Special Report: Phil Falcone’s Riskiest Trade? (Reuters)
In an email exchange with a Reuters reporter, Falcone suggested that even a bankrupt TerreStar might be worth between $1.5 and $2 billion because of the value of its spectrum license. Using those rough figures, Falcone would appear to be valuing LightSquared at a minimum of between $3 billion and $5 billion based solely on the size of its transmission spectrum — which is twice that of TerreStar’s. When asked whether a $3 billion to $5 billion valuation figure for LightSquared based on it spectrum assets is appropriate, Falcone responded in an email: “I’ve been offered more but u r getting warm.” He didn’t elaborate but in another email he implored: “Do the math.”

Roubini: Chance Of A Double Dip Now Over 40% (CNBC)
“In the short run we may end up like Japan,” Dr. Doom said.

Ireland’s `Vicious Circle’ Leaves Banks Facing Higher Debt Cost (Bloomberg)
Standard & Poor’s this week cut the country’s credit rating to AA-, the lowest since 1995, just as 30 billion euros ($37.9 billion) of government-guaranteed bank debt is due to roll over. Lenders may have to turn to the European Central Bank, said Alan McQuaid, chief economist at Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin. “The timing is awful,” McQuaid said. “If the banks can’t refinance, then they become more reliant on the ECB, which hurts the perception of Ireland, which in turn drives sovereign spreads wider. It becomes a vicious circle.”

Santander Suspends Analyst Charged by S.E.C. (Dealbook)
Juan Jose Fernandez Garcia, a senior analyst of equity derivatives based in Madrid, was charged by the S.E.C. of buying “hundreds of ‘out-of-the-money’ call option contracts for stock in Potash” in the run-up to BHP announcing its offer.

UK bank accounting rules ‘fatally flawed’, warns influential watchdog (Telegraph)
While reviewing the proposed expansion of the International Financial Reporting Standards for accounting, Tim Bush, a member of the “Urgent Issues Task Force” that scrutinises the work of the Accounting Standards Board (ASB), claims to have uncovered “fatal” and “dangerous” flaws in the system.

Tiger, Elin Open Up About Sex Scandal and Golf (AP)
Woods admitted to reporters at a New Jersey tournament that he has had difficulty focusing on his game amid the dissolution of his marriage to Nordegren. “As far as my game and practicing, that’s been secondary,” Woods told reporters at The Barclays Golf Tournament, held at the Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, New Jersey. “I came back as part of my job…coming back and playing golf had nothing to do with our decision to move our separate ways.”

$$$ Burned Out Swiss Bankers Get Counseling From Insurers [Bloomberg]

$$$ Cody Willard Calls The Housing Bottom [MarketWatch]

$$$ SEC makes ousting board members easier [WSJ]

$$$ Janitors v. JPMorgan [CNBC]

$$$ A quick programming note: tonight, in order to speed up things on the back end of his here site, they’re going to be moving something things over that affect comments. Not really though. All of the comments will remain in the database, all of the old comments will get imported over to Disqus (the new system). Those of you with regular handles will have to re-register, which shouldn’t be a cause for bitching because it’s NBD (and this will also eliminate the theft of handles, which some have griped about). Continue reading »

Goldman Sachs Loses Muscle In Corporate Finance (Bloomberg)
The bank has slipped to 10th in helping the world’s companies raise debt, down from ninth last year and as high as third place in 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Its share of this year’s $1.9 trillion in global offerings dipped to 3.7 percent, from an average 4.8 percent in the previous 10 years.

Chinese Bestseller Slams Goldman Sachs For Crisis (AP)
GS is now getting hammered in the world’s No. 2 economy with a sensationalist new book accusing the investment bank of trying to destroy China. The ”Goldman Sachs Conspiracy,” which has sold over 100,000 copies since it was released in June, reaching popular website Sina.com’s top-10 list, follows another by author Li Delin, ”Eliminate All Competitors — How Goldman Sachs Wins Over the World,” published last year. The nearly 300-page, highly dramatized account covers much of the same ground as a widely cited piece by Matt Taibbi last year in the Rolling Stone magazine. Li’s book takes ample license in its attacks on Goldman Sachs. The company’s ultimate goal, he says in the first chapter, is to ”kill China.” ”Like a fox chewing a bone, Goldman Sachs knows the rules of the game and when to go for your neck,” it says. With the ”cruel character of a Manchurian tiger, the group creeps around the world, like a veteran hunter stalking its prey, when it smells blood it pounces!” the chapter says. Li, in an online chat, said the book was no exaggeration.

Fed’s Evans: Economy In ‘Extremely Modest’ Recovery (WSJ)
Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans said Tuesday the economic recovery is “extremely modest” but he believes it’s unlikely the economy will fall into a double-dip recession. The pace of recovery from the worst economic meltdown since the Great Depression is “slower than we had hoped for,” Evans said. He acknowledged that although the risk of a double dip is higher than it was six months ago, it is “not the most likely outcome.

Ferrari 458 Italia Has Enough Superlatives to Match the Sticker (NYT)
What I’m about to say might enrage the guy struggling to keep a roof over a 10-year-old Chevy. But if you have that kind of money, the Italia — unlike some high-priced, half-baked exotics — is worth every penny. The car’s sensory experience is nearly unfathomable; barreling Woody Allen’s Orgasmatron over Niagara Falls might get you close. Stumbling from the 458’s cockpit after hours of g-force frolic, it’s easy to get caught up in woozy hyperbole. (See above.) But even with endorphins normalized, I declare the 458 is the best sports car I’ve ever driven, the current state of the art. Or maybe that’s the art of the state, given that Ferrari’s chairman, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, named the Italia after its homeland. Italy should cut Ferrari a check for such product placement.

A Disillusioned Mr. Gross Returns From Washington (CNBC)
Bill Gross went to Washington last week and admits in his September note to clients that moments like heading to the Treasury for the first time in his 35 years in the business had the “little boy inside me is screaming ‘Run!’”

Lindsay Lohan Released Early From Rehab‎ (ABC)
Lock up your E-trade babies. Continue reading »

$$$ Goldman Unlikely To Turn Prop Desk Into Hedge Fund [FINalternatives]

$$$ At Apthorp, Huge Single-Floor Apartment in the Works [WSJ]

$$$ When he was Merrill Lynch & Co.’s global head of foreign exchange in London in 1998, the ever-cheerful John Key was nicknamed “the smiling assassin” after he fired some 50 members of his team. [Bloomberg]

$$$ Cramer: Rep. Boehner’s Comments Are ‘Outrageous‘ [CNBC]