That’s normal- he’s just in between sets.

Every morning, I jog to the park and do pull-ups and push-ups and wind sprints. It’s about an hour-and-a-half routine–six sets—and between sets I’m checking my email, making five-minute calls (I save the long interviews for when I get to the office), and looking at stories. You’d be surprised how much you can get done; by the time the workout’s done I have my day planned. My day on TV starts around 11 and I’m usually on air until about 7. I do “hits”–I’ll come on at least three times a day to do planned stories. If I’m doing a hit on Dobbs at 7:30, say, I’ll have an hour and a half of downtime because the day’s gone–the Wall Street guys hit the bars around 4:30 or 5–so I’ll usually hit the gym and do a 30-40 minute pure weights workout at Fox. In the gym I have my BlackBerry on constantly.

[The Atlantic]

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Article courtesy of Dealbreaker

Despite reports by Charlie Gasparino, who said he’s heard from friends of Lloyd that he “might be planning to step down by the end of the year,” GS has reassured the world that LB will be with us for many years to come, and possibly even longer, if Lucas van Praag can get him to agree to be cryogenically frozen. Future generations shouldn’t be punished for not being born in his lifetime. [Reuters]

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If you’ve been dying for a while to see the Steamroller and Dick Grasso battle each other for the job of running NYC but never told anyone about it because you felt silly, given that it will never happen, you’re not alone: reporter Charlie Gasparino, too, would love such a match-up and despite being told Ashley Alexandra Dupré vs Gary Busey would have a better chance of coming to fruition, can’t help himself. He’s decided to put it out there, today, Secret-style, in the hopes the universe will give it back to him.

Eliot Spitzer’s resurrection — from the disgraced gov ernor better known as Cli ent 9 to CNN talk-show host — has the political class buzzing about him running for mayor in 2013. Wilder still, one of his former targets is talking about running against him. Former New York Stock Exchange chief Dick Grasso — one of the highest-profile targets of Spitzer’s uneven assault on Wall Street — has quietly been telling friends that he’s leaning toward challenging Spitzer as a Republican (particularly if Police Commissioner Ray Kelly doesn’t seek the GOP nomination himself, as some speculate he will).

Sure, Grasso (a Jackson Heights native) has no political experience, unless you consider his long years as NYSE chief, before he was forced out in 2003 amid the controversy over his massive compensation package. But ever since he beat back Spitzer’s charges that he’d improperly collected tens of millions in salary as the head of the NYSE back in 2008, Grasso’s been dropping hints to reporters that he may run for public office, possibly mayor. And I’m told that Grasso’s enraged at Spitzer’s resurrection, as the liberal media and left-wing documentarians paint him as a force for pure good during his days as AG over the pure evil that were his Wall Street targets (Grasso included).

Yes, Chaz, concedes, there are “a few caveats,” such as the fact that Spitzer hooker banging past would present some issues and that Dick Grasso might just be fucking with him.

The Grasso-for-mayor notion is a longshot (Grasso, who didn’t return a phone call, is known for playing practical jokes), and the Spitzer-for-mayor scenario is far from a layup.

NEVERTHELESS. CG wants- no, needs this- in his life so please, everyone cross your fingers and toes it happens, even though it’s also unlikely because, Gasparino says, Spitzer is a pussy but still.

Here’s hoping that the absurd actually becomes reality, and Spitzer goes toe-to-toe with Grasso, who won’t be bashful about pointing all this out. I know Grasso is game, but somehow I think Spitzer will chicken out rather than face the possibility of a more balanced depiction of his record.

Spitzer vs Grasso [NYP]

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Sayeth Chaz:

“Fuld portrayed Lehman as a firm that was fighting successfully to survive. With those words of encouragement, some investors lent Lehman money, others bought its stock or decided not to sell, thinking the situation was going to get better. Given what later happened, that sounds like an open-and-shut case of securities fraud, with greedy Wall Streeters caught lying to public investors, right? Well, no.

I’m told the SEC is under intense pressure to bring a case against someone at Lehman, whether it’s Fuld or another top exec — and having a tough time coming up with conclusive evidence they knew they were lying about what they were saying about Lehman’s chances. And if they can’t prove that, they don’t have a fraud case…As for the accounting gimmick Lehman used just before its ’08 implosion, it was approved by the firm’s auditor, Ernst & Young — which OK’d it because other firms had used similar techniques to mitigate losses, without a peep from regulators. In other words, Fuld really did think Lehman would survive — because in the past, with the help of the feds, it had. But…if Fuld “had” to know better, then what about all those politicians and bureaucrats who encouraged the creation of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the collapse? What about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac execs who let banks hand out loans to almost everyone? What about the Federal Reserve and Treasury officials, under Republicans and Democrats, who stepped in and mitigated Wall Street losses time after time, creating an environment where CEOs like Fuld believed there was no consequence to risk-taking? If it’s a crime to help trigger a disaster by getting things wrong, a lot of people belong in jail.”

