Write-Offs: 02.08.12

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Updated:: Jan 14, 2019
Original:: Feb 8, 2012

$$$Banks Near $25 Billion Pact on Foreclosure Probe [WSJ]

$$$Brokers suspended in Libor inquiry [FT]

$$$Greek Party Leaders Fail to Agree on Bailout Package [CNBC]

$$$Debt investors regain appetite for Europe’s periphery [FT]

$$$Goldman Wins Auction for A.I.G. Assets [DealBook]

$$$Youth Hockey Coach Makes Sick Yo Momma Burn [Deadspin]

$$$States seek currencies made of silver and gold [CNN via Alea]

$$$Goldman, on Both Sides of a Deal, Is Now in Court [DealBook]

$$$Diamond Removes CEO, CFO Amid Probe [WSJ]

$$$Groupon loss and weak sales clobber shares [Reuters]

$$$SEC's Hawke warns the young on insider trading [Reuters]

$$$A judge handed down a novel sentence to a husband who shoved his wife in a domestic dispute rather than making him post a bond. ... ‘He’s going to stop by somewhere and he’s going to get some flowers,’ Mr Hurley said during Bray’s bond hearing at the Broward County courthouse in Fort Lauderdale. ‘He’s going to get a card, he’s going to get flowers, and then he’s going to go home, pick up his wife, get dressed and take her to Red Lobster, and after that Red Lobster they’re going to go bowling.’ The unusual sentence prompted some tittering in the courthouse, particularly when a defence attorney asked the judge: ‘Does he have to let her win?’ [Daily Mail via TheJaneDough]

$$$ Schaeuble Declares Markets Wrong As Europe Heads To Vacation [Bloomberg] $$$ Don't Force Banks Into 'Draconian' Breakups: Whitney [CNBC] $$$ Morgan Stanley Stock May Be Worth $32 In Breakup, Mayo Says [Bloomberg] $$$ The Merkley plan to refinance underwater mortgages sounds pretty good [Reuters / Felix Salmon] $$$ Outspoken Analyst Kinnucan Pleads Guilty in Insider Case [WSJ] $$$ Man who rescued a 17-pound lobster "felt the nearly 100-year-old crustacean did not deserve to die with its parts soaked in butter. 'If he was 100, he saw World War I, World War II, man on the moon,' he said. 'Being in New England, he even saw the Red Sox win the World Series. So, he didn’t deserve the boiling water.'" [CBS] $$$ Due to recent regulatory requirements, a top bank in Charlotte is looking for a counterparty credit risk manager to be a Basel expert [DBCC] $$$ Libor scandal makes it more costly for bankers to get insured [Reuters] $$$ Europe Aims to Make Rate Manipulation a Criminal Offense [DealBook] $$$ Fund managers to lose securities lending profits [FT] $$$ The Securities and Exchange Commission drew sharp criticism from a federal judge who said they have failed to properly oversee a $55 million investor education fund created by a nearly decade-old settlement with Wall Street banks. The fund had been created as part of a roughly $1.5 billion regulatory accord in 2003 with Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and other banks accused of publishing biased analyst research. U.S. District Judge William Pauley in Manhattan said the SEC has shown a "lack of oversight" and "indifference" toward how a nonprofit organization charged with distributing the money has been managed. ... Pauley pointed as an example to a two-year, $91,500 grant to the Genesee District Library in Flint, Michigan, that appeared to have resulted in just two events, one of which concerned "spending, sharing, and saving" for children ages two to five. "While there may be benefits to starting investor education early, toddlers seem beyond the pale," the judge wrote in an order issued Wednesday. [Reuters] $$$ Mitt Romney would restore 'Anglo-Saxon' relations between Britain and America [Telegraph]

