• Treasury Retreats From Standoff With TARP Watchdog – “Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a position also known as Sigtarp, declared victory Wednesday in his effort to clarify that he doesn’t answer to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.” [WSJ]
• Oracle Faces In-Depth EU Probe Over Sun Purchase – Larry Ellison will not stand this aggression. [Bloomberg]
• Will AIG Rein In Its Brash CEO? – “Mr. Benmosche said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo ‘doesn’t deserve to be in government’ and that Mr. Benmosche would leave dealing with ‘all those crazies down in Washington’ to the company’s chairman, according to an account by Bloomberg News that was confirmed by Mr. Benmosche.” For the sake of the rest of us, let the man say his piece. [WSJ]
• Stanford Has Surgery; Receiver Defends $27 Million Fee – “Jailed fraud defendant R. Allen Stanford had surgery for an aneurysm in his leg Wednesday morning and was back in a Conroe-area prison before noon.” Recovery time for a stud such as Stan is not nearly as long for you mortals. Meanwhile, the receiver in the case is telling the SEC to BTFO. [Houston Chronicle]
• Stanford’s Bellagio debt, redux – Stan’s attorney suggests that if the Bellagio wants its money it should go after the aforementioned receiver, Ralph Janvey. Old school style of course, ‘Maybe the Bellagio should revert to the time-honored method of Vegas debt collection and send someone to make the receiver an offer he can’t refuse, or just break his legs,’ or may we suggest a hammer? [FT Alphaville]
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Preliminary Analytics | 09.22.09
• For Rent: Chief Financial Officer – “B2B CFO Partners LLC, a Phoenix, Ariz., firm that has over 100 CFOs-for-rent, charges at least $300 to $400 per month for the service.” And essentially function as super heros/therapists. [WSJ]
• Bank of America to Pay for Merrill Backstop, Faces SEC Trial – We’re pretty excited to see how the SEC manages to screw the pooch on this one. [Bloomberg]
• What the SEC Might Look Like If It Did Its Job: Susan Antilla – McNulty? [Bloomberg]
• F.D.I.C. May Borrow Funds From Banks – Is the magic money printing machine over at the Fed broken? [NYT]
Preliminary Analytics | 12.18.09
• Stalling on Sarbox – “The regulatory-reform bill passed by the House last week suggests that lawmakers will either exempt smaller companies from getting internal-controls audits or put off the decision for yet another year.” Hell, it’s only been seven years. What’s one more? [CFO]
• Agencies in a Brawl for Control Over Banks – “Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, has proposed revoking almost all of [FDIC Chair Sheila] Bair’s powers to supervise banks, as part of a sweeping financial-regulation bill now under consideration in the Senate.” [WSJ]
• Blue Ribbon Panel On Private Company Accounting Standards Formed – Blue Ribbon Panels always mean that something is about to get serious. Right? [FEI Financial Reporting Blog]
• Should Gay Couples Pay the Same Taxes as Straights? – Even if a state allows gay couples to marry, they aren’t recognized on the federal level and that causes problems, “[M]any businesses now provide spousal benefits to gay couples, the value of the non-employee’s benefits is taxable for unmarried couples, but tax free for those who are married.” [Tax Vox]
Preliminary Analytics | 09.04.09
• Stanford’s Money-Losers, Unlike Madoff’s, Get No Help From SIPC – Sucks. [Bloomberg]
• Ex-SEC Lawyer: Madoff Report Misses Point – “Genevievette Walker-Lightfoot told Dow Jones Newswires on Thursday the SEC inspector general should have focused more of his attention on how supervisors, rather than the staff examiners and investigators, handled the agency’s many stillborn probes of Mr. Madoff.” Supervisors? Responsibility? Get out. [WSJ]
• Zimbabwe to get $500m IMF loans – Seems silly that these are called loans. [BBC]
• U.S. Job Losses Increased in August, Unemployment Rose to 9.7% – And the spin is that this good news. [Bloomberg]
• Congress to probe SEC’s lapse on Madoff – Because this is a perfect opportunity for members of Congress to talk about how smart they are and how stupid the SEC is. We haven’t had enough of these anyway. [Reuters]