Executives And The 2008 Collapse [NYP]

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“I like to take on the big guys,” Gasparino says. “I’ve been doing it my entire career. Before it was fashionable to beat up on Wall Street, I was doing it.” [NYDN]

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As previously mentioned, yesterday on Twitter, Charlie Gasparino noted that several hours before the Super Bowl, at a party in Dallas, he “made eye contact” with Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who saw him and then proceeded to “walk the other way.” Then today on Facebook he implored people to help him figure out “what this means.”

Clearly, the mixed message (if that’s what’s happening here) has thrown CG for a loop. As no one knows LB or CG better than most of you people, let’s help him figure this one out. Did Blankfein’s ignoring of Charlie mean:

a) Lloyd just got out of CEO/reporter relationship and being burned badly wasn’t ready to jump into something new

b) LB needed to head to the bar and get some liquid courage before talking to CG, and when he came back, Chaz talking to another guy.

c) Lloyd wanted to talk to Charlie, so badly, but he wanted Chaz to make the first move

d) Lloyd was still embarrassed about their last date, when he failed the “Door Test,” and didn’t know how to talk to Charlie after that debacle.

e) Lloyd was trying to be smooth and wait until the waiter delivered the muscle milk martini he’d ordered for Chaz but the guy fucked it up.

f) Lloyd wouldn’t piss in CG’s mouth if his gums were on fire

g) LB was getting sick of talking to CG because the first question was always “what do you bench”

h) Lloyd didn’t recognize Charlie without his makeup on

i) Write-in

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As you may have heard, Meredith Whitney has lately been saying that we’re going to be looking at the scariest environment imaginable when as many as 50 to 100 cities and other municipal issuers will supposedly default on their debt this year. Charlie Gasparino, however, is suspect. No one he knows has seen a copy of Whitney’s report (entitled “State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning”) and until he gets a peak and can evaluate it, Chaz doesn’t think we should be buying what this broad is selling.

All we really know about the report is its overheated title — “State Budgets: The Day of Reckoning,” and what Whitney will disclose about her research, and methodology, which so far ain’t much. No one I know in the municipal bond market has even a bootlegged copy.

Seeing the actual report might give us some idea why she thinks defaults might surpass levels over the past year not seen since the Great Depression — a pretty outlandish claim when you think of it — considering the general improvement of the economy. Seeing the report will also give the investing public some indication about Whitney’s own motives in making such claims. Has Whitney or her firm invested in municipal bonds or are they shorting the market (betting it would fall)?

Regulators expect market positions to be disclosed in research — even the proprietary kind that’s not released to the general public. On its face, there’s nothing wrong with Whitney taking a market position, but if she or her firm is short the market, it gives us some more insight into her call and why it’s so aggressive.

CG wants his insight and he wants it now. If he doesn’t see a copy of this thing by COB today, the receptionist at the Meredith Whitney Advisory Group can expect a visitor.

Meredith Whitney Should Show Her Cards [HP]

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According to Charlie Gasparino, at least one of the aforementioned “low-level” Goldman employees rumored to be tied to the government’s Insider Trading Fest(ivus) 2010 “got roped into the investigation by ’some sort of association’ with Diamondback Capital Management LLC.” Still unclear: how low we’re actually talking (e.g. first years, summer interns, etc).

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Charles Gasparino is just going to cut right to the chase– he’s seen that YouTube clip. You know the one, with the bears talkin’ economics and calling the chairman of the Federal Reserve “The Ben Bernank”? Someone sent it to him the other day and not just some pissant from a bucket shop on Long Island but a real live BSD.

I should point out that I was told to download the YouTube video not by some dopey trader during a slow day in the markets, but by a CEO in New York City who runs one of the biggest financial firms in the world. Bernanke’s senior staff has seen it too, I’m told, though a spokesman wouldn’t say whether the chairman has. “This video is going fucking viral,” the CEO told me with a laugh.

You know who’s not laughing? Charles Gasparino. After he got the clip to work (there were a few false starts and he didn’t have the volume turned on) he became filled with rage at these furry little shits.

While it’s easy to blow off a YouTube video as nothing more than a cheap shot created by someone with too much time on his hands, the fact that Bernanke or any Fed chairman has gone from relative mainstream obscurity—fed chairman for all the power in navigating the economy through their control of the country’s money supply have never exactly been house hold names in the majority of American households—to an object of popular derision and scorn really says something about Bernanke’s ability to remain an effective Fed chairman…

To be sure, QE-2 will probably work as well as QE-1, which means it probably won’t do much to spark an incredibly weak economy staggering under the weight of 9.5 percent unemployment. But that doesn’t mean Bernanke deserves all the crap he’s getting. He doesn’t because attacking Bernanke obscures some of the big problems facing the American economy as we conclude the second year of President Obama’s hope and change agenda that clearly isn’t working.

So whoever is making these things, let’s get one shining a light on the real problem. Let Chaz know if you need ideas for dialogue, he came up with some good stuff last night.

Ben Bernanke: The Economy’s Fall Guy [TDB]

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