Meredith Whitney

Meredith Whitney
Whitney in New York, 2007
Born
Meredith Ann Whitney

(1969-11-20) November 20, 1969 (age 54)
Summit, New Jersey,
United States
NationalityAmerican
Alma materBrown University
Occupation(s)CEO and Founder
Employer(s)Oppenheimer Holdings
(1993–1998; 2004–2009)
Wachovia (1998–2004)
Arch Capital Group
(2015–2019)
Zume, Inc.
(2019–2020)
Kindbody
(2021–2022)
Meredith Whitney Advisory Group
(2023-present)
Spouse
​
(m. 2005)​
Websitehttps://meredithwhitneyllc.com/

Meredith Ann Whitney (born November 20, 1969)[1] is an American businesswoman and financial analyst. She is known for successfully forecasting the financial crisis of 2007–2008,[2] and was dubbed “The Oracle of Wall Street” by Bloomberg.

Education and career

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Whitney grew up in Bethesda, Maryland.[3] She graduated from Madeira School in 1987, before attending a post-graduate year at Lawrenceville School, becoming a member of its first co-ed graduating class. She graduated with honors from Brown University[4] in 1992 with a B.A. in History.[1]

Whitney joined Oppenheimer Holdings in 1993 as a Director, and in 1995 she joined the company's Specialty Finance Group. In 1998, she left Oppenheimer to become an Executive Director at Wachovia. Whitney returned to Oppenheimer in 2004, where she researched banks and brokers as a Managing Director. She resigned from Oppenheimer on February 19, 2009, to establish her own firm, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group (MWAG), where she produced company-specific equity research on financial institutions and analyzed the sector's operating environment.[5]

In 2013, Whitney de-registered MWAG[6][7] and started her own hedge fund, Kenbelle Capital LP.[8]

In December 2015, she joined Bermudian insurer Arch Capital Group as a manager overseeing outside investment firms.[9]

From 2021–2022 Whitney was CFO of Kindbody, a high-growth health and technology company.[10]

After 10 years of writing her last piece of analysis, in 2023 she relaunched her eponymous firm, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group, which specializes in [11]macro and strategy-focused investment research.

Professional recognition

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Whitney issued a particularly pessimistic, but accurate, research report on Citigroup on October 31, 2007, to which many Wall Street analysts, and the news media, paid attention. She noted that the bank's dividends paid out to investors were greater than its profits at the time, and made the case that this would lead to bankruptcy.[12] Shortly after the report's publication and a sharp drop in Citigroup's stock, Charles Prince resigned as the bank's CEO and his successor slashed the dividend.[13][14] Earlier that year, Forbes magazine had listed Whitney as the second-best stock picker in the capital-market industry.[15] Citigroup stock went on to lose 97% of its value by early 2009.[16]

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."[2] That year, Fortune listed her among the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business",[17] The New York Post listed her among the "50 Most Powerful Women in New York City",[18] and a CNBC viewer survey named her as "Power Player of the Year" over Jamie Dimon, Ben Bernanke, and Hank Paulson.[19]

On December 19, 2010, in an interview on the CBS television program 60 Minutes, Whitney stated that 50 to 100 counties, cities, and towns in the United States would have "significant" municipal bond defaults totaling "hundreds of billions" of dollars, and that "it'll be something to worry about within the next 12 months."[20] Since the record amount of municipal bond defaults in one year was just over $8 billion at the time, Whitney's comments about hundreds of billions in defaults briefly shook the market and drew a great deal of attention, much of it critical.[21][22] According to Michael Lewis in Vanity Fair: "Many of the articles attacking her accused her of making a very specific forecast — as many as a hundred defaults within a year! — that failed to materialize... 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."[22]

"A tale of two Americas is emerging: one weighed down by debt and facing de minimis economic growth and another brimming with opportunity and nimble to invest in the future." This was the thesis to Whitney's 2013 book, Fate of the States: The New Geography of American Prosperity.[23][24] She argued that a "new map of prosperity" was emerging in the wake of the financial bust, with jobs moving away from the coasts and toward 17 "central corridor" states in the Midwest and Mountain West.[25]

Whitney's municipal debt thesis is still considered valid by at least one analyst. In January 2018 S&P Global published an analysis by Mercer Capital titled "Meredith Whitney is Still Right."[26]

