US Weighs Summer Sale Of GM Stock (WSJ)
To break even, the U.S. Treasury would need to sell its remaining stake—about 500 million shares—at $53 apiece. GM closed off 27 cents a share at $29.97 in 4 p.m. trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange, hitting a new low since its $33-a-share November initial public offering. “Planning for the sale of our remaining GM stock is still at an early stage, and the IPO lock-up does not expire until late May,” a Treasury spokesperson said. “At that point, we will consider all of our options, based on our twin goals of protecting taxpayers’ interests and exiting as soon as practicable.”

Obama administration officials tried to keep S&P rating at ‘stable’ (WP)
Treasury officials told S&P analysts that they were underestimating the ability of politicians in Washington to fashion a compromise to curb deficits, a Treasury official said. They argued a change in ratings was not needed at this time because the debt was manageable and the administration had a viable plan in the works, the official said.

IMF’s Blanchard Says US Lacks Deficit Plan (Reuters)
“There are reasons to be worried. The United States lacks a credible plan, for the medium term, to reduce its budget deficit,” Blanchard said.

Justice Department Seeks Data In Nasdaq-NYSE Anti-Trust Review (Bloomberg)
Antitrust review is emerging as a key test in the battle for the 219-year-old market, which Nasdaq OMX Chief Executive Officer Robert Greifeld tried to snatch away from Deutsche Boerse with an $11.3 billion offer on April 1. Giving Nasdaq control would create a monopoly in listings, a prospect that may create undue risk the takeover will be blocked, according to NYSE CEO Duncan Niederauer.

Congress Mulls Budget Deal Forcing More Taxes, Spending Cuts (Bloomberg)
Proposals being circulated among the bipartisan “Gang of Six” Senate negotiators, and about 20 other lawmakers in both chambers, would set deficit-cutting targets, according to people familiar with the plan. They would impose automatic, across-the- board spending reductions and higher taxes if Congress failed to meet the goals.

Freshman Republican’s bind: Vote convictions or help economy by rising debt limit? (WaPo)
“I desperately want to vote ‘no,’ ” Rep. David Schweikert said at the town hall. “I also desperately don’t want [the economy] to crash.”

Bank of America Merrill Lynch to Exit Private Equity Business (CNBC)
The unit, BAML Capital, has not been particularly active in recent months, having made its last investment in the fall of 2010. Bank of America, under pressure to conserve capital, has apparently decided it could no longer provide capital to the unit, which has roughly 35 professionals. A Bank of America spokesperson said BAML Capital is being spun off, and will be run by the current management team. The team will continue to manage the $5 billion in assets owned by BofA. Those assets will remain on the bank’s books, with expecations they will be monetized.

London Skyscraper Boom Ends as City Goes ‘From Vanity to Sanity’ (Bloomberg)
“The age of bling is over,” said Shuttleworth, who led the team at Norman Foster’s firm that designed the seven-year- old tower in the City of London financial district. He said it would never get off the ground today. “Money now drives everything, so if you can build something for half the price, you will,” he said.

Mubarak clinically depressed in hospital, officials say (NYP)
Doctors said the ousted leader spends all day in bed and is eating very little with his wife Suzanne by his side, the official added.

Facebook Seeks Friends In Beltway (WSJ)
Until lately, Facebook has spent very little money in Washington, even by Silicon Valley’s frugal standards. The company’s outlays on lobbying totaled $351,000 last year, federal records show. That’s a fraction of the amount spent by other technology giants, including Google Inc.’s $5.2 million and Microsoft Corp.’s $6.9 million. Facebook’s new Washington office, designed to look like a hacker’s lair, with walls of faux construction rubble, is a work in progress. People familiar with the company’s plans said talks to hire former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs to guide the company’s communications strategy, including with Washington, have fallen apart in the wake of a leak to the media that made a deal for him to join the company sound imminent.

China Speed Yuan Push (WSJ)
A senior Hong Kong monetary official told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that China’s central bank is “actively considering” new rules that would make it easier to bring yuan funds raised offshore back onto the Chinese mainland.

