75 miles east of New York City—the highway will eventually dissolve into a chain of country roads. Soon you’ll start passing vineyards. And that’s when you will have arrived in Long Island’s North Fork.

One of the youngest wine-producing areas in the country, as well as the smallest, Long Island certainly isn’t poised to compete with Sonoma or Napa. But here, along the quieter, more rural stretch of Eastern Long Island, safely insulated from the seasonal frenzy of the Hamptons, something exciting is underway.

Just as the rise of Napa’s vineyards in the seventies coincided with a whole new culinary consciousness (i.e. “California Cuisine”), the North Fork has spent the last couple decades creating a unique epicurean identity from its three key assets: strong agricultural roots, a thriving local wine industry, and the Peconic Bay’s bounty of saltwater-fresh eats.

With its charming galleries, antique shops, and nautically themed boutiques, not to mention a vibrant restaurant scene, the quaint bayside town of Greenport functions as an ideal home base from which to explore.

Although the town is home to a handful of delightful family-run B&Bs, if you’re looking to be pampered, book a room at The Harborfront Inn, located on Front Street, Greenport’s main drag. A luxury take on the classic beachfront hotel, it offers thirty-five spacious, elegant rooms and suites, plus a large gym, and heated outdoor pool. You won’t regret splurging on the Deluxe and Premier rooms, which have private balconies with stunning views of the Peconic Bay and Shelter Island. 

Read the full Fodors story here: http://www.fodors.com/news/insiders-guide-to-the-north-fork-long-island-6803.html

Filed under wine country long island wine

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Bank’s Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves. One bill that sailed through the House Financial Services Committee this month — over the objections of the Treasury Department — was essentially Citigroup’s, according to e-mails reviewed by The New York Times. The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation. In a sign of Wall Street’s resurgent influence in Washington, Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill. Two crucial paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word. (Lawmakers changed two words to make them plural.) The lobbying campaign shows how, three years after Congress passed the most comprehensive overhaul of regulation since the Depression, Wall Street is finding Washington a friendlier place. The cordial relations now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank. This legislative push is a second front, with Wall Street’s other battle being waged against regulators who are drafting detailed rules allowing them to enforce the law. And as its lobbying campaign steps up, the financial industry has doubled its already considerable giving to political causes. The lawmakers who this month supported the bills championed by Wall Street received twice as much in contributions from financial institutions compared with those who opposed them, according to an analysis of campaign finance records performed by MapLight, a nonprofit group. In recent weeks, Wall Street groups also held fund-raisers for lawmakers who co-sponsored the bills. At one dinner Wednesday night, corporate executives and lobbyists paid up to $2,500 to dine in a private room of a Greek restaurant just blocks from the Capitol with Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, Democrat of New York, a co-sponsor of the bill championed by Citigroup. Industry officials acknowledged that they played a role in drafting the legislation, but argued that the practice was common in Washington. Some of the changes, they say, have gained wide support, including from Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman. The changes, they added, were in an effort to reach a compromise over the bills, not to undermine Dodd-Frank. Read the full story here: CNBC http://www.cnbc.com/id/100764324

Bank’s Lobbyists Help in Drafting Financial Bills

Bank lobbyists are not leaving it to lawmakers to draft legislation that softens financial regulations. Instead, the lobbyists are helping to write it themselves.

One bill that sailed through the House Financial Services Committee this month — over the objections of the Treasury Department — was essentially Citigroup’s, according to e-mails reviewed by The New York Times. The bill would exempt broad swathes of trades from new regulation.

In a sign of Wall Street’s resurgent influence in Washington, Citigroup’s recommendations were reflected in more than 70 lines of the House committee’s 85-line bill. Two crucial paragraphs, prepared by Citigroup in conjunction with other Wall Street banks, were copied nearly word for word. (Lawmakers changed two words to make them plural.)

The lobbying campaign shows how, three years after Congress passed the most comprehensive overhaul of regulation since the Depression, Wall Street is finding Washington a friendlier place.

