RBS Sees Widened Loss (WSJ)
The bank said Thursday that it slumped to a 2011 full-year net loss of nearly £2 billion ($3.13 billion) as the euro-zone crisis continued to weigh on its investment banking division and restructuring costs hammered the U.K. bank’s bottom line. RBS which is 83%-owned by the U.K. government, saw full-year revenue tumble 11% to £26.6 billion despite lower impairment charges and a hefty gain on the fair value of its own debt. Despite media and political pressure to lower remuneration, the bank paid out nearly £1 billion in bonuses for the year. Chief Executive Stephen Hester said the results showed that the bank was progressing in the right direction and defended the RBS’s bonus pool, saying it was important to incentivize staff. “Our job is to defuse the biggest-ever time bomb put in a banking balance sheet,” he told a conference call. “In this respect, we are making progress.”

Credit Agricole posts Q4 loss as Greece bites (AP)
Credit Agricole SA reported a euro3.07 billion ($4.06 billion) net loss in the fourth quarter on Thursday, as an intensifying European debt crisis drove down the value of its Greek bonds and shaved billions off the bank’s bottom line. Credit Agricole — hit by the Greek debt crisis largely through its ownership of Greek bank Emporiki — said fourth-quarter net profit plunged nearly tenfold from a loss of euro328 million in the last quarter of 2010. It also posted a net loss for 2011 of euro1.47 billion.

SEC May Ticket Speeding Traders (WSJ)
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said a large portion of equities trading has little to do with “the fundamentals of the company that’s being traded.” She said it had more to do with “the minuscule aberrational price move” that computer-assisted traders with direct connections to the exchange can “jump on” in fractions of a second. Such activity “worries me,” Ms. Schapiro said in a breakfast meeting Wednesday with reporters. One solution would be forcing high-frequency traders to pay for the canceled trades that make up nine-tenths of all orders, she said.

Investigators Probe a Rush at MF Global to Move Cash (WSJ)
Federal regulators at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the U.S. bankruptcy trustee for MF Global’s brokerage unit are examining two separate transfers from customer accounts, including a previously undisclosed $165 million transaction, said people familiar with the matter. They said some of the investigators are poring over emails and records related to these and other money transfers.

Goldman Sachs experiencing executive exodus (NYP)
Yesterday, Chaim Howard Wietschner, 44, became the latest partner to leave. An internal announcement revealed that the senior hedge fund honcho was set to bolt. Named a partner in November 2002, Wietschner will follow more than 50 partners who have opted to “retire” over the past several months. Indeed, Wietschner’s departure is the third in the past two weeks.

Facebook Insiders Push $100 Billon Value (Bloomberg)
“Facebook is a blue-chip stock and it’s not even public yet,” said Kevin Landis, portfolio manager for the Firsthand Technology Value Fund in San Jose, California. Facebook jumped as high as $44 this month in private trading, valuing the company at $103 billion and leaving it higher than when Landis bought stock at about $30 to $31 in October. He said he aims to add to his holdings.

Prostitution-themed Wódka vodka billboard near Hunts Point is removed (NYDN)
A day after Bronx community leaders blasted a billboard selling vodka with a pitch about prostitution, the sign came down. The ad for Wódka vodka read “Escort Quality, Hooker Pricing” and hung over the Bruckner Expressway leading to Hunts Point, an area still battling an image as a place to buy sex. After learning neighbors were fuming over the sign, the ad’s creators agreed to nix it. Continue reading »

Fitch Downgrades Greece (WSJ)
Fitch Ratings downgraded Greece’s credit rating to C from triple-C Wednesday after confirmation of the country’s second bailout package, which includes a debt exchange that will force bondholders to take a loss on their holdings of Greek debt. “The rating action is in line with Fitch’s statement on 6 June 2011, which outlined its rating approach to a sovereign-debt exchange,” the ratings company said. Fitch said it will lower its rating on the country’s sovereign bonds to “restricted default” upon the completion of the debt exchange aimed at reducing the country’s debt burden.

Greek Bailout Wins Two Cheers From Wary Investors (Bloomberg)
“The deal may have removed near-term uncertainty, it won’t immediately change our investment view,” said Helen Roberts, who oversees 27 billion pounds ($43 billion) as head of government bonds at F&C Asset Management in London. “People said the right thing, now they need to do the right thing. It’s a hard environment to implement austerity measures. It’s a worry that the Greek government might not be able to do much even though they are fully committed to the agreement.”