$$$ Facebook Posts Loss, But Emphasizes Mobile Growth $$$ LightSquared Executives Get $6 Million in Bonuses Approved by Judge [Deal Journal] $$$ Bernanke QE3 Stocks Miss Greenspan Irrational Exuberance [Bloomberg] $$$ ‘I’m Quite Concerned About Fiscal Cliff’: Greenspan [CNBC] $$$ Argentina won't kneel down before 'vulture funds,' says Cabinet Chief [BA Herald] $$$ Gupta is no Rajaratnam. Gupta tipped inside information about one company to Rajaratnam, while Rajaratnam traded on confidential information collected from many sources. So you’d expect that Gupta would be treated differently when he appears for sentencing. Federal sentencing guidelines, however, suggest a prison term for him that’s similar in length to the 11 years Rajaratnam is serving. And prosecutors want a sentence within those guidelines, just as they want for the hundreds of defendants sentenced in federal courts nationwide every day. Because what Gupta and Rajaratnam did is so different, though, sentencing Gupta to anything like the time Rajaratnam is serving undermines the whole purpose of the sentencing scheme that prosecutors say they want to uphold. [Slate] $$$ For several years now, Marc Lasry, the co-founder of Avenue Capital, has decorated his mansion on East 74th Street with bloodied bodies hanging from the balcony, skeleton heads, a giant inflatable ghost, swinging bats and a life-size, clothed skeleton affixed to a tree on the sidewalk. One afternoon last week, tourists and children gathered to take pictures of a dancing skeleton beside the front door. It was singing “Super Freak.” (Perhaps in the spirit of competition, the hedge fund manager Philip A. Falcone and his wife, Lisa Maria, have lavishly decorated the exterior of their 27,525-square-foot house on East 67th Street even though it is currently a construction site.) [NYT via BI] $$$ Adveq, a leading asset manager investing in private equity and real asset funds globally, is looking for an investor relations and development representative for North America [DBCC] $$$ Former Soros CIO nears launch of Anderson Global Macro early next year [AR] $$$ Wall Street Is Rethinking Commodity-Trading Role [WSJ] $$$ This is a story about LBO companies getting equity financing from long-only investors to pay down debt to manageable levels before an IPO [Term Sheet] $$$ This is a story about a management consultant who is also a self-published poet [BBW] $$$ "My wife ... penetrated to the heart of the debate in a single sentence tonight when, only about 15 minutes into the exchange, she observed: 'Romney’s flag pin is much larger than Obama’s flag pin.'" [NR] $$$ Obama Takes Out Romney With Mid-Debate Drone Attack [The Onion] $$$ NYC-Based Soup Chain Offers Free Cup of Soup, Personal Service from a ‘Cunt’ Named Mary [Gawker]

Help Greece by drinking; Gold in for a world of pain; Judge says Herbalife is not a pyramid scheme; "Man Caught Having Sex With A Bush"; and more.

$$$ Merkel's Dilemma: Risk Euro Zone or Her Government [WSJ] $$$ S.E.C. Pays Out First Whistle-Blower Reward [DealBook] $$$ Fed probes RBS over dealings with Iran [FT] $$$ Barry Diller's IAC offers $300 million for About.com [Reuters] $$$ Fifty Shades of Grey Is Now the Only Hope Our Economy Has [DI] $$$ Red Lobster Waitress Attacked For Filling Water Glasses Too Often At St. Louis Location [HuffPo] $$$ A broker-dealer is looking for experienced emerging market credit salespeople in Stamford [DBCC] $$$ Subprime Whodunit A Case of Semantics [WSJ, related] $$$ Best Buy Suspends Profit Outlook & Buybacks After Ending Deal Talks [Reuters] $$$ Sometimes VCs sell stock, deal with it [Fred Wilson] $$$ "Prince Harry tried to end Ryan Lochte’s championship reign Monday, duking it out with the Olympic hero in an after-hours race at a boozy Las Vegas pool party." [NYDN] $$$ The Koch brothers' less famous younger brother built a fake Western town for some reason [Gawker]