The cordial relations now include a growing number of Democrats in both the House and the Senate, whose support the banks need if they want to roll back parts of the 2010 financial overhaul, known as Dodd-Frank.

This legislative push is a second front, with Wall Street’s other battle being waged against regulators who are drafting detailed rules allowing them to enforce the law.

And as its lobbying campaign steps up, the financial industry has doubled its already considerable giving to political causes. The lawmakers who this month supported the bills championed by Wall Street received twice as much in contributions from financial institutions compared with those who opposed them, according to an analysis of campaign finance records performed by MapLight, a nonprofit group.

In recent weeks, Wall Street groups also held fund-raisers for lawmakers who co-sponsored the bills. At one dinner Wednesday night, corporate executives and lobbyists paid up to $2,500 to dine in a private room of a Greek restaurant just blocks from the Capitol with Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, Democrat of New York, a co-sponsor of the bill championed by Citigroup.

Industry officials acknowledged that they played a role in drafting the legislation, but argued that the practice was common in Washington. Some of the changes, they say, have gained wide support, including from Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman. The changes, they added, were in an effort to reach a compromise over the bills, not to undermine Dodd-Frank.

Read the full story here: CNBC

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100764324

Filed under wall street lobbyists bank compliance compliancex

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The 4 Hedge Funders Losing Big in the Japan Rout The “Abe Trade” just hit a major bump. Toward the end of last year, a number of large hedge funds began piling into Japan. Driving the bet was the country’s new prime minister Shinzo Abe, who said he favored flooding Japan’s markets with cash from its central bank in order to finally pull its economy out of its perpetual slump. And hedge funds, for all their griping about Ben Bernanke for doing essentially the same thing — on a relatively smaller scale, no less — fell in love with Abenomics. The most popular trades appear to have been to bet against the yen and to buy up Japanese stocks. Both of those trades crapped out on Thursday. Japanese stocks plunged 7%. The yen was up 2% against the dollar. Thursday’s Japanese market rout appeared to be based on new fears about a slowdown in China and the prospect that the U.S. central bank would stop buying bonds to drive down interest rates. This might not be the end of the “Abe Trade.” It’s hard to know how much money was lost in the Japan rout. Many of the hedge funds had made pretty good money on the trade in the past few months, so they may not be in the red on Japan even after the recent drop. But here are the fund managers who likely took the biggest hits: 1) Dan Loeb Loeb has been the most recent hedge fund manager to proclaim his love for Japan. That means he is the most likely to have bought near the top. In early May, after dipping his toe in the water in the first quarter, Loeb said his $11.7 billion Third Point fund was making a broad bet on Japanese stocks. About a week later, Loeb’s fund disclosed it had amassed a significant stake in Sony (SNE) and was pushing for changes. But Loeb said he was buying not just on stimulus from Japan’s central bank, but also because of structural changes, such as reforms that will alter wages and bring more women into the workforce, that he predicts will make the economy more efficient. 2) Paul Tudor Jones Jones was one of the first hedge fund mangers to question Ben Bernanke’s plan to boost the economy by buying bonds and driving down interest rates. These days all of the so-called smart money are doing it. But, apparently, what’s “perverse” for Peoria, is A-OK for Osaka. Jones’s Tudor Investments saw its flagship fund rise 9% in the last two months of 2012 and first month of this year largely on a bet against the yen. But he has also been going long on Japanese stocks as well. In the first quarter of this year, Jones’s fund invested $10.8 million in the iShares MSCI Japanese index (EWJ), an ETF that tracks the Japanese stock market. 3) Stan Druckenmiller In early May, Druckenmiller, who for 12 years led Soros’s Quantum fund, said he thought Japan was in the early stages of a bull market. He likes Japan because its central bank was trying “QE times 3.” He said the central bank’s bond-buying efforts would work better in Japan than in the U.S. because deflation is a real threat in Japan. He thinks the Federal Reserve will have to abandon QE sooner than people think as the economy recovers, causing a U.S. stock market crash. 4) Louis Bacon Bacon’s Moore Capital has struggled lately, forcing it to give back some his investors’ money. The one big trade that has paid off is Japan. Bacon has been reportedly betting against the yen since last November. As of the end of the first quarter, Moore had investments in Japanese finance companies Mitsubishi and Sumitomo Mitsui, though Japan’s stocks didn’t appear to make up a big portion of its stock portfolio. And one winner: Kyle Bass Bass, who became famous for betting against the housing market, has been saying for a while that his current big short is Japan, which he calls a “Ponzi on top of a Ponzi” and thinks could be on the verge of its own financial crisis. Japan has way to much debt. Japanese savers, which have largely supported their government’s borrowing, are tapped out. Bass recently went so far as to commission a poll to prove it. It asked just over 1,000 Japanese investors whether they would be willing to buy more of their country’s bonds if Japan entered a crisis. The result: 83% said they would “run, not walk” away from the Japanese bond market. Still, Bass has been betting against Japan, and has been wrong for a while — until recently. And Bass is serial worrier. He has also bet against Greece and other countries in Europe. And he owns a survival ranch on thousands of acres in the middle of nowhere in Texas. But perhaps the best call on Japanese stocks came from the relatively unknown Sensato Capital Management, which manages $1.3 billion and is based in San Francisco. The firm’s Asia fund, which was up 7% in April alone, has bet heavily on Japanese stocks this year. But on Monday, the firm’s co-founders Ernest Chow and Jonathan Howe sent a letter to investors saying they now believed the Japanese stock market was overvalued, and it was time to sell. Well played. http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/05/23/hedge-funds-japan-rout/

