Opening Bell: 09.29.11

Euro Rises as German Lawmakers Vote to Approve Expansion of Bailout Fund (Bloomberg)
The vote in Berlin on changes to the EFSF allows the fund to buy the bonds of distressed member states and offer emergency loans to governments, raising Germany’s guarantees to 211 billion euros from 123 billion euros.

Bernanke says Fed would act if inflation falls (Reuters)
In his first public remarks since the Fed launched a fresh measure aimed at keeping down long-term borrowing costs, Bernanke indicated a willingness to push deeper into the realm of unconventional policy if economic growth remains anemic. ... "If inflation falls too low or inflation expectations fall too low, that would be something we have to respond to because we do not want deflation," Bernanke said.

Greek debt holders object to new deal threat (FT)
A person intimately involved in the deal accuses officials in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands who want to increase the haircuts of engaging in activity that is “pretty close to market manipulation”. He argues that prices have collapsed because politicians have increasingly talked of default and bigger losses.

An Investment Banker’s Fortunes Rise With Brazil’s (NYT)
Yet possibly no one embodies the financial ascent of Brazil better than Mr. Esteves. At 43, he has built BTG Pactual into Brazil’s largest independent investment bank and has amassed a fortune estimated at $3 billion by Forbes magazine. Still, he has driven the same Mercedes pickup for four years and takes only two weeks of vacation a year. ... The BTG in BTG Pactual stands for banking and trading group. But Mr. Esteves says it also stands for “back to the game,” because he bought the company back from UBS. When someone suggested that it could mean “better than Goldman,” he just laughed.

Crook busted after robbing same bank for third day in row (NYP)
After the second heist, the suspect’s security-camera photo was put up in police stations and published in yesterday’s Post. Still, he couldn’t resist taking a third shot at the bank yesterday. Just after 9 a.m. he passed a demand note that said, “I have a gun put all the money in the bag.” “It was the same dumbass who hit us yesterday,” said one worker. “He was huge.”

Business attacks transaction tax plan (FT)
The British government said a financial transaction tax could only work if it were implemented globally. The UK CBI employers’ group attacked the tax plan as a “crude instrument” that would divert trading activity to New York and Hong Kong. “The Commission’s decision to press ahead with a financial transaction tax is completely misguided at a time when it’s clear that Europe needs a relentless focus on growth,” said Neil Bentley, the CBI’s deputy director-general.

H-P Hires Banker In Defense Move (WSJ)
Goldman was recently brought on board to help H-P formulate defenses in case it becomes the target of shareholders seeking change, the people added. Typically, companies with such a concern put in "poison pills" – shareholder rights' plans that make takeovers more difficult for activist investors. ... Analysts have said H-P's seeming lack of direction, the management-related instability, as well as the potential for restructuring its portfolio of hardware and software assets, make the company an attractive target for investor activism.

Pepper-spray videos spark furor as NYPD launches probe of Wall Street protest incidents (NYDN)
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Internal Affairs and the Civilian Complaint Review Board will investigate. He was skeptical the video snippets show the whole story. "In my experience, proponents of a certain position would show you just what they want to show you," Kelly said. "Hopefully, [probers] will look at the totality of the information that they will gather."

Fund Goes Down Blind Alley (WSJ)
Real-estate developer Stephen Ross and his partners spent more than a year digging into U.S. banks, including more than 100 with loans to local bakeries, gas stations and amusement parks. They hoped to spend about $1.1 billion buying or investing in lenders. But the deeper they went, the worse things looked. As a result, Related Cos., the New York firm in which Mr. Ross is chief executive, gave back the money it raised from roughly 150 investors, including hedge-fund manager David Einhorn.

Interns, Unpaid by a Studio, File Suit (NYT)
One plaintiff, Alex Footman, a 2009 Wesleyan graduate who majored in film studies, said he had worked as a production intern on “Black Swan” in New York from October 2009 to February 2010. He said his responsibilities included preparing coffee for the production office, ensuring that the coffee pot was full, taking and distributing lunch orders for the production staff, taking out the trash and cleaning the office. “The only thing I learned on this internship was to be more picky in choosing employment opportunities,” Mr. Footman, 24, said in an interview. “ ‘Black Swan’ had more than $300 million in revenues. If they paid us, it wouldn’t make a big difference to them, but it would make a huge difference to us.”

Wrong Button Sends ANA Jet Upside Down (WSJ)
All Nippon Airways Co. narrowly escaped a catastrophe earlier this month when its plane almost flipped over after a co-pilot hit the wrong button while trying to open the cockpit door for the plane’s captain, returning from the restroom.

Chris Christie: Is New Jersey Governor Too Overweight to Become President? (ABC)
Political scientists and strategists said they could not recall a truly heavy American politician finding great national success in the television age. "Our candidates tend to be tall, they tend to have great hair," said Russell Riley, a presidential scholar at the University of Virginia's Center of Public Affairs. "This doesn't seem to be a business that, at the presidential level, willingly accepts people who are demonstrably overweight.