Second Opinion

A Tip: From Solomon Owayda of PE firm SVG Advisors. PE firms, its time to lower your fees, if you want cash-strapped LPs to continue to invest. Mr Owayda said the "2 and 20" model, whereby private equity groups charge an annual fee of 2 per cent of funds raised and take 20 per cent of any profits - was a relic from a time when most buy-out funds were much smaller. France Has A SWF: And it's done its first deal, thanks to Sarkozy's plans for "reigniting the country's economy." Did You Know: Probably, but I didn't. Rahm Emanuel, the White House Chief of Staff-Elect, was once a Wasserstein Perella banker. Also, the character Ari Gold, a high strung, macho Hollywood agent on Entourage, is supposedly based on his brother, Ari Emanuel. Wildly Wildly Unbased Rumour: From a commenter, on a tabloid Web site, saying Goldman Sachs could go private. Now I Get It: The Big Money gives us a better understanding of the Whole Foods situation, and Leonard Green Partners' recent investment in the not-very-recession-proof company.

Deal Professor: The Second Wave of Deal Failures. Way to go, private equity, you’ve emerged unscathed. Dealbreaker: Asks, with Blackstone’s IPO, did the firm call the top or were they late to the game? Excel Spreadsheets, Probably: How will Obama prioritize his towering economic to-do-list? Daily Beast: An Obama Administration flowchart. (Potential, of course.) Thank You: Now that the election is over, can we please, please drop the clichés like Main Street, Wall Street and Joe Sick Pack? A few weeks ago the NY Times’ style editor railed against some of the worst of them, many of which are business-related. Guilty parties include “on the hook” and “doubled down.” In turn, I promise to tone down the election-news deluge on a private equity site. Deal?

Here's a Side Hustle: Go scalp today's newspaper. Seriously. They're sold out everywhere. Death Toll: Layoff watch, Christmastime 08, is looking grim, again. NY Post is predicting 5% more finance jobs will go. That's on top of the 150,000 pink slips that've already been handed out. Mild Amusement: An NY Post online poll says the song Ball of Confusion by The Temptations best describes the current mood of Wall Street. Other options? I Wanna Be Sedated by the Ramones, Mo Money, Mo Problems by Notorious B.I.G., After the Gold Rush by Neil Young, and Wave of Mutilation by The Pixies. Endorsements: Footnoted has a suggestion for a new head of SEC: "Movie Mom" Nell Minnow. Here's why.

Election Word Train: A non-stop stream of the moods of NY Times readers, sortable by McCain/Obama. As of 5:50 it seems to be stuck on Excited/Anxious. Data-Mining Is Bad: When its based on presidential elections, according to Paul Kedrosky. "We mine presidential election cycles to come up with historical predictors of which presidential choice will be best for the markets over the next four years, next few months, next ten minutes, etc." But he says, "The empirical issues are myriad." If He Wins: Obama would be the first black President, but he'd also be the first "blue" president- the first "northern, urban liberal to win the presidency since the culture wars broke out in the US in the 1960s," FT writes. HSR And The Candidates: Corporate Dealmaker digs into the antitrust stances of both candidates. Judging by both of their rhetoric, the answers are not surprising, however I'm not sure antitrust law would be either of the President-to-be's priorities. And About That: Obama could tap a former Bush Anti-trust staffer?

Busted Auction: Sara Lee decided against selling off its household products businesses. He Said She Said: TechCrunch and VentureBeat square off on whether or not Facebook is desperate for cash. No Regrets: Schwarzman says he wishes his 60th birthday party hadn't become the symbol of the go-go years of private equity. Bruce Wasserstein notes, "It was a great party." Reality TV Meets CNBC: Dealbreaker suggests Charlie Gasparino star in a reality TV show.

Happy Halloween! Yes, You: Each taxpayer now has around $1,785.71 of an ownership stake in U.S. banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, etc. Chuck Haberman says, “as shareholders, we have thoughts on aspects of banking that seem beyond the scope of Messrs. Paulson and Bernanke.” Among his requests? Pens at bank counters that actually work, a moratorium on new bank branches in New York neighborhoods, and end to ATM fees, and an end to bank-sponsored sports stadiums. Still?: October saw the greatest IPO withdrawal rate since 1995. I didn’t know there were any more to withdraw. The total is 30, by the way. I thought we stopped filing those ages ago.

Uh-Oh: Pension funds are short on dough, too. Doggie Heaven: The guard dog at Lehman Brothers (who was laid off by Barclays) has died. Dealbreaker is auctioning the dog's ID card on ebay. Heller Ehrman No More: The 188-year-old firm will cease to exist on November 28. Stop What You're Doing: And read this assessment of the two actions that companies and firms under peril take: Finger pointing and Frenetic (and unproductive) activity. John Kotter explains why they just don't work, and what to do about it. Hungry For Leverage: Well, maybe not hungry, but Goldman isn't de-levering like everyone else in the country, Dealbook reports.

FAIL: Why you should not friend your boss on Facebook. The Real Reason GM and Chrysler Want To Merge: CFO.com spells it out. It’s money. “In August Cerberus claimed that Chrysler still had $11 billion in cash from loans raised earlier. There is speculation that it might be willing to throw that in, and add some more, in exchange for a stake in the merged entity.” Hard To Believe: Rupert Murdoch did not know there was more to Dow Jones than The Wall Street Journal when he went to buy it. Felix Salmon quotes Michael Wolff at a media conference saying: I don't believe he had any idea there was an enterprise side of the business. I believe I was the one to explain Factiva to him. He wanted the newspaper. The fact that after he bought the newspaper he found himself with these rather successful businesses was I think surprising to him. I think he was pleased. Boo: Wall Street Crisis-themed Halloween Costumes.

Joe Nocera: Pointing out the dirty little secret of the banking industry. Hint-it has to do with bailout money. A Guide: A new Dealbreaker lesson on how to endure the inevitable implosion of your hedge fund. The first edition: keep up appearances. Speaking of Guides: Jack Flack, the PR pro, writes six steps for becoming a corporate villain. Best one is "Say one thing; ooze another." 20/20 Retrospect: Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda. Companies like Yahoo, Take-Two, and Diebold should've taken their buyout offers when they got 'em because their rebuffs may well have cost them half of their value. If any PE firms have the capacity and desire to go hostile, this may well be a convincing argument. WSJ reports.

Zero: Daimler's 20% stake in Cerberus-backed Chrysler, once worth $1.18 billion, is now valued at zero. That will make for an interesting deal if Daimler succeeds in selling that stake back to Cerberus, as planned. Bloomberg: Joe The Plumber versus Joe The Hedge Fund Manager. The Real Vultures: From Spirit Halloween Stores, the ACON Investments-backed seasonal costume store that has moved into former Linens ‘N Things stores. "ACON might just be the poster child for other companies looking to prey off the economy's growing pile of stiffs and zombies," Business Pundit writes. Comeback: Citigroup's architect, Sandy Weil, is thinking about raising a PE fund to invest in undervalued financial firms. The fund would have a target of $5 billion.