The private-equity arm of failed Wall Street brokerage Lehman Brothers has reached a deal to be spun out as an independent entity, according to a media report Thursday.

Welcome to the real world Mr. Fuld: You don't get a bonus or fat severance check when you get fired.That's likely to be a shock to Richard Fuld CEO of the now-deceased Lehman Brothers. But he won't starve: Lehman has paid him about $500 million since 2000. Fuld told a congressional hearing last month that the total was closer to $250 million because the deal included a lot of now worthless Lehman stock.Shockingly most working stiffs could survive without complaint on such a meager amount. In any case Fuld is staying on as chairman of Lehman's board which pays ...

Goldman Sachs (GS) is no longer golden.The company plans to cut about 10% of its staff or about 3 200 workers as revenue declines. Goldman Sachs has been the only firm among Wall Street's top five to remain profitable in the credit crunch.So far about 130 000 jobs in the financial industry have been eliminated since mid-2007. That's more that the cuts made after the Internet bubble burst in 2001.There are almost certainly more problems ahead if a Wall Street icon like Goldman Sachs sheds jobs. The ripple effect will be felt first in New York in reduced spending ...

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends We're so glad you could attend Come inside! Come inside! There behind a glass is a real blade of grass be careful as you pass. Move along! Move along! Cold and misty morning I heard a warning borne in the air About an age of power where no one had an hour to spare Where the seeds have withered silent children shivered in the cold Now their faces captured in the lenses of the jackals for gold."- Karn Evil 9 Emerson Lake and Palmer from the album Brain Salad ...

"A tournament a tournament a tournament of lies. Offer me solutions offer me alternatives and I decline. It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine. (It's time I had some time alone.)" -R.E.M.Flying overnight from Cape Town to London last Tuesday I read in the Financial Times that Republican Congressman Joe Barton of Texas said he had difficulty voting for a bailout plan. Why? His constituents didn’t understand the problem the need to bail out Wall Street or why the government should spend $700 billion of taxpayer money to solve a crisis created ...