Markets Magazine
Morgan Stanley Bet the Farm in Ukraine Before Taxpayers’ Bailout
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Iowa native Justin Bruch marveled at the opportunity when Morgan Stanley called in late 2007 to recruit him for an unusual assignment.
The New York bank, flush with $7.5 billion in fiscal 2006 profit -- the biggest in its history -- was going to be farming 11 parcels on the steppes of Ukraine. The commodities team wanted Bruch, a redhead with meaty hands who’d been farming all his life, to manage one of them.