$$$ Fed's Early Minutes Release Went to Some Banks [WSJ] $$$ Ex-SAC Trader Gets Court Permission for African Honeymoon [DealBook] $$$ Dimon Sees More Regulator Scrutiny After Whale Loss [Bloomberg] $$$ FBI found KPMG auditor via golf buddy, his lawyer says [Reuters] $$$ Goldman deal with union group lets Blankfein keep dual roles [Reuters] $$$ Underdog Undergrads From Jersey City Win Investing Competition [MarketBeat] $$$ Dodd-Frank 'Written in Anger,' Needs Fixing: Chamber CEO [CNBC] $$$ Chaos of rulings on toxic CDOs means uncertainty for investors [Reuters] $$$ Bank Investors Press Breakups to Add Value, Burnell Says [Bloomberg] $$$ 'Warehouse Games': Base Metals Supply Crunch on the Horizon? [AOL Energy] $$$ S&P, TrueEX Team Up on CDS Futures [WSJ] $$$ Beyonce and Jay-Z Cuba Trip Called ‘Educational’ by Treasury [Bloomberg]

$$$ Icahn Reports Big Stake in Herbalife; Shares Jump [WSJ] $$$ Thursday M&A Craze Shakes Up League Tables [WSJ] $$$ Big hedge funds fueled fourth-quarter dive in Apple shares [Reuters] $$$ RIM’s old CEO is so impressed with BB10 that he dumped all of his 26.8M shares in the company [VB] $$$ 'Frustrated' Madoff Now Second Guessing His Guilty Plea [CNBC] $$$ Surprise! Royal Bank of Scotland is Hiring [EFC] $$$ At Senate Hearing, Warren Comes Out Swinging [DealBook] $$$ Citadel climbs to top as big winner at 2012 Absolute Return Awards [HFI] $$$ JPMorgan’s Gulati to launch own fund [FT] $$$ Flushing Your Anti-Anxiety Pills Down the Toilet Could Affect the Behavior of Wild Fish [Smithsonian]

Goldman loves Jeb; Greece needs more $$$; Icahn blames BlackRock; "Woman Tells Police Obama Legalized Counterfeiting"; and more.

$$$ M&T To Buy Hudson City In Deal Valued At $3.7 Billion [Bloomberg] $$$ Best Buy Founder Gets Green Light to Pursue Buyout [WSJ] $$$ Don't all M&A processes leak and push up the target stock price? Anyway, Deltek's did [Term Sheet] $$$ Mike Evans heats up Goldman succession speculation by buying an apartment [DealBook] $$$ Americans Think the Rich Are Smarter, But Greedier [CNBC] $$$ Quincy Jones 'knew of alleged plot by Steve Wynn to kill founder of Girls Gone Wild and hide his body in the desert' say court documents [Daily Mail] $$$ Prudential is looking for an associate manager for derivative products [DBCC] $$$ In Dollar Thrifty Deal, Hertz Bets Big on Certainty of Closing [DealBook] $$$ Delaware court affirms $2 bln Southern Copper judgment [Reuters] $$$ Allowing mortgage cramdowns raised mortgage rates by 10-20bps for risky borrowers [Credit Slips] $$$ The Sharapova Effect: you try harder to succeed in sports if you're good-looking enough to get lots of endorsement deals [Freakonomics] $$$ “Remember when McDonald’s used to be called Mickey D’s?” asks Becky Johnson, a senior vice president at Applebee’s. “That was a street slang term, people playing with the name. We found out that ‘the bee’s’ is how the kids are describing Applebee’s.” By “kids,” she means twenty- and thirtysomething singles who may eat at Applebee’s with co-workers or family members, but who generally go elsewhere—like, to an actual bar—at night and on the weekends. “The bee’s is an overt invitation to them,” says Johnson. “We want them back.” [BBW]

$$$ Nobel Peace Prize for European Union, Mired in Crisis [NYT] $$$ JPMorgan cuts banker pay, a sign of more frugal times on Wall St [Reuters] $$$ Goldman Ex-Programmer Asks Court to Throw Out Charges [WSJ] $$$ Workday Soars 74% in Debut [DealBook] $$$ My Employees 'Filled With Anxieties These Days': Wynn [CNBC] $$$ Secret Service agent arrested in Miami after passing out drunk on a sidewalk [NYDN] $$$ French towns launch debt strike over "toxic" Dexia loans [Reuters] $$$ Repealing Deductions Pays for 4% Tax Cuts, Study Says [Bloomberg] $$$ RBS Says Santander Drops 1.7 Billion-Pound Purchase [Bloomberg] $$$ Wyclef Jean's charity in Haiti allegedly isn't so great, though his watch collection is [NYT] $$$ Gawker gives (excellent) investing advice [Gawker]