Good Morning! The FBI arrested a Saudi OpenAI employee who allegedly planted a recording device inside the company’s executive conference room. Anthropic is set to disclose new revenue numbers as AI lab financials become central to the tech trade. And Paul Tudor Jones says 2027 could be a really challenging year for the stock market.

Broadcom’s CEO compared AI investors to casino gamblers. Gold-digging gals are flocking to Silicon Valley to land rich husbands in AI. And Bank of America was hit with a $1.2 billion penalty over money laundering allegations.

Plus: the NYC Council is set to ban Central Park’s carriage horse industry by 2028, and what actually sets high achievers apart.

Reverse engineer your buyouts with Mosaic’s Reverse LBO. See it in action.

Wall Street’s bond traders almost always bring in more money than the equities desk, but this year, a generation of bond traders could finish second for the first time in their careers.

Equities divisions at five of the biggest US banks are on track to generate more than $66 billion in revenue through September, squeaking out a ~$3 billion lead over the desks trading bonds, currencies and commodities.

Yesterday, JPMorgan and Goldman reported earnings, and JPMorgan’s equities desk posted its best third quarter ever, with revenue up 49% from a year earlier. Goldman’s stock traders brought in $6.44 billion, up 72%, while its bond traders were flat. Part of the haul came from prime brokerage, which makes money lending to and servicing hedge funds and other big investors.

And it’s interesting because everyone thought AI was going to squeeze the equities trading industry and thought electronic trading would erode fees and reduce the role of human traders. Instead, equities has grown into a bigger opportunity than even Goldman CEO David Solomon says he would have anticipated. 

The bond desks had a tougher quarter as higher rates fueled a bond selloff that weighed on existing debt and some client activity, and revenue from rates, mortgages and credit products softened. Citi was the only one of the three big trading banks reporting Tuesday to avoid a decline in fixed-income revenue.

Takeaway: Bank earnings are telling two stories: higher rates are helping lenders while parts of bond trading struggle, and equities is making a rare run at the revenue crown. There’s still a quarter left, but the internal argument over who deserves the bigger bonus pool just got considerably easier for the equities desk.

Higher financing costs and tighter return thresholds have made entry price more consequential than ever. Buyers have less room for error, while bankers increasingly need to understand how far sponsors can stretch on valuation in a live process.

Mosaic’s new Reverse LBO helps answer that question quickly.

Enter a target IRR or MOIC, and Mosaic works backward to calculate the maximum purchase price, entry multiple, or bid premium that supports the required return. As growth, margins, leverage, financing costs, or other assumptions change, the answer updates automatically.

For bankers, that means a faster way to frame sponsor bid capacity, pressure-test valuation, and run scenarios during a process. For PE teams, it means quickly understanding how much they can pay while still preserving target returns.

See a Reverse LBO in action.

Market Update

Earnings Season

Labor Market

Movers & Shakers

Prediction Markets

Private Dealmaking

For more PE, VC & M&A deals, subscribe to our Buysiders newsletter.

Description: In Butler to the World, investigative journalist Oliver Bullough exposes how Britain became a global service provider for oligarchs, kleptocrats, tax dodgers, and criminals. Through London’s financial institutions, offshore tax havens, legal system, and political establishment, Bullough explains how enormous fortunes can be hidden, questionable wealth legitimized, and corruption enabled behind a respectable public image. Blending financial history, investigative reporting, and sharp humor, he traces how Britain adapted to the decline of its empire by becoming indispensable to the world's wealthy and powerful. The book challenges the assumption that sophisticated financial centers automatically promote transparency and the rule of law, revealing how their expertise can also be exploited to protect illicit wealth.

Book Length: 288 pages
Release Date: March 10, 2022

Ideal For: Investors, finance professionals, compliance and tax specialists, and readers interested in private banking, financial crime, geopolitics, and the hidden systems that allow wealth and power to operate beyond public scrutiny.

The most effective way to protect dirty money is to make it look legitimate.

Coverage calls in London, a management meeting in Frankfurt, an LP update in Tokyo. Your week doesn't happen in one language, and now your notes don't have to either.

Granola, the AI notepad for people with back-to-back meetings, now supports 32 languages. Switch on multi-language mode once and Granola follows along, whether the call is in English, French, German or Japanese. You jot down what matters, Granola transcribes the meeting from your computer, then turns your notes into clear summaries, action items and next steps before your next call.

Download Granola and try it in your next meeting. Free month with the code SHORTSQUEEZ.

In 1975, the systems writer John Gall put it plainly: a complex system that works has almost always evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system designed from scratch tends not to work, and cannot be patched into working.

Amazon began by selling books. Facebook began as a directory for one university. Neither launched as the sprawling version you use today. The big-bang rollout, whether a company-wide software overhaul or a ground-up reorganization, tends to collapse under its own weight.

Ask what the smallest version is that would actually work and be useful. Build that first, then add one piece at a time.

📣 Partner With Us: Get in front of an audience of over 1.5 million finance professionals, business leaders, and policy influencers. Submit a partnership inquiry.

🥂 Buysiders Club: A private, members-only club for VP+ Wall Street professionals, with exclusive events and private deal flow. Membership is by application only. Apply for membership.

📊 Wall Street Comp & Culture Data: Get the most detailed compensation, carry, and culture insights across 1000+ Wall Street firms. Explore the data.

📈 Grow With Us: Work directly with the Overheard on Wall Street team to scale your finance brand. Schedule your free consult.

🧢 Wall Street Shop: Explore our collection of finance-themed apparel and merchandise. Visit the shop.