It has been several months since the subprime mortgage market started hitting the skids. Whenever the mortgage drama takes a new turn — like a hedge fund blowing up at Bear Stearns, as occurred in late June — some high-level official is rolled out to calm investors.
The trouble is, they all seem to have the same scriptwriter. In March, for example, Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, said the subprime mess was “largely contained.” In April, Richard W. Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, called the situation “mostly contained.” Ben S. Bernanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has also used the word to describe the subprime problem.
Now the private sector is weighing in. At a conference in London last week, Timothy Bitsberger, treasurer of Freddie Mac, the home loan financier, called subprime woes “severe, but contained.” Not to be outdone, E. Stanley O’Neal, C.E.O. of Merrill Lynch, said at the same conference that the slump was “reasonably well contained.”
Containment certainly seems to be the consensus. Only question is, how big a container? GRETCHEN MORGENSON
THIRD TIME ISN’T THE CHARM Three strikes and Dr. Bruce D. Given was out as chief executive of Encysive Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company based in Houston that is developing a drug for pulmonary arterial hypertension, a life-threatening disease.
Dr. Given, who had run the company since 2002, was replaced as president and chief executive on Monday, 10 days after the Food and Drug Administration decided not to approve Encysive’s drug. It was the third time in 15 months that the F.D.A. had decided that Encysive had not sufficiently demonstrated that the drug, called Thelin, was ready for market.
The new president and chief executive is George W. Cole, who had been the chief operating officer since joining the company in November 2005. Encysive also announced that to conserve cash it was reducing its work force by about 70 percent, to 65 people.
Dr. Given had been criticized by investors for not disclosing the F.D.A.’s concerns about the drug after the first two regulatory setbacks. The F.D.A. does not discuss drugs under review, which means shareholders are dependent on the company for information.
Dr. Given had said he wanted the company and the F.D.A. to discuss things out of the spotlight. But after the latest setback, he accused the F.D.A. of reneging on an agreement as to how the data from the company’s main clinical trial was to be analyzed. The F.D.A. would not comment on the accusation.
In a conference call on June 18, Dr. Given noted that the drug had been approved in Europe, Canada and Australia and said Encysive would appeal the F.D.A. decision. ANDREW POLLACK
BEYOND SOLAR Howard Berke, 52, the serial entrepreneur who helped found Konarka Technologies in 2001 to develop low-cost flexible plastic solar panels, is getting ready to move on.
Konarka, based in Lowell, Mass., is still privately held and a couple of months away from starting up its pilot production line, but Mr. Berke stepped aside from daily management last week. Rick Hess, whom he recruited last year as his eventual successor, took over as C.E.O. while Mr. Berke became executive chairman, focusing on strategy.
Mr. Berke is also taking on a new job searching for prospective renewable energy investments for Good Energies, a subsidiary of a Swiss investment company, and one of the venture capital firms backing Konarka. One of them might become Mr. Berke’s 14th start-up venture. “There’s no such thing as a conflict of interest as long as you are transparent in your relationships,” Mr. Berke said.
One bonus of the arrangement is that it offers more chances to go to Switzerland, the homeland of Mr. Berke’s wife, Sabine, and the country where he hopes to serve as United States ambassador “somewhere down the road.” BARNABY J. FEDER
THE GENEROUS BLACKBERRY The BlackBerry has made James. L. Balsillie, the co-chief executive of Research in Motion, very wealthy. But Mr. Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis, the other C.E.O., still live with their families in modest homes near the company’s headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.
Their apparent frugality has not extended to their charitable giving, though. The two men have become the leading benefactors of higher education in that area.
Last week, Mr. Balsillie gave 33 million Canadian dollars ($31 million) to establish the Balsillie School of International Affairs, a joint venture of the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University that will be located in Waterloo. Mr. Balsillie gave an additional 17 million Canadian dollars to the Center for International Governance Innovation, another affiliate of the new school. Three years ago, Mr. Lazaridis gave 33.3 million Canadian dollars to establish a school for research in quantum-related physics in Waterloo.
“Global governance issues are complex and require an interdisciplinary approach,” Mr. Balsillie said in an e-mail message. “This new school of international affairs will produce the next generation of students and ideas to help shape solutions to the most pressing global issues of our time.”
Mr. Balsillie was raised in another part of Ontario and attended the University of Toronto’s Trinity College and Harvard. IAN AUSTEN
