memeorandum: MF Global accounts shock leaves clients scrambling (Reuters)

6:20 PM ET, November 1, 2011

Top Items:

Bloomberg: ‘Plain and simple,’ Congress caused the mortgage crisis, not the banks — Photo via British Prime Minister's Office flickr stream. — Owners of the park at the center of the Occupy Wall Street protests are losing patience, but what can they do? — 11:03 am Nov. 1, 20111Add a comment

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Gawker, Hot Air, The Hill, New York Magazine, Hullabaloo, Paul Krugman and Runnin' Scared

Andrew Breitbart / Big Government:

Rape, Gropes, and Assaults, Oh My: Mayor Bloomberg, Shut Down Zuccotti Park! … It's time for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to pull the plug on the dangerous circus in crime zone Zuccotti Park. — People have the right to protest, to assemble peaceably, to raise their voices and petition their government.

Discussion: Crooks and Liars, Breitbart.tv, Daily Oklahoman, The Gateway Pundit, Pat Dollard, NewsBusters.org blogs, The PJ Tatler, The Jawa Report, Verum Serum and Ironic Surrealism

Pat Garofalo / ThinkProgress:

Mayor Bloomberg: ‘It Was Not The Banks That Created The Mortgage Crisis’ — A favorite conservative pastime since the financial crisis of 2008 struck is to try and deflect blame away from Wall Street and its excesses and onto Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and government housing policy.

Discussion: Balloon Juice

Julie Shapiro / DNAinfo.com:

Cafe Laid Off 21 Workers Because of Occupy Wall Street, Owner Says — FINANCIAL DISTRICT — Twenty-one restaurant workers lost their jobs last week because of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the cafe owner said Tuesday. — Marc Epstein, owner of the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall St. …

Discussion: Pat Dollard, Weasel Zippers, National Review and The Daily Caller

New York Post:

Occupy ‘ball’ street — It's the Autumn of Love! — Occupy Wall Street protesters are flocking to nearby health clinics for STD and HIV testing after getting their freak on in '60s-style hookups with crusty strangers, sources told The Post yesterday. — “Last week was free love,” …

Discussion: Sister Toldjah, Weasel Zippers, Gawker, Booman Tribune and JammieWearingFool, more at Mediagazer »

Eman El-Shenawi / Alarabiya.net English:
Tunisians poke fun at Obama in assault on his Facebook page

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and The Politico

Jonathan Weisman / Washington Wire:
Satire on Occupy Wall Street Trips Up Rick Perry

Discussion: Mediaite, The Atlantic Online, Washington Monthly and Wonkette

Greg Sargent / Washington Post:
Are big banks feeling pressure from Occupy Wall Street?

Discussion: mediaroom.bankofamerica.com, The Atlantic Online, The Politico, ThinkProgress and Eschaton

Noreen Malone / New York Magazine:
More and More Homeless People Are Sleeping at Occupy Wall Street Sites

Discussion: New York Times and Weasel Zippers

NY Daily News:
Occupy Wall Street protesters' own security detail sets standards for conduct in Zuccotti Park

Discussion: City Room, The Greenroom, Weasel Zippers, JammieWearingFool and Pirate's Cove

Alexander Burns / The Politico:

Herman Cain now recalls ‘couple of other’ items in accuser's complaint — Herman Cain once again revised his account of the sexual harassment allegations he battled in the 1990s, saying in a TV interview he recalled there were additional “ridiculous” items in his accuser's complaint, beyond the single incident he detailed Monday.

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, Fox News, Salon.com, Big Journalism, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Daily Kos, Nice Deb and Swampland

James V. Grimaldi / Washington Post:

Lawyer: Cain accuser wants to tell her side of story — Win McNamee/GETTY IMAGES - Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks at the National Press Club October 31, 2011 in Washington, DC. During a question and answer portion of the program, Cain called the accusations of sexual harassment against him “a witch hunt”.

Discussion: Mediaite, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, National Review, Outside the Beltway, Guardian, BitsBlog, ABCNEWS, Business Insider, msnbc.com and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

David Weigel / Slate:

Mark Block Won't Talk About the Other Cain Scandal … - Herman Cain's Other Scandal: His Campaign Chief Won't Talk About It — If the United States Had To Wage a New War Tomorrow, Could We Afford It? - Can You Ever Hire an “Escort” To Do “Escorting,” or Are They All Prostitutes?

Discussion: Firedoglake, CBS News, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos, Swampland, The Hill, Mediaite, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, The Daily Beast and US Politics

Nia-Malika Henderson / Washington Post:
Gloria Cain to give ‘exclusive’ interview, Herman Cain says

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Salon.com, News Hounds, THEROOT.COM and Hot Air

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:
Cain Made $250,000 Off Yesterday's ‘Witch Hunt’

Discussion: Ballot Box, Sky Dancing, Wake up America, Prairie Weather, msnbc.com, GOP 12, Business Insider, AlterNet, The Impolitic and The Hill

Wall Street Journal:

MF Global Acknowledged Diverting Customer Funds — MF Global Holdings Ltd. acknowledged to federal regulators that money had been diverted out of customer accounts in violation of futures rules and law, according to a federal official. — The Wall Street brokerage, which filed …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

Daniel Wagner / Associated Press: Official: MF Global admitted using client money