The 4 Hedge Funders Losing Big in the Japan Rout

The “Abe Trade” just hit a major bump.

Toward the end of last year, a number of large hedge funds began piling into Japan. Driving the bet was the country’s new prime minister Shinzo Abe, who said he favored flooding Japan’s markets with cash from its central bank in order to finally pull its economy out of its perpetual slump. And hedge funds, for all their griping about Ben Bernanke for doing essentially the same thing — on a relatively smaller scale, no less — fell in love with Abenomics.

The most popular trades appear to have been to bet against the yen and to buy up Japanese stocks. Both of those trades crapped out on Thursday. Japanese stocks plunged 7%. The yen was up 2% against the dollar. Thursday’s Japanese market rout appeared to be based on new fears about a slowdown in China and the prospect that the U.S. central bank would stop buying bonds to drive down interest rates.

This might not be the end of the “Abe Trade.” It’s hard to know how much money was lost in the Japan rout. Many of the hedge funds had made pretty good money on the trade in the past few months, so they may not be in the red on Japan even after the recent drop. But here are the fund managers who likely took the biggest hits:

1) Dan Loeb

dan loebLoeb has been the most recent hedge fund manager to proclaim his love for Japan. That means he is the most likely to have bought near the top. In early May, after dipping his toe in the water in the first quarter, Loeb said his $11.7 billion Third Point fund was making a broad bet on Japanese stocks. About a week later, Loeb’s fund disclosed it had amassed a significant stake in Sony (SNE) and was pushing for changes. But Loeb said he was buying not just on stimulus from Japan’s central bank, but also because of structural changes, such as reforms that will alter wages and bring more women into the workforce, that he predicts will make the economy more efficient.

2) Paul Tudor Jones

paul-tudor-jonesJones was one of the first hedge fund mangers to question Ben Bernanke’s plan to boost the economy by buying bonds and driving down interest rates. These days all of the so-called smart money are doing it. But, apparently, what’s “perverse” for Peoria, is A-OK for Osaka. Jones’s Tudor Investments saw its flagship fund rise 9% in the last two months of 2012 and first month of this year largely on a bet against the yen. But he has also been going long on Japanese stocks as well. In the first quarter of this year, Jones’s fund invested $10.8 million in the iShares MSCI Japanese index (EWJ), an ETF that tracks the Japanese stock market.

