Second Opinion

BP Gets Scared: BP has hired Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse and the Blackstone Group to to advise on its options as it faces financial and political pressure over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Who would buy them? Free WiFi with your latte: Starbucks said it will provide free WiFi in all its stores beginning on July 1. Hooray! Embezzling for that perfect fern: Scott Welch allegedly stole $11.2 million from Wachovia and use the money to landscape. This is not a joke. Another blow to books: News Corp. inks a deal to buy Skiff, the e-reader company backed by the Hearst Corporation.

The Sound of Wall Street Weeping: Banker pay plunged more in 2009 than in any other year for the past eight decades. Raymond James: Don't work for them if you get sick. BP's Gulf Disaster gets worse: As if those pictures of dead and oil-drenched seagulls isn't bad enough, the oil disaster could put a damper on dealmaking. Banks for sale: Moelis Capital and Angelo Gordon looking for deals in Georgia, Texas Neuberger's IPO plans: Just two years after buying off Lehman, Neuberger Berman is heading toward an IPO.

Treasury auctions: Investors say "meh" Related: The Fed is planning a massive debasement/monetization according to RBS. Related: No sooner did we at peHUB call junk bonds a bubble than they continue to crash. Distress levels are rising. On the bright side: The business of curing cancer is showing some optimistic breakthroughs. Steve Ballmer: Microsoft sends out a snarky tweet that he will neither be at the Apple Developers Conference nor will he be on Dancing with the Stars.

Dow: After being kicked in the shins by the flash crash, the DJIA is now below 10,000. Related: The SEC is suggesting an audit trail to track trades. Now, in 2010? FASB: It issued new guidelines on the accounting of financial instruments. Loans and other debt instruments now get the same treatment. Here, have a gander. When VCs attack: When they attack company founders, that is. Mickey Mouse and insider trading: Is nothing sacred? Related: Branding is for companies (or mice) but not humans. Unlikely winners of financial reform: CME Group and others. Related: At a Reuters breakfast this morning, BlackRock's Larry Fink, Evercore's Roger Altman, and Perella Weinberg's Joseph Perella share a hearty chuckle at the idea of banks who claim that prop trading isn't important.

Carried interest: A reminder that VCs are likely to just take their marbles and go home. Movie derivatives: I think they're a bad idea. Felix Salmon disagrees. I break it down some more. Greece: The IMF leaves a note on the refrigerator reminding Greece to clean up its economy. Google: Its secret ad recipe.

Fidelity National: So it's a leveraged recap instead of The Big One. Good riddance, says Fortune. Carried interest: Congress's tax folly. Spanish private equity: It's got it rough. Barclays: Its PE division may spin out in a management buyout.

Carried interest: In its defense. AIG: Of course it would have big European exposure. It's the Grand Unified Theory of Financial Crises. Financial reform: If you don't like it and find it too draconian, Paul Krugman suggests you write a letter to your local Blankfein. Related: The New Yorker thinks that the reform bill is peachy. Related: Month-by-month and state-by-state unemployment graphic. Depressing. Balance sheets: Bain & Co. has some thoughts on how to right-size balance sheets in portfolio companies; some measures you might use to control costs would actually inflate a balance sheet. Angel investors want YOU!: Angel boot camps are coming to Cambridge, Mass. Gold: Central banks are increasing their holdings of gold. Maybe because they're printing money at such a rate that paying for groceries will require a wheelbarrow full of dollars and a gun at your hip.

The Wall St. reform bill: Today it slouched a little closer to Bethlehem. Related: But, like, what does it all mean, man? Carried interest: The tax loophole is now closed 75% of the way through. Debt restructurings: They will continue to give everyone heartburn. The stock market: It appears to be coupled with the euro. In the same way that organized crime couples ankles with concrete. Anyway, it's officially a correction with today's 372-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Related: TD Ameritrade clients couldn't trade for 80 minutes today. The Fed: Its $2.333 trillion balance sheet is, shall we say, not ready for swimsuit season. Related: What would happen if we had to bail out the FDIC?

The finance sector: Where is it losing jobs? Trust preferred securities: They may no longer count toward tier-1 capital for banks. The Federal Reserve: It has a plan for selling assets. Just as soon as it raises interest rates. So settle in; this could take a while. Greece: A country with thousands of years of history and an advanced transportation system shouldn't have to resort to making donkey-seller jokes about Goldman Sachs, but there you are. Flash Crash: Deal Journal revisits the nuttiest trades.

Junk bonds: They now have the weakest creditor protections since 2007. We called the junk-bond machine a bubble last week, and we're not regretting it. Credit ratings: The SEC may require ratings agencies and the companies they rate (perhaps companies you or your partners own!) to be more ... public about all that. Stock options: Steve Jobs gave up $10.3 billion by revaluing his Apple stock options in 2003. Don't let this happen to your portfolio company. Community banks: The silent killer.