Former Bear Stearns Research Analyst Launches REITology on StreetBrains Platform

This week, StreetBrains announced the launch of REITology through an exclusive partnership with Amy Lauren Young, formerly of Bear Stearns’ II ranked real estate team. REITology offers insights focused on the global real estate sector with a primary focus on companies with retail exposure.

REITology marks the 10th independent research provider to join the StreetBrains Actionable Information eXchange (AIX).

Former Bear Stearns Research Analyst Launches
REITology on StreetBrains Platform

New York, NY, April 2, 2008 - StreetBrains, LLC, the Actionable Information eXchange (AIX), today announced that they have partnered with Amy Lauren Young, formerly of Bear Stearns, to launch REITology, a research product that will cover the $14 trillion global commercial real estate sector, with a focus on companies with retail exposure. REITology is the 10th independent research provider (IRP) to join StreetBrains’ AIX.

REITology will provide written research as well as expert hours through the StreetBrains AIX. From company reports, retailing perspectives and international trends, to sector overviews and thought pieces, REITology’s insights will be delivered through written reports as well as through webinars and client-only panel discussions. Each REITology license will also include 40 hours of expert access in which customers may speak directly with REITology senior analyst, Amy Lauren Young.

During the pre-launch phase, REITology hosted two webinar events for clients and prospects. The first covered “The Reality of Retail REITs: What Consumers Aren't Consuming” and the second, held after Ms. Young returned from the world’s largest real estate conference, MIPIM, in Cannes, France, discussed “U.S. versus International Real Estate: Where are the Recession-Proof Investments?” Qualified institutional investors may click here to be granted a free trial, as well as access to the REITology webinars.

Prior to launching REITology, Amy Lauren Young spent nearly 6 years covering real estate at Bear Stearns & Co. Inc. where her real estate research team was ranked 3rd in its category by Institutional Investor in October 2007. Ms. Young previously spent 3 years at Deutsche Bank (formerly Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown Inc.); and two years at Lehman Brothers covering Conglomerates. Prior to the sell-side, Amy worked on the buy-side for four years in Denver, Colorado at Wells Fargo.

Additionally, after eight years of studying Mandarin Chinese, Amy studied abroad in East Asia, spending six months in Hong Kong and China. Amy is also involved in the Young Executive Board of Camp Interactive, a non-profit organization. She is a sustainer of the New York Junior League, and also an Apollo Circle member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"REITology offers a unique perspective on the international retail real estate market by factoring in investor psychology into its valuation model," says Lawrence Margolis, Managing Director of StreetBrains. "Their research fits into the StreetBrains platform by delivering information and perspectives that are actionable and offer clients an edge."

To learn more about REITology, please visit www.reitology.com.

To learn more about StreetBrains, please visit www.streetbrains.com or www.streetbrains.blogspot.com.

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StreetBrains LLC, the Actionable Information eXchange (AIX), provides limited distribution research and expert access to qualified institutional investors. Launched in May 2007, StreetBrains partners with unique independent research providers (IRPs) to bring exclusive analysis to hedge funds, proprietary trading desks, mutual fund managers and family offices via our proprietary research HUB. StreetBrains is not a broker/dealer, and operates free of any trading or investment banking conflict of interests and follows the Investment Protection Principles. To view StreetBrains' current AIX partners, please visit www.streetbrains.com.

20,000+ Wall Streeters to Wave Farewell by end of ‘09

The below story ran in Wednesday’s Financial News and that figure doesn’t include any losses from the Bear Stearns/JPM acquisition.

Gulp.

