FINANCE
• Trader Richard Arens, who runs a brokerage named ABS, made a vanity trade in order to push oil past the $100/barrel milestone. We’re sure the girls at the bar will be real impressed. [MarketBeat/WSJ]
• Citigroup will likely start laying off between 5 and 10 percent of its workforce next week, cutting as many as 32,000 jobs. Merrill Lynch plans to cut around 1,600. [CNBC]
• Former E*Trade CEO Mitch Caplan, who helped load the company with the subprime loans, made off with a $11 million golden parachute. Compare that with former H&R Block chief Mark Ernst, responsible for his own big subprime losses, who took home a paltry $2.5 million. [Deal Journal/WSJ, DealBook/NYT]
MEDIA
• Tom Wolfe left FSG after 42 years with the tweedy publisher, jumping to Little, Brown for some extra cash. No one seems too upset by the contretemps — “It was all very friendly,” blah blah — further confirming that New York publishing doesn’t have the cojones for a real fight. [NYO, NYO]
• Hillary Clinton killed another magazine story about her by refusing to be interviewed by Michael Moore for the cover of Rolling Stone, even though Edwards and Obama were game. [NYO]
• Jon Schwartz on the Times hiring Bill Kristol: “It’s as though an NFL coach decided to start a four-foot, 65-pound Korean eight-year-old at middle linebacker, and when he got criticized, responded: ‘People are mad we’re using a player of such tremendous size and experience, just because he’s Korean. How intolerant!’” [Radar]
LAW
• Who can finally kill the soul-destroying billable hour? Not lawyers, but clients. [Slate]
• New York lawyer Emani Taylor was suspended for allegedly taking $327,000 from the estate of former Brooklyn judge John Phillips. [New York Law Journal]
• Good news for February bar-exam takers. Fed up with the fiasco from last summer, New York’s trying out some new software. Nothing like another high-stakes experiment! [New York Law Journal]
FASHION
• Jude Law’s rep denies that the actor is playing Halston after all. [WWD]
• Lacoste has lost a copyright case against a dentist? [British Vogue]
• Natalie Portman’s been infected with the design bug. The actress collaborated with Te Casan on vegan-friendly shoes. [Flypaper]
