Meredith Whitney
| Meredith Ann Whitney | |
|---|---|
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| Born | November 20, 1969 |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
| Occupation | Equity Research Analyst |
| Employer | Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC |
| Spouse(s) | John Layfield (2005-present) |
Meredith Ann Whitney (born November 20, 1969) is a banking analyst[1] and frequent contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg News programs. Based in New York City, Whitney manages her own advisory firm, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC,[2] where she produces company-specific equity research on financial institutions and analyzes the sector's operating environment. She was formerly a managing director at Oppenheimer & Co.
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Education and career [edit]
Whitney graduated from The Madeira School in 1987 before doing a post-graduate year at The Lawrenceville School. She was a member of the first co-ed graduating class of The Lawrenceville School. She graduated with honors from Brown University.[1]
Whitney joined Oppenheimer in 1993 as a research associate covering the Oil and Gas Industry. In 1995, she joined the company's Specialty Finance Group. In 1998, she left the company, eventually becoming the head of financial institution research at Wachovia. Whitney returned to Oppenheimer in 2004, where she covered banks and brokers. She resigned from Oppenheimer on February 19, 2009 to establish her own firm.[3]
Rise to fame [edit]
Whitney wrote a particularly pessimistic, but accurate, report on Citigroup on October 31, 2007, to which many Wall Street analysts, and the news media, paid attention.[4][5] She has since followed this report with similar reports and predictions, which have tended to leave the companies involved with lower stock prices as the market has taken her opinion seriously.[4] One of her claims is that goodwill is built into a lot of companies' share prices, and that as the market moves into dark times, this goodwill will dissipate.[4]
Recognition [edit]
In 2007, Forbes.com's "The Best Analysts: Stock Pickers" listed Whitney as the second best stock picker in the capital-market industry[6] and the New York Post named her one of the fifty most powerful women in New York city.[7]
Whitney's extremely bearish view on banks landed her on the cover of the August 18, 2008, issue of Fortune Magazine. Even before the problems that befell Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers in September, she said, "It feels like I'm at the epicenter of the biggest financial crisis in history, however even a broken clock is right twice a day".[8] In October 2008, Whitney was ranked as one of Fortune 500’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.” In 2008, she won CNBC's "Power Player of the Year" over Jamie Dimon, Ben Bernanke, and Hank Paulson.
On December 19, 2010, in an interview on the CBS program 60 Minutes, Whitney stated that between fifty and a hundred counties, cities, and towns in the United States would have "significant" municipal bond defaults, totaling "hundreds of billions" of dollars in losses, and that this would be "something to worry about within the next 12 months".[9] Since the record amount of money lost in one year through municipal bond defaults is $8.2 billion, Ms. Whitney's comments about hundreds of billions in losses drew a great deal of attention, much of it critical.[10] As of February 2012[update], "her prediction had yet to materialize."[11]
According to Vanity Fair writer Michael Lewis, in his November 2011 article, California and Bust, "But that’s not at all what she had said: her words were being misrepresented so that her message might be more easily attacked. “She was referring to the complacency of the ratings agencies and investment advisers who say there is nothing to worry about,” said a person at 60 Minutes who reviewed the transcripts of the interview for me, to make sure I had heard what I thought I had heard. “She says there is something to worry about, and it will be apparent to everyone in the next 12 months.”
Personal life [edit]
Whitney married retired WWE professional wrestler and Fox News & Fox Business contributor John "Bradshaw" Layfield on February 12, 2005, in Key West, Florida at the Wyndham Casa Marina.[1]
References [edit]
- ^ a b c "Weddings/Celebrations; Meredith Whitney, John Layfield". New York Times. February 12, 2005. Retrieved 2005-02-13.
- ^ Meredithwhitneyllc.com
- ^ "Prominent Oppenheimer bank analyst Whitney resigns". Reuters. February 19, 2009.
- ^ a b c Michael Lewis. "The Rise and Rise of Analyst Meredith Whitney".
- ^ Philip Goldstein (November 2, 2007). "Meredith Whitney: The $360bn analyst". The Times (London). Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ^ "Forbes.com: The Best Analysts-Stock Pickers".
- ^ "JBL's wife named one of NY Post's 50 Most Powerful Women in NYC".
- ^ Birger, Jon (August 4, 2008). "The Woman Who Called Wall Street's Meltdown and What She Sees Next...". CNN. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
- ^ James Jacoby (producer), Steve Kroft (reporter), Meredith Whitney (interviewee) (December 19, 2010). State Budgets: Day of Reckoning. 13 minutes in. Retrieved 22 October 22, 2012. "It'll be something to worry about within the next 12 months."
- ^ "Meredith Whitney Overreaching With Muni Bond Meltdown Call".
- ^ Barnett, Chip (June 8, 2011). "Whitney stands by muni bond defaults forecast". Reuters. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
