News from around the web: 2009-09-24

"Some investors believe Goldman Sachs Group Inc may try to shed its commercial banking charter to sidestep U.S. government efforts to rein in exorbitant Wall Street pay."

The Fed will begin withdrawing liquidity soon. Equity Markets tanked after the news.

Useful suggestions on how to deal with too big to fail.

"The trouble with the zombies is that they ruin the market for everyone else. They’re not looking for solid investments but something that has a chance of a big payoff."

Apparently, I’m not the only one who noticed.

"Despite months of regulatory scrutiny and some internal changes at the firms, a recently departed Moody’s Corp. analyst says inflated ratings are still being issued. He has taken his concerns to congressional investigators."

"Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue ranked as the world’s most expensive retail address for the eighth straight year, even as annual rents dropped 8.1 percent in the 12 months through June, to $1,700 a square foot, the New York-based company said today in a report. Rents in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay declined 15 percent to $1,525. On the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, they were little changed at $1,009."

"The Moody’s credit card charge-off index — which measures credit card loans that banks do not expect to be repaid — rose to 11.49 percent in August from 10.52 percent in July."

"The sudden glut of rights issues have not just come to the aid of those companies raising the funds but the bankers, too."

"Few things are more resonant of the changed, post crisis world we are about to enter than the now strong possibility that before long Britain could bizarrely find itself alongside Germany, China and Japan with a strong current account surplus."

More on why it’s not just about GDP growth

"Since there’s little you can do to prevent people from downloading your PDF books, Roy is trying a unique experiment – he has put some Rapidshare links on his blog from where people can download the full PDF version of his book without spending a penny. The idea is that this may convince some readers into buying either the printed or digital version of the book once they have read the pirated copy."

"More features than ever to keep you safe online, in a pleasingly nimble package"

TechCrunch thinks Carol Bartz already sold the crown jewels at Yahoo.