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$$$ Rajat Gupta: Bigger Than Madoff? [NetNet]

$$$ Charlie Sheen v Muammar Gaddafi: whose line is it anyway? [Guardian]

$$$ Madoff Trustee Seeks $2.1 Billion From Tremont [WSJ]

$$$ Bernanke Says Costly Oil No Threat To US Economy [Reuters]

$$$ CHARLIE SHEEN IS NOW ON TWITTER [Twitter]

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$$$ Citigroup Lowers Rating on Bankrupt A&P to ‘Sell’ [Deal Journal]

$$$ Bruce Berkowitz: The Megamind Of Miami [Fortune]

$$$ Investors Lose Almost Everything In BlueCrest Fund Of Funds [FINalternatives]

$$$ 1-800-BANKER: Wall Street Upheaval Creates Role For Temps [WSJ]

$$$ Tax Cut Plan Eases Pressure On Bernanke, Fed [AP]

$$$ Ex-Carlyle CFO Interview [FINS]

$$$ Goldman: We didn’t topple Bear Stearns [WSJ]

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Not too many traders remember ‘the phoney war,’ or the Sitzkrieg, as it happened 71 years ago. After Hitler invaded Poland on the first day of September 1939, Poland’s European allies France and England declared war on Germany, but nothing significant happened on that front until the following May when the German Army rolled through Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium and into France. Although the horror started in Poland in the fall of 1939, for a few months, the rest of Europe was spared that horror, which eventually lasted through the next five years. Strangely, this past September (2010), the US equity market rose by about 8.8%, its best return for that month, since that same September (1939). To me the parallels are ominous. What were those people thinking back in 1939? Could a coming world war have that positive an impact on the economy and on markets? They must have been crazy – of course equities gave up their gains and were cratered in May 1940 when Germany invaded the west. But, what are we thinking of now? A war has just begun. Didn’t Bernanke and the Fed announce in late August at Jackson Hole (and multiple times since then) that the US was going to enter QE2 and debase its currency setting off a currency war. Bernanke, like Hitler seven decades ago, had been warning everyone who would listen for years.

Stay tuned for upcoming reports in which we learn that Bernanke and Kim Jong-il were actually separated at birth.

Market Insight Report [PDF]

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$$$ Bernanke Says Fed’s Additional Asset Purchases Can Improve U.S. Economy [Bloomberg]

$$$ Daredevils abseil into the depths of a live volcano boiling with red-hot molten lava [DM]

$$$ Businessperson of the year brackets [Fortune]

$$$ Rajaratnam Lawyer Says Gov.’t ‘Gamed System‘ On Wiretaps [FINalternatives]

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$$$ Bernanke: Economists Haven’t Delivered Recovery [CNBC]

$$$ Lehman Artwork Auctioned Off [TSC]

$$$ Vision Capital Scores Big With Harvard Ties [Reuters]

$$$ Hedge Fund Seizing L.A. Radio Mogul’s Huge Estate [Forbes]

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The U.S. Federal Reserve chairman’s wealth rose last year, according to financial disclosure forms released Friday by the central bank. As of the end of 2009, Bernanke’s asset holdings were between $1.2 million and $2.5 million, the same as in 2007. That compares with between $850,000 and $1.9 million in 2008, when stocks were walloped by the worst financial crisis since the 1929 Wall Street Crash. Much of the increase in Bernanke’s wealth came from a large-cap stock variable annuity he holds, whose value rose to between $500,000 and $1 million at the end of 2009 from between $250,000 and $500,000 the previous year.

Bernanke’s Bottom Line [WSJ]

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$$$ U.S. to Let Tax Cuts For Wealthy Expire [WSJ]

$$$ Geithner Sees `Basic Confidence‘ in U.S. Economy [Bloomberg]

$$$ How To Get A Body Like Beyonce [WSJ]

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$$$ Bernanke Sees No Quick End to High Rate of Joblessness [NYT]

$$$ Wall Street’s Wrist Slap [NYO]

$$$ Matthew Simmons: “We’ve now killed the Gulf of Mexico” [Bloomberg]

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Senate Backs One-Time Audit of Fed’s Bailout Role [NYT]

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