Obama Proposes Tax Revamp (WSJ)
The Obama administration will propose lowering the top income-tax rate for corporations to 28% from 35% but would raise overall tax revenue by eliminating dozens of popular deductions in an effort to restructure the corporate tax code. The proposal, which will be announced Wednesday, would lower the “effective” tax rate on manufacturers to “no more than 25%,” according to a senior administration official, down from the current average rate of about 32%. It raises taxes on oil and gas companies that would lose many large deductions and subsidies. The plan would require U.S. companies operating overseas to pay—for the first time—a minimum tax rate on their foreign earnings.

Citigroup ‘Defrauded’ Fannie, Freddie: Whistle-Blower (Bloomberg)
Citigroup, which last week admitted breaking Federal Housing Administration rules and paid a fine, also violated regulations for home loans sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to a whistle-blower’s complaint. The bank “defrauded, falsified information or misled federal government entities” by selling or securing insurance for mortgages with defects such as improper appraisals and paperwork errors and not reporting them as required, Sherry Hunt, a Citigroup quality-assurance vice president, said in her complaint, which was unsealed yesterday. It was filed under the False Claims Act in federal court in Manhattan in August.

Aimed at banks, Volcker Rule hits unlikely targets (Reuters)
The Volcker Rule was designed to curb the risks that banks take with depositor dollars, a practice known as proprietary trading. But the rule risks ensnaring public agencies ranging from housing agencies to hospital authorities because the way muni bonds are sold and traded results in banks risking their own capital — the very practice banned under the Volcker Rule. And although the rule, a key component of the Dodd-Frank reform law passed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, did include an exemption to ensure that state and local governments would still be able to raise money in the municipal bond market, it left a gaping hole. As a result, state and local authorities are worried that the rule will inhibit banks from underwriting bonds and trading, inadvertently driving up water and sewer bills, delaying public transportation projects and making affordable housing scarcer unless changes are made.

How Waiters Read Your Table (WSJ)
What looks like a convivial scene is a waiter’s nightmare: people at a table, chatting away, menus closed with drinks in their hands. Yet when Alex Martin, a 26-year-old waiter at Blue Smoke restaurant in New York, tried to take their order “they didn’t even look up,” he says. “If you are standing there for more than three seconds it’s like an eternity.” At such times, Mr. Martin employs his go-to strategy of “the hand on the table.” Placing down his palm draws the group’s eyes up and out of the conversation, interrupting but without being pushy, he says. A few minutes later the men had ordered and quickly returned to chatting…Even chain restaurants like Denny’s, T.G.I. Friday’s, and Romano’s Macaroni Grill are focusing more on personalized service by training staff to note body language, eye contact and offhand remarks, hoping to make service feel less mechanical. Traditionally, eateries taught waiters to follow a script and push add-ons like desserts and drinks…As part of a recent, two-week training course at the Cheesecake Factory in Burlington, Mass., Lauren McDonagh, 23 years old, sat with four other new employees before the lunch rush. They heard tips on how to interact with tables with children (if a kid says he doesn’t like green things, don’t use lettuce, even as a garnish), first-time guests (walk them to the restroom, don’t point), and celebrations (get at least five employees to sing “Happy Birthday”).

Chunks Of Queensboro Bridge Land On Driver (NYP)
Andrew Campbell, 40, of Bergenfield, was heading to an indoor soccer game in Jackson Heights when he said a large screw and a piece of metal shattered the windshield of his white luxury car about 7 p.m. on the bridge’s lower level. “I was stunned, it sounded like a gunshot when it hit the windshield,” Campbell said. “It was totally unexpected. I was very shocked. I’m grateful I’m okay.” Campbell said he was not injured by the glass, and kept driving until he reached Long Island City, where he parked near a nearby footbridge. Continue reading »

Greece Wins Second Bailout as Europe Picks Aid Over Default (Bloomberg)
Finance ministers awarded 130 billion euros ($173 billion) in aid, engineered a central-bank profits transfer and coaxed investors into providing more debt relief in an exchange meant to tide Greece past a March bond repayment. Stocks fell and the euro fluctuated as investors speculated the deal won’t fix Greece’s long-term challenges. Bondholders’ response to the swap, Greece’s tolerance of more austerity and a gantlet of parliamentary approvals in northern European countries gripped by an anti-bailout mindset loom as risks to the latest salvage operation. “Everybody understood that this was the moment of truth,” Belgian Finance Minister Steven Vanackere told reporters early today after 13 1/2 hours of talks in Brussels.

