Goldman turns profit and plans to use share sale to return taxpayer money. (NYT)

Former Fannie CEO chosen to replace Kashkari as head TARP. (WSJ)

Minnesota court rules in favor of Franken in unending Senate race; Coleman has ten days to appeal. (WaPo)

AFL and Change to Win agree to work together on immigration reform. (NYT)

Jackson under investigation by federal prosecutors for role in Blagojevich affair. (NYT)

Bankrupt Lehman holding enough uranium cake to make bomb. (Bloomberg)

Treasury tells GM to prepare for surgical bankruptcy by June 1. (NYT)

Navy rescues captain, kills pirates. (Reuters)

Goldman to launch major private equity fund that will buy discounted assets. (WSJ)

AIG financial products unit opts out of new derivatives protocol. (FT)

TARP inspector investigating banks to determine whether they cooked their books. (FT)

Panetta says CIA no longer operates secret prisons overseas. (WaPo)

In reversal, Emanuel supports action on immigration reform. (WSJ)

Goldman considers stock sale to repay TARP funds. (Reuters)

Chrysler told to negotiate deal with creditors Goldman, JPMorgan, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Elliott Management by end of April. (WSJ)

Preparing for more aggressive action on economy, Obama to meet with Geithner, Bernanke, Summers, Bair, Romer, Dugan. (WSJ)

Treasury and BlackRock pushing to set up investment funds to help Americans double down on bailout. (NYT)

Buffett’s Berkshire downgraded. (WSJ)

Crew of ship owned by US flag line fights off Somali pirates, but captain now held hostage. (WSJ)

Despite risks, Obama to push immigration bill. (NYT)

SEC proposes five measures to restrict short-selling. (NYT)

Exxon Mobil and other oil companies resist Obama administration’s push for alternative energy. (NYT)

AFL-CIO and Change To Win form National Labor Coordinating Committee, headed by Bonior, to begin re-unification efforts. (WaPo)

PIMCO and Elliott Management join committee that will issue binding judgments for first time on how credit default swaps are settled; shift in handling contracts is called “Big Bang.” (Bloomberg)

Franken expands lead over Coleman. (WSJ)

Moynihan emerging as possible successor to Lewis at BofA. (WSJ)

Many small towns purchased risky municipal bond derivatives on advice of chief peddler. (NYT)

Cuomo sues Merkin for steering money to Madoff. (NYT)

Sachs says Geithner-Summers plan is even worse than he thought because it is so easy to game the system. (HuffPost)

In controversial move, Gates announces plans to shake up defense programs and cut pet projects. (WSJ)

Powerful CIO of TARP, a Paulson hire, profiled in today’s Journal. (WSJ)

Bloomberg commissioned telephone survey last month that spread damaging information about rival. (NYT)

UNC cruises to national title. (NYT) 

Following on Saturday’s weather balloon detailing the Wall Street pay of Larry Summers, today the Times ran a piece on Summers’s work at the hedge fund DE Shaw. Replete with color from inside sources and spare in its critical content, the article is a striking example of journalistic capture; after discussing Summers’ ludicrous compensation ($5.2 million for a year in which he worked one day a week), the piece follows the lead of its sources in functioning to allay concerns about potential conflicts of interest that Summers faces as the chief architect of Obama’s economic policies.

Ironically, given Summers’ infamous remarks on women and science, the article was written by Louise Story, the same journalist who once “reported” that more women with Ivy League degrees were choosing to become stay-at-home moms. Jack Shafer of Slate immediately called that one out as a “bogus trend story,” pointing to its reliance on nebulous “weasel words,” and the piece subsequently became a favorite punching bag of media critics.

Read more…

Bank of America v. GM in tonight’s championship? (Daily Tar Heel, The State News)

Summers made $5.2 million in last year at hedge fund DE Shaw, working one day a week; consults with inner circle of hedge fund managers to help him shape policy. (NYT)

North Korean rocket bolsters push by Gates and Blair for new spy satellites from Lockheed Martin. (WSJ)

Calyon Securities bank analyst with reputation for independence says loan losses will surpass Depression levels. (Bloomberg)

Gray Lady threatens to shutter Globe in 60 days without concessions from unions. (Boston Globe)

The Times reports today on extensive financial ties between financial industry players including Citigroup and D.E. Shaw and leading Obama economic advisers Lawrence Summers and Michael Froman. Some in the media, ranging from this blog to Times columnist Frank Rich, have been sounding alarm bells for months about the cozy relations between the White House, zombie banks like Citigroup and vampiric hedge funds like D.E. Shaw, which qualifies for massive subsidies under Geithner’s scheme to burden taxpayers with trillions in toxic asset liabilities. The don of this crony capitalist cabal is former Citigroup chairman Robert Rubin, who mentored Summers and Froman, served as an Obama campaign adviser and successfully moved most of the leadership of his Hamilton Project think-tank into the White House.

Today’s Times article is something of a Saturday weather balloon, designed to gauge whether coming clean about Summers’ $7 million in payments from D.E. Shaw, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and other recipients of Federal largess will enable the White House to convince a gullible press corps that conflicts of interest are in the past.

Read more…

Geithner’s meeting schedule as NY Fed president released; more meetings with executives of imploding Citigroup than any other bank. (ProPublica)

Blagojevich indicted. (Chicago Tribune)

CEO of bailed-out Citigroup among top 5 earners in 2008 with $38.2 million in compensation. (WSJ)

Former AIG CEO refuses to accept personal blame, says bailout should have been bankruptcy. (NYT)

House and Senate approve Obama budget. (WSJ)

Harvard endowment whistleblower was fired by boss after contacting Summers with concerns about derivatives trades.  (Boston Globe)