$$$ Santander, BBVA Among Spanish Banks Downgraded By Moody’s [Bloomberg] $$$ Spain denies bank run reports [FT] $$$ Big banks need extra $566bn, says Fitch [FT, FTAV] $$$ Icahn Takeover of CVR Gets Support From 55% of Holders [Bloomberg] $$$ JPMorgan's Dimon says will testify before Congress [Reuters] $$$ Occupy Wall Street is staging an intervention with Jamie Dimon [NC] $$$ BlackRock is looking for a performance analyst in Princeton [DBCC] $$$ At CME, an Uproar Over Trading Hours [WSJ] $$$ SEC Probes Role of Hedge Fund in CDOs [WSJ] $$$ Which Biglaw Firm Accidentally Released Embarrassing, Unredacted Documents About Goldman Sachs? [ATL] $$$ Floyd Norris: "For market makers, who may buy unwanted securities that customers want to sell, hedging may be wise and prudent. But it will also be short term, until the bank trades out of whatever position it took on in the course of making the market. But if banks hedge long-term investments, as JPMorgan evidently did, the hedge is also likely to be long term. It will consist of buying something that, in normal times, should move in the opposite direction of their investment. The result is that they will be making convergence trades that are indistinguishable from what Long Term Capital Management did. Given the size of the big banks, they will have to do so in huge volumes that can come back to haunt them if markets move the wrong way." [NYT] $$$ The Boldface Names on the Witness List for Gupta’s Trial includes Lloyd Blankfein, Gary Cohn, Ken Chenault, Raj Rajaratnam, James Barnacle, and Adam Smith [DealBook]

$$$ Catalonia Asks Spanish Government for Emergency Funds [NYT] $$$ Asia's Tide of Cash Hems in Policy Makers [WSJ] $$$ Morgan Stanley Win On Brokerage Would Be Pyrrhic Victory [Bloomberg] $$$ Paulson Assures Bank of America in Call [WSJ] $$$ "When I asked a PE tax attorney if what Bain is doing is allowed, she told me that 'allowed' and 'not allowed' isn't always the right way to think about it." Tax lawyers! [Term Sheet] $$$ The CFA Institute comes out against Great Idea Corp. [Forbes] $$$ Shia LaBeouf Got Into Character for Upcoming Film by Dropping Acid On Set [Gawker] $$$ William Blair is looking for an experienced associate for its technology investment banking group in San Francisco [DBCC] $$$ S.E.C. Charges 8 With Insider Trading in Sanofi Deal [DealBook] $$$ ISM sells a low-latency feed of its business data to Reuters [MarketBeat] $$$ “There’s an idea that when a lawyer or law firms are going to get a big payment, that there’s something somehow wrong about that, just because it’s a lawyer. I’m sorry, but investment banks have hit it big, a lot bigger the plaintiffs’ lawyer firms have hit it big. They’ve hit it big many times.” This Law Blog story on the Grupo Mexico verdict is kind of amazing. [WSJ Law Blog] $$$ Wall Street Rocker Gary Marks Settles With SEC Over Whether Knew What He Was Talking About [NYO] $$$ "There were no workers that were forced to attend the event. We had managers that communicated to our work force that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend the event." [Raw Story] $$$ Hitler clothing store in India asked to change name [JTA]

$$$ Buffett: My Succession Plans Have Not Changed [CNBC] $$$ Meredith Whitney upgraded Citigroup [MarketBeat] $$$ Should you worry that all the big banks are growing their assets? [DealBook] $$$ Canadian approached for top BoE job [FT] $$$ Sallie Krawchek: "I've thought a lot about the issue of stereotypes, particularly on Wall Street. I can't count the number of times I have seen men slam something on a table, even throw something. You sort of do a mental eye roll and move on. I can count on one hand — on one finger — the number of tantrums I've seen a woman have. As she was having it, I remember thinking to myself, Bitch." [Marie Claire] $$$ The Ira Sohn Investment Idea Contest seeks to identify a great investment idea to help benefit children with cancer. This year's contest will be judged by an incredible group including Michael Price, Bill Ackman, David Einhorn, Joel Greenblatt and Seth Klarman. The winner will be selected based on the judges’ determination of the most compelling investment idea submitted with a one-year horizon, and will then get to present their investment idea at the Ira Soch Investment Conference itself in May. $$$ Morgan Stanley is looking for a market risk regulatory capital vice president [DBCC] $$$ London Goes After Trading in Yuan [WSJ] $$$ Bank of America Said to Put Foreign Wealth Management Unit Up for Sale [DealBook] $$$ Derivatives Lobby Has U.S. Regulators on the Run [Bloomberg / Roger Lowenstein] $$$ "We are in a depression, but not because we don’t know how to remedy the problem. We are in a depression because it is our revealed preference, as a polity, not to remedy the problem. We are choosing continued depression because we prefer it to the alternatives." [Interfluidity] $$$ "A Michigan lottery winner was charged with fraud Tuesday for collecting food stamps and public health insurance despite pocketing a $735,000 jackpot."