Geithner Bond Returns Beat Rubin, Trail Paulson (Bloomberg)
Since Geithner assumed office in January 2009, returns on Treasuries have exceeded bonds of other countries by 0.3 percentage point on an annualized rate, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data. That’s less than Paulson’s 7.5 percentage points. Under Rubin, returns on Treasuries lagged behind foreign issues by 1.6 points.

A Banker Who Unwinds by Photographing Prostitutes (CityRoom)
As a foreign exchange trader for Citigroup, Chris Arnade, 46, makes a good income, and lives with his wife and three children in a spacious apartment he owns in Brooklyn Heights. But during much of his spare time, he can be found driving the family minivan around Hunts Point in the Bronx, photographing prostitutes and documenting their lives. Mr. Arnade says he hopes his photos and descriptions provide a platform for some of the most marginalized New Yorkers to tell their stories.

Fed Writes Sweeping Rules From Behind Closed Doors (WSJ)
Fed officials contend they allow plenty of sunlight into their regulatory deliberations, but open meetings, which tend to be scripted and are sometimes perfunctory, don’t always add value to the process. Ever-growing demands on governors’ time has made it harder to coordinate schedules to allow for frequent meetings than in past decades, they add.

UBS Turning Whistleblower in Libor Probe (Bloomberg)
UBS’s decision to become first- confessor as regulators probe the alleged manipulation of interest rates will ratchet up the risks for other banks that set the benchmark for $360 trillion of securities worldwide. The bank is seeking to insulate itself from the biggest possible fines from the investigation by turning itself in to regulators before its competitors to gain leniency, lawyers said. The plan still leaves the Zurich-based lender vulnerable to lawsuits from clients and raises the potential antitrust penalties for its competitors.

Board of Wynn Resorts Forcibly Buys Out Founder (WSJ)
In a dramatic weekend showdown, the Wynn board, meeting in Las Vegas, accused Mr. Okada of making improper payments to gambling regulators in the Philippines. The board’s move came after an internal investigation conducted by a former FBI director found him to be “unsuitable” based on the company’s internal regulations.

Strauss-Kahn Held by Police in Prostitution Probe (Reuters)
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was taken in for questioning on Tuesday by police investigating an alleged prostitution ring run out of the northern French city of Lille. Strauss-Kahn can be held for up to 48 hours and may then be placed under formal investigation for benefitting from misappropriated company funds. Investigators are trying to find out whether French executives used corporate expense accounts to fund sex parties with prostitutes. Continue reading »

Moody’s Places Big Banks On Review (WSJ)
In the latest setback for investment banking, Moody’s Investors Service placed the ratings of Bank of America Corp. , Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and three other global financial institutions on review for possible downgrade because it says the business’ profitability will be diminished longer term. Moody’s also said Wednesday it is reviewing J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Royal Bank of Canada for possible downgrade. Seven other financial firms’ reviews were extended Wednesday as part of a separate ratings action on European banks, while four more had other negative reviews extended.

Greek Officials: Bailout Talks On Track (WSJ)
So that’s nice.

Europe Demands More Greek Budget Controls (Bloomberg)
While “further considerations are necessary regarding the specific mechanisms to strengthen the surveillance of program implementation,” Europe is set to make “all the necessary decisions” on Feb. 20, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said in an e-mailed statement after leading a conference call of finance chiefs late yesterday.

Falcone Seeks Spectrum Swap for LightSquared (Bloomberg)
Phil Falcone is seeking to swap spectrum owned by LightSquared Inc. with that controlled by the U.S. Department of Defense, a person with knowledge of the company said, in an effort to salvage his investment and save his hedge fund. Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners LLC has sunk $3 billion in LightSquared, a Reston, Virginia-based firm that plans to build a high-speed broadband network to serve 260 million Americans. The Federal Communications Commission said Feb. 14 it won’t let the company begin service because it interferes with GPS navigation of cars, boats, planes and tractors. The hedge fund manager hired Moelis & Co., a New York-based investment bank, and other advisers to help study alternatives, said the person, who asked not to be named because the company is private. If the defense department is not interested in a swap, Falcone could try to sell the spectrum.