Reuters:
MF Global accounts shock leaves clients scrambling

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Dealbreaker and ECHIDNE of the snakes

Joe Nocera / New York Times:
Corzine Crashes Like It's 2008

Discussion: Campaign 2012, Business Insider, Felix Salmon, OpenSecrets.org, American Spectator, The Enterprise Blog, Law Blog, www.thetakeaway.org, National Review, MarketBeat, PolitickerNY, DealBook and Reuters

Andrew Ross Sorkin / DealBook:
It's Lonely Without the Goldman Net

Discussion: The Confluence, Vox Popoli, The Baseline Scenario, FT Alphaville and Business Insider

New York Times:

Europe Markets Drop on News of Greek Referendum — ATHENS — European markets slid dramatically on Tuesday after Prime Minister George A. Papandreou stunned the continent's leaders with a surprise announcement late Monday that his government would hold a referendum on a new aid package for Greece.

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Outside the Beltway, americanthinker.com, www.thetakeaway.org and Balloon Juice

Paul Mason / BBC:
Greek referendum is coin-flip on euro exit

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Marginal Revolution and Business Insider

Financial Times:
Fears rise of disorderly Greek default

Discussion: New Atlanticist, Crooked Timber, New York Times and Free exchange

BBC:
Greece's Papandreou in crisis talks over bailout revolt

Discussion: Firedoglake, Associated Press and Guardian

opoa.org:

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CITIZENS OF OAKLAND FROM THE OAKLAND POLICE OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION — Oakland, Ca. — We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, content.govdelivery.com, Guardian, Business Insider, Addicting Info, Truthdig, The Political Carnival, Campaign 2012 and SFist

Arlette Saenz / ABCNEWS:

Rick Perry on Viral Video: ‘I Felt Good, Felt Great’ — DES MOINES, IOWA - Texas Governor Rick Perry said he he “felt good, felt great” during a weekend event in New Hampshire. Video of Perry giving the freewheeling speech went viral this week and was parodied on late night TV …

Discussion: Business Insider, GOP 12 and Wake up America

Isaac Chotiner / The New Republic:
Did Tim Pawlenty Blow It?

Discussion: Hot Air, Ben Smith's Blog, A plain blog about politics and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Jonah Goldberg / Los Angeles Times:
Tim Pawlenty's lost chance

Discussion: Business Insider, American Spectator and Hot Air

David Brooks / New York Times:

The Wrong Inequality — We live in a polarizing society, so perhaps it's inevitable that our experience of inequality should be polarized, too. — In the first place, there is what you might call Blue Inequality. This is the kind experienced in New York City, Los Angeles, Boston …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, prospect.org/blog/beat-press, Democracy in America and No More Mister Nice Blog

Paul Krugman:

Graduates Versus Oligarchs — Dean Baker raises an important point here: it's really awfully late in the game to be saying that the important inequality issue is college graduates versus non-graduates. It's not clear that this was ever true, and it certainly hasn't been true for a while.

Discussion: ourfuture.org/blogs_chrono/* and The New Republic

Equality Matters:

Chick-Fil-A Donated Nearly $2 Million To Anti-Gay Groups In 2009 — Earlier this year, Chick-fil-A became embroiled in a controversy surrounding its donations to anti-gay groups. Though Chick-fil-A president Dan Cathy denied having an “agenda against anyone,” an Equality Matters investigation discovered …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, On Top Magazine Headlines, Towleroad News #gay, Shakesville, Joe. My. God., The Raw Story and Gay Politics

Seung Min Kim / The Politico:

Democrats vow to block spending riders — House Democrats on Tuesday attacked “blatantly partisan” policy provisions Republicans are pushing in routine funding bills that would repeal health care reform and environmental regulations. — In a letter to Speaker John Boehner …

Brian Beutler / tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com:
TPMDC — Democrats Demand Boehner Avert Government Shutdown Threat

Discussion: ThinkProgress and A plain blog about politics

Tim Stelloh / New York Times:

Brooklyn Detective Convicted of Planting Drugs on Innocent People — The New York Police Department, already saddled with corruption scandals, saw its image further tainted on Tuesday with the conviction of a police detective for planting drugs on a woman and her boyfriend.

Discussion: Shakesville, Balloon Juice and New York Magazine

Lee Fang / ThinkProgress:

Exclusive: Romney Family Investment Group Partnered With Alleged Perpetrators Of $8 Billion Ponzi Scheme — Mitt Romney and his son Tagg Romney. Tagg is the managing partner to Solamere Capital, a firm that invested in a new company employing brokers accused of taking part in the Allen Stanford Ponzi scheme.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Influence Alley, Crooks and Liars, Baton Rouge news …, Hullabaloo and Booman Tribune

Investor's Business Daily:

Smoking-Gun Document Ties Policy To Housing Crisis — President Obama says the Occupy Wall Street protests show a “broad-based frustration” among Americans with the financial sector, which continues to kick against regulatory reforms three years after the financial crisis.

Kevinliptak / CNN:

Huntsman unveils energy policy — Durham, New Hampshire (CNN) - Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman called for eliminating regulations on domestic energy production, funding research into new technologies and diversifying American energy sources in a policy speech Tuesday.

Discussion: The Politico