Second Opinion

Uh Oh: Will Meg Whitman's investments pose a conflict of interest problem? The former eBay CEO and current Republican gubernatorial candidate has invested in private equity and hedge funds. (Dealbook) Kabletown: It didn't take long for 30 Rock to parody the NBCU merger with Comcast, and last night's episode was excellent. (Dealbook) Is it a sign? Deal rumours are running rampant, particularly in the retail chain arena. As Reformed Broker says, "This market is circulating more rumors than Fleetwood Mac's record company." Cheap Cigars: There was a "who's who" of Wall Street meeting in January to hash out the financial reform that's on the table today. Here's the story behind it. (Reuters) FYI: KKR's NYSE listing values the firm at $7.5 billion. (FT)

Dodd: "We don't need Republicans." (NY Times) Excited for Wall Street 2? Well you'll have to wait. The movie, which was slated to come out in April, has been pushed back to the fall now that it may get invited to Cannes. (Variety) Tricky Tricky: Is the Kabel Deutschland IPO an ambitious IPO or a cunning ploy to smoke out trade buyers? (Reuters) In the weirdest news you'll see today: Wondering what to do with leftover breast milk? This guy decided to make cheese out of it. Just, wow. (Reuters via WSJ) Who Hates Avatar the Most? I felt a little robbed after seeing Avatar (shouldn't it have been Pocahontas II?), but I certainly didn't hate it as much as these whiny mining executives. Reuters reports: "Let me put it this way, my kids saw the movie, and my kids know I'm a miner, and they didn't say anything to me," said Peter Kukielski, head of mining operations for ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker. (Reuters) Happy Birthday: VC-Backed Foursquare turns one today. Use that as a cheap excuse to try for the "Sweet 16" badge. I did! (Foursquare)

Fake it to make it: The Economist on counterfeits. (Economist) Women Still Missing from Top Jobs: A new gender gap report from the World Economic Forum finds women making progress in the workplace, but there remain too few in the boardroom and C-suite. (BusinessWeek) Tough Times for Porn: The lender which backed a $14 million acquisition of the domain name www.Sex.com (a URL that is, to my dismay, very near, keyboard-wise, to the website of the SEC) is being foreclosed upon. It's for sale. (Reuters) Speaking of Porn: CNBC has a special on the difficulties of retirement in the porn industry. Because they don't have 401Ks. Someone should tell CNBC that there are a lot of industries with no 401k plans. The difference here I guess is that one's application for an office job is generally not enhanced by an Adult Entertainment resume... (CNBC)

I'm back from endless jury duty. Tell me what I missed. Zombies: WSJ weighs in on the VC Shakeout. (WSJ) There's also this piece in which the Journal's venture data arm sizes up "promising young companies," which seems redundant because, isn't that the whole point of a venture firm? I dunno. (WSJ) Second Suit: Goldman Sachs Group was sued by a large union pension fund that accused the Wall Street investment bank of overpaying its executives. It's the second pension fund to do so. (Reuters) Speaking of Lawsuits: Lindsay Lohan is ridiculously suing E-Trade for an ad which refers to a baby named Lindsay as a "milkaholic." She's seeking $100 million, claiming she, like Madonna, Cher, and Beyonce, has "first name recognition." (NY Post) Blockbuster is seeking a buyer. You must read this story for its great scared CEO comment: "Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes told The Post, ‘All your numbers are wrong. They bear no resemblance to any materials we have in the market.'" (NY Post)

Now Hiring: The SEC. In New York the agency plans to increase its staff by 8%. (Reuters) Oliver Stone is Disgusted With Wall Street (the place): Especially anyone who went to work on Wall Street inspired by Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko. Wall Street 2 is another attempt to get the real message of "greed is bad" across. (Dealbreaker) Lists: Four Thoughts on how to get funded by venture capitalists. (Dividends and Preferences) Sykes Vs. Shaq: Penny stock guru Tim Sykes is daring Shaq to take him to court (the legal kind, not the basketball kind). The two have been embroiled in a duel over an apparent pump and dump scheme. (Clusterstock)

