Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

• Time Warner sucked wind in the second quarter as profits fell 34%. Newly-independent Time Warner Cable, however, posted a profit. [AP, Reuters]
• McKinsey has set up shop at Condé Nast. What it is the consulting firm's actually doing (or recommending), however, remains a mystery. [NYO]
• Barry Diller's IAC posted a modest profit for the second quarter, but reported that revenues at the media conglomerate were down modestly, too. [AP]
• Michael Milken is backing some sort of new business website. Exciting! [NYT]
• Even more exciting: Sarah Palin is thinking about hosting a radio show. [HP] More

Happy Birthday: Holiday Weekend Special | A roundup of people who will be celebrating their birthdays on Friday, Saturday and Sunday is below.More

♦  The Fed is expected to cut interest rates again today, possibly to as low as 1 percent. [WSJ]
♦  The White House is pushing banks to stop hoarding the bailout billions and start making more loans. [AP]
♦  George Soros says the number of hedge funds "will be reduced in size by anywhere between half and two thirds" over the next few years. [Reuters]
♦  GMAC, which is controlled by GM and Steve Feinberg's Cerberus Capital, is now looking to become a bank holding company so it can tap into the $700 billion bailout pool. [WSJ]
♦  Credit card crunch: Lenders wrote off an estimated $21 billion in bad credit card loans in the first half of 2008. [NYT] More

Bear Stearns execs Ralph Cioffi and Matthew Tannin were led off in handcuffs a couple of weeks ago, accused of deceiving investors in one of the firm's ill-fated hedge funds. Bayou Group founder Samuel Israel III turned himself in last week after spending a few weeks on the run, and has started a 20-year sentence for defrauding investors of $450 million. (He now faces an additional 10 years for bail-jumping.) Plenty of other financial big wigs may ultimately get caught up in criminal probes, making 2008 one of the busiest years for white-collar defense lawyers, at least since the Drexel Burnham boys headed to the clink in the early '90s. A word of caution, though, to high-finance criminals facing the prospect of time behind bars. You do not want to show up to prison totally unprepared a la Sherman McCoy in Bonfire of the Vanities. Certain matters should be taken into account before you head off to the clink. There are even ways to parlay your riches and master-of-the-universe shtick into preferential treatment! Tips for disgraced Wall Streeters on how to survive behind bars after the jump.More