Personal life

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On February 12, 2005, Whitney married professional wrestler John Layfield in Key West, Florida. Layfield is a former professional wrestler, WWE Champion, former WWE color commentator, and fellow Fox News Channel contributor.[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b McDonald, Duff (September 29, 2011). "The Prophet Motive". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  2. ^ a b Birger, Jon (August 4, 2008). "The Woman Who Called Wall Street's Meltdown". Fortune. Archived from the original on February 3, 2010. Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  3. ^ Birger, Jon (May–June 2009). "The Prophet of Dollars & Sense". Brown Alumni Magazine. Archived from the original on November 27, 2016. Retrieved November 26, 2016.
  4. ^ a b Staff (February 13, 2005). "Weddings/Celebrations; Meredith Whitney, John Layfield". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 5, 2007. Retrieved February 13, 2005.
  5. ^ Stempel, Jonathan; Grenon, Andre (February 19, 2009). "Prominent Oppenheimer bank analyst Whitney resigns". Reuters. Archived from the original on July 20, 2009. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  6. ^ Abelson, Max; Moore, Michael J. (October 10, 2013). "Meredith Whitney Winds Down Brokerage After Setting Up Fund". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  7. ^ "Company Overview of Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on January 18, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  8. ^ "Prominent Oppenheimer bank analyst Whitney resigns". Reuters. February 19, 2009. Archived from the original on July 20, 2009. Retrieved July 1, 2017.
  9. ^ Abelson, Max; Basak, Sonali (December 8, 2015). "Meredith Whitney Is Back: Overseeing Stocks at Bermuda's Arch". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on December 9, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2015.
  10. ^ "Oracle of Wall Street, Meredith Whitney, is Named Chief Financial Officer by Fast-Growing Femtech Company Kindbody" (Press release).
  11. ^ "Meredith Whitney - Macro and strategy investment research and advisory". meredithwhitneyllc.com. December 30, 2018. Retrieved March 21, 2024.
  12. ^ Whitney, Meredith; Krawiec, Carla (October 31, 2007). "Is Citigroup's Dividend Safe? Downgrading Stock Due to Capital Concerns" (PDF). Equity Research. CIBC World Markets. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  13. ^ Lewis, Michael (April 9, 2008). "The Rise and Rise of Analyst Meredith Whitney". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015.
  14. ^ Goldstein, Philip (November 2, 2007). "Meredith Whitney: The $360bn analyst". The Times. London. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008.
  15. ^ Staff (May 1, 2007). "The Best Analysts: Stock Pickers". Forbes. Archived from the original on January 5, 2008. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  16. ^ "Citigroup Inc. Stock Price". MarketWatch. Archived from the original on January 28, 2018. Retrieved May 4, 2017.
  17. ^ Staff (October 13, 2008). "50 Most Powerful Women: 35. Meredith Whitney". Fortune. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  18. ^ Mirchandani, Raakhee (June 1, 2008). "The 50 Most Powerful Women in NYC". The New York Post. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  19. ^ Sellers, Patricia (May 17, 2010). "Meredith Whitney takes on bank reform". Fortune. Archived from the original on November 17, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
  20. ^ Kroft, Steve (December 19, 2010). "State Budgets: Day of Reckoning". 60 Minutes. 13 minutes in. CBS. Archived from the original on February 22, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  21. ^ Mysak, Joe (December 22, 2010). "Meredith Whitney Overreaches With Muni Meltdown Call". Bloomberg News. Archived from the original on February 25, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2015.
  22. ^ a b Lewis, Michael (November 2011). "California and Bust". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on January 11, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  23. ^ Whitney, Meredith (2013). Fate of the States: The New Geography of American Prosperity. Penguin. ISBN 9781591845706.
  24. ^ Task, Aaron (June 5, 2013). "Meredith Whitney's 7 Best States for Business and Economic Growth". Yahoo Finance. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  25. ^ Mullaney, Tim (June 5, 2013). "Meredith Whitney redraws 'map of prosperity'". USA Today. Archived from the original on February 5, 2015. Retrieved January 13, 2015.
  26. ^ Meredith Whitney is Still Right (PDF)
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