October 5, 2015--Four Month's Work

Kenneth Griffin, 46, CEO of the investment firm Citadel, is worth a neat $7.0 billion.

His divorcing wife claims that last year he earned an average of $100 million a month, or $68.5 million for the year after taxes. Mr. Griffin is not denying that. And so, after just 11 years of marriage, it is going to be an expensive divorce.

Nonetheless, he has been on a real estate shopping spree.

Here's what four months of work, or $400 million in income, bought him--

According to the New York Times, in Chicago, where Citadel is based, he bought two whole floors of the Waldorf Astoria hotel. He bought the 37th floor for $13.0 million and paid $16 million for the 46th floor.

In New York this year, Griffin is purchasing three floors, totally 18,000 square, at 220 Central Park West. Still under construction, he shelled out $200 million for the triplex, a record for Manhattan. (He could have had our place on 9th Street for a lot less.)

Then in Miami Beach, he closed a deal recently for the 12,500 square-foot penthouse of Faena House (faena--"a series of final passes leading to the kill by the matador in a bullfight") for a Miami record $60 million. The condo has a media room, "great room," a 70-foot-long "infinity pool," and I assume a host  of bed and bathrooms.

Actually, the three purchases total "only" $390 million, which means he had to work even less than four months to earn enough to buy all of them for cash.

I almost forgot--Griffin also owns houses in Aspen and Hawaii.

Kenneth and Anne Dias Griffin In Happier Times 

September 30, 2013--The 99th Percentilers

As the Occupy Wall Street protesters reminded us last year, there is the one percent and then the rest of us who make up the 99 percent.

Also in New York--in Manhattan--there is another 99 percent. Actually, 99 percentilers: those 4-and 5-year-olds who score in the 99th percentile on the exam that determines whether or not (mainly not) one's toddler is admitted to the city's most competitive and prestigious private schools. Places such as Dalton, Trinity, and Horace Mann. Schools that from this early age significantly determine if junior 12 years later will be admitted to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton. And after that, who knows, the Supreme Court, Wall Street, and even the White House.

New York is the town that Lake Wobegon envied--where every kid is not just above average but way, way above average. Some are even 99 percentile scorers on the Early Childhood Admission Assessment exam that up to now has been the filter that separates the anointed from the just OK.

And if your child is among the anointed, that of course means you are as well. Nothing is more affirming than that--it means you passed along your superior DNA and all the tutoring and chauffeuring from chess lessons to French lessons, from peewee soccer to peewee field hockey paid off. One's foundational work is done and all that remains is resume-building for college applications.

And bragging.

According to a report in the New York Times, here's how it feels among the wealthy in Manhattan if your child does not score in the 99th percentile--

Justine Oddo is just such a mother whose twins got into "only" the 95s. She opined, "It seemed like everyone got 99s. It was demoralizing. It made me think my kids are not as smart as the rest of the kids."

Maybe yes; maybe no. It could be that Ms. Oddo did not shell out the $200 an hour it costs to have one's child tutored for the private school admissions test.

Well aware of all the coaching and prepping, the Independent Schools Admissions Association recommended to its 140 members that they no longer use these exam scores. What to do with applicants is another story--using numbers and percentiles makes life easier than having to rely on interviews and letters of recommendation.

Yes, they do require these letters, though what a recommender would write about a youngster just out of diapers is hard to fathom.

"He's a good eater."

"She knows how to use a smart phone."

"He knows his alphabet and can count to 100."

"She can take off and put on her own snowsuit."

In the meantime, the parental celebrating continues. One couple whose daughter is a 99 percentiler threw a big catered bash for her and her dozens of best friends at their Hamptons cottage.

One guest wondered what they will do for an encore when she gets into "their school of choice."

Maybe a long weekend in Paris?