Second Opinion

One Kneejerk Take on the Moody's Report: The private equity industry is getting off easy while it destroys companies and jobs. (CJR) Blow Up Wall Street: A new book argues that the financial empires of Bank of America and JPMorgan must be broken up. (WSJ) Irony: How AIG's Collapse has Paved Wall Street with Gold. (Reuters) Shackin Up: Radio Shack is on the block and seeking private equity suitors. Sale price could be $3 billion. (NY Post) Reconciled Lovers: Spotted! Eric Schmidt and Steve Jobs are buddies again. (Gizmodo)

Haters: Who hates Wall Street the most? It's a regulator show down. (Deal Journal) Market Price: A new restaurant in Grammercy is allowed the prices of its menu items to fluctuate like a stock market. Meaning, a pint of beer starts at $6 but could be pushed to a high of $8 or a low of $4, depending on popularity, Reuters reported. Sounds like a ridiculously dumb gimmick-why would you want to order the least popular item on the menu, no matter how cheap it was? (Reuters) USAAA? How Does Moody's decide on ratings changes? And how would a downgrade of AMERICA work? (Gaurdian) Fabulous: Fast food chains have basically stuck a middle finger up in the direction of healthy eaters, (along with advocates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity etc.). THL is getting in on the action with its latest acquisition of CKE, which has led the charge against health-ing up the image of fast food places in lieu of keeping it fat. (Businessweek)

Give me a Break: Kindle users are staging an online attack against Michael Lewis's new financial crisis book, giving it one-star reviews on Amazon.com merely because its not available on Kindle. Seriously people? The book's merit is completely unrelated to the way it is delivered. Take it to White Whine. (Gawker) Online Dating is Bigger than Porn? If you believe everything you read on the internet, then yes, it is. (Mashable) Fake Trends: Details on two recent successful fundraisings bring hope to the entire market... (EFinancial news) Strong Buy: This trader recommends Blackstone and Evercore stock based on negative stock spreads. (Seeking Alpha) Listicles: Six things not to do when pitching VCs. (Dividends and Preferences)

Wall Street Hates a Level Playing Field: Andrew Ross Sorkin on the Flyonthewall.com ruling. His lead reminds me of George Siguler's comment that his ideal investment is an "unregulated, life-essential monopoly." (Dealbook) Private Equity Comeback: A blogger that goes by Anal_yst responded to our interview yesterday with Phil Canfield of GTCR, particularly on the matter of the pending rush for deals. The PE market is about to look like the SPAC market of 2009. I think Phil and I agreed with the blogger's sentiment and I may have to elaborate on the point more myself more tomorrow. (Stone Street Advisors) Heidi N. Moore: To the FDIC, small is beautiful. (Big Money) And Felix Salmon digs deeper into the story. (Reuters) Doll Deals: In general dolls kind of creep me out, but apparently buyout firm Gefinor is just fine with them! The firm today acquired a division of Middleton Doll through its company Alexander Doll. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinal) ILPA: The PE guidelines are causing an "outbreak of hives." (Deal Journal)

The Perks of Being a Goldman Kid: Michelle Leder discovers that children of Lloyd Blankfien , as well as the offspring of Goldman Sachs' general counsel and CFO, received substantial salaries and raises last year. (Dealbook) Retooling strategies: An alternative to alternative investments. (WSJ) Listicle: Top ten lies angels tell, a twist Guy Kawasaki's "Lies VCs Tell". (Social Tech) What If Women Ran Wall Street? On the old cliché-o-meter, this headline ranks up there with "What if God Was One of Us?" but I'm going to trust that New York managed to bring someone new to the table in that whole women-and-testosterone-and-risk-taking conversation. (NY Mag) Layoffs: Remember a year ago around this time, when an Allied Capital bankruptcy was on the table? The firm may have sold itself to Ares Capital but its still experiencing some dark times. The firm is eliminating 91 jobs in D.C. (Washington Biz Journal)

