Our Own Sweet Lord Deemed Dumbest on Wall Street

Own very own Albert Lord, he of the personal golf course in South County fame, was awarded "Dumbest on Wall Street for 2007" by business website TheStreet.com. Why, you might ask?

Mr. Lord, the CEO of Sallie Mae, the nation's leading provider of student loans, first, apparently bungled a buy-out deal, leading the company's stock price to implode.

Then, Mr. Lord, faced with a margin call, had to sell 1.2 million shares of stock (~$25 million worth). As a result of Mr. Lord's actions, the company now finds itself in a position where it may have to spend over $1 billion to purchase more shares in order to consummate the original leveraged buyout.

In a final flourish, "a recent conference call with analysts turned into a piece of performance art in obfuscation and offensive asides. Oh, and don't forget the cursing and threats. He told analysts that they would be put through a metal detector at an upcoming meeting."

Someone who captured the recent Sallie Mae conference call did us the service of putting it up on YouTube. Mr. Lord, apparently, was in a quite a rush to exit stage right. Listen below. [WARNING: Not child friendly]



The full transcript can be found here. [WARNING: Also not child friendly].

Here's hoping Mr. Lord's environmental mess of a golf course is put on hold, indefinitely, due to "financial miscalculations."