Write-Offs: 07.05.11

$$$Obama to meet congressional leaders Thursday on debt (Reuters)

$$$House GOP pushes back against short-term debt-ceiling increase (The Hill)

$$$Portugal’s Debt Rating Cut to Junk by Moody’s (NYT)

$$$Banks to meet to sweeten Greek terms (FT)

$$$IMF insists on ethics clause for Lagarde (Guardian)

$$$Matthew Goldstein: Hedge fund giants are coming up small this year (Reuters)

$$$Bank of America $8.5 Billion Mortgage Pact Challenged (Reuters via NYT)

$$$Glencore CEO Blames External Factors for Stock Decline (WSJ)

$$$Citigroup Hires JPMorgan’s John Novak After Revamp of Trading Operations (Bloomberg)

$$$In Shift to New Court, Risks for Madoff Trustee’s Case (DealBook)

$$$European Stress Tests Are ‘Missing the Point,’ Credit Suisse Analysts Say (Bloomberg)

$$$New Financing Values Twitter As High As $7 Billion (WSJ)

$$$Highland Capital is looking for a special situations PM- could that be you? (DBCC)

$$$Drunk Puppy-Buying Crackdown in the West Village (Village Voice)

$$$Woman arrested trying to sneak husband out of jail in suitcase after conjugal visit (Washington Post)