Goodbye, FlyOnTheWall: The stock rumor site Flyonthewall.com is no longer allowed to post news about analyst reports, a judge ruled. (Reuters) Lessons in Branding: Nestle, which has come under fire from environmentalists for its use of palm oil, has somewhat bungled its social media strategy by banning angry commenters from its Facebook page. That did nothing but fan the flames. (Ad Age) Here Comes Financial Reform. The Journal says “Finally.” (WSJ) Hugo Loss: Permira is willing to risk losing its commitments from Ohio pension funds over closing a Hugo Boss factory in Ohio. (LBOWire) Heidi Moore: The Big Short Gets the People Right and It Gets the Finance Right. (Slate) Can Palm Survive? The company received a brutal analyst report alongside yet another downgrade to “sell.” (Reuters)

Jokes on the Newswire! "Chuck Norris Feeds His Vampire Squid $100 Bills: Mark Gilbert." Mark Gilbert of Bloomberg chimes in on the finance + Chuck Norris meme that was popular a year or so ago. (Bloomberg) Well Well: Women were better traders of stock during the financial crisis than men. (Daily Intel) Spotted: Warren Buffet doing an Axl Rose Imitation for a Geico power ballad. I don't know what else can be said about this, just watch it (below). (Brandfreak, EverythingWarrenBuffet, Time) Less debt, more charm: Private-equity managers face a difficult outlook (Economist) Wise Words: The Best Advice Bill Gross Ever Got. (MarketBeat) Recaps are Back, but Different: The recap in the age of austerity. (The Deal) Opinion: Arthur Delaney says the Dodd bill is soft on private equity and hedge funds. (HuffPo) Returns: Still bad, just, less bad for private equity. (The Globe) Fresh Capital: Yale has increased its allocation to private equity. (Reuters)

Co-Investing with Lady Gaga: Hilco and Gordon Brothers, which bought Polaroid after a dramatic battle with Patriarch Partners, had an unusual coinvestor on the deal by the name of Stefani Germanotta aka, Lady Gaga. (NY Post) KKR to buy Harley? If this rumour is true, I'd like to point out that a Harley take-private would mean private equity is responsible for the loss of yet another awesome stock ticker: HOG. The first, of course, was Apollo's buyout of Cedar Fair (Symbol: FUN.) (Reuters) Great, Great Quote: PR guru Mike Sitrick, the "spin doctor of restructuring," told the FT his clients range from "Thomas H. Lee to Tommy Lee." Awesome. (FT) Via PE Beat. Three Sins Against Innovation: In your enthusiasm to spur innovation, make sure you're not burning those who can provide it best. (Businessweek) Shia LeBeouf: The Wall Street 2 star said: "Wall Street is the most sex-drugs-and-rock-'n'-roll atmosphere that exists on the planet." (Daily Intel) Meanwhile: Paul Farrell says Oliver Stone's upcoming movie is an open of a great market crash in 2010. (MarketWatch)

Flexing: Calpers is looking to flex its power, by removing the limit on the number of shareholder proposals it can issue to companies in its portfolio. (NY Times) What Happens When You Do The Right Thing? You get fired. That's what happened to the Lehman whistleblower at least. (WSJ) Recipe: I have to agree with Tom Davenport's list of Six Ingredients for a Good Online Comment. I'd venture to say any comment that has even two of these six ingredients is a vast improvement over the majority of comments on the internet. (But not peHUB's civilized, intelligent commenters!) (Harvard Business Review) Stay By Stay Home: Out of the maelstrom that is SxSW coverage, I link to a single post: GigaOm's commentary on entrepreneurial stereotypes. (GigaOm) Twitter Royalty: Most Re-tweeted twitters. Way to Go: How the Fed Slept Through Lehman. (Felix Salmon)

* Running a Company, but Can't Open an Attachment. Dick Fuld is blaming the Repo 105 mess on the fact that he can't open an email attachment on his phone. (FINS) *The club deal lawsuit rages (or should I say sputters) on through its 3rd appeal. (Deal Journal) * Barclay's Defines the word "Jerks" Loosely. (Daily Intel) * Top ten works of journalism from the decade. (NYU) *Avatar will make $400 million for News Corp. It'll also net a tidy profit for Dune Capital, a private equity firm. (Bloomberg)