Wall Street may lose 20K jobs by end of 2009
Stephanie Baum
25 Mar 2008

Job losses in the financial sector in New York City are expected to reach 20,200 by the end of next year as the credit crunch deals its hardest blow to Wall Street, according to the Independent Budget Office of New York City.
The figures reflect an analysis of the mayor of New York’s preliminary 2009 budget and financial plan through 2012.
A spokesman for the budget office emphasized that the information in the analysis was subject to change.
The report provides estimates through 2009 based on information received by the end of February, before JP Morgan agreed to acquire Bear Stearns.
The spokesman said: “I hear repeatedly that every recession is different. This one is heavily based on finance and that’s going to hit New York City hard because New York is so dependent on the financial services sector... It remains to be seen how hard this will be.”
The agency predicts the financial activities sector will shed 12,600 jobs in 2008, a 2.7% decline from last year.
The estimate includes 5,300 jobs in the securities industry. Jobs tied to the credit market will account for the biggest percentage decline with 4,100 job cuts projected for 2008, a 4.4% decline over last year. It expects losses to slow down to 7,600 job in 2009.
Securities industry profits last year reached their lowest level since 1994 with $3.2bn (€2bn) according to the Independent Budget office estimates, a dramatic downturn from the near record $20.9bn in profits the sector produced in 2006.
The budget office expects losses to continue in the first quarter, but predicts an improvement in Wall Street’s performance later this year with “positive quarterly profits for the rest of 2008.” It predicts Wall Street companies will make a profit of $6.6bn and to nearly double next year to $12.2bn.
Investment banks and the mortgage industry have sustained much of the job losses since the onset of the credit crunch.
Another analysis of the city’s preliminary budget will be released in May.

For the independent research world, Wall Street job losses provide an interesting conundrum: will most firms cut back on spending so drastically that they confine spending to bare bones, in-house necessities and entirely scale back the use of outside products and services?

Or will they invest in fractional ownership or outsourcing-type solutions that can help them to contain costs without all together sacrificing valuable insights and information?

Bottom line: for any companies servicing the financial sector, proving value, providing an edge, and impacting the bottom line has never been more critical. And for the users of information, keeping in-house costs contained will prove equally vital....

'Mad Money' Causes Mad Losses

Whether or not Jim Cramer ‘knew better’ about BSC when he made the statement below to Erin Burnett on CNBC yesterday afternoon:

“Look, let’s understand two things, I said the common stock was worthless on Friday, as soon as this thing was at 36 because we saw a look at the bonds. If you kept your money in Bear you made out. You got the liquidity. Keeping money at Bear – I guess I could have caused a run on the bank and said take your money out of Bear. I guess people could say hold it, he’s saying buy the common stock. I mean, what the heck. I cannot cause a run. It turned out the Federal Reserve guaranteed the money. I’m not going to tell people to pull money out of these places. The Federal Reserve is guaranteeing the money. They are not guaranteeing the equity. I got a lot of things wrong in my life, but I don’t regret the fact when I said don't take your money out of Bear. If you have your money in Bear you still got it today. Remember, there’s Bear Stearns the common and that person was going to pull the money out of Bear. We got a guarantee. JPMorgan is now Bear.”

One thing’s for certain: this is the danger that exists when a large group of investors rely on a single source as their primary source of investment information – and suddenly, that source is wrong.

We don’t mean to go lightly on Cramer – I mean, if he did in fact make the ‘strategic decision’ that he ‘could not cause a run,’ then 20/20 hindsight given what’s occurred tells us his response was irresponsible. But quite frankly, we think this was just one of those situations where it was impossible for him to come out unscathed. Would we have rather had him ‘cause a run’ on the bank? Would that have been responsible? I suppose we’ll never know.

The real problem is the bigger picture issue – when investors are looking to one source, and when that source understands the power (as Cramer well understands) and credibility their recommendations have with their audience, we’re treading into dangerous territory. Dangerous for the investment ‘advisor’ because he needs to responsibly weigh his influence into the words he chooses; and dangerous for investors, because this ‘skewing’ – no matter how honorable the intentions – can result in conflicted advice.

Clearly we didn’t learn any lessons from the Global Settlement back in 2003, or investors would recognize that when they blindly follow the direction provided to them by a single source, they know how the story ends: massive losses.

Hopefully investors – and maybe even Cramer himself – will learn a lesson from this situation and recognize that diverse views strengthen our market structures and help in educating investors so that they are more capable of making sound investment decisions.