Preliminary Analytics | 09.23.09

• What Buffett’s Firm Bought and Sold WB continues to be long on folksy yet risque analogies. [DealBook]
• US banknotes show cocaine traces – 95% of dollar bill in DC have traces of cola which we find hilarious and just solidifies any preconceived notions we had about our esteemed elected officials. Other cities that had cash with high levels of the llello are Baltimore, Boston, and Detroit. [BBC]
• UBS Tax Crackdown Widens to Hong Kong -“On Friday, John McCarthy, a UBS client in California, agreed to plead guilty to one count of failing to file an annual report to the Treasury Department. A document filed with the plea shows the tax scheme relied in part on channeling funds to a Swiss UBS account held in the name of a Hong Kong entity, the second time accounts in the Asian financial hub have figured in these cases.” [WSJ]
• BB&T Plans $750 Million Share Sale After Colonial – Things already going swell for BB&T. [Bloomberg]

• Pandit ‘Near Death’ Cash Hoard Signals Lower U.S. Bank Profits – “The four largest U.S. banks by assets — Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo & Co. — have increased their combined liquidity by 67 percent to $1.53 trillion as of Sept. 30 from $914.2 billion in June 2008, before Lehman’s collapse, according to the companies’ third-quarter reports.” [Bloomberg]
• Sarbanes-Oxley 404(b): Auditors’ Reports on Internal Controls — A Shot in the Arm, or a Poke in the Behind? – “Veteran readers here know my deeply skeptical view that Sarbox was never more than a knee-jerk political feel-good exercise – going back to my July 20, 2002 column in the International Herald Tribune: ‘any legislation receiving the bipartisan margin of 97-0 is bound to be fundamentally defective.'” [Re: Balance]
• Zombies Among Us: The Mainstream Media and Financial Journalism – Are the MSM gobbling the Big 4 PR? [Re: The Auditors]
• CIT: A Different Kind of Bankruptcy? – If by different, you mean, “taxpayer money flushed down the toliet” then, no. [JDA]
• Delaware Beats Switzerland as Most Secretive Financial Center – The IRS’ busting up the whole secret Swiss bank thing probably didn’t hurt the First State’s run at double-secret probation banking Mecca. [Reuters via NYT]

• Firms Back Plan to Change Pay Policies – Because if they don’t, the Feds will get involved which bigwig types aren’t really down for. The Fed is still looking to regulate bankers’ pay which is an idea that will likely remain popular forever. [WSJ]
• Dell to Acquire Perot Systems for $3.9 Billion [Bloomberg]
• U.S. as Traffic Cop in Web Fight – No discrimination if you’re watching ACORN undercover shenanigans or free porn. [WSJ]
• Holiday spending seen flat – Sayeth Deloitte’s retail group. Try to remember the kids at least. [Reuters]
• Can Mergers Stay Sane? – Companies with lots of cash will start getting bored and could start throwing money around. [DealBook]