Leader of Big Mortgage Lender Guilty of $2.9 Billion Fraud (NYT)
After more than a day of deliberations, a federal jury in Virginia found Lee B. Farkas, the former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker, guilty on 14 counts of securities, bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud. Mr. Farkas, 58, faces decades in prison for his role in the $2.9 billion plot, which prosecutors say was one of the largest and longest bank fraud schemes in American history and led to the 2009 collapse of Colonial Bank.

Goldman Luster Fades On Revenue Worries (NYP)
“There’s a possibility that at least over the next six months the bank will have weak earnings,” said Rochdale Securities bank analyst Dick Bove, who cut the firm’s shares to “neutral” from “buy.”

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Just, go with him on this.

That adorable skunk, Pepé Le Pew, is one of my wife Sue’s favorite cartoon characters. There’s something affable, even romantic about him as he seeks to woo his female companions with a French accent and promises of a skunk bungalow and bedrooms full of little Pepés in future years. It’s easy to love a skunk – but only on the silver screen, and if in real life – at a considerable distance. I think of Congress that way. Every two or six years, they dress up in full makeup, pretending to be the change, vowing to correct what hasn’t been corrected, promising discipline as opposed to profligate overspending and undertaxation, and striving to balance the budget when all others have failed. Oooh Pepé – Mon Chéri! But don’t believe them – hold your nose instead! Oh, I kid the Congress. Perhaps they don’t have black and white stripes with bushy tails. Perhaps there’s just a stink bomb that the Congressional sergeant-at-arms sets off every time they convene and the gavel falls to signify the beginning of the “people’s business.” Perhaps. But, in all cases, citizens of America – hold your noses. You ain’t smelled nothin’ yet.

Bill, for one, will not be fooled again.

Sunked [PIMCO]

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Cheng Yi Liang is a 57 year-old chemist employed by the FDA. One thing he picked up on over the years? That there’s a lot of cheddar to be made off drug companies. Particularly if one’s got information ahead of the masses, which CYL did. And why should his position preclude him from putting money to work in the sector, Liang probably asked himself? It shouldn’t which is why he set up seven different brokerage accounts and started making some pretty profitable trades based on his ‘edge,’ and is also why the SEC and the DOJ are now on his ass.

Cheng Yi Liang, 57, made trades involving 19 companies from as early as July 2006 in advance of at least 27 announcements of FDA decisions on drug applications, the SEC said in a lawsuit filed today at U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland. The chemist, who worked for the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, violated his duty as a federal employee not to engage in financial transactions using nonpublic government information and not to use such information for his personal benefit, according to the SEC, which is seeking disgorgement of illegal profits and unspecified fines.

Liang profited from share purchases ahead of 19 positive announcements and on short sales before six negative decisions, the SEC said in its suit. He also avoided losses by selling stock before two other negative announcements, the agency said. Rather than use his own or his wife’s brokerage accounts, Liang directed the trading through seven accounts held by other people, the SEC said. Most of the proceeds were transferred to Liang’s bank account, according to the lawsuit.

SEC Says FDA Chemist Reaped 3.6 Million From Insider Trades [Bloomberg]

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Working on Wall Street, odds are you’ve been informed by Human Resources of certain behaviors that are not (officially) tolerated by the firm, especially those that would fall under the umbrella of sexual harassment. The Do’s and Don’ts were probably reviewed in a training session or online on your own but for some people, who have trouble grasping the concept of why grasping (or doing anything to) the ass of a colleague is frowned upon, a more comprehensive tutorial is necessary. In some cases, in fact, you may have coworkers who need to watch a whole film about sexual harassment before the idea penetrates. The demand for such narratives is demonstrated in an educational flick presumably produced by some sort of employment group entitled “Harassment On The Trading Floor,” A Play In Two Acts. Whether you’ve recently had a report put in your file with regard to forcing underlings to “pay the toll” (e.g. see a blow job to completion) before putting on a trade or are just in the mood for some superb acting, we highly recommend taking a looksee.

