Second Opinion

See you back here in a week! Claw it Back: The NY Post is pretty sure Apollo will be paying a few clawbacks in the coming quarters. (NY Post) Give Bankruptcy A Chance: Bear Stearns should have been allowed to go bankrupt. (Weekly Standard via Clusterstock) Green Shoot Myself In The Head: CNBC Europe is "sick" of the phrase green shoots. (Clusterstock) Who isn't? Even Maria Bartiromo is backpedaling on her gushing use of the phrase. Bank of AMerrilca: Bank of America Merrill Lynch has launched its new branding campaign, with the horrible tagline, "Signed, Sealed and Delivering." Merrill's famous bull logo is out (with apologies I'm sure to the Merrill Lifers who had it etched into their hot tubs and pruned into their gardens). (Dealscape)

Happy Weekend! Keep On Rockin' Through The Layoffs: A cover band comprised of several laid off Credit Suisse bankers is "kept together by the music." Aged Inventory, the band's name, refers to a bond that sits in a trading book for more than 60 days. (Bloomberg) Private Equity Should Stay Away From Showbiz: Providence Equity Partners' MGM stake and Goldman Sachs' investment in the Weinstein Co. are reminders that betting on movies is a treacherous business. (BW) BDC Mess: American Capital's shares surged yesterday, and LBOWire isn't sure why. I suspect it had something to do with a rumour floating around about a "secret" meeting between the company and its lenders. There was little further info on the situation, but people will trade on anything. (LBOWire) Walking The Walk: Despite years of touting "operational expertise," it appears that buyout firms are finally walking that walk. (CNBC) From Phys. Ed. to PE: An interview with Adam Dudley of Grace Capital, which is seeking another partner. (Venture Hype) Why The OTS elimination shouldn't cause many tears: Fortune Swallows the Banks' Baloney (Columbia Journalism Review)

KaChing: Social networking for quant traders. (WSJ) Diligence Tip: Don't forget the gray hair. (Carried Interest) Ideas: Why not ban prepayment penalties on debt? (Rortybomb via Felix Salmon) Memes: It appears that Ahmandinejad is no good at Photoshop. (Boingboing) More Memes: Mildly humorous epitaphs for some of the larger bankruptcies of the year. (Reformed broker via Abnormal returns) S&P Off Scott-Free? Among the institutions not affected by the regulatory overhaul: The ratings agencies, accused of handing out oh-so-many AAA ratings. (Clusterstock)

Huntsman/Hexion Continues: Hell Hath No Fury Like a Target Scorned, via Thomson Reuters' Westlaw Business. Really? NYU Grads are living in tents now. "We have parents that could give us money to get an apartment," the NYU grad told The Post, "but it's nice to be independent." (NY Post) Workarounds: Almost two years into the worst financial calamity since the 1930s, companies are doing everything they can to reduce their indebtedness, selling record amounts of equity to pay back bonds and loans. (Bloomberg) Second Acts: The lead executive who loaded Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. with toxic property investments, is part of a group chosen by Lehman to take over the bankrupt firm's real-estate private-equity arm. (WSJ) Signs of Recovery? Fewer hedge funds shuttered themselves in Q1 than in Q408. (Crain's) Joss Whedon is a hack: Ten Ways to Provoke a Geek Argument. (Wired) And Ten More. (Wired)

Intervention: The US State Department has asked Twitter not to undergo its planned service upgrade during the daytime hours in Tehran, and Twitter decided to delay the upgrade. (Reuters) Wall Street Gets Poetic: A hedge funder has penned a poem titled, "Green Shoots." Read it at Deal Journal. Is the SEIU To Blame? The villain in the remake of "The Taking of Pelham 123" is a private equity pro! It's a change from the original 70s version, since private equity wasn't exactly around then. (Dow Jones) Queens University B-School: Looking for more team players less divas. (BusinessWeek) Remember MBOs? What about FMBOs (Former Management Buyouts)? The former CEO of Children's Place Ezra Dabah (ousted in 2007 because of violating conduct codes) is still trying to buy the company. What about the children? (Dealbook)

Fox Business: Not doing so hot. Not so surprising. (24/7 Wall Street) A Very, Very Thorough Liveblog: Huntsman Vs. Hexion, summarized, bottom-up. (Deal Professor) At Least Someone Did: Dell's making money from Twitter! (Bits) Lessons from the Meltdown: Rubenstein predicts that the U.S. economy will emerge from what he called "the great recession" at the end of this year or early next year. (BW) Meanwhile: Carlyle is setting its sights on the banks, with Sarkozy in the driver's seat. (WaPo) Graphics: The largest bankruptcies in history. (Good)

Not Afraid Of Employee rants: Nokia set up an intranet soapbox last spring known as Blog-Hub, opening it to employee bloggers around the world.(BW) Inside The Startup Office From Hell: Frank Addante, the Los Angeles tech entrepreneur, has helpfully consolidated pretty much every terrible office idea and Web 2.0 startup cliché into one place: This video tour of his online ad company, Rubicon Project. (Valleywag) Contradictions: The Shrinking VC world isn't scaring off business grads. (Venture Dispatch) Meanwhile: MBAs have "downgraded" their expectations for careers. I.E., being realistic? "Many are rethinking ambitions, trading dreams of high-paying careers in hard-hit fields like investment banking for positions in less-battered sectors." (WSJ)

A Daring Trade Has Wall Street Seething: Texas Brokerage Firm Outwits the Big Banks in a Mortgage-Related Deal, and Now It's War. (WSJ) Was is smart or conniving? Deal Journal breaks it down. (Deal Journal) The Drinkable Portfolio: As an investment, wine has outperformed the market and delivered handsome returns. What you need to know about liquid assets. (WSJ) Bold: Venezuela has banned Coke Zero, saying its poses a health danger. (Reuters) Welcome: Shanghai has opened its doors to private equity firms establishing wholly owned units in the city. (DJ) LP Churn? Private Equity pros are going to have to fund new investors, according to a new survey. (Dealscape)

This is Just Wrong: What kind of genius does it take to turn $517 million into $75 million over the course of 39 months? That's what Talbots did and Golden Gate Capital capitalized on. (Footnoted) Peter Theil: At a conference, he calls the tech boom of the late 90s a fraud. (Valleywag) What's Wrong With Financial News on Television: Proof that nobody at Fox Business News knows what's going on, at all. (Gawker) Just Depressing: Now that the U.S. taxpayers are minority shareholders in Citigroup, we might be happy to learn that the company is using its resources to sue a networking website called Womenco.com, because its similar to Citigroup's own "Women & Co.," a money managing business. Christ. (Cityfile) Regulatory Shopping: Private equity firms are using Regulatory Arbitrage. Writes Money Morning, "The financial Barbarians are at the gates of the U.S. banking sector." (MM) Private Equity: Not so shareholder friendly? (

Wilbur Ross on The Auto Industry: "Wilbur Ross sees trouble for suppliers who will need to restart parts production after Chrysler LLC and General Motors exit bankruptcy." (Auto News) ARRR: Footnoted.org finds evidence of pirates in SEC filings. (Freeseas) Barry Ritholtz: How to fix financial television. (The Big Picture)