Write-Offs: 12.23.11
$$$ Muni Bonds: A Disaster That Wasn't [WSJ]
$$$The trader who is killing it at Cohen’s $14 billion SAC Capital Advisors this year is Gabriel Plotkin. The portfolio manager, who specializes in consumer products and the gaming and lodging industry, is one of the top producers this year at Cohen’s hedge fund, say several people familiar with the Stamford, Conn. hedge fund. Plotkin, who joined SAC Capital in late 2006 from North Sound Capital, is emerging as one of Cohen’s most reliable money men. [Reuters/Matthew Goldstein]
$$$Owl Creek Falls 13% [Dealbook]
$$$ "Volkswagen AG’s BlackBerry-wielding employees now get a break at the end of the work day from the constant allure of the Research In Motion device’s blinking red light. Yielding to demands from its works council, Europe’s largest carmaker agreed to stop its e-mail server from routing messaging traffic to the smartphone 30 minutes after a shift and resume half an hour before the next day begins. The accord affects about 1,150 employees in Germany who use the device and are covered by collective labor agreements, the Wolfsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported." [Bloomberg]
$$$Happy Festivus! [NYDN]
$$$That’s it for us today. We hope everyone has a great break, celebrating the birth of Christ, airing your grievances at all the people you've got problems with, or however you'll be spending your time. Very abbreviated scheduled next week starting Tuesday, with exceptions made for breaking news such as Lloyd announcing he's retiring to start in a Broadway revival of West Side Story, the surprise appearance by a much-loved hedge fund manager playing Kris Kringle at your Christmas Eve party (and getting thrown out for snapping reminding him Santa drinks milk, not champagne), or Wilbur Falcone ringing in the New Year by hopping in his Bronco and leading the NYPD on a high-speed chase.
$$$Ex-Galleon Manager Peter Swartz to Start Hedge Fund [Bloomberg]
$$$ How They Did It: The Promoter, The Payoff, The Pump And The Dump [Roddy Boyd]
$$$ Overpriced or Right-Priced? Drunk on Weill Sale, Lower Floor 15 CPW Spread Wants $35 Million [NYO]
$$$Don’t Ask Ron Paul About His Racist Newsletter [Daily Intel]
$$$U.S. Hog-Breeding Herd Increased on Improved Profit Outlook [Bloomberg]
$$$ Cincinnati Ben-Gals cheerleader and Northern Kentucky teacher Sarah Jones, who gained national attention by suing a gossip website that claimed she was promiscuous, is now the subject of two investigations...What law enforcement officials and educators will not say is what the 26-year-old Jones has been accused of doing. [NKY]