3) Stan Druckenmiller

stan-druckenmillerIn early May, Druckenmiller, who for 12 years led Soros’s Quantum fund, said he thought Japan was in the early stages of a bull market. He likes Japan because its central bank was trying “QE times 3.” He said the central bank’s bond-buying efforts would work better in Japan than in the U.S. because deflation is a real threat in Japan. He thinks the Federal Reserve will have to abandon QE sooner than people think as the economy recovers, causing a U.S. stock market crash.

4) Louis Bacon

louis_bacon_moore_capital

Bacon’s Moore Capital has struggled lately, forcing it to give back some his investors’ money. The one big trade that has paid off is Japan. Bacon has been reportedly betting against the yen since last November. As of the end of the first quarter, Moore had investments in Japanese finance companies Mitsubishi and Sumitomo Mitsui, though Japan’s stocks didn’t appear to make up a big portion of its stock portfolio.

And one winner: Kyle Bass

kyle-bassBass, who became famous for betting against the housing market, has been saying for a while that his current big short is Japan, which he calls a “Ponzi on top of a Ponzi” and thinks could be on the verge of its own financial crisis. Japan has way to much debt. Japanese savers, which have largely supported their government’s borrowing, are tapped out. Bass recently went so far as to commission a poll to prove it. It asked just over 1,000 Japanese investors whether they would be willing to buy more of their country’s bonds if Japan entered a crisis. The result: 83% said they would “run, not walk” away from the Japanese bond market. Still, Bass has been betting against Japan, and has been wrong for a while — until recently. And Bass is serial worrier. He has also bet against Greece and other countries in Europe. And he owns a survival ranch on thousands of acres in the middle of nowhere in Texas.

But perhaps the best call on Japanese stocks came from the relatively unknown Sensato Capital Management, which manages $1.3 billion and is based in San Francisco. The firm’s Asia fund, which was up 7% in April alone, has bet heavily on Japanese stocks this year. But on Monday, the firm’s co-founders Ernest Chow and Jonathan Howe sent a letter to investors saying they now believed the Japanese stock market was overvalued, and it was time to sell. Well played.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/05/23/hedge-funds-japan-rout/

Filed under Posted in: dan loeb Hedge Funds japan Kyle Bass Louis Bacon Paul Tudor Jones Stan Druckenmiller hedge fund japan

