Write-Offs: 02.08.10

$$$ The history man and fatwa girl: Niall Ferguson has deserted wife Sue Douglas for Somali feminist [Daily Mail via Daily Intel]

$$$ German pensioners 'kidnapped financial adviser' [BBC]

$$$ Cash Money Records Founders Start An Oil Company [BI]

$$$ Should Individuals Be Regulated Like Wall St. Banks? [The Atlantic]

$$$ Toy Mogul Said To Buy Madoff Penthouse [Dealbook]

Bonus Watch: Greenwich Connecticut Is Feeling Good Again

We don't have to tell you bitching about bonuses is getting boring. Thankfully, the good people of Greenwich have nothing bad to say about them, and are actually just happy things are getting back to normal. They are spending like it's 2005 all over again, although they admit that they'll have to go about their business in a more demure manner this time around. Decency, and whatnot. "Last year was a big downer," said Michelle Brunwasser, a partner in the chic Weber art gallery. "Things are definitely better now, and a lot of it has to do with the bonuses."

Don't Drink The Water: The Great CDS Colonial Reversal

The following post is by a hedge fund manager friend of DB who shall remain nameless. He runs the emerging markets desk at his firm.

It's the financial version of Montezuma's revenge! The meltdown in Western European sovereign credit has led to a Great Colonial Spread Reversal. Until now, only select Anglosphere colonies had posted tighter spreads than the old metropolis. Sovereign spreads embodied the tradition order when it came to Latin America. When Latam hit turbulence, investors looked at European bank and corporate exposures to the old colonies, or figured on expensive support packages and pushed the colonizers a tad wider. But the shades of some conquistadors this week are weeping in Hades, for their world has been turned upside down. Cortez and Cabral, call your office! Pizarro, take a peek at your portfolio! Mexico and Peru now trade tight to Spain. Brazil is sitting well inside Portugal. For the moment, the sacred memory of the Raj is safe - State Bank of India still trades 50bps wide to UKT - but Gandhi's ghost may be rubbing his hands with anticipation while Clive sweats, as the spread is narrowing. France maintains a safe lead over francophone Africa as does Belgium with respect to Democratic Republic of Congo - for now!

US Will Neva, Eva Lose AAA Rating, Says Tim Geithner

PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT

IT GETS BETTER.