Hedge Fund Managers Set Up For Second Acts (NYT)
After shutting his giant fund following a humbling loss, Mr. Pallotta, the money manager who is an owner of the Boston Celtics, is doing what hedge fund types do in tough times: he is opening a new fund. “Will it be easy for him to raise money? Yes,” said Tim Berry, a head of hedge fund investments at Private Advisors, a Richmond, Va., firm that advises large institutions on their investments. “He has a long track record of success.” Others hoping for a comeback include Gabe Nechamkin, a former trader for George Soros, and John W. Meriwether, whose Long-Term Capital Management failed spectacularly in 1998. Mr. Nechamkin is on his second fund, Mr. Meriwether his third.

Judge Clears Countrywide’s Mozilo Case For Trial (Reuters)
U.S. District Judge John Walter refused to resolve the case in Mozilo’s favor on Thursday, ruling that the SEC had raised enough factual issues for it to be decided by a jury, according to court documents. The SEC presented evidence that Mozilo’s stock sales in 2006 and 2007 were “significantly out-of-line with his prior trading plans or practices,” Walter wrote. Thus a jury can decide whether Mozilo acted on inside information, Walter ruled, adding that Mozilo netted over $140 million from those transactions.

Obama to Tap Warren to Help Set Up Consumer Agency (WSJ)
Warren will be an assistant to the president and a special adviser to Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, the statement said. The White House expects her to start immediately setting up the agency, which was established by this year’s Wall Street financial regulatory overhaul, said an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Push To Hire Bankers Accelerates (Dealbook)
Who wants a job?

JPMorgan Eyes London Lehman Tower In Potential Snub To Government
(Independent)
Property sources say the bank is ready to abandon its stalled £1.5bn project and relocate into the huge building that was occupied by Lehman, until its spectacular demise two years ago. The bank agreed a deal with Canary Wharf Group (CWG) in late 2008 for the development of new purpose-built offices, but has still not committed to the project. Sources close to JP Morgan, which employs Tony Blair, the former prime minister, as an adviser, admit that the delay is largely down to senior officials being furious at the UK Government’s portrayal of the financial sector as the villain of the recession. It is understood that JP Morgan is also irritated that the criticism of the banking system has not abated since the Coalition came into office. Last year, sources warned it was considering scrapping the project over tax increases and an orchestrated campaign of “banker-bashing” before the election.

It’s Getting Riskier To Be Rich (WSJ)
In the first year of the recession that began in 2007, the top 0.01% of earners in the U.S. saw their pre-tax income plummet by an average of 12.7%, compared to 2.6% for all earners, according to an analysis of data from income-tax returns by economists Jonathan Parker and Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, in a paper being presented today at a Brookings Institution’s Papers on Economic Activity conference. Overall, since 1982, the income of the top 1% of earners has been about 2.4 times as volatile as the average for everyone, the paper’s authors find. That’s a big change from the years 1947 to 1982, when the income of the top 1% fluctuated about 30% less than average.

Manhattan Man Pleads Guilty To Stealing To Feed His Lottery Addiction (NYP)
A compulsive lottery player pleaded guilty today to stealing $2.3 million from condo and co-op buildings he managed in Manhattan to feed his love of randomly drawn ping-pong balls.

Dennis Kneale Set to Exit, Say Sources (DF)
Kneale is likely to leave after his current contract expires sometime in the next several weeks. “There’s an outside shot that he could still work out a deal,” says one knowledgeable source, but it’s exceedingly unlikely as CNBC has made it clear it’s unwilling to re-up him at anything close to his current salary, believed to be around $500,000 a year. Kneale did not respond to a message left on his cell phone, and a network spokesman declined to comment, citing a policy against discussing personnel matters. Continue reading »

Goldman Sachs Fund of Ex-Prop Traders Said to Return 3% in 2010 (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs proprietary traders who created a hedge fund within the firm in 2007 have generated a return of about 3 percent this year, beating the industry average, people briefed on the gain said. Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, composed of former employees of the principal-strategies team led by Raanan Agus and Kenneth Eberts, manages more than $7 billion. The fund gained about 26 percent last year after losing more than 18 percent in 2008, the people said.

‘Bought And Paid For’: Charlie Gasparino Book Claims Obama Has ‘Unholy Alliance’ With Wall Street (HuffPo)
Goldman COO Gary Cohn once cornered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid at a fundraiser at Goldman’s headquarters in Manhattan: “Who do you think you are, coming here asking for money while you trash us?” Reid sat back and took the abuse, even as Cohn shouted, “We’re getting sick of the bullshit!” Despite the anger, Reid went home with $40,000 in donations that night, writes Gasparino.

Citi Hires UBS Energy Investment Banking Team Headed By Trauber (Bloomberg)
Like we said. Also: “At the end of the day, this was not about the quantity of money, it’s about the assurance of money,” said Trauber, who will remain based in Houston. UBS made it “attractive” to stay, Trauber said. “It wasn’t a money issue for me,” he said. “It was a certainty of the team to be able to get paid.” Trauber said he has “no hard feelings” in leaving UBS. “We understand that by leaving, that hurts the firm, but that was not the intent,” he said. Trauber had been with UBS since 2003 and said he plans to take his team to his vacation home in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to relax and play golf for a few days. “The most attractive part of this is a couple months off,” he said. “I haven’t had a couple months off since college.”

Regulators To Target ‘Window Dressing’ (WSJ)
The SEC is expected to propose rules requiring greater disclosure from banks and other companies about their short-term borrowings. The agency’s staff has been considering whether banks should be required to provide more frequent disclosure of their average borrowings, which would give a better picture of their debt throughout a quarterly period than do period-end figures.

US Adopts Tougher Stance On China (NYT)
“We are concerned, as are many of China’s trading partners, that the pace of appreciation has been too slow and the extent of appreciation too limited,” Mr. Geithner plans to say, according to excerpts of his statement released on Wednesday night by the Treasury Department.

Soros To Get Day In Court Over Insider Trading Case (NYT)
Europe’s highest human rights court said Wednesday that it would accept a complaint by the international financier George Soros that his rights were impinged on by French courts in convicting him in an insider trading case dating back more than two decades. The case involves the purchase of shares in the French bank Société Générale in 1988, after the bank had been privatized. Mr. Soros was later convicted of buying the shares based on insider information. The European court judged a complaint from Mr. Soros as “receivable,” under Article 7 of the European convention on human rights, which states that no person may be punished for an act that was not a criminal offence at the time that it was committed.

Young, male, testosterone-fuelled CEOs more likely to start or drop deals: UBC study (PA)
The study by Sauder Finance Professors Maurice Levi and Kai Li, and PhD student Feng Zhang, titled “Deal or No Deal: Hormones and the Mergers and Acquisitions Game,” shows that testosterone – a hormone associated with male dominance-seeking in competitive situations – can be a negative factor in high-stakes decision-making. “We find a strong association between male CEOs being young and their withdrawal rate of initiated mergers and acquisition,” says Prof. Levi, whose research relies on the established correlation between relative youth and increased levels of testosterone. “For instance, young CEOs, who have higher levels of testosterone, tend to reject offers even when this is against their interest.”

Betty White Has Some Thoughts On The Economy (CNBC) Continue reading »

$$$ Roubini Says Fed Policy Easing Will Be “Too Little, Too Late” [Bloomberg]

$$$ Travelling through China with the Universal Travel Group: fly from Beijing to Yichang – pick up your tickets at Shenzhen airport! [Bronte Capital]

$$$ Obama Said To Consider Placing Warren At Treasury [Bloomberg]