Part IX of the Going Private miniseries "The Spiral." With the Chairman and CEO missing in action, the margin calls come in.  A team of bankers meets secretly as they prepare to gut The Firm.  The complicity of certain regulators leaves a foul stench in the air as the Firm's negotiators prostrate themselves before the presence of a Wall Street luminary.  The offers are low.  Very low, and turmoil threatens to destroy what is left of the Board of Directors.  Despondent, one mistress resorts to an old habit for consolation.

Part VII of the Going Private miniseries "The Spiral." The CFOs aide has vanished.  The Chairman and CEO begins to rebuff anxious minions for their disloyalty.  The dreaded "non-compete" clause strikes terror into the hearts of traders, once committed to the firm, but now despondent over the pay cuts they will be forced to endure.  If unable to keep them in the style to which they have grown accustomed, will they be able to withstand the wrath of their wives?  How will they break the news?

Part III of the Going Private miniseries "The Spiral." A mortal betrayal by the CFO is revealed.  The head of the firm's mortgage desk airs his concerns about the firm's aggressive hedging positions, but the CFO cannot be bothered.  The exodus of firm personnel begins.  The CEO is repeatedly urged to consider asset sales, or at least an equity raise to prop up the firm's dwindling capital, but his focus is on the future, and the phoenix-like rise he believes the firm will undertake.  The sounds of financial panic, however, echo through his corner offices.

Part II of the Going Private miniseries "The Spiral." Time is running out for the firm after the Fortress sale and the news of a pending Department of Justice investigation.  Even the thick disgust for leadership that middle management has, for years, carefully cultivated, cheers no one.  Resumes are flying.  The CFO makes a bold, last minute effort to persuade the Chairman and CEO, and the Head of Compliance has a run-in with legal over a point of ethics.

mde.mov [4 minute 15 second, 10mb quicktime H.264 movie]

Unfortunately, there will be a brief delay in service while I dry off my undergarments and descend into the plateaued euphoria of the newly minted Icahn Report.