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Thursday, October 16, 2025
BLOCS OF BIZNESS NEWS CLIPGRABS Bloomberg
Dimon’s Cockroach Barb. . ."There’s never just one cockroach — a quip some of his nonbank rivals have taken as a shot at them.
(Bloomberg) -- On Wall Street, everyone’s a friendly rival until the losses start.
A
pair of blowups in the credit market have sparked a war of words over
whether banks or private credit firms are better positioned to weather a
broader downturn.
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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon used his bank’s losses from auto lender Tricolor Holdings to say there’s never just one cockroach — a quip some of his nonbank rivals have taken as a shot at them.
Blue Owl Capital Inc. boss Marc Lipschultz fired back, saying the issue was in loans that banks led, so Dimon should be scouring his own books if he wants to squash more bugs.
Lipschultz’s remarks gave voice to the sentiments of a swath of private credit executives. They’ve privately complained that sloppy diligence from banks on Tricolor and car-parts supplier First Brands Group are instead being held up as evidence of growing risks enabled by newer players muscling into lending.
“There are people who have meaningful, parochial interests in the industry not continuing to grow and succeed,” Lipschultz said of the scorn heaped on private-market players. “Blackstone’s market cap exceeds the market cap of most financial institutions in the world today. It’s not as if that’s not coming from someone, and of course those people don’t like it.”
The bickering underscores what’s at stake as a tidal wave of change sweeps across the financing landscape. Banks are being forced to cede ground or learn to live alongside upstart lenders, whether they like it or not.
It risks disrupting a delicate detente over the past few years, as rapidly growing private credit firms have taken some business from banks’ leveraged loan desks, but have also become some of their biggest clients as well as occasional partners.
The clash comes at a time when “there’s land mines starting to go off everywhere,” according to Akshay Shah, who runs distressed-debt firm Kyma Capital.
“Marc is saying it’s in the banking corner, and Jamie might say it’s elsewhere,” he said. “I would say it’s going off in both corners.”
And there are plenty of distressed players out there who can sift through the private credit blowups or the syndicated loan blowups, according to Shah..._________________
“Where Jamie is more right, is in public markets those cracks are harder to paper up,” he said.
While
many nonbank lenders are sophisticated firms that JPMorgan itself helps
finance, it’s a big category and not every player is “very smart,”
Dimon said Tuesday.
“We don’t know everyone’s
underwriting standards,” he said.
“Every now and then we see what
someone else is doing, and we’re surprised at their standards, they’re
not particularly good, but that’s always been true.
I suspect when
there’s a downturn, you will see higher than normal downturn type of
credit losses in certain categories. I just suspect that.”
==
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Trump eyes another $20B for Argentina via ‘private-sector solution’
Updated Oct 15, 2025, 11:53am PDT
“We think of it as … an economic Monroe Doctrine in terms of the Western
Hemisphere” rather than a way to stop economic instability from
spreading to the US, Bessent said later.
“We’re seeing that we’re having to intervene militarily with the
narcotraffic coming out of Venezuela,” Bessent said, referring to
Trump’s military strikes on alleged drug boats.
“Much better to use the
heft of the US economic power rather than have to use military power.”
The News
The Trump administration is in talks for a “private-sector solution” that would funnel $20 billion toward Argentina’s “upcoming debt payments,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters Wednesday.
Officials have worked “for weeks” on the new opportunity to help Argentina, Bessent said, adding that private banks and sovereign wealth funds have already expressed interest. It comes as the US also prepares to swap $20 billion of its stable dollars for volatile Argentinian pesos.
“We are working on a $20 billion facility that would be adjacent to our [currency] swap line,” Bessent said, adding that some US currency was exchanged earlier Wednesday. “So that would be a total of $40 billion for Argentina.”
The Trump administration is seeking to steady the Argentinian economy before voters decide on Oct. 26 whether to hand more power to the party of President Javier Milei, a Trump ally who has pursued a cost-cutting agenda. After Trump said this week that officials would not “waste our time” if Milei’s party suffers losses, Bessent on Wednesday clarified that the aid “is not election-specific, it is policy-specific.”
The World at a Glance
Updated 3:28pm PDT
1
Apple CEO Tim Cook vowed to increase investment in China, amid rising trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.
2The IMF issued a stark warning over soaring global government debt, saying it is on track to exceed 100% of GDP by 2029.
3Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa met Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Wednesday as Moscow’s influence in the Middle East wanes.
4A fragile Gaza ceasefire held, after Hamas returned more deceased hostages’ remains following Israel’s threat to halve aid.
5Donald Trump said a $20B bailout for Argentina was contingent on Javier Milei’s party prevailing in elections this month.
6The US carried out another strike on a vessel off the Venezuelan coast, escalating tensions between Washington and Caracas.
Renewable must be American and subsidy-free: Trump adviser
Speeding up fossil fuel projects will help them stand up to renewables, says energy strategy head Jarrod Agen.
Jarrod Agen. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for SemaforChina rare earth export curbs a ‘lose-lose’ for everyone, Spain economy minister says
“We
are very concerned because of the potential impact” of the growing
US-China trade spat, Carlos Cuerpo said at Semafor’s World Economy
Summit.
Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Semafor.Saudi wealth fund to accelerate green bond issuances
Public Investment Fund’s Princess Rasees Al Saud said its green bond issuances are oversubscribed, and demand is growing.
Princess Rasees Al Saud. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for SemaforMore ‘sanity’ needed in online betting markets, NYSE president says
NYSE’s parent company recently invested $2 billion into Polymarket, a leading online predictions site.
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