Rudy Giuliani bootstomped into Cowtown last week with a
well-earned reputation as a gutsy, no-nonsense, two-fisted hombre.

He was the man who, as a federal prosecutor, boldly took on the pinstripes on Wall Street in the 1980s, jailing a string of insider traders. The Brooklyn-raised son of a bartender with family ties to the mob, who as mayor of New York City cleaned up crime-infested New York streets with true grit. The John Wayne of mayors.

But the Giuliani who was ushered into the Roundup Centre with a four-minute standing ovation from 1,200 dinner guests didn’t pack much of a punch. Alas, the man known for showdowns at high noon shied away from main street.

The horseradish had more kick than Rudy Giuliani.

His 45-minute speech was impassioned and heartfelt alright, befitting the man who was Time’s Person of the Year for 2002 for his heroic role in leading New York through the tragic events of Sept. 11.

But, at a time when Wall Street, Giuliani’s old stomping ground, has been brought to its knees with an alarming string of scandals, you somehow expected an old gunfighter to stare down the outlaws.

Calgary’s top corporate guns who paid $290 to have dinner with Giuliani would have appreciated his valuable insights on the burning issues of the day and the scandals that have shattered investor confidence.

But Giuliani kept his guns in his holster.

He did not open fire on Ken Lay, the former CEO of bankrupt Enron.

He did not carve up Bernie Ebbers, the one-time Edmontonian who steered WorldCom towards bankruptcy.

He did not roast Martha Stewart, in the soup over an insider trading scandal.

He did not take potshots at any of the stars in the All-American soap opera of corporate hubris and shame.

The man who is reportedly paid about $100,000 US a pop on the rubber-chicken circuit skirted the thorny issues.

He based his speech, Leadership in Difficult Times, on five principles of leadership – courage, relentless preparation, teamwork, optimism and communication.

He was charismatic. He was amiable. He was funny. He was passionate. He was inspiring. And he was gracious.

But Giuliani, lured to Calgary by Calgary Renaissance, was anything but topical.

The CEO of Giuliani Partners, a management consulting firm that was reportedly paid $100,000 US by General Electric to deliver a similar speech to its top executives, had precious little to say about corporate governance.

And, most notably, Giuliani didn’t once mention Merrill Lynch, the New York-based investment firm that has been in the eye of many of the storms on Wall Street.

Of course, this was not surprising considering that Merrill Lynch has been desperately fighting to restore its tarnished image, even hiring the newly formed Giuliani Partners hired as a consultant.

Merrill Lynch hired Giuliani in April to lobby New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer, who was threatening to bring criminal charges because of the firm’s business
practices.

Just hours after Giuliani spoke to the 43-year-old Spitzer on behalf of Merrill Lynch in an attempt at damage control, the latter dropped a bombshell in Merrill Lynch’s lap by publicizing a series of internal e-mails that suggested Merrill’s analysts were publicly recommending stocks they were privately trashing. The firm has since paid $100 million US in a settlement.

Ironically, 15 years earlier, it was a cold-eyed, 43-year-old Giuliani who was taking Wall Street by storm as a U.S. attorney, arresting the head of Goldman Sachs’ arbitrage desk, Bob Freeman, on insider-trading charges.

No doubt, Spitzer’s success in embarrassing Merrill Lynch was a slap in the face to Giuliani.

The new kid on the block had stolen a page from the old gunfighter’s playbook.
And losing isn’t something a hard-nosed kid from Brooklyn likes to advertise.

n SAGE WORDS: “Being an optimist is enormously important, particularly for a leader. People don’t follow pessimists for too long – unless the pessimistic is a dictator.”

– Rudy Giuliani on leadership, Aug. 28, 2002.



HOT ALBERTA STOCK: Wireless Matrix
WRX-TSX $1.95
Up 55 cents (+39.3%) on 1,613,300 shares (for week ending Aug. 30).
Three weeks ago, Wireless Matrix was getting beaten to a pulp and appeared to be on the ropes as it released a grim earnings report showing quarterly losses of almost $11.5 million. The Calgary-based provider of wireless data solutions has almost doubled since, but hold the champagne. It’s still 72 per cent off its 12-month high of $7.58.



COLD ALBERTA STOCK: Moveitonline
MOV-TSX 51 Cents
Down 24 cents (-32%) on 1,900 shares (for week ending Aug. 30).
It’s a new world out there. A rising tide in tech doesn’t lift all boats anymore. Thinly traded Moveitonline was stuck in neutral at 75 cents for the past month, then backed into a 12-month low on a mere 1,900 shares, all traded in the same day.