EWK

A Conversation On: Lynn Tilton

Lynn Tilton is nothing if not interesting. First, a short piece from WSJ, then a profile from NYMag. Then, a series of critical blog posts from Forbes, which, published so close together (within minutes) really should have been one longer piece.

TILTON FLAUNTS HER STYLE AT PATRIARCH
by Robert Frank | Wall Street Journal | January 2011

Last year, private-equity chief Lynn Tilton flew to Detroit to try to improve sales at one of her auto-parts companies. She got a cool reception from Ford Motor Co.’s purchasing chief, Tony Brown, who asked if she was like other private-equity chiefs that “strip and flip” their companies.

“You must be mistaken,” she shot back. “It’s only men that I strip and flip. My companies I hold long and close to my heart.”

WHAT DOES IT TAKE FOR A FEMALE TYCOON TO GET NOTICED AROUND HERE?
by Jessica Pressler | New York Magazine | April 2011

Lynn Tilton is one of the wealthiest financiers on Wall Street. She’s also on a spiritual journey to save America’s manufacturing base. But she’s having trouble getting the respect she believes she deserves.

Six Forbes blogs, by Matt Shifrin, Tom Post and Jenna Goudreau. Red highlighting for emphasis.

LYNN TILTON: DIVA IN DISTRESS? 4/6/11, 10:46am
LYNN TILTON: KEEPING HER LAWYERS ON SPEED DIAL 4/6/11, 2:00pm
LYNN TILTON: COURT DOCS REVEAL ACCUSATIONS OF FRAUD 4/6/11, 2:06pm
LYNN TILTON: IN HER OWN WORDS 4/6/11, 2:08pm
FIVE THINGS INVESTORS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT LYNN TILTON’S CLO DEALS 4/6/11, 2:26pm
LYNN TILDONT: THE WILD WOMAN OF WALL STREET 4/7/11, 4:57pm

A Conversation On: NYC’s Micro-Economies

On the fringe, skirting the law or ignoring it completely - five looks into NYC’s micro-economies.

THE ONE MAN DRUG COMPANY
by David Amsden | New York Magazine | April 2006

After prep school, he built a thriving business. Now he’s got to find a way to get out of it.

THE COLUMBIA KID
by Robert Kolker | New York Magazine | December 2010

How do you get through college these days? You and four friends, police say, deal pot, coke, Adderall, ecstasy, and LSD. Until you make a few boneheaded mistakes.

A CIGARETTE FOR 75 CENTS, 2 FOR $1: THE BRISK, SHADY SALE OF ‘LOOSIES’
by Joseph Goldstein | New York Times | April 2011

Rarely does a minute go by without a customer stopping just long enough to pass a dollar bill to Lonnie Loosie, known to the police by his given name, Lonnie Warner, 50. They clench the two “loosies” — as single cigarettes are called — that he thrusts back in return.

HEROIN.COM: SELLING JUNK ONLINE
by David Shapiro | Village Voice | April 2011

“It’s like shooting fish in a barrel,” she told the Daily News. That year, a Citigroup vice president, Mark Rayner, was caught moving ecstasy and cocaine from his Midtown offices using Craigslist. “We see lots of professionals, people with good jobs, doing it,” Brennan said.

Three years later, drug dealing on the classified-ads website is still blatant and ubiquitous.

ADVENTURES IN A BOOK TRADE
by Mitchell Duneier | New York Times | 1999

To some New Yorkers, the men who hawk secondhand books and scavenged magazines on city sidewalks are no better than beggars and squeegee men; they form a parasitic and intimidating gantlet that mars the urban streetscape and consumes precious areas of public space. Protected by local law, vendors of written material have largely weathered Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s quality-of-life jihad, which has swept away peddlers, panhandlers and other unsavory elements in the name of a safer, saner city.

The entire book is available via google books, here.

A Conversation On: The Economics of Modeling

Two sad, and eye opening pieces from Jenna Sauers.

WHAT VOGUE ACTUALLY PAYS ITS MODELS
by Jenna Sauers | Jezebel | November 2010

It’s not much!  

WHAT I OWE: THE FINANCIAL EXPLOITATION OF MODELS
by Jenna Sauers | dis magazine 

My debt disaster began when I started working as a fashion model. Within eight weeks I owed €4 255,65 to the Elite agency in Paris. I kept at it another two years, until I owed over ten thousand dollars to agencies, friends, and Wells Fargo Card Services. This is a partial accounting of all the bad decisions I made in that time.