In Part I, we meet Anne, Danny and their colleagues. Everyone’s going about their business buying, selling and all that jazz, when Danny enters the scene. He tells some guy named Ray the coffee he bought him tastes like garbage and makes him “want to throw up” and then approaches Anne and comments that she looks nice. “Nice sweater,” Danny says. “Do they get any tighter than that?” He also tells her to meet him at the bar later, to which Anne responds “Bring your wife,” prompting Danny to suggest a threesome. Anne proceeds to ignore him, not seeming to mind Danny’s behavior much more than you’d mind that of a pest but colleague Tyler feels differently. “Why do you put up with that,” he asks. “It’s just Danny,” she says. “He does this every day, he’s out of line,” Tyler tells her. “You should go to John [the boss]. You shouldn’t have to put up with it.” Knowing that Anne won’t do anything, Tyler takes matters into his own hands. He tells John that “One of the guys has been inappropriate comments towards Anne,” but won’t say who. Later in her review, Anne asks if she’s “on track to make managing director” to which John replies “Yes but…have you been having problems getting along with anyone?” Anne says no and insists everything is fine. Later, John runs into Tyler by the vending machines and demands a name, which Tyler initially says he doesn’t feel comfortable giving but ultimately admits is Danny. John promises he’s not going to “call anyone out” but rather make “a general announcement,” which he does, around a conference table, telling everyone “Listen up, guys. Sexual harassment is serious business.” But that’s not the end of it. Cut to John’s office and you’ve got a pissed of Danny, who’s just been informed of his bonus number and it is not good. “Is this a joke? Tell me you’re joking John because I’m not laughing. I’ve got a mortgage to pay, I’ve got an ex-wife who’s extorting me for every penny I have…and I brought in 5 big accounts last year, did anyone bring in 5 big accounts?” John walks through what Danny can do to see more zeros next year and they include “Working with your partners more, helping out some of the new people and…stop making offensive remarks.” John says this has nothing to do with Anne but Danny knows. [End scene.]

In Part II Anne, Danny and the gang are back and Danny is none too pleased. He blames Anne (not to her face) for him getting screwed on his bonus and he convinces coworker Stan (a new character) that Anne took part of his “nut” that John took away. Danny warns Stan, “Just be careful what you say around her,” which Stan et al interpret as “don’t say anything at all.” Anne gets the silent treatment, is left out of calls, not invited to drinks with clients and her numbers take a big hit. She tells John she’s just having a bad month but he knows the source of the problem. “I’m going to go talk to Danny right now,” he tells her.

And we’re left with that cliffhanger because there is no Part III, causing a whole bunch of questions to come to mind. Such as:

What happens when John confronts Danny? Does the big D start including Anne again? Does he lose his shit and get fired? If he does get fired, what happens next? Does he leave the office and get drunk, look up Anne’s address and wait for her outside her apartment to have words? Or maybe he doesn’t get fired and Anne and Danny team up and serve Tyler his comeuppance for getting involved? And to that end, since this was supposed to be an educational video, what is the takeaway here? Don’t be a snitch, like Tyler, or you’ll just ruin things for everyone? Are Anne, Danny, Tyler, Ray and Stan actual traders and not actors, plucked from their firms to star in this film? And finally, DOES ANNE MAKE MANAGING DIRECTOR??

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Bloomberg reports that former SAC Capital trader Donald Longueuil, who was accused last month of securities fraud, has been named in a new indictment concerning information that originated with ex-Primary Global consultant Winifred Jiau and was passed around among Longueuil, his former friend/colleague Noah Freeman, and an unnamed hedge fund manager.

Federal prosecutors yesterday added Longueuil to Jiau’s indictment, which alleges that Jiau passed inside information to an unnamed hedge-fund portfolio manager and Noah Freeman, a Boston hedge-fund manager who pleaded guilty last month to securities fraud. During a conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud that ran between 2006 and 2010, Longueuil gave information to Freeman as well, the U.S. said in the superseding indictment docketed today. In exchange, Freeman passed material non-public information to Longueuil that he had obtained from sources including Jiau, according to prosecutors.

