$$$Markets cheer bank liquidity move [FT]

$$$Q+A: Why everyone cares about dollar liquidity swaps [Reuters]

$$$ Warren Buffett bought his hometown paper [Bloomberg]

$$$Last week, I had a conversation with a man who runs his own trading firm. In the process of fuming about competition from Goldman Sachs, he said with resignation and exasperation: “The fact that they were bailed out and can borrow for free — it’s pretty sickening.” Though the sentiment is commonplace these days, I later found myself thinking about his outrage. Here is someone who is in the thick of the business, trading every day, and he is being sickened by the inequities and corruption on Wall Street and utterly persuaded that nothing has changed in the years since the financial crisis of 2008. Then I realized something odd: I have conversations like this as a matter of routine. I can’t go a week without speaking to a hedge fund manager or analyst or even a banker who registers somewhere on the Wall Street Derangement Scale. That should be a great relief: Some of them are just like us! Just because you are deranged doesn’t mean you are irrational, after all. Wall Street is already occupied — from within. [DealBook/ProPublica]

$$$ "I love cold calling. It's the best thing in the world," says 22-year-old who thinks cold calling is the best thing in the world [BI]

$$$Rajaratnam Asks to Remain Free On Appeal [WSJ Law Blog]

$$$China, in Surprising Shift, Takes Steps to Spur Bank Lending [NYT]

$$$AT&T, T-Mobile Mull Plan B [WSJ]

$$$ Secret Santa Senators will be getting each other "an Arkansas paper weight, New Mexico chili, a Nebraska coffee cup, a recycled pair of socks and a gift certificate to a discount store" [Reuters]

$$$ Get your libertarian friends the Ron Paul family cookbook [Politico]