What's a Hot Job in Private Equity? It should be obvious, but here's why operational partners, finance directors, IR peeps and junior investment managers are hot commodities. (FINS) Your CEO is Probably Lying To You: A new study finds that there are upsides to lying and procrastinating at work. "A lot of portfolio managers have this bias that all CEOs are lying all the time," Carney said. "I'm always trying to get rid of that bias, but it's funny because maybe they're right." (FINS) But We Just Had a Bubble: There's a mini-bubble brewing in the private equity deal market. (Reuters) M&A is Back. "The implicit message of the pickup in merger activity is that both cash and debt are expensive or overvalued and worth using to pay for cheap stock." (Seeking Alpha) Liars Poker 2: Reviews of Michael Lewis' new book, The Big Short. (Felix Salmon) (Salon)

Tricky TXU: The New York Times tackles KKR's TXU in a long story which opens with Henry Kravis negotiating with Jamie Dimon in 2007. Story ends with the phrase "debtholders are getting hosed." You get the drift. (NYT) Servicey: How to avoid getting burned in China and India. (BusinessWeek) Lehman's Desperate Housewives: There's a book out about what it was like "being married to Lehman." Deal Journal thinks it reminds him of Goodfellas. (DJ) Golden Era Rusting: We've been saying it for awhile-that whole bit about how PE firms are going to have amazing vintages in 2009 and this is the golden era for PE bargains is simply not the case. Prices just haven't come down low enough. (Bloomberg) However: The Credit Crunch is easing for private equity. (FT)

Romancing the Stone, On Wall Street. The curling stone, that is. (Dealbook) Media Crit: The Journal is getting more sensationalist every day. (Felix Salmon) Meet the New Pit Bull: A choir boy battles Wall Street. (BusinessWeek) The Secretive Steven Cohen: Bloomberg enters his inner circle with an incredibly long feature on the head of SAC Capital. (BW) Blackstone's Killer Whale: The Seaworld tragedy isn't good for its PE owners, either. (Crain's)

Ten Wall Street Blogs to Bookmark Now: Oh, list articles of "top finance bloggers." These have been done, and often, but this one is by the Wall Street Journal, meaning it's important. (And no, peHUB is not on it, which I'll attribute to the fact that we were disqualified, being owned by Reuters.) (WSJ) Ready for Governor Cuomo? The latest NYT hit piece on Governor Patterson may be his final undoing, ushering in the Cuomo era for Democrats... (Politico) And Here's Something Interesting: Why liberals and atheists are more intelligent. (Reason, via Naked Capitalism) Really? Goldman Sachs needs to really just stop talking. Same with its former CEOs. Jon Corzine just said the reason everyone hates the Wall Street "vampire squid" that profited from its government bailout (etc etc etc) is because, "When you're successful, it brings envy." As Tina Fey would say: Pay close attention to the following over-the-top eye roll. (rolls eyes) Oh, brother. (Bloomberg)

Sorry Guys: As we previously reported, the FDIC doesn't appear to be ready to capitulate on its bank deal terms. (Reuters) Op-Eds: In defense of financial speculation. (WSJ) Politics: Wall Street Democrats donating less, or even to Republicans. (Fierce Finance) PE To Own Hummer? Possibly. The struggling brand may have to go to a buyout fund because the Chinese government doesn't seem too interested in helping the deal to sell to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. get approved. Also, that quote equating Hummer to Lady Liberty, and the brand's reputation of the spirit of American people, it just too much. (AP) For fun: Determine how "millennial" you are through this Pew Research Center quiz. I'm not going to disclose my score, but not having a landline boosted certainly my score. (Pew) Calpers Reducing "Mangers": Excuse the ridiculous headline typo here, and there's a story about Calpers cutting down on the number of firms into which it invests its money. (BusinessWeek) Early Bird Gets the Return? Does being a morning or an evening person make you a better investor? (Simolean Sense via)