AIG Crisis Probes Fail To Meet High Bar (WSJ)
Late last Friday, Joe Cassano and two colleagues who were also investigated were told through their lawyers that they wouldn't face criminal charges after prosecutors found evidence supporting Mr. Cassano's account, people familiar with the matters said. Mr. Cassano "is grateful" that prosecutors "did their jobs by following the facts to the end," said his lawyers at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

Psychoanalyzing The Relationship Between Obama And Wall Street (NYM)
“The majority of Wall Street thinks, ‘Hey, you lent us money. We did a trade. We paid you back. When you had me down, you could have crushed me, you could have done whatever you wanted. You didn’t do it! So stop your bitching and stop telling me I owe you, because I already paid you everything! The fact that I’m making money now is because I’m smarter than you!’ I think that’s where you’ve got this massive disconnect. In simple human terms, the government is saying, ‘I saved your life, and all you did was thank me once. You should be calling me every day: Thank you. Thank you.’ The guy who saved the life expects more. And the guy whose life is saved says, ‘I already thanked you!’ ”

PM: Greece Doesn't Need to Default or Restructure (Reuters)
"We have no need for defaulting on payments or restructuring," Papandreou told El Pais. "We have opted not to do so. We have opted to pay back the loans we have requested." When asked, Papandreou said he did not believe his government would reach a point beyond which it could not ask people to tighten their belts further in order to convince markets its public finances were in order. "That is what we have decided, and that is the reason why we have this program of measures from the European Union," he said.

Spanish PM vows to stay firm on cuts despite strike threat (SMH)
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Sunday his government would hold firm on spending cuts despite pressure from unions which have threatened a general strike over the measures. "I know there are protests by those who do not share (the government's views), like the unions, but we will not change," he told a meeting of his Socialist Party in the southeastern city of Elche. "There will be no change, nor any swerving from the adopted path. We will respond to the circumstances and govern responsibly, thinking about the future of Spain and not any election call," he added.

Dems play old school hard ball with Wall St. bill‎ (Politico)
“Money is influential, but votes will kick money’s ass any time they come up against each other,” Barney Frank said. “In the Senate, once public opinion got engaged, it blew away the lobbyists, the money, campaign contributions. Public opinion drove that bill.”

Fannie, Freddie Fix Is Federal Hot-Potato (WSJ)
"The administration has put it on the 'too hard' pile," says David Felt, a former senior lawyer at the companies' federal regulator who presided over the government takeover of the companies in 2008.

Geithner and ‘Uncle’ Wang to Spar Over Yuan in China (BW)
Just a FYI: "The Chinese official who will face Timothy Geithner in Beijing today jokingly calls himself the Treasury secretary’s 'uncle' because of a family connection."

Rogue trader guilty of unauthorised HSBC shares deal (The Guardian)
"A rogue trader at boutique City stockbroker Lewis Charles Securities today pleaded guilty to four counts of false accounting in relation to an unauthorised short position he took in 7m HSBC shares last summer on his employer's account. The disastrously ill-fated gamble – effectively a bet on a decline in the share price of Britain's largest bank – was made by Jonathan Bunn. He was only permitted to trade by matching buyers and sellers of securities and was prohibited from building up a proprietary position: one using Lewis Charles's own funds. Ignoring these restrictions, he entered into the short trade on 22 July, increasing it over the course of the six following trading days to cover 6,950,000 HSBC shares. The position was taken ahead of the bank's interim results announcement on 3 August. Bunn wrote four deal-slips, which purported to record purchases of shares and submitted them to the back-office at Lewis Charles giving the illusion that the share sales had been "matched" with buyers, and that the stockbroker did not have an exposure to price movements. Asked by back-office colleagues for further details to verify the purported share purchases, Bunn continued to claim the trades were genuine. He also failed to turn up for work."

Man sucked into sausage seasoning machine (AP)
The accident happened Thursday night as the man was cleaning the vacuum-type machine that is used to season the meat at DiLigui Sausage Co. Police said the man's head and shoulders became stuck in the machine after it somehow activated while being cleaned.

Six Banks Including UBS to Report Dark-Pool Trades in Europe (Bloomberg)
Starting today, the banks, which also include Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Cazenove Ltd. and Credit Suisse AG, will report European equity trades matched in their internal crossing engines to Markit Ltd. At the end of the trading day, Markit will collate, check and validate the data and publish the aggregated trading volume the next afternoon, said the Association for Financial Markets in Europe, which represents the banks.

Cerberus Exits Autos, Enters Military (NYP)
Sources tell The Post that Feinberg "is targeting less snazzy deals that are guaranteed not to attract flashy headlines, and targeting bread-and-butter investments, after the prominent alternative investment manager's entry into the Detroit automotive industry left deep skid marks on its once-stellar Street cred."

HSBC Denies Reports Chairman Is Stepping Down
"There's no plan at the current time to change anything," chief executive Michael Geoghegan said.

Overhaul Puts Bank Ratings At Risk (WSJ)
Your forehead slapper of the morning: "There's a high probability that some of the systemically important banks will face rating downgrades" as a result of the overhaul, added Nomura Securities International analyst David Havens.