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Paul Tudor Jones: In macro trading, babies are a ‘killer’ to a woman’s focus   Paul Tudor Jones, the hedge fund billionaire, told an audience of University of Virginiastudents, alumni and others that it is difficult for mothers to be successful traders because connecting with a child is a focus “killer.” As long as women continue having children, he said, the industry is likely to be dominated by men. “As soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it,” Jones said, motioning to his chest during an April symposium. He was talking about two women who worked with him at a stock brokerage in the late 1970s — two women who married, had children and, according to his account, no longer had the laser focus needed for the intense world of macro trading. “Every single investment idea . . . every desire to understand what is going to make this go up or go down is going to be overwhelmed by the most beautiful experience . . . which a man will never share, about a mode of connection between that mother and that baby,” Jones said, according to a video of his remarks The Washington Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. “And I’ve just seen it happen over and over.” Jones’s comments came during the question-and-answer session of an April 26 symposium at the university’s McIntire School of Commerce. The panel included prominent investors Julian Robertson, John Griffin and Jones, 58, a 1976 U-Va. graduate who has donated more than $100 million to the university. Jones said in a statement to The Post on Thursday that his “off the cuff remarks” were made “with regard to global macro traders,” who work in a small, intense field in which “emotional highs and lows are obstacles to success.” Jones has four children with his wife, Sonia Jones. “As I’ve told my three daughters, all of whom I’ve at one time encouraged to go into macro trading, any man or woman can do anything to which they set their heart and mind,” Jones said in the statement. “I believe that great success is possible in any field — from music to mathematics to macro trading.” To encourage an “open and candid discussion,” McIntire Dean Carl P. Zeithamlhad asked the audience not to record the event or to quote the panelists afterward. “No quotes with attribution should leave the room,” Zeithaml said. “We must prohibit any discussion or description of the event in print or video, through electronic media or through Internet-based technologies including Web sites, blogs or social media, such as Twitter or Facebook.” The commerce school recorded the event, and U-Va. made a password-protected link to the video available to The Post this week. Zeithaml was out of the country Thursday and could not immediately be reached for comment. Jones made his remarks about mothers toward the end of the symposium, when a person in the audience submitted a question — labeled “elephant in the room” — that asked the investors what it would take to get more diversity on such panels. “You will never see as many great women investors or traders as men — period, end of story,” Jones said. “And the reason why is not because they are not capable. They are very capable.” Jones said trading requires a “very specific skill set” and focus that is vulnerable to emotional events, such as divorce. “The emotional distraction that comes from divorce is so overwhelming,” he said. “You can just automatically subtract 10 to 20 percent from any manager if he is going through a divorce.” The same is true of women who have children, Jones said. He gave the example of two female co-workers at the New York brokerage E.F. Hutton in the 1970s. “They both got married,” he said, “and then they both had — which in my mind is as big of a killer as divorce is — they both had children.” Video At a University of Virginia symposium in late April, Paul Tudor Jones responded to a question about why the panel only featured “rich, white, middle-aged men.” Jones responded by saying that trading requires intense focus, which he believes many women lose when they have children. The panel featured (from left to right) U-Va. professor David Mick, Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corporation, Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital and moderator Jeff Walker, chairman of the U-Va. Council of Foundations.     For that reason, Jones said, the top of the industry probably won’t change. “If you told me that this woman was not going to have a baby — certainly can get married but not going to have a baby — then I think it would be a completely different panel 20 years from now,” Jones said. “Assuming that she’s not going to have a baby.” The other members of the panel shifted in their chairs as Jones spoke. There was awkward laughter when Jones said “bosom.” Other panelists offered differing perspectives. Griffin told the audience that Jones “gave an honest answer to an honest question.” The moderator, Jeffrey Walker, ex-chairman and chief executive of a global private-equity firm, at one point jumped in and said, “So another way of looking at it. . . ” Later in the discussion, Jones tried to clarify his comments. He also said that he had given a similar speech to a group of women who work in hedge funds. “I’ve probably said too much and gotten myself in trouble,” Jones said during the symposium. Zeithaml, the school’s dean, said he received complaints from alumnae and female faculty members immediately after the forum, which was held on a Friday. The following Monday morning, he sent a lengthy e-mail to all the commerce school’s students and staff members to further explain Jones’s comments — which he says were misinterpreted — and to urge women to pursue careers “in industries or professions that have not traditionally included women in large numbers.” The e-mail also included an open letter from a 2001 graduate who has worked for a hedge fund. She urged young women to ignore comments like those made by Jones. “There are many people who agree with the alumnus’s comments,” the graduate wrote. “When you come across those people, go the other way. Life is hard enough. You don’t need negative perspectives or people who tell you what is not possible in your life. Go around them and then prove them wrong. Do well, and come back to tell the next generation of women what is possible.” http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/paul-tudor-jones-in-macro-trading-babies-are-a-killer-to-a-womans-focus/2013/05/23/1c0c6d4e-c3a6-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html  

Paul Tudor Jones: In macro trading, babies are a ‘killer’ to a woman’s focus

 

Paul Tudor Jones, the hedge fund billionaire, told an audience of University of Virginiastudents, alumni and others that it is difficult for mothers to be successful traders because connecting with a child is a focus “killer.” As long as women continue having children, he said, the industry is likely to be dominated by men.

“As soon as that baby’s lips touched that girl’s bosom, forget it,” Jones said, motioning to his chest during an April symposium. He was talking about two women who worked with him at a stock brokerage in the late 1970s — two women who married, had children and, according to his account, no longer had the laser focus needed for the intense world of macro trading.

“Every single investment idea . . . every desire to understand what is going to make this go up or go down is going to be overwhelmed by the most beautiful experience . . . which a man will never share, about a mode of connection between that mother and that baby,” Jones said, according to a video of his remarks The Washington Post obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. “And I’ve just seen it happen over and over.”

