$$$ Inflation: The Real Threat To Sustained Recovery, By Alan Greenspan [FT]
$$$ Death of MJ: Good news for Colony Capital? [DB]
$$$ Sanford’s Latin Lovah [LALATE]
$$$ Gazprom seals $2.5bn Nigeria deal, comes up with unfortunate name for new firm. [BBC]
$$$ Wall Street Sets Campaign On ‘Populist Overreaction’ [Bloomberg]
$$$ Cliff Asness’s apartment is for sale. Someone should buy it and turn it into the DB Funhouse. [Cityfile]

As previously mentioned, I had dinner last night with, among others, Charlie Gasparino. We dined at Campagnola, which was CG’s pick, natch, as he has been going there for years, and the owners have a lax policy on unlicensed firearms and underage drinking. Before CG got there (he was taping Kudlow, who disappointingly did not join us), we did a little investigative reporting with the other regulars. Some blonde British lady who goes way back with CG very excitedly told us about the time a few years ago when Chaz had an altercation at Campagnola with Lance Armstrong. Apparently One Ball had appeared on CNBC earlier that day to discuss his sponsorship of a mutual fund and Charlie brought up the matter of doping rumors, which did not please Lance, and there was a bit of an on air tiff.
Coincidentally they both ended up at the restaurant that night, and friend insisted on introducing Chaz to OB, who pointed his finger in Gaspo’s face and said, “You’re an asshole.” At first Charlie was (suspiciously) apologetic and told Lance how great he was “on the tube” and what an ace guest he was at handling CG’s tough line of questioning. But Lance was having none of it, and continued to insist that no, Charlie was an asshole, that everyone on CNBC is an idiot and that he’d never do the show again. Charlie then told OB that he was sure CNBC could get someone else to come on his place and to have “a shitty fucking dinner.”
We were also regaled, by Sal the maitre d’, with a story about Chaz coming in for a drink a couple weeks after BSC went down for the dirt nap, and having a table full of Bear guys get up in his grill and make claims he was a two-bit reporter. Things got “openly hostile.” Gasps told them “I feel bad if you lost your job but I was just doing my job.” They continued tell CG how much he sucked, to which he finally responded, “Any time, anywhere, I don’t care how many of you there are.” Boom. Done.
I couldn’t recall this morning what Gaspo had ordered but was reminded by another member of our party that he got an app of baked clams and shrimp, then half a chicken (which he put ketchup on), steamed spinach, and at least 7 [Update: Charlie tells me it was more like 10] martinis. I do recall that before our entrees came Chaz made a point to alert me that he hadn’t touched any of the sopressat’ on the table, though I suspect he had them wrap it up (plus whatever was left in the kitchen) for him to take home and tear into later. The famous “Eddie,” who runs a family-owned chain of gay strip clubs, wasn’t able to attend but toward the end of dinner a guy purporting to be Charlie’s brother joined us (they looked nothing alike so I requested to see his driver’s license, which did in fact bear the Gaspo name, though I remain not entirely convinced). CG tipped $100 on a pretax bill of $350, and at one point got very serious and insisted I report back that he has “a fetish for flossing and gargling,” then whipped out a case of floss and a travel sized bottle of Scope to prove it. We then went to Elaine’s where one guy at the table passed out and fell off his chair, which Charlie maintains he had nothing to do with. Here are the answers to your questions I was allowed to print (a decent number of them I was barred from sharing, unless I had an interest in ending up in a body bag).
Do you use moisturizer on your hands or face?
Never.
What do you think of David Faber’s book?
I haven’t read it yet. I’m too busy penning the definitive book on this crisis.
Is Jeff Macke writing the forward to your book?
No, there’s no forward. I get right into it.
When are you going to dye your hair, which is going gray? Up top and below deck.
The hairs on my head, never. As for downtown, tell whoever asked that, oo gatz, like my mother used to say.
What kind of cologne do you wear?
Addidas sport set at the gym, Old Spice on the job, Drakkar Noir for special occasions.

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When we informed you that Ben Lorello, UBS global head of health care, had left the bank to join Jefferies and taken a gaggle of employees with him, we figured the Swiss might be a tad upset about the ship jumping. Apparently they’re getting more bent out of shape than previously anticipated. Bloomberg reports* the tax specialists are suing Jefferies for what they describe as a “massive, premeditated raid” that resulted in 36 members of the healthcare group peacing out. Obviously everyone’s very upset and emotions and feelings of betrayal are running but I think, perhaps, the jilted women ought to take a second and realize that, eventually, they were going to have to fire at least 36 (thousand) more employees anyway. This way, they got rid of the bodies without looking like the bad guy, and didn’t even have to pay severance. So, really, Lorello did them a favor.
*Bloomberg should also be given credit for only needing two reporters to break the news of Lorello’s departure nine days after it happened and had already been written about.