“Longueuil communicated regularly with Freeman” and the unidentified co-conspirator “to share the material nonpublic information each learned from his respective sources,” the U.S. said in the new indictment. “These communications occurred over the telephone, as well as through e-mails and instant message communications.”

In related news, Freeman, who sold his best friend/best man Longueuil out to the Feds in exchange for a better deal, has been busy packing for his upcoming trip to Puerto Rico with the wife, which is just the sort of R&R he’s been needing.

Jiau, Longueuil Accused of Fraud in New U.S. Indictment [Bloomberg]

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Asked yesterday about Icahn’s decision to return outside capital to investors, and if Icahn was correct in the opinion the current state of the market ‘poses a threat for hedge funds,’ Soros said: “Carl Icahn has his own problems.”

Like his car is about to be repossessed? He’s in trouble with his bookie again? He has deep-seated intimacy issues and can’t get close to people? He’s in the doghouse with his wife, on account of never taking out the trash? What is it, George?

Soros: The World Does Not Need Order [Dealbook]

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Diane Passage is the wife of accused Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr, who last fall announced that while she’s not technically (or at all) single, she’s out there and ready to mingle with men who are not currently in jail awaiting sentencing for white collar crimes (she also noted that while husband number one is a millionaire, she’s looking for a billionaire when it comes to the new guy). In addition, she’s looking to keep herself busy by becoming a reality TV star, on a show that follows women who work as pole dancers.

Though it’s been a few years since she actually got paid to dance, producers say that’s not a problem.

A rep for Scores Media Group confirmed, “We auditioned 40 girls today. One was Diane, but there are only five spots on the show, which is about life behind the velvet curtain. We were auditioning girls who currently or formerly worked for Scores. If Diane gets the role, she’d have to work at Scores New York. They’ll be filmed at work, but there will be no nudity. There will also be footage of the girls going about their daily lives.”

Passage Back To Strip Pole [NYP]

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G20 May Agree On Imbalance Measures (WSJ)
The official, who is party to the discussions in Paris, said there is “almost consensus” on which indicators to use but that China still opposes some. He said China’s negotiators are resisting including current-account imbalances and the real effective exchange rate among the indicators. He also said China and several other countries that have built up large reserves are against using currency reserves to indicate imbalances.

Krawcheck Slaps Cut-Pay Garden Leave on BofA Advisers (Bloomberg)
“They’re sending the message, ‘Make no mistake, you will incur our wrath, this is not a place you want to leave,’” said Mindy Diamond, president of Diamond Consultants LLC, a Chester, New Jersey-based executive-search firm. “It’s very rare that a company would have garden-leave provisions for producers, and I think this could backfire if people view it as draconian.”

Fed Chief Says U.S. Bolstered Its Ability to Handle Failure of a Big Bank (NYT)
Ben Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that it would be some time before all of the rules of the new law were in place but that regulators had begun to tighten risk standards and “certainly we’ve all learned lessons from the crisis.” When Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the committee, asked what those lessons were, Mr. Bernanke replied, “The importance of being very aggressive and not being willing to allow banks, you know, too much leeway, particularly when they’re inadequate in areas like risk management.”

Tim Geithner Joins NYSE Name Push (NYP)
Geithner said he “very much” agrees with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who has been trying to wield his political clout to ensure that “New York” comes first in the name of the new entity that emerges from the pending $10 billion tie-up. “I’ve talked to at least 10 experts and all of them say that the NYSE is a much stronger brand than Deutsche Boerse,” Schumer told The Post.

Wall Street Pay Still Doesn’t Consider Risk, Study Finds (NYT)
Many financial firms continue doling out bonuses without considering how it affects behavior, according to a study released Thursday by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. The study found that only 37 percent of financial institutions surveyed by Deloitte had substantially incorporated risk-management concerns into their compensation decisions.

