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Developing Story:

Wow, this is just scary. If this happened in the U.S. you would see riots on Wall Street.

Royal Bank of Scotland to see bonuses drop from 2.5 billion pounds to 175 million total.
There will be no cash payments for future RBS bonuses, and will instead take form of bond payments to be made in 3 annual payments. Lastly, there will be a clawback.

Last week's mindnumbing expression of unbridled market optimism is spilling over into the hedge fund interest secondary market. Barely any offers over the past week, and many large, juicy bids. Fully anticipate complete inversion in this picture in the next day or so.

Major demand indications as follows:

• Canyon Cayman: $15 million
• Taconic Offshore: $10 million
• King Street: $10 million
• Level Global Overseas: $20 million
• GoldenTree Offshore: $10 million
• Horseman Global: $2 million

• IG11: 206/208; S&P Fut below 800
• Trump files for bankruptcy (Bloomberg)
• Sirius XM gets $530 million investment from Liberty Media (Bloomberg)
• California, almost broke, nears brink (

• Futures hammered (Bloomberg)
• The timeline of Geithner's impromptu bank rescue plan (Washington Post)
• California in limbo with no budget, 20% of state workers to be let go shortly (Reuters)
• Automaker bankruptcy looms (
  

The board of Trump Entertainment, absent the lovely Ivanka Trump, is currently meeting to prepare a bankruptcy filing early tomorrow morning according to the WSJ.

A little over two years ago, Los Angeles-based private equity group Leonard Green acquired luxury watch distributor Tourneau, best known for its 57th street and Madison flagship New York store, in a $355 million going private transaction, which repre

Looks like the list of independent investment banks may soon be one less. U.S. Trustee Irving Picard, who is liquidating the Bernie Madoff estate, has issued a subpoena to middle-market advisory boutique Jefferies. As Jefferies is mostly a high yield trading platform it is a little odd that it is the the first company to feel the wrath of the trustee. The 2004 examination order was sent on February 13 and made available by New York bankruptcy court today. The scope of the investigation was not disclosed in the subpoena form.

• Latest: S&P Futures down 10.3 bps, Yen at 91.83
• GM told by administration to address bankruptcy option as part of Feb 17 report (WSJ)
• Krugman on the biggest Ponzi of the past 10 years, the U.S.
  

Large scale under the radar derisking occuring in Japan.

In G-7 risk, virtually everything wider

A group of disgruntled Sirius creditors has threatened to fire Mel Karmazin and other senior execs if the company does not cut a deal with EchoStar or John Malone (who has offered to provide bridge financing) and instead files for bankruptcy. Edward Weisfelner, a lawyer with Brown Rudnick was quoted as saying:

Just out on Bloomberg

*ADMINISTRATION WON'T NAME AN `AUTO CZAR, PEOPLE FAMILIAR SAY
*GEITHNER, SUMMERS TO HEAD PANEL ON U.S. AUTO RESTRUCTURING

Link to full NYT article.

pretty much means Chapter 11 most likely done deal. At least Rattner's wife's DWI news will be burried for ever.

Luxury automaker Porsche, which in October briefly became the world's largest hedge fund after it disclosed stock and derivative holdings in fellow car maker Volkswagen, prompting a massive short squeeze, and propelling Volkswagen to the status of largest company in the world by market capitalization, may be in some deep trouble after brand new disclosures by Porsche CFO Holger Härter.

In what could be the final blow to California's crumbling economy as it faces a $42 billion budget deficit, the WSJ reports that a vote to reach a complex plan to close the budget was unsuccessful by 1 vote.