You Can’t Escape This Friday’s Open Items Thread

MF Global Brokerage Can Probe, Not Share Results [Bloomberg]
U.S. Bankruptcy court judge Martin Glenn said at a hearing today that the brokerage trustee, James W. Giddens, can share documents and depositions with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The trustee must probe management’s possible involvement without interference from the parent company, Glenn said. “There have already been serious allegations of misconduct,” Glenn said, citing company lawyers who told the SEC on Oct. 31 that there was a significant shortfall in its collateral for segregated accounts.

Was MF Global brought down by an accounting play? [Reuters]
Felix Salmon isn’t convinced that MF Global’s accounting methods brought it down a la Lehman.

Finding more flaws in HUD’s accounting of HOME program [Washington Post]
“The data that HUD has provided to this committee is completely unreliable,” said Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Financial Services subcommittee on oversight and investigations, which has been probing the HOME program. “HUD has almost no way of knowing whether taxpayer dollars have been wasted or used for their intended purpose.”

Old Debts Dog Europe’s Banks [WSJ]
European banks are sitting on heaps of exotic mortgage products and other risky assets that predate the financial crisis, adding to pressure on lenders that also are holding large quantities of euro-zone government debt.

More problems are found with home buyer tax credits [LA Times]
Would you be shocked to hear that TIGTA found a few of these credits went to folks such as dead people, prison inmates and 3-year-olds?

Watch Groupon CEO Andrew Mason Blow Off A Bloomberg Reporter [Business Insider]
Maybe it started when she called him “baby-faced.”

Lawmakers Deadlock Over Tax Cut [WSJ]The threat of a New Year's tax increase loomed larger Monday, […]