Banks Like Barclays Find Loophole On Dodd-Frank Capital Rule (WSJ)
In November, Barclays PLC quietly changed the legal classification of the U.K. bank’s main subsidiary in the U.S. so that the unit would no longer be subject to federal bank-capital requirements. Several other banks based outside the U.S. are considering similar moves, according to people familiar with the matter.

SEC Questions Mutual Funds’ Muni Prices (WSJ)
The agency’s concern is that investors in high-yield muni-bond mutual funds could be misled about the true value of their investment, according to people familiar with the matter.

Warren Buffet’s White House Words Of Wisdom (CNBC)
Buffett says he feels lucky to have been born in the United States, lucky to have found what he loves doing very early in life, and “extremely lucky in that the two most important people to me in my life, my dad and my wife … they both extended to me unconditional love. And there’s no power on earth in my view like unconditional love.”

A-Rod leaving 15 CPW, buying penthouse at The Rushmore (NYP)
No more knocking on neighbor Lloyd Blankfein’s door for a cup of sugar.

Egyptians Say Military Discourages an Open Economy (NYT)
Though some Western analysts have guessed that the military’s empire makes up as much as a third of Egypt’s economy, Mr. Rachid said it was in fact less than 10 percent. But economists say that because of its vested interests they still worry that the military will impede the continuation of the transition from the state-dominated economy established under President Gamal Abdel Nasser to a more open and efficient free market that advanced under Mr. Mubarak. Moreover, the military’s power to guide policy is, at the moment, unchecked. The military has invited no civilian input into the transitional government, and it has enjoyed such a surge in prestige since it helped usher out Mr. Mubarak that almost no one in the opposition is criticizing it.

Buffett Says Pricing Power Beats Good Management (Bloomberg)
“The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power,” Buffett told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in an interview released by the panel last week. “If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business.”

Financial Regulator Appoints Top Team (WSJ)
Elizabeth Warren named two former Wall Street bankers and a former Freddie Mac official to senior posts at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, creating a face for the new regulator that is more friendly to the financial industry than some critics had feared. Ms. Warren appointed Rajeev V. Date, her adviser at the Treasury Department and a former Deutsche Bank managing director, to head the regulator’s research, markets and regulations team.

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Like most of you, we like our Jamie Dimon right where we can see him- in our direct line of vision, running JPMorgan, sticking up for banks, going on dates with Lloyd and just being his generally passionate boy-toy CEO self. We can’t imagine JPMorgan without him and don’t want to. In fact, there’s only one other position we’d rather see him in, and that’s running his own bar ‘n grill. Unlike most fantasies, this isn’t one we conjured up with ourselves but rather one that actually came from JD, via his wife, who said a couple years back that one dream of her husband’s was to “open his own restaurant and turning himself into Sam Malone of Cheers.” All we did was flesh the thing out, by picking a venue (the basement of the old Bear Stearns building) and coming up with some fun gimmicks, like $2 dollar shot night. Well, apparently we can put our plans on ice, because today our dream was shattered and not gently.

Dimon, a Democrat, also downplayed persistent speculation he might leave JPMorgan to go into the political arena.

“I love what I do. I want to be here. I want to stay,” he said. “I’m not going into politics and I’m not opening a restaurant.”

Whatever. Like we care.

Dimon: I’m Staying Put And Bank Is Expanding [NYT]

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Howard would come home so stressed out that he’d go ballistic about tricycles in the driveway and toys on the floor, write Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson in “Spousonomics,” a geeky guide to finding marital bliss through economics. His tantrums had to go, as Howard always recognized after he calmed down. So he and his wife Jen, a fellow lawyer, sought ways to check his anger. Counting to 20 didn’t work. Nor did deep breathing. Desperate, they created a game in which Jen called out “Red Flag” whenever he looked ready to explode. “If Howard went three days without a red flag, she’d have sex with him,” the authors write. As puerile as that sounds, the game worked, restoring peace to their home and rekindling their sex life: A classic economic tradeoff, to hear Szuchman and Anderson tell it. Or was it a coup for a manipulative male? [Bloomberg]

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