It seems the BAC-Countrywide dashing duo are holding a subpoena-fest, with an open invitation to all federal and state regulatory agencies. For starters, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) said it received subpoenas and requests for information with regards to auction-rate securities from multiple federal and state government agencies. And four class-action lawsuits have been filed against BAC, on behalf of purchasers of auction-rate securities in-between May 2003 and Feb 2008.

Secondly, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal filed suit against Countrywide Financial Corp., accusing Countrywide of "pushing consumers into deceptive, unaffordable loans and workouts, and charging homeowners in default unjustified and excessive legal fees". To make matters worse, Countrywide has responded to a subpoena from the SEC, according to a regulatory filing by BAC (see link under references), and now faces a criminal SEC investigation.

The Counterparty Risk Management Policy Group III has released its report entitled "Containing Systemic Risk: The Road to Reform." Here's the link (pdf) to the full report, which should end this post right here. :) But since you asked, here's the highlights.

The Report is a forward-looking, integrated framework of private initiatives that will complement official oversight to help contain systemic risk. The Policy Group focused on four key areas including a reconsideration of the standards for consolidation under US GAAP of entities currently off-balance sheet coming on-balance sheet; measures to better understand and manage high-risk financial instruments; significant enhancements to risk monitoring and management; and, a series of sweeping measures to enhance the resiliency of financial markets generally and the credit markets in particular, with a special emphasis on OTC derivatives and credit default swaps.

There's lots of illogical things printed by the New York Times, which bloggers love to hate, but the most irritating and unsensible thing about the Grey Lady is that every quarter, the same thing happens - The stock (NYSE: NYT) gets pegged down a little more, more cost cuts are announced, maybe some layoffs, reduction in coverage areas, disposal of an asset or two, etc.. - And then everybody just gets on with it, assuming that nothing's going to happen to an iconic Institution like the New York Times.

Also, considering the brand and partisan value, it would be a bit foolish to put a price on the New York Times. Which makes it a bit difficult to judge how well (or how badly) the NYT is doing.

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) has his hands full, and his decisions in August will probably have a wide impact on the trifecta of housing, banking and commodity speculation. This trifecta, if you look at it from a macro view, is the most powerful force affecting the economy. Housing woes have impacted the bottom lines of investment banks and lenders, and this brings down the stock markets, which is pushing speculative cash into commodities and pushing up energy futures.

None of these can be solved as a stand-alone proposition, and Dodd sits at the nerve center of the policy making apparatus, as the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. His committee can help ease the situation in all three sectors by legislating financial aid to distressed homeowners, lenders and and providing guidance for regulatory oversight to the Fed, Treasury and SEC. Question is, Sen. Dodd doing enough, and is he going in the right direction? And to top it off, his legislation is now tainted by accusations of bias towards certain lenders.

From the press release:

Yahoo! Inc. announced today that it has reached an agreement with Carl Icahn to settle their pending proxy contest related to the Company's 2008 annual meeting of stockholders. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, eight members of Yahoo!'s current Board of Directors will stand for re-election at the 2008 annual meeting: Roy Bostock, Ronald Burkle, Eric Hippeau, Vyomesh Joshi, Arthur Kern, Mary Agnes Wilderotter, Gary Wilson and Jerry Yang.

Wall Street rumor is a vicious creature. And it's been swirling around Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) ever since the fall of Bear Stearns. There's got to be one prime candidate headed for a fall, and Lehman has been nominated to be the star of the show, cast as the next sacrificial lamb.

The latest rumor was that the world's largest bond fund PIMCO, the hedge fund giant SAC and other institutions were bailing out on Lehman, which then promptly rolled over and crashed 18%. The rumor was quickly squelched by Pimco's Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross who said on CNBC that Pimco is reducing neither the length of the trades with Lehman, nor the dollar amounts. And a spokesman for SAC Capital also came out saying that they're doing business as usual with Lehman.

Yahoo! Inc. confirmed that it has rejected, again, a joint proposal from Microsoft Corporation and Carl Icahn for a complex restructuring of Yahoo! that would include the acquisition of Yahoo!'s search business by Microsoft. The proposal was made on Friday evening and Yahoo! was given less than 24 hours to accept the non-negotiable proposal. Yahoo! also offered to sell the entire company to Microsoft for at least $33 per share, and also offered to negotiate an improved search only transaction. Microsoft rejected both offers.

Roy Bostock, Chairman of Yahoo! said in a press release that "This odd and opportunistic alliance of Microsoft and Carl Icahn has anything but the interests of Yahoo!'s stockholders in mind. Clearly, Microsoft, having failed to advance in search, is aligning with the short-term objectives of Mr. Icahn to coerce Yahoo! into selling its core strategic search assets on terms that are highly advantageous to Microsoft, but disadvantageous to Yahoo! stockholders. Yahoo's Board of Directors will not allow that to happen. Yahoo!'s Board remains open to any transaction that delivers full value to our stockholders - we just do not believe such a transaction should be dictated by Microsoft and a single short-term investor."