Cityfile: New York's Most Notable and Influential

Happy Birthday | Joy Behar, the View fixture and host of her own show on HLN as of last week, is turning 67. Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal turns 58. American Idol judge Simon Cowell is 50. American Idol winner Taylor Hicks is 33. John Mellencamp is turning 58. Toni Braxton turns 41. Rachel McAdams is 33. Nation editor-in-chief Katrina Vanden Heuvel is celebrating her 50th. Famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma is 54. Russia's most powerful man, Vladimir Putin, is 57. Sex columnist Dan Savage is turning 45. Tico Torres of Bon Jov turns 56. Nobel Prize-winning activist and cleric Desmond Tutu is 78. And Oliver "Ollie" North turns 66 today.

Bankslaughter | The Guardian's Paul Collier has proposed a brand new crime (and a brand new word): bankslaughter: "With bankslaughter, when the bank blows up—even if it is a decade later—a criminal investigation traces back to determine whether crucial decisions were reckless. If a reasonable banker faced with the information available at the time would not have taken those risks, the person responsible is dragged off the golf course and jailed." Clusterstock's John Carney thinks this may just be the dumbest idea ever and should be "nipped in the bud before some populist lawmaker tries to make a garden party out of it." In the meantime, if you see Jimmy Cayne, Chuck Prince, or Dick Fuld on a golf course tomorrow and they look a little queasy, now you know why. [Guardian via Clusterstock]

It's All Harvard's Fault | If you're outraged about the current state of the economy and you need an outlet for your anger, you may want to catch a bus to Boston instead of taking one to visit the homes of AIG executives. Just a few of the names in the press these days who happen to be graduates of Harvard Business School: Former Merrill Lynch chiefs Stan O'Neal and John Thain, former treasury secretaries Bob Rubin and Hank Paulson, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner, and Bernie Madoff enabler Ezra Merkin. [Clusterstock]

• Tim Geithner was sworn in as Treasury Secretary last night. William Dudley is expected to take over for Geithner at the New York Fed. [BN, NYT, WSJ]
• Nomura announced a quarterly loss of $3.8 billion yesterday. [DB]
• Barclays says it plans to write down an additional $11 billion for 2008.  [NYT]
• Tremont, the hedge fund that invested in Madoff, may shut down soon. [NYP]
• Vikram Pandit has hinted that Citi may abandon plans to buy a new jet. [CS]
• John Paulson is continuing to rake in lots of money. [BN]
• 78,000 people were laid off by public companies yesterday. [NYP]
• Stan O'Neal? He's a lousy tipper, just so you know. [NYP]

John Thain Tries to Explain, Fails | Why did former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spend $1.2 million renovating his office when he took from Stan O'Neal at the firm? It was because O'Neal's office was "very different," and it would have been "very difficult" to use it in the "form that is was in." We're not sure what that means either. A clip from Thain's awkward chat with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo earlier today appears after the jump.More

There was a bit of good news last week for Stan O'Neal, the former Merrill Lynch CEO who was ousted last year: It was reported that O'Neal was "poised to make a reappearance on Wall Street" with a new job at a hedge fund called Vision Capital Advisors. But there was another, less positive development for O'Neal last week as well. On Friday, O'Neal handed over full ownership of his duplex co-op at 941 Park Avenue to his wife, Nancy Garvey, a property worth as much as $20 million. Why the transfer? O'Neal has been named as a defendant in a series of class-action lawsuits against Merrill, which have accused him of misleading investors about the firm's exposure to risky mortgage investments; moving assets out of his name could be a way to shield them in the event a court eventually awards damages. But the move could also suggest that the couple is in the process of dividing up their assets as part of a divorce proceeding. We'll let you know if we hear more. In the meantime, the apartment transfer document is below. More

• The last-minute rejection of the auto bailout yesterday has pretty much guaranteed that this will be a miserable day on Wall Street. [NYT, WSJ]
• Marc Dreier, the lawyer accused of stealing hundreds of millions from investors, was denied bail yesterday. The Post suggests "suicide hotlines in Greenwich could be lit up today as investors begin to realize how much they've lost in the rip-off scheme." [NYT, NYP]
• U.S. retail sales dropped 1.8 percent last month. [WSJ]
• Goldman Sachs has set aside $12 billion for bonuses, down from $20 billion last year. [Reuters]
• Bonuses on Wall Street are expected to be down 50 percent this year. [DB]
• Good news for ex-Merrill CEO Stan O'Neal: He may have a new job. [FIN]

Fox 5 reporter Arnold Diaz paid a visit to Dick Fuld's house in Greenwich clad in a faux leather trench coat as part of one of his "Shame on You" segments this week. It's not quite as satisfying as Diaz's encounter with Martha Stewart a couple of weeks ago, and, unfortunately, he doesn't get a chance to pester Fuld personally like one of Bill O'Reilly's operatives managed to do with ex-Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal a month ago. On the plus side, though, he does get chewed out by a Eastern European man (Fuld's butler, perhaps?), and the police eventually turn up and force Diaz off the property. Video of the encounter is here. [Dealbreaker]

Spotted | Stan O'Neal, the disgraced former CEO of Merrill Lynch, having lunch earlier today at Alain Ducasse's Adour in the St. Regis hotel. [Dealbreaker]

Steve Schwarzman's 60th birthday party last year may go down as the last, great party before the fall. Days after closing on what was then the biggest leveraged buyout in history, the $39 billion purchase of Equity Office Properties, the billionaire chairman of the Blackstone Group invited 500 people to the Armory on Park Avenue for a party that cost an estimated $3 million. A very long list of notables turned up—Donald Trump, Barbara Walters, Barry Diller, Lloyd Blankfein, Jamie Dimon—as did many of the people who have now become poster boys for the global financial crisis, like former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal, ex-Bear Stearns chief Jimmy Cayne. Rod Stewart was paid $1 million to perform for the assembled guests; Patti LaBelle sang "Happy Birthday." And the room was designed to replicate Schwarzman's $40 million co-op at 740 Park Avenue. So does Schwarzman have any regrets now the economy has crumbled and he was depicted as a real-life Gordon