• How much money did JPMorgan make on Madoff? – According to one brainy prof, probably less than $500 mil. That doesn’t mean they did anything wrong though: ‘Few would say that the vendor who sold Mr. Madoff a hotdog on the street was doing anything wrong.’ Yeah, ’cause it’s the same thing. [FT Alphaville]
• Edward Kennedy, Senator and Democratic Icon, Dies [Bloomberg]
• Fight Brews as Proxy-Access Nears – “The largest U.S. businesses, law firms and business groups have stepped up their challenge to the ‘proxy access’ rule, which would let certain shareholders use a company’s board-election process to nominate directors opposed to management.” [WSJ]
• Colonial BancGroup files Chapter 11 – Shoe. Dropped. [Reuters]
• U.S. Postal Service seeks 30,000 job cuts via buyouts – As of now, no reports of gunfire at any post office locations. [Reuters]
• Swiss Bank to Leave U.S. Amid Tighter Restrictions – No, not UBS. Wagelin & Co., who’s obviously fed up with the newfound inability to dodge taxes. [DealBook]

• Obama to Reappoint Bernanke as Fed Chief – “Mr. Bernanke is seen by supporters inside the administration and in markets as a creative and steady hand who helped to keep the financial chaos, which became especially dangerous in the past year, from becoming much worse.” Now that the next four years are in the bag, the beard is getting grown out. [WSJ]
• Volcker: Money funds weaken financial system – Sounds like someone wants headlines on someone else’s big day. [Reuters]
• Appeals Court Says Stanford Must Remain in Jail – Let’s get this circus of a trial started already. [DealBook]
• GameStop says CFO will retire in March – Presumably to work on his GTA game [Reuters]