Jones’s comments came during the question-and-answer session of an April 26 symposium at the university’s McIntire School of Commerce. The panel included prominent investors Julian Robertson, John Griffin and Jones, 58, a 1976 U-Va. graduate who has donated more than $100 million to the university.

Jones said in a statement to The Post on Thursday that his “off the cuff remarks” were made “with regard to global macro traders,” who work in a small, intense field in which “emotional highs and lows are obstacles to success.” Jones has four children with his wife, Sonia Jones.

“As I’ve told my three daughters, all of whom I’ve at one time encouraged to go into macro trading, any man or woman can do anything to which they set their heart and mind,” Jones said in the statement. “I believe that great success is possible in any field — from music to mathematics to macro trading.”

To encourage an “open and candid discussion,” McIntire Dean Carl P. Zeithamlhad asked the audience not to record the event or to quote the panelists afterward.

“No quotes with attribution should leave the room,” Zeithaml said. “We must prohibit any discussion or description of the event in print or video, through electronic media or through Internet-based technologies including Web sites, blogs or social media, such as Twitter or Facebook.”

The commerce school recorded the event, and U-Va. made a password-protected link to the video available to The Post this week. Zeithaml was out of the country Thursday and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Jones made his remarks about mothers toward the end of the symposium, when a person in the audience submitted a question — labeled “elephant in the room” — that asked the investors what it would take to get more diversity on such panels.

“You will never see as many great women investors or traders as men — period, end of story,” Jones said. “And the reason why is not because they are not capable. They are very capable.”

Jones said trading requires a “very specific skill set” and focus that is vulnerable to emotional events, such as divorce. “The emotional distraction that comes from divorce is so overwhelming,” he said. “You can just automatically subtract 10 to 20 percent from any manager if he is going through a divorce.”

The same is true of women who have children, Jones said. He gave the example of two female co-workers at the New York brokerage E.F. Hutton in the 1970s. “They both got married,” he said, “and then they both had — which in my mind is as big of a killer as divorce is — they both had children.”

Video

At a University of Virginia symposium in late April, Paul Tudor Jones responded to a question about why the panel only featured rich, white, middle-aged men. Jones responded by saying that trading requires intense focus, which he believes many women lose when they have children. The panel featured (from left to right) U-Va. professor David Mick, Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corporation, Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital and moderator Jeff Walker, chairman of the U-Va. Council of Foundations.

At a University of Virginia symposium in late April, Paul Tudor Jones responded to a question about why the panel only featured “rich, white, middle-aged men.” Jones responded by saying that trading requires intense focus, which he believes many women lose when they have children. The panel featured (from left to right) U-Va. professor David Mick, Paul Tudor Jones of Tudor Investment Corporation, Julian Robertson of Tiger Management, John Griffin of Blue Ridge Capital and moderator Jeff Walker, chairman of the U-Va. Council of Foundations.

 

 

For that reason, Jones said, the top of the industry probably won’t change.

“If you told me that this woman was not going to have a baby — certainly can get married but not going to have a baby — then I think it would be a completely different panel 20 years from now,” Jones said. “Assuming that she’s not going to have a baby.”

The other members of the panel shifted in their chairs as Jones spoke. There was awkward laughter when Jones said “bosom.” Other panelists offered differing perspectives.

Griffin told the audience that Jones “gave an honest answer to an honest question.” The moderator, Jeffrey Walker, ex-chairman and chief executive of a global private-equity firm, at one point jumped in and said, “So another way of looking at it. . . ”

Later in the discussion, Jones tried to clarify his comments. He also said that he had given a similar speech to a group of women who work in hedge funds.

“I’ve probably said too much and gotten myself in trouble,” Jones said during the symposium.

Zeithaml, the school’s dean, said he received complaints from alumnae and female faculty members immediately after the forum, which was held on a Friday. The following Monday morning, he sent a lengthy e-mail to all the commerce school’s students and staff members to further explain Jones’s comments — which he says were misinterpreted — and to urge women to pursue careers “in industries or professions that have not traditionally included women in large numbers.”

