Ireland Wins $113 Billion Aid; Germany Drops Threat on Bonds (Bloomberg)
European finance chiefs ended crisis talks in Brussels yesterday by endorsing a Franco-German compromise on post-2013 rescues that means investors won’t automatically take losses to share the cost with taxpayers as German Chancellor Angela Merkel initially proposed to the consternation of bond traders.
France, Germany Determined To Save Euro, Says Spokesman (Reuters)
They want this thing as much as you, swear.
Authorities Worldwide Clamp Down On Insider Trading (FT)
When US investigators were hot on the trail of Don Ching Trang Chu, a former consultant who made a living linking hedge fund traders with corporate insiders, they say they captured him on tape explaining that he preferred to do most of his work in Asia. Most of the “real time” information Mr Chu’s contacts provided was about publicly-traded US companies, but many of the calls and meetings allegedly took place abroad. “I don’t want to (be) involved in the States . . . It’s dangerous. SEC (the US Securities and Exchange Commission) is too strong. In Asia, the SEC can’t do too much there . . . In Asia, there, nobody cares,” Mr Chu allegedly said, according to a criminal complaint filed against him last week…The perception that the US takes insider trading more seriously is widely shared by traders and regulators. Although most countries have officially banned trading on non-public information for a decade or more, enforcement has been patchy or non-existent. That is starting to change in two critical ways: some Asian and European regulators are taking a much tougher stance against insider trading in their own markets and they are co-operating with the SEC and US prosecutors to deal with cross-border violations.
Mutual Fund Ties to Insider Probe May Prolong Withdrawals (Bloomberg)
The probe hits firms as they try to reverse $90 billion in withdrawals from U.S. stock funds since the beginning of 2009. Damage from the industry’s last run-in with regulators, a series of trading scandals in 2003 and 2004, took years to repair and led to more than $3 billion in fines against more than two dozen firms, including Bank of America Corp., Putnam Investments, Janus and MFS.
BP sells Pan American Energy stake for $7bn (BBC)
By offloading its 60% stake in Pan American Energy to Bridas Corporation, BP will raise $7bn (£4.5m;5.3bn euros). The oil giant has now sold $20bn of assets since announcing in July its plan to divest itself of up to $30bn by the end of 2011.
Roubini: Portugal Should Reconsider Rescue (AP)
Doom says Portugal should consider asking for a bailout before its financial plight worsens.
Pete Peterson’s Public Break From Private Equity’s Line on Taxes? (Dealbook)
Did Mr. Peterson say that he believes carried interest — the 20 percent cut of a fund’s profits to which hedge fund and private equity managers are entitled — should be taxed as regular salary? Put another way, did Mr. Peterson propose that his former Blackstone partners should be paying much higher taxes? You betcha.
Third Person Is Bitten By Aggressive Otter In West Boca (CBS)
The latest incident happened in Southwind Lakes when an otter came out of a canal and bit a man while he was in his backyard. Two other people were bitten Sunday in the Boca Chase area.
Facebook Gets Bank Worker Sacked (UKPL)
The bank worker had posted on Facebook about being made redundant and about a £6,000 payout she was due to receive. A colleague reported her posts to the bank, who held a disciplinary hearing before deciding to sack Furlong without a penny of the money she was expecting. The bank says she broke a secrecy agreement.
Buffalo Bills’ Stevie Johnson Blames God For Dropped Pass (Gawker)
Thanks…FOR NOTHING.
Emerging Market Inflation Poses Rising Threat (WSJ)
“Over the next six months, the biggest single issue investors will need to factor into their decisions is how inflation is likely to affect the landscape,” says Richard Yetsenga, global head of emerging-markets currency strategy at HSBC in Hong Kong.
Leslie Nielsen Dies At 84 (Times Live)
Nielsen had been ill for over a week, getting treatment for a staph infection in a hospital in Fort Luaderdale when he contracted the pneumonia.
Boom In Debt Buying Fuels Boom In Lawsuits (WSJ)
Midland, the company that sued Ms. Martin, is a unit of San Diego-based Encore Capital Group Inc., which buys distressed debt for a few pennies on the dollar and often sues to collect. Encore says it filed 245,000 lawsuits last year, and nearly half its $487.8 million in gross collections came from legal actions. That is down from the 474,000 suits it filed in 2008, when the financial crisis created an explosion in bad debt. But Encore expects the number of lawsuits to climb this year because of the sluggish economy.
He will be missed. Although presumably Enrico Palazzo could fill in for him.
Mrs. Nordberg: Oh, my poor Nordberg! He was such a good man, Frank. He never wanted to hurt anyone. Who would do such a thing?
Frank: It’s hard to tell. A gang of thugs, a blackmailer, an angry husband, a gay lover…
Leslie will be looking down from where ever he is smiling while emptying his glass of OJ.
Leslie Nielsen’s in a better place.
A better place? What is it?
A construct to help cope with grief, but that’s not important right now.
We need a Wikileaks on this trial that begins today:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703785704575642770176918904.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Trading Secrets at the Heart of Trial
it wasn’t an otter
-dk
Nice beaver…
This just in from WikiLeaks:
“No one puts Baby in a corner!”
Thanks, I just had it stuffed.
Otters, Leslie, Beavers ?
Bess, you truly are a national treasure. bravo!
Wait, so Leslie Nielsen was bitten by an otter, thought it was a beaver, and died from the resulting infection? Wtf?
Surely you don’t mean that!
Is she going to the girl on girl firm MWA…?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704584804575644432471857778.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Morgan Stanley’s Meeker to Leave
No mention of Neel Kashkari in any of the WikiLeaks documents?! I think these cables are fake.
Please don’t call me surely.
Frank Drebin: Like a midget at a urinal, I was going to have to stay on my toes.
Mayor: Now Drebin, I don’t want any trouble like you had on the South Side last year, that’s my policy.
Frank Drebin, Police Squad: Well, when I see five weirdos, dressed in togas, stabbing a man in the middle of the park in full view of a hundred people, I shoot the bastards, that’s *my* policy!
Mayor: That was a Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of ‘Julius Caesar,’ you moron! You killed five actors! Good ones!
MWA? “MIdol with Attitude”?
I hope God speaks Jive.
Bess, I just want to tell both good luck. We’re all counting on you.
Dr. Mainheimer: It’s a terrible thing that’s happened here with this financial crisis, Lieutenant. I do hope you will find the people responsible.
Lt. Frank Drebin, SEC Squad: I’m sorry I can’t be more optimistic, Doctor, but we’ve got a long road ahead of us. It’s like having sex. It’s a painstaking and arduous task that seems to go on and on forever, and just when you think things are going your way, nothing happens.
Masochism Without Anorexia?
Surely he’ll be missed