• Join Puck

    Directly Supporting Authors

    A new economic model in which writers are also partners in the business.

    Personalized Subscriptions

    Customize your settings to receive the newsletters you want from the authors you follow.

    Stay in the Know

    Connect directly with Puck talent through email and exclusive events.

  • What is puck? Newsletters Authors Podcasts Events Gift Puck Careers

Wall Street’s Axman Cometh

“The Ax” was once an influential figure on Wall Street, before Eliot Spitzer put the kibosh on the research industrial complex. Years later, Steve Tusa is the rare analyst elucidating the stakes for America’s most storied conglomerate.

American Psycho
Courtesy of Lionsgate
William D. Cohan
December 8, 2021

As in many professions, Wall Street loves its specialized jargon. Synthetic CDOs? Backwardation and contango? Leveraged recap anyone?  The more confusing and esoteric the lingo the easier it is to keep outsiders at a distance and make it seem like the industry’s highly specialized expertise is worth the billions of dollars it generates in annual fees. Don’t get me wrong, much of what these masters of the universe do is worth paying for, just probably not as much as they want you to believe, or that in any way justifies the obscene profits that the Big Banks are raking in these days. (In case you missed it, JPMorgan Chase, our biggest bank, is making profits at a clip of around $40 billion a year.)