New Fine In Greenlight Case (WSJ)
The fallout from alleged insider trading at Greenlight Capital Inc. continued Thursday when the Financial Services Authority said it had fined former Merrill Lynch executive Andrew Osborne £350,000 (about $550,000) for allegedly disclosing inside information ahead of a significant equity fund-raising by pub operator Punch Taverns PLC in June 2009. Mr. Osborne, acting on behalf of Punch, approached Greenlight, a major investor and despite being told that the company didn’t want to be given privileged information, or “wall-crossed,” went ahead with a conference call with Greenlight owner and President David Einhorn during which he disclosed that Punch was within a week of a substantial fund-raising, the FSA said.

Health deparment declares that Sardi’s can no longer host dinner for Westminster Dog Show winner (NYP)
A New York tradition more than three decades old ended yesterday when the Health Department declared that starting next year, Sardi’s restaurant can no longer invite the winner of the Westminster Dog Show to a special dinner. “We can’t be expected to just roll over for the champ. Our primary concern is making sure people and pets follow the doggone rules — ideally without whining or begging,” quipped city Health Department spokesman John Kelly. Restaurant owner Max Klimavicius pointed out that his special guest was served in a private room on the second floor and said he was sorry to see the “ritual’’ end. Continue reading »

LightSquared to Be Blocked by FCC Over GPS (Bloomberg)
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission vowed to block LightSquared Inc. after the Obama administration found the wireless venture backed by hedge-fund billionaire Philip Falcone would disrupt navigation gear. Federal agencies determined that LightSquared’s signals interfere with global-positioning system devices, Tammy Sun, an FCC spokeswoman, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The FCC is preparing to withdraw the preliminary approval it granted last year for the company to build a high-speed network serving as many as 260 million people, Sun said. “The commission clearly stated from the outset that harmful interference to GPS would not be permitted,” Sun said. “The commission will not lift the prohibition on LightSquared.” The FCC’s action marks a blow to LightSquared and a setback for Falcone’s Harbinger Capital Partners hedge fund, which has invested $3 billion in the venture. It follows a yearlong lobbying fight between LightSquared and opposing GPS companies that featured a series of government tests denounced by LightSquared as flawed.
LightSquared in a release issued yesterday before the FCC’s statement said it is “committed to finding a resolution with the federal government and the GPS industry.” The company said it “fully expects” the FCC “to recognize LightSquared’s legal rights to build its $14 billion, privately financed network.”

Greece Struggles to Win Second Financial Bailout as Europe’s Doubts Mount (Bloomberg)
Finance ministers canceled a Brussels meeting slated for today and will hold a teleconference instead to prod Greece to do more to clinch an aid package worth 130 billion euros ($171 billion) along with about 100 billion euros of debt relief from private bondholders. Greece needs the money to make a 14.5 billion-euro bond payment on March 20. The decision to cancel the meeting is “very worrying,” and “reflects a growing concern amongst some euro-area countries that Greece will not abide by the conditions of the second bailout package,” said Nicola Mai, an economist at JPMorgan Chase Bank in London. “It appears that some euro-area countries are willing to let Greece default.”

Hanks Paulson: Europe Crisis Will Take Years To Sort Out (CNBC)
“There is similarity [with the financial crisis in the U.S.] in certain regards. This has been going on for a long time and I think it will take years to play out,” Paulson told CNBC. Paulson, who served as Treasury Secretary when the subprime mortgages credit crunch erupted, sparking the world’s worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, said that at the time the U.S. was faced with a “collision of political forces and market forces”. “That’s really what you’re seeing in Europe,” Paulson said. “The structural issues around the EU are very difficult issues.”

Goldman Analyst Draws Scrutiny (WSJ)
Federal criminal authorities are investigating whether a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. technology analyst leaked inside information to hedge funds, adding a new angle to a broadening insider-trading probe, people close to the situation say. The development takes the insider-trading investigation inside the research operation of a major Wall Street firm for the first time. It involves Henry King, a high-profile analyst well-known among technology investors for prescient calls on tech firms…Goldman clients were told in recent weeks that Mr. King, head of Taiwan research, took a leave from his Goldman post in Asia after making a trip to the U.S. earlier in the year, people close to the situation say.

BNP Paribas Profit Hit By Greece (WSJ)
The Paris-based lender, France’s largest bank by market value, reported a 51% drop in fourth-quarter net profit to €765 million ($1 billion) from €1.55 billion a year earlier. BNP Paribas took a €567 million write-down on its Greek sovereign bonds and booked a €148 million charge as part of its plan to limit the impact of the European debt crisis by slashing its balance sheet. It expects to book an additional €850 million in charges to cover its downsizing plans in 2012 earnings but said it is “well-positioned to take on the challenges associated to today’s new environment and continue to finance its clients.” Revenue fell 6.1% to €9.69 billion, as continuing growth of the bank’s retail operations partially offset a sharp drop in corporate and investment banking revenue.

