Second Opinion

Must Read: Not unlike peHUB's list of PE-speak clichés, Deal Journal has unearthed a fund manager's list of banned words. Favorites of mine include "Space," "Perfect Storm," "going forward," and "any gambling analogy." (Deal Journal) Whore Yourself: Seven Secrets of Media Darlings. (BusinessWeek) Clawbacks: Divorce Settlement Clawbacks. Caused by Madoff. (Wall Street Folly) Finger Pointing: Real Mature, Mr. Schwarzman. It's the London office's fault Blackstone shared one FT username and login! (New York Observer)

All About the Benjamins: Felix Salmon on why capping Wall Street pay is likely to work. (Market Movers) Some People: Disagree. (NY Times) That Group: Includes Meredith Whitney, who Dealbreaker suggests enter a deathmatch with Pres. Obama. (Dealbreaker)

10 Questions: To ask your fund of funds manager. (Corgentum) Lucy Kellaway: "I have fallen into recession's web of fear." (FT) Saturday Night Live: Bernie Madoff's Superbowl party. (WSF) And also: Daniel Gross doesn't think Citi should break its Mets contract. (Moneybox) Just Sayin: Don't Seek Exile In B-School (Scottdig)

Must Read: PE "has yet to acknowledge what many of its investments probably are worth: little or nothing," Barons reports. And it's a good argument-PE pros are talking a lot about the buying opportunities, but how honest are they being about their crappy underwater mega-LBOs? (Baron's) Seriously: Kedrosky calls out CEOs ludicrous $1 dollar salary antics, which he says "mostly reminds employees how crazily overpaid the CEO was in the first place." (Daily Beast) PE Consolidation: Again, I disagree that PE firms will ever consolidate amongst themselves, but others seem to think they will. (FT) Good God: WWD reveals Bank of England's ridiculous dress codes, where female employees are required to wear makeup and heels. (The Cut)

One Down, 11 To Go: January M&A Snapshot from Thomson Reuters. (TR) Equity Private: Contemplates the future of Going Private. It doesn't have a lot of private equity in it. (Going Private) Did You Know? Philip Yea had his footprint on 3i's dismal earnings, but he also has a connection to Investcorp, the firm that got a ratings cut this week and reacted by firing the ratings agent. (Dealscape) Would This Work? Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots' (CNN)

Half! Half of all SPACs lose value instantly. (SSRN via Abnormal Returns) Zombies Ahead: Brilliant use of technology. (Fox News) Finger Pointing: Why the world's economic leaders blame the catastrophe on the system instead of themselves. (Monkeybox) Down: The Stock market is taking private equity there right along with it. Just at a slower pace I suspect... (Bloomberg)

SBA: Obama's pick for head of SBA, Karen Gordon Mills, apparently had some unstellar results at Solera Capital. (Pro Publica) It's The Economy, Girlfriend: There is a support group for the girlfriends of bankers. They're suffering from the recession, too! Their blog, says the NY Times, bills itself as "free from the scrutiny of feminists," and invites women to join "if your monthly Bergdorf's allowance has been halved and bottle service has all but disappeared from your life." I don't even know what to say about this, except, ugh. (NY Times) H/T BB. Schwarzman at Davos: "The audacity of Stephen A. Schwarzman was not enough," writes Dealbook. He apparently jumped from his seat, grabbed a mic, and issued a call for "MORE LEVERAGE!" What? (Dealbook) The SEC Should Hire Journalists: Because we work for a pittance, basically. Thanks, Randy Shain! (Dealbook)

Looking Back: The top 50 private equity firms of 1999, as compiled by The Deal's David Carey. Interesting to see who made the top five... (Dealscape) Good News: The Private Equity Council has released a study that says: "Large private equity-backed companies substantially outperformed their industry peers in capital spending, sales and productivity in the years following their acquisition by private equity investors." Read the details here. Read a blog post by Reuters' Megan Davies here Davos Diary: Dealbook tracks the number of no-shows at the Davos Economic Forum. (Dealbook) Meanwhile: BusinessWeek says there are not enough women contributing to the Davos conversation. And Lastly: Kedrosky compares statements of Davos' speakers this year, to their words last year. (Infectious Greed)

Lists: For The Newly Unemployed, Six words that make your resume suck. (Squawkfox) Lists: Six Errors on the path to financial crisis. (Dealbook) Lists: 25 Most Promising Green Businesses (Business Pundit) Seriously?: PE Firms are the least creative businesses ever when it comes to names. We have yet another similar-sounding set of firms, according to PE Database. Yet Another: Woe as me story about Blackstone and Fortress and their troubles as public entities. But this time there's definitive details that the companies could do MBOs with the proceeds of their IPOs! (WSJ)

The Printed Blog: That’s right, there’s a start-up out there that seeks to reprint blogs on paper and distribute them with local ads. I can think of about a million things wrong with this idea, but hey, you never know. At this point any kind of innovation in print media is better than none. (NY […]