Week in Review: Ex-Goldman Trader\'s Book Is Short on Details

WEEK IN VERSE What does Vikram Pandit want to do now? “I wanna take you out to dinner, and then I wanna go back to my apartment and watch ‘Kung Fu'. Do you ever watch ‘Kung Fu'?”

A look back on our reporting of the past week's highs and lows in finance.

Long on Pleasure, Short on Details For seven months, Goldman Sachs has been bracing itself for a repeat of the anger sparked by a former trader's Op-Ed article in The New York Times. The worry appears to be over. Mitt Romney's binder full of women has gotten better reviews than Greg Smith's memoir.

Reports based on bootleg copies indicate that the book offers few new details of illegal or questionable practices.

Nelson D. Schwartz of The New York Times wrote that the book was long on Mr. Smith's “reminiscences of the pleasures of the job - handmade suits, sashimi at 30,000 feet, strawberries at Wimbledon -” but it provided few new details of the “toxic” culture that he said prompted him to quit.

The Wall Street firm's version of boot camp for trainees, described in the book's first chapter, don't sound exceptionally harsh unless you hate early meetings and have trouble with lunch orders.

But Mr. Smith still has a chance to entice readers interested in the details of his decade-long career at the bank. On Sunday, he is set to appear on “60 Minutes.”

With Cash From Deal With SoftBank of Japan, Sprint Goes After Bigger Stake in Clearwire | “Sprint Nextel has moved to protect one of its most valuable assets - access to a big chunk of spectrum - just as it is preparing to become a more aggressive force in wireless,” Michael J. de la Merced reported. DealBook '

• Deal to Buy Sprint Is SoftBank's Biggest Gamble | Sprint “may eventually serve as a vehicle for future deals - perhaps even one for the enlarged T-Mobile, several years from now.” DealBook '
• Sprint Said to Be in Final Stages of Selling Most of Itself to SoftBank of Japan | News of the struggling cellphone service provider's move to revive its fortunes was first reported on Sunday. DealBook '

Russian Oil Company Said to Be Near Deal With BP | “Rosneft on Thursday moved nearer a deal to buy a 50 percent stake in TNK-BP, Russia's third-largest oil company, from the British energy giant,” Stanley Reed, Mark Scott and Andrew E. Kramer reported. DealBook '

Crumbling Deal Exposes a Clash of Wealthy Family Dynasties | The British financier Nathaniel Rothschild appears to have been outmaneuvered by a powerful Indonesian family in a battle for a coal mining giant, Mr. Scott reported. DealBook '

Ex-Trader's Book Offers Few Details on Goldman | Long on Greg “Smith's reminiscences of the pleasures of the job - handmade suits, sashimi at 30,000 feet, strawberries at Wimbledon -,” Nelson D. Schwartz reports that “the former Goldman salesman's book does not bre ak much new ground on illegal or questionable financial practices at the firm.” DealBook '

• Private Equity Gains Helped Lift Revenue in Goldman's 3rd Quarter | “The results were a strong contrast to the same quarter in 2011 when it reported a rare quarterly loss,” Susanne Craig reported. DealBook '
• Book by Disgruntled Ex-Salesman Offers His Analysis of the Culture at Goldman | The book is scheduled to be released on Monday, but the first chapter was available on Apple iTunes store on Oct. 15. DealBook '

Morgan Stanley Reports $1 Billion Loss but Beats Forecasts | “Earnings rebounded strongly in the third quarter as skittish clients returned to doing business with the company,” Ms. Craig reported. DealBook '

Citi's Chairman Steps Up to a Decisive Role | Michael E. O'Neill's unusual hands-on approach paved the way this week for the board to ask for Vikram Pandit's resignation, Ms. Craig and Jessica Silver-Greenberg reported. DealBo ok '

• Citigroup's Chief Resigns His Post in Surprise Step | “This is a ludicrous management transition, the worst I've seen in my 25-year career,” said Michael Mayo, an analyst at Credit Agricole Securities. DealBook '
• News Analysis: Investors Hope for Clarity, Quickly | “As Michael L. Corbat takes up the reins at Citigroup,” Peter Eavis reports that “analysts and investors have a message for him: Shrink your bank fast, and be a lot more transparent as you do so.” DealBook '
• Adept Moves in the Financial Crisis Helped Clear a Path to the Top Job | Michael L. Corbat spent years as head of Citigroup's “bad bank” of unwanted assets, Ben Protess reported. DealBook '
• Overseas Lending Offers Bright Spot for Citigroup | A wager that international lending will offset a sluggish recovery in the United States has started to pay off , Ms. Silver-Greenberg reported. DealBook '

Bank of America Posts a Profit After Charges and A ccounting Adjustments | “For most banks, a 95 percent profit plunge has all the makings of a Wall Street disaster.” But Mr. Protess reported that “at Bank of America, it was a victory of sorts.” DealBook '

BlackRock Looks to Expand Exchange-Traded Funds | The giant money management firm said that investments had increased in most of the products it manages, but Nathaniel Popper reported that the biggest increases came in E.T.F.'s. DealBook '

High-Speed Trading Firm Closes | Eladian Partners, founded less than two years ago by former Citigroup executives, is ending operations as the industry confronts a slowdown, Mr. Popper reported. DealBook '

A Push for Leniency as an Ex-Goldman Director Faces Sentencing | Federal prosecutors want Rajat K. Gupta to spend as much as 10 years in prison, but Mr. Lattman reported that defense lawyers would rather he spend time in Rwanda. DealBook '

Testifying in Britain, Volcker Questions Bank Innovation | “If complicated financial trades have a benefit for the wider economy, the former Federal Reserve chairman Paul A. Volcker isn't sure he has seen it,” Mr. Scott reported. DealBook '

N.Y.U. Law Plans Overhaul of Students' Third Year | “The usefulness of the third year of study ranks high among the growing chorus of complaints - which includes soaring tuition and a glutted job market - about law schools,” Mr. Lattman reported. DealBook '

Deal Professor: Despite Problems With Dodd-Frank, It's Better Than the Alternatives | Steven M. Davidoff says that “repealing the Dodd-Frank Act won't end “too big to fail” banks, and it may even make things worse.” DealBook '

And the capital charges would have to be agreed on internationally in order to keep American banks from being outgunned by foreign competitors. This is what the Basel III accords are supposed to do, but raising the capital or leverage limits would require a whole new international bargain.

Reporting my risk-mgmt series, was surprised at how many banks acknowledged Dodd-Frank made the system safer: nyti.ms/Wwfzh1

- Kate Kelly (@KateKellyCNBC) October 17, 2012

Fed Governor Proposes a Way to Limit Individual Bank Size | That Daniel Tarullo would say that such a structural overhaul of the financial system might be considered, was a sign that the policy debate over what to do about “too big to fail” might be shifting, Mr. Eavis reported. DealBook '

DealBook Column: Nowadays, Wall St. Saviors May Wish They Weren't | Andrew Ross Sorkin says that “the recent series of suits brought by the government may have a profound impact on how businesses react to being asked to provide assistance when the next financial crisis arrives. Chances are, they won't.” DealBook '

“Would I have done Bear Stearns again knowing what I know today?”Jamie Dimon asked almo st rhetorically last week at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

“It is really close. What I know today is if they called me again to do something again like that, I couldn't do it. My board wouldn't allow me.”