The e-mail also included an open letter from a 2001 graduate who has worked for a hedge fund. She urged young women to ignore comments like those made by Jones.

“There are many people who agree with the alumnus’s comments,” the graduate wrote. “When you come across those people, go the other way. Life is hard enough. You don’t need negative perspectives or people who tell you what is not possible in your life. Go around them and then prove them wrong. Do well, and come back to tell the next generation of women what is possible.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/paul-tudor-jones-in-macro-trading-babies-are-a-killer-to-a-womans-focus/2013/05/23/1c0c6d4e-c3a6-11e2-9fe2-6ee52d0eb7c1_story.html

 

Filed under Hedge Fund Paul Tudor Jones

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PROPER CLOTH’S NEW AMERICAN TRADER COLLECTION The made-to-order shirting specialists at Proper Cloth may be more than happy to let you design your own custom creation, but they also offer up a few collections of pre-designed options each season. And we should all be happy that they do. The latest is American Trader, inspired by the kind of guys you might expect, given the name: Gekko, Bateman (sans “psycho” angle), and Glengarry (sans verbal abuse). Think conservative classics — business stripes, contrast collars — but with decidedly unconservative fits and details (keep an eye out for some very bold cutaways). Basically, it’ll let you dress like a boss without, you know, looking like your actual boss. We’ve got an exclusive first look, right this way… http://www.esquire.com/blogs/mens-fashion/proper-cloth-american-trader-052313?click=news&spr_id=1456_8948428&src=spr_TWITTERRead more: Proper Cloth Spring 2013 - Proper Cloth American Trader Shirts - Esquire Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook Visit us at Esquire.com

PROPER CLOTH’S NEW AMERICAN TRADER COLLECTION

The made-to-order shirting specialists at Proper Cloth may be more than happy to let you design your own custom creation, but they also offer up a few collections of pre-designed options each season. And we should all be happy that they do. The latest is American Trader, inspired by the kind of guys you might expect, given the name: Gekko, Bateman (sans “psycho” angle), and Glengarry (sans verbal abuse). Think conservative classics — business stripes, contrast collars — but with decidedly unconservative fits and details (keep an eye out for some very bold cutaways). Basically, it’ll let you dress like a boss without, you know, looking like your actual boss. We’ve got an exclusive first look, right this way…

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Read more: Proper Cloth Spring 2013 - Proper Cloth American Trader Shirts - Esquire 
Follow us: @Esquiremag on Twitter | Esquire on Facebook 
Visit us at Esquire.com

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Profitless Wall Street Stock Market Rally

Even after this week’s sell-offs, 2013 has seen an impressive rally in equities. Rob Buckland, chief global equity strategist at Citi, discusses with Long View columnist John Authers why the climb has come despite flat or declining company profits.

For more video content from the Financial Times, visithttp://www.FT.com/video

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Homebuilding Rebounds in Hamptons

The sounds of hammers fills the air in Southampton NY as homebuilding has recovered. Corcoran gives TheStreet a tour of an $18 million home.

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 Abercrombie isn’t cool. Stock tanks.

Shares of the controversial retailer plunged on a lousy earnings report. Maybe the company would do better if it didn’t have such an exclusionary attitude.

 

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Madoff Changes His Story

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Apollo’s Joshua Harris: Get Rich From Europe’s Bank Troubles

 

Billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management speaks with Steve Forbes about how his firm is seeking out diversified investments overseas.

Harrris on his ownership stake of the Philadelphia 76ers:http://youtu.be/BhLTva1P4uA

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Reuters Asks: Can Japan control the yen’s fall?

“Abenomics” has given Japan what it wants: a weaker yen. But with it has come bouts of extreme volatility. We ask if Japan can successfully manage the yen’s decline.

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Hedge Fund Billionaire Paul Tudor Jones’ Insult to Wall Street Women