$$$ U.S. Banks Had Second-Best Earnings Ever in 2012, FDIC Says [Bloomberg] $$$ Dimon Says Lenders to Have More Capital Than They Can Use [Bloomberg] $$$ Banks Fear Court Ruling in Argentina Bond Debt [DealBook] $$$ “'We are seeing some elements of precrisis behavior,' Mr. Marks said on Tuesday at the SuperReturn International 2013 conference. 'We are seeing people engaging in bullish behavior.'” [DealBook] $$$ AB InBev Overstates Alcohol in Budweiser, Lawsuit Claims [Bloomberg] $$$ Nassim Taleb book party tonight! [Book Culture] $$$ Best Buy takeover attempt by founder in jeopardy [Reuters] $$$ At Barnes & Noble, Interests of Top Executives Diverge [WSJ] $$$ It’s time to abolish the FHFA [Reuters / Felix Salmon] $$$ New Stream Capital Executives Accused of Fraud [WSJ] $$$ Former CFO Sues T. Boone Pickens' Son [CNS]

$$$ S.E.C. Charges the Chinese Affiliates of 5 Big Accounting Firms [DealBook] $$$ Morgan Stanley wealth unit aims to close lending gap [Reuters] $$$ "Through the end of November, U.S. companies with below investment-grade ratings sold $854 billion in junk-rated bonds and 'leveraged' loans, a record amount that outpaces the $785 billion sold in all of 2011 and even the $825 billion sold in 2007 before the financial crisis." [Deal Journal] $$$ Is Spying on Corporate Jets Insider Trading? [NetNet / John Carney] $$$ 180 Minutes With [former Top Model contestant and current Citi equity derivatives saleswoman] Kim Stolz [NYM, earlier] $$$ The Pope will start tweeting eventually [NYT] $$$ A top-tier financial firm is looking for a securities lending analyst in Stamford [DBCC] $$$ Credit Suisse is paying negative interest rates on some SFr cash balances [FTAV] $$$ Lawyer Says Trader Did Not Manipulate Market [DealBook] $$$ Oracle to Pay Three Dividends in December [WSJ] $$$ El Paso's $110 mln settlement over Kinder Morgan deal approved [Reuters] $$$ Romney Rejoins Board of Marriott [WSJ] $$$ Whisky Restores Eyesight of Man Who Was Blinded by Vodka [Gawker]

$$$ Eurozone delays Athens rescue funds [FT] $$$ Loans to Banks Cool Debt Crisis [WSJ] $$$ European Leaders Challenged by Rise in Joblessness [NYT] $$$ An explanation of that Barclays tax trade, with cartoons [FTAV] $$$ Sofa King can no longer advertise prices that are "Sofa King low" in the UK [Language Log] $$$ Mitt Romney has worn a garbage bag for rain gear $$$ Fed's Dilemma: Markets Want Both Growth—And Stimulus [CNBC] $$$ Facebook seeking bigger credit line [Reuters] $$$ Unlike other types of complex financial transactions, insider trading prosecutions usually do not require jurors to develop sophisticated knowledge of the financial markets or securities valuation. There is not a statutory definition establishing its parameters, so it can be applied to a wide variety of transactions, and the crime does not have complicated requirements for proving a violation. Prosecutors are cracking down on insider trading because there's no law telling people what's illegal and unsophisticated jurors will convict [DealBook] $$$ Oprah's Book Club makes people read less [MR] $$$ The personal assistant of Paris Hilton's sister's hedge funder ex-husband Todd Meister was maybe dating him while she was stealing $1mm from him, or something like that [NYP]

$$$ Swelling Bond Yields Add to EU Pressure [WSJ] $$$ Goodbye Smith Barney [DealBook] $$$ A Marxist take on the European Central Bank [Slack Wire] $$$ Izzy Kaminska: "If it is true that the system can increasingly provide a base level of existence for ever more people for almost no cost, should we be surprised that those western countries where a base level of existence is adequate — because of weather, surroundings and general environment — are the first to opt out of unnecessary human productivity?" [FTAV] $$$ Corporate political giving is negatively correlated with market performance for most companies, positively correlated with performance for firms in highly regulated industries [Rice via WonkBlog] $$$ Mitt Romney and "Sport," a Continuing Saga [MoJo] $$$ CRT Capital Group is looking for a credit product sales assistant in Stamford [DBCC] $$$ SEC Charges 14 Sales Agents In $415 Million Long Island-Based Ponzi Scheme [SEC] $$$ Greek Antiquities, Long Fragile, Are Endangered by Austerity [NYT] $$$ The Volume Clock: Insights into the High Frequency Paradigm [SSRN via MR] $$$ Someone at ISDA appears to have the job of pointing out when Gretchen Morgenson is wrong about derivatives [ISDA] $$$ The explosion of the yacht named Blind Date was a hoax [NYP]

$$$ Goldman Fined for Failing to Block Trader’s $8.3 Billion Bet [Bloomberg] $$$ Key SEC Holdout in Money-Fund Overhaul Reverses Stance [WSJ] $$$ Canada Approves Cnooc-Nexen Deal [WSJ] $$$ JPMorgan nears £500m bonus tax deal [FT] $$$ Rant: At Top Law Firms, a Class Conflict During Bonus Season [BBW / Elie Mystal] $$$ Lloyd bought a house [DealBook] $$$ The 200 West Street Goldman cafeteria (1) is really very good, (2) features food from a former banker [DealBook] $$$ 100 Women in Hedge Funds names Ivanka Trump to its board, consists of 10,000 women, mostly not in hedge funds [AR] $$$ UBS is looking for a credit officer for securities backed lending in New Jersey [DBCC] $$$ Morgan Stanley's 2013 adviser pay to reward new loans [Reuters] $$$ Brokers Must Disclose Bonuses to Clients in Finra Proposal [Bloomberg] $$$ "It’s always a mistake to use microeconomic intuition in macro," quantitative easing edition [Scott Sumner] $$$ Whale’s Trade in Comeback as Junk Fervor Fades [Bloomberg] $$$ "If Harvard wishes to retain its primary existence as a gigantic profit-maximizing hedge fund ..." [American Conservative via John Carney] $$$ Ivy League Cracks Down as Students Spiral Out of Control [Bloomberg] $$$ "I am tired of fooling around, he said. I’m forming a legal team. We have case studies, an office outside Lexington. He swept the strips off the table and held the beak in the air. We’re looking for a poet to write our anthem!" [The Awl]