The speed and trajectory of BlackRock's ascent have been breathtaking.

There is a certain oddity to Larry Fink having problems in Washington. He is a strong Democrat who has close ties to President Obama and has often been rumored as set to take a big administration job, such as Secretary of the Treasury.

To have him do something so special, so out of the ordinary, was breathtaking. I could see he had taken a lot of time to get it from heart and head to paper. There's nothing that can take that away. He went another level for me.

The 1969 experience has been a rude awakening for many hedge-fund investors and has left some of them with strong reservations about the whole concept. For the first time in their relatively short history, the funds are not growing: in fact, some have suffered large withdrawals of capital, and a few have actually folded.

Wage concessions are difficult to quantify, since their magnitude depends on many operating variables.

Carl Icahn, corporate raider by trade, is creative, a scrambler, and certainly not to be underestimated.