Hey buddy, can you spare a prepaid debit card? (Salon, Andrew Leonard)

Trite headline masks a fascinating story on the (legal) scam of companies' giving you rebates in the form of pre-paid debit cards. The always useful Leonard points to a March story about the ubiquitous Andy Cuomo's fight against them and offers other useful links.

Judges' Frustration Grows With Mortgage Servicers (NYT)

Federal judge in Phoenix hauls a high-ranking Wells Fargo exec to court and forces him to be grilled under oath by an average homeowner about why the hell the bank won't respond to her application for a loan modification.

Lehman Brothers Failure May Have Saved Us All (WashPost, Steven Pearlstein)

"Lehman's failure may have sped up the process by which all this lousy lending was revealed and the losses acknowledged, but the financial reckoning was inevitable."

Football, Statistics, and Agency Problems

Winning strategy: Don't punt. Same goes for financial sector. Points to study "Do Firms Maximize? Evidence from Professional Football."

The Unwitting Birthplace of the 'Death Panel' Myth (WashPost)

LaCrosse, Wisconsin — that's the place. Good story explains why.

NO PITY FOR CITI: US WATCHDOG BLASTS BANK'S LACK OF BAILOUT EXIT PLAN (NY Post)

However, Citigroup is believed to have a bonus system ready to go.

MORE HEADLINES FOLLOW

Out of the Shadows (New Yorker, David Denby)

"Leslie and Andrew Cockburn's film looks at the social ecology of financial meltdown."

Governor Paterson says bonuses paid to Wall Street financial executives were good for state (NY Daily News)

What else what such a hapless governor say?

Stimulus Credited for Lifting Economy, But Worries About Unemployment Persist (WashPost)

Chief of Google in China Leaving (NYT)

"... a blow to Google's ambitions in China." Instead, Kai-Fu Lee will become a venture capitalist.

Inquiry Stokes Unease Over Trading Firms That Shape Markets (NYT)

Inside the secretive world of high-frequency trading, a problem that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is likely to ultimately not do anything to regulate.

Call Grows in Europe to Limit Bonuses (NYT)

We already know this, but still a good roundup.

Magazines Now Create and Customize Ads (NYT)

In pursuit of shrinking ad revenue, magazines took a larger role in designing ads and tailoring them to specific products.

How Team of Geeks Cracked Spy Trade (WSJ)

Software engineers hunt down terrorists. We've already seen it on NCIS.

Loan Losses Spark Concern Over FHA (WSJ)

Increasing mortgage-related losses — you really think we've hit bottom? — puts FHA in desperate straits in its role of guaranteeing loans to stabilize housing market.

Judge Limits Credit Firms' 1st-Amendment Defense (WSJ)

"Shares in two companies that own credit-rating firms, Moody's Corp. and McGraw-Hill Cos., declined on Thursday in reaction to a court decision that rejected the companies' longtime claim that the First Amendment protected them from lawsuits."

Europeans Scrutinizing Oracle Purchase of Sun Microsystems (WashPost)

"... greater intervention by European regulators compared with those in the United States ..."