Shark Devours Another Shark Whole (AP)
National Geographic has released this soon-to-be classic photograph of one shark eating another shark whole. The photo comes from Daniela Ceccarelli, of Australia’s Research Council Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies. Ceccarelli was working with fellow researcher David Williamson on conducting a “fish census” off Great Keppel Island, part of the country’s Great Barrier Reef. That’s when Ceccarelli thought she spotted a brown-banded bamboo shark hanging out near the ocean’s floor. “The first thing that caught my eye was the almost translucent white of the bamboo shark,” Ceccarelli told National Geographic in an email. Instead, as Ceccarelli moved in for a closer look she noticed a camouflaged wobbegong shark emerging from seclusion with the same bamboo shark partially wedged inside its jaws. “It became clear that the head of the bamboo shark was hidden in its mouth,” she said. “The bamboo shark was motionless and definitely dead.” Continue reading »

Greek Economy Shrinking Rapidly (WSJ)
Greece’s gross domestic product contracted by an annual rate of 7% when adjusted for inflation, according to preliminary data reported by the Greek government statistics office Tuesday. The dire number was far worse than forecasts of a decline of up to 5%, and showed an accelerating contraction from the 5% year-to-year fall clocked in third quarter.

German Economic Expectations Turn Positive (WSJ)
German economic expectations turned positive in February for the first time since May 2011, buoyed by good U.S. economic data and progress in Greece’s negotiations with its creditors, the Center for European Economic Research, or ZEW, said Tuesday. The Greek progress improved sentiment, thus the euro-zone’s sovereign debt crisis is “less scary than three months ago,” ZEW expert Marcus Kappler said, adding however that Greece’s resolutions have raise expectations and “the resolutions have to be met.” The widely watched ZEW index rose in February for the third consecutive month, after declining for nine straight months, during which Europe’s debt crisis deepened. Outperforming forecasts for a still-negative reading, the economic expectations index rose to 5.4 points in February, the highest since April 2011, from January’s unrevised -21.6. Experts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a rise to -11.6 for February. “A majority of the experts [polled by ZEW] expect an improvement but it isn’t euphoria,” Mr. Kappler said.

Lin’s Lifting MSG Above The Rim (NYP)
Knicks fans, after crowding through the turnstiles at Madison Square Garden this month and pushing TV ratings to season highs — the better to drink in the heroics of the suddenly star-lit Jeremy Lin — yesterday elbowed their way into MSG stock, pushing it to a 52-week high. It was the ninth-straight session gain for the stock of Knicks’ parent company, MSG, the longest in over a year. It closed at $32.32, up 3.8 percent.

Volcker Rule Faces Harsh Critics (Bloomberg)
In scores of comment letters filed yesterday, bankers and their trade associations said the rule would increase risk, raise costs for investors, hurt U.S. competitiveness and be vulnerable to legal challenge. “Regardless of how the final rule turns out, it will be a shock to the U.S. financial system, as banking entities will need to take extraordinary measures to attempt to implement it,” Barry Zubrow, executive vice president of JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a 67-page letter. Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Corp. were set to submit their letters to regulators by yesterday.

Goldman Sachs Seeks Volcker Rule Exception (Bloomberg)
The bank, which says it owns the world’s largest family of so-called mezzanine loan funds, is asking regulators to loosen proposed limits on bank investments in such pools. Four Goldman Sachs employees and three lawyers from Sullivan & Cromwell LLP met on Feb. 2 with Federal Reserve Board staff to discuss Volcker rule limits on banks’ fund investments, according to a summary published yesterday by the central bank.

