While the rich and powerful pull rank to win good spots in the buyers’ line for Gulfstream’s new supersonic G650 jet, one Wall Street titan doesn’t need his clout as the jet maker’s third-largest shareholder.
Given his status as one of the most influential insiders in finance and in Washington, BlackRock chief Larry Fink is mostly amused by all the fuss over the new symbol of power. It costs $65 million — just chump change for the usual billionaire — but means waiting in line at least a year to get one.
Fink doesn’t mind lines, even the tedious one at airports.
While his company oversees $12 trillion in assets under management– including 23.6 million shares of Gulfstream parent General Dynamics — BlackRock doesn’t own or rent private jets, which get their privileged passengers past security check hassles.
“He flies commercial, and yes, he takes off his shoes and stands in like the rest of us,” said a close colleague of Fink. “It’s what he wants.”
Post staff
Deuce coup
It’s a tough game, that music business. Rock/Hiphop act, Hollywood Undead’s Aron Erlichman, or “Deuce,” as he’s known in music circles, is suing his record label, A&M/Octone, for breach of contract, among other things.
The suit filed in a Los Angeles court this week shows Deuce has “Been To Hell,” to borrow a title from one of their tracks.
The songwriter alleges he was forced out of the band by its members and said he feared for his safety after anti-Semitic slurs were leveled at him. Deuce said he also had a gun pointed at him by a former band member, aptly named “Shady Jeff.”
The lawsuit includes a reference to an online post by Shady Jeff that, “last time I saw Erlichman I shoved a F—ing gun in his face and he started crying. We ain’t friends.”
Given all this, it’s hardly surprising that “Deuce” claims he wants to move on with his life and become a solo artist. “Deuce” claims he was even willing to continue under the A&M label but, no surprise, his solo efforts were rebuffed, he claims in the suit. He was told his works were rejected because they included “rough language, gangster slang and imagery,” and that as such, they wouldn’t be commercial enough.
A&M Octone has yet to respond to the suit, according to sources, and did not wish to comment on it.
Claire Atkinson
Little Italy
It’s been a while since Goldman Sachs had a former managing partner in a leading government role.
You would have to go clear back to former Treasury Sectretary Hank Paulson, who left with the Bush Administration in 2009.
Well, according to On The Money spies across the pond, Mario Draghi, the current Bernanke of Italy, has the inside track to replace Jean-Claude Trichet, whose term as president of the European Central Bank ends in October.
Draghi was the vice chairman and managing director of Goldman Sachs International and a member of the firm-wide management committee until he left in 2005 to do God’s work in his homeland.
Look for some interesting research reports coming out of the West Street HQ late this year about when, if ever, the ECB will raise interest rates.
Post staff
Star man
Some money managers study economic fundamentals when deciding whether to buy or sell. Others consult technical charts for market patterns. Henry Weingarten does neither.
Instead, the manager of the Astrologers Fund uses a star chart of the heavenly bodies to guide his investing strategy.
While Weingarten’s conference this week at the Princeton Club in Midtown was decidedly down to earth, with presentations from companies involved in extracting rare earth minerals, the astrologer did enlighten the 100 or so at tendees with his financial predictions.
The star-struck money manager is keep ing an eye on the opposition of Jupiter, the planet that rules expansion, and Sat urn, the planet associated with contrac tion, which occurs on March 28, 2011.
What does this mean for stocks? Weing arten’s targets for this day are 10,193 for the Dow Jones, 1,087 for the S&P’s 500, and 2,229 for the Nasdaq.
Right now, Weingarten’s bearish on bonds. He thinks the Fed will change course and start to raise interest rates by April.
Based on celestial align ments, Weingarten thinks April could also prove to be a cruel month for gold and sil ver. Copper is Weing arten’s preferred metal.
Despite the recent uprisings in the Mid dle East, Weingarten isn’t expecting a spike in oil prices. He sees crude oil trad ing in a band of $83 to $93 a barrel.
Further out, Weingarten says he will be adding security companies to the Astrologers Fund portfolio because a difficult aspect be tween the planets Uranus and Pluto (don’t tell Weingarten sci entists demoted Pluto) will trig ger revolutionary times for 2012-15.
“Even though the Mayan cal endar says the world will end in 2012, it won’t,” Weingarten says. “It will merely be the end of the world as we know it.”
Monica Gagnier