Rolfe Winkler

Wall St. helped Greece to mask debt, fueling Europe’s crisis (Story/Thomas Jr./Schwartz) When an addict is hooked on a drugs, whose fault is it? The guy selling him the junk? Or his own for getting hooked in the first place? It’s convenient (and not entirely wrong) to blame bankers, mortgage brokers, real estate agents and others who sell us debt to finance more lavish lifestyles than we can afford. They do so to generate income via transaction fees. But at the end of the day, the Greek government knew what it was doing. As do most folks piling on leverage…

For some firms, a case of “Quadrophobia” (Thrum, WSJ) Public companies fear the digit “4.” Earnings per share, when calculated down to tenths of a cent, suggest companies use accounting gimmickry to make sure they can round UP to the nearest cent.

Pirate boss to make web pay (BBC) I’m skeptical. A micropayments product that relies on the generosity of users will be about as successful as a PBS funding drive. But I’ll support anyone who wants to help users pay directly for good content creation. Personally, I think the future of micropayments could be via cellphone. Carriers already have a billing relationship with everyone, all that’s needed is someone to facilitate the flow of payments from buyers to sellers via your phone. (Full disclosure: I previously worked for a company, Fotolog, whose parent company was also in this business)

Edwards: Collapse of euro “inevitable” (Fleming/Shipman, Mail) SocGen’s Albert Edwards as bearish as ever.

Magic Johnson in talks to buy publisher of Ebony/Jet (Pulley, Bloomberg)

How Christian were the Founders? (Shorto, NYT) Long, but worth reading to the end.

Dubai CDS spreads jump (Connaghan/Brown, WSJ) The cost of insuring Dubai debt against default is back near levels from December, before Abu Dhabi offered assistance.

Harrisburg moves a step closer to default (Hurdle, Reuters) Pennsylvania’s capital city excludes debt payments in its 2010 budget. It has a scheduled interest payment of $2.1 million on March 1.

“4-foot-nothing mother goose” … epic voice mail.

VIDEO: “Hurt Locker” in Cambodia (YouTube) Guy clears land mines in Cambodia with stick and pocket knife. FF to 0:50 mark.

Bing Maps are cool….(but it appears that there’s no support for Firefox…)

Let them eat lobster! (Yves, Naked Capitalism)

The weather according to economists: sunny! (Kedrosky) Group think…

How to combat the natural tendency to procrastinate (Economist)

Let’s get fisical (Bill Gross, PIMCO) In his latest investor letter, Bill Gross paradoxically laments the influence of special interests. Of course he was one of the chief special interests — representing the investor class — lobbying for government to support asset prices. He also questions how the market will perform when our government “sugar daddy” disappears, especially in light of the disappearance of foreign buyers of Treasuries.

Snowed-in Brits boost adultery website (Casciato, Reuters)

Create your own solar system (Colorado.edu) Click “Run Now” and then play with the variables bottom left.

Dubai starbucks (imgur)

Three-toed sloth on ride of his life…

No shortage of news this morning….

Dubai gets bailout from Abu Dhabi (Reuters)

Exxon to buy XTO for $41 billion (Reuters) $41 billion is the enterprise valuation. It’s incomplete to say the Exxon is only paying $31 billion for the stock when it is also assuming $10 billion of debt.

Citi to repay TARP, raise $17 billion (Reuters) The ringfence agreement on Citi’s pile of toxic assets will end and Treasury will also start selling its common shares back to the market. Here are all the details from Citi.

Morgan Stanley hires Greg Fleming (NYT) Fleming was the guy who pressed Merrill to sell itself to BofA. He hashed out the deal, including Merrill’s controversial bonus package, with BofA’s Greg Curl.

VIDEO: “Wall Street doesn’t get it.” Too bad Obama’s reform plan does little to change the status quo. And in any case, Fed policy will continue to support banks for an “extended period.” The Prez meets with Wall Street CEOs this morning.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Update from this morning: Neel Kashkari joins PIMCO (Ishmael, Alphaville)

TARP cost estimate falls $200 billion (Somerville, Reuters) Even after this latest reduction, the administration still estimates TARP will cost $141 billion. We may be getting more back than we though, but we’re not making money. Remember, the Fed still has north of $1.0 trillion or mortgage-backed securities on its balance sheet, the value of which is not clear.

Moody’s links option ARM performance with subprime (Golobay, HousingWire) Option ARMs were generally considered “prime” loans based on the credit scores of borrowers. We learned last year, however, that credit scores are less indicative of default rates than negative equity. Negatively amortizing option ARMs, which allow borrowers to make a minimum payment that doesn’t even cover interest, have seen their loan balances explode. With prices down, they’re so far underwater it makes little sense to pay their mortgage…

Euros become currency of choice for drug cartels (Syal/Townsend, Guardian) Not an indication of the euro’s strength versus the dollar, however.  €500 notes are smaller than $100 bills and therefore easier to smuggle.

Does Dubai really owe $150 billion? (Arabianbusiness.com) The consensus estimate is that Dubai owes closer to $85 billion…

Global banking economist warned of coming crisis (Spiegel) Keep your eye on the Bank for International Settlements. They’ve been predicting that low interest rates encourage investors to chase risk imprudently…

Colton Harris-Moore, the barefoot bandit, outfoxes sheriffs (Times UK) “Police say 18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore, whose escapades are turning him into a folk legend, is a one-man crime wave, responsible for 50 burglaries as well as stealing light aircraft, which he taught himself to fly from video games, and several speedboats. He lives in the woods, shuns shoes and catches his own food. His only technological aid is a pair of thermal-imaging goggles to hunt at night and his weakness is pizzas, which he asks to be delivered at the edge of the woods.”

Audited for not making enough money (Westneat, Seattle Times) Doesn’t the IRS have bigger fish to fry?

How China won and Russia lost (Gregory/Zhou, Hoover) Bottom-up reforms worked in China; top-down reforms failed in Russia.

Atheist cat (imgur)

Speed of light from earth to moon (Wikipedia) Clever animation.

Driving a Humvee in Iraq…(considering the threat of roadside IEDs, I understand why these guys want to keep moving)