headlines

• GSEs' exponentially growing backing: now at $400 billion (Washington Post)
• The end of anonymous Swiss bank accounts: huge political implications (Reuters)
• European banks agree to CDS clearinghouse (Bloomberg)
• Stock rock stars (

• UBS to reveal names of tax cheats as part of DOJ Settlement, presumably more than just current administration officials (Bloomberg)
• Cerberus' Japanese Aozora bank lost money on everything from GMAC to Madoff (Bloomberg)
• Next bail out target: Eastern Europe (FT)
• Another trucker prepares for
  

• CNBC makes headline news over every uptick in S&P futures, read all about it
• January housing starts drop to all time low (Bloomberg)
• Russia 2009 GDP forecast cut from -0.2% to -2.2% (Moscow Times)
• Police foils bomb attack at Citibank in Athens (Yahoo - hat tip reader Mike)
• Germany may be Europe's white knight.
  

• Emmanuel Rahm was paid $260,000 to be Freddie Mac director in 2000-2001 (NYPost)
• Hedge fund consolidation to heat up (Bloomberg)
• Doug Kass: Fear and Loathing on Wall Street (TheStreet)
• More brokerage mergers coming (

• Mortgage rescues fail as price drops spur increase in defaults (Bloomberg)
• Greenspan admits was mystified by subprime market until 2005 (NYT)
• Hypo to be nationalized after JC Flowers walks (Bloomberg)
• Will vulture investors be critical to recovery (

• China on the brink (Asia Times)
• Stanford Group being investigated by regulators (Bloomberg)
• Wilbur Ross says private investors waiting for banks to write down assets (Bloomberg)
• Congress manages to make Wall Street vil
  

• Roubini more on the N-Word, or N-Process as he calls it (RGE Monitor)
• Buffett's infinite investment horizon in need of lengthening (Bberg

• JPM expects prime-jumbo mortgage losses to double (Bloomberg)
• Obama leaves no room for failure in stimulus plan (WSJ)
• NYT agrees with our requirement for more bailout plan clarity (NYT)
• Record SFr20 billion loss for UBS, to keep investment banking (

Financial Bailout expected to have revised "Bad Bank" after all (CNBC)
Based on details coming out that presentation, the plan calls for:

• Some $100 billion will be committed to new capital injections.
• Another $100 billion will go to the Federal Reserve's TALF program.
• And $50-$100 billion on housing measures, as expected.

Good summary of Obama's stimulus speech (AP)

• Stimulus package contemplates total $9.7 trillion of U.S.

• Jobless rate at 7.6%, futures spike on doomsday expectations (Bloomberg)
• Julius Baer confirms "minor trading accident" relating to hiding trading losses (Reuters)
• Nomura needs $3.3 billion following Lehman gluttony leads to indigestion (Reuters)
• Ford on verge of begging after "unexpected" 4$ billion pension shortf
  

• $10 billion slipped between cracks...

• Second-biggest reinsurer Swiss Re asks for $2.6 billion from Warren to keep rating (Bloomberg)
• Russia in Asia - we wrote about this, but WSJ thinks it is serious enough to bear repeating (WSJ)
• Not Ken Lewis' fault? Blame Bernanke - U.S.
  

Brief headlines here as we go thru the Madoff list and try to determine if Kim Kardashian is now trustfundless:

• Alleged Saks acquisition candidate Baugur files for bankruptcy (Bloomberg)
• Toxic asset guarantees have won over bad bank: Senate to take easy yet ineffective way out as usual (Bloomberg)
• Financial triage means ta