Former Barclaycard Marc Howells can relax a bit. Even though he was forced to quit on the last day of 2007, his comment that the company's results were "like Muslims - some were good, some were Shi'ite" is no longer the most offensive joke uttered by a corporate figure that ended up in the hands of the media in the past 6 months.
According to MarketWatch's David Weidner, Blackstone Group (NYSE: BX) head Stephen Schwarzman actually said the following in a speech to investors in Boca Raton:
"Trying to buy a mortgage bank in the midst of the subprime crisis was the equivalent of being a noodle salesman in Nagasaki when the atomic bomb went off. Not a lot of noodles left or even a person -- and that's what happened to us on this deal."
Wow. Just wow. Making jokes about the atomic bomb in a speech to investors is ... ambitious? Weidner points out that "the analogy probably went over pretty well at Blackstone's brand-spanking new Tokyo office," and then proceeds to compare Schwarzman to Marie Antoinette. Ouch.
I'm sure he'll have to issue a tail-between-the-legs apology, but most Blackstone Group shareholders are probably more worried about the billions of dollars in market value that have evaporated since the company's IPO. After hitting a high of $38 on June 22nd, the stock has settled in at right around $19.
Blackstone Group head makes an off-color joke
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-13-2008 @ 12:15PM
Anon said...
I don't see what the problem with this comment. Its neither racist or untimely. Secondly, the Japanese are fairly ambiguous (at least the younger generation) when it comes to the atomic bomb and popular culture. I mean look at the Godzilla series... Not to mention the thousands of comics and hundreds of Animation films that just have the atomic bomb dropped left and right in modern context settings. Secondly the Japanese view death a bit more pragmatically than westerners and unusually don't freak out when people joke about them dying.
5-13-2008 @ 1:55PM
KFH said...
What is racist/insensitive about this? It isn't a joke either. It is an analogy.
If he put on a japlish accent, that would be, to many people, offensive.
5-13-2008 @ 8:34PM
Mike Rath said...
Pretty soon we are only going to be able to read yesterday's comments--Today's will need to be scrutinized, rethought, scrubbed and vetted..
When will the PC b---sh-- end???
5-19-2008 @ 4:57PM
Hank said...
What do you suppose the reaction in Tokyo and Honolulu would have been if he had said:
"Trying to buy a mortgage bank in the midst of the subprime crisis was the equivalent of being a sailor about to go to breakfast on the USS Arizona at 8AM on Dec 7, 1941."
5-19-2008 @ 5:29PM
j glynn said...
to hell w/ political correctness .the day the japanese apologize for all of the P.O. W.s they murdered I might feel bad for all the death we droppoed on them to end WW2. We had to drop the bomb In order to SAVE hundreds of thousands of lives. To hell with them
5-19-2008 @ 10:14PM
Roger Phillips said...
It's OK. Jew-boy is a victim too.
5-19-2008 @ 10:28PM
q said...
America dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. That is just criminal. PC that.
5-20-2008 @ 1:02AM
aychjay said...
thats hilarious and im a 'shi'ite' muslim haha
5-20-2008 @ 1:14AM
David said...
What's the big surpise? Whoever thought CEO's are driven from a moral center? Take a look at all the CEO's who grab more millions, just as share holders' investments plummet. It's might makes right, now isn't it?