Picture Newt Gingrich, Celebrating Valentine’s Day (NYDN)
The struggling Republican presidential candidate coyly dished on his Valentine’s Day plans for third wife Callista, promising she would not be disappointed. Gingrich was at a campaign stop in El Monte Calif. on Monday when an audience member asked what his Feb. 14 plans were. “All I can promise is that I believe she will be quite happy,” the ex-House Speaker said to hoots and whistles from the audience…Gingrich then raised his arms in the air to wave off further questions, quickly adding “No more details!” Continue reading »

Greece Bailout Faces European Finance Chiefs After Parliamentary Approval (Bloomberg)
European finance chiefs get the second chance in a week to pull Greece back from the brink of collapse after lawmakers in Athens approved the austerity measures demanded for a financial lifeline. Greece “will be saved in one way or another,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told newspaper Welt am Sonntag yesterday, though the country must “do its homework.” Euro-area finance ministers will convene in Brussels on Feb. 15 for an extraordinary meeting called after they declined to ratify the 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) package in a special session on Feb. 9. Frustrated after two years of missed budget targets, the European authorities demanded Greek officials put their verbal commitments into law. The Greek parliament passed the legislation in the early morning hours today as rioters battled police and set fire to buildings in downtown Athens. Still, Schaeuble told German lawmakers on Feb. 10 that Greece was set to miss deficit goals, suggesting that the measures may fall short.

We’re Not Greece Says Italian Prime Minister Monti (CNBC)
FYI.

Volcker To Push Bank On Banks’ Trading (WSJ)
The former Federal Reserve chairman is expected to file a comment letter on the Volcker rule before a Monday deadline, contending that the U.S. financial system will be safer and healthier with a ban on proprietary trading by banks, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Volcker also is likely to resist recent attacks on the Volcker rule from money managers, financial firms and foreign governments, including claims that banning banks from trading with their own money could reduce liquidity in the financial markets. Critics of the proposed rule contend that corporate borrowing and trading might cost more as a result. According to people familiar with Mr. Volcker’s thinking, his comment letter will argue that too much liquidity in the market can cause investors to bid up asset prices with the expectation that there will always be a buyer.

A Secretive Hedge Fund Legend Prepares to Surface (CNBC)
Amid the tumult, the Dodd-Frank legislation now requires Louis Bacon’s Moore and other large hedge funds to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission and provide details about their risk management, trading, and disciplinary records. Bacon is loath to reveal any of it. That has prompted him to reconsider the way he has done business for more than 20 years, according to associates. Some, in fact, believe that in the coming years Bacon may transform Moore into what’s known as a “family office,” a far smaller operation primarily managing Bacon’s own capital as opposed to that of outside investors. “Louis has been talking about becoming a family office for at least two years,” says one investor, adding that Bacon considers the new disclosures required by the Dodd-Frank Act to be “a problem.”

Mortgage Problems? Turn Your House Into a Billboard (Reuters)
In return for allowing the front of their four-bedroom house in a Los Angeles suburb to become a garish advertisement, the Hostetlers are getting their nearly $2,000 monthly mortgage paid by the marketing company behind the project, Brainiacs From Mars…Romeo Mendoza, the company’s founder and CEO, told Reuters that his ultimate goal is to turn 1,000 homes across the United States into giant advertisements for his marketing firm. And in each case struggling homeowners will get their mortgage paid, for up to a year. “If we roll it out to scale and impact the foreclosure crisis, that would be amazing,” Mendoza, 42, said.

SEC Private Equity Review Eyes Smaller Firms (WSJ)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s review of how private equity firms value assets and market their funds is so far looking at mainly smaller firms, omitting some of the industry’s largest, publicly traded companies, said a person familiar with the inquiry. Blackstone Group, the biggest private equity firm, and KKR & Co. haven’t received the SEC’s December request for information, said the person, who asked not to be named because the information is private. The inquiry stems from a task force set up two years ago to look into practices ranging from asset valuation to conflicts of interest at private equity firms and hedge funds, said another person with knowledge of the matter.

Jeremy Lin Drives Knicks’ Sales, MSG Shares (Bloomberg)
Jeremy Lin has helped drive shares in his boss, Madison Square Garden Co., to a record high and produced the National Basketball Association’s best-selling jersey just over a week after he was a substitute at the end of the New York Knicks’ bench. Since the beginning of the weekend, the Modell’s Sporting Goods Inc. outlet on 34th street and Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, near the Knicks’s home court, has run through multiple shipments of Lin gear, including his No. 17 jersey and T-shirts celebrating “Linsanity,” the catch phrase adopted by the team since the Asian-American Harvard University graduate led the Knicks to a season-best five straight wins in eight days. “Just last week I was reading in the paper about him for the first time,” Miguel Gutierrez, the 28-year-old assistant manager at Modell’s, said in an interview. “I didn’t see this coming. We’re pretty much going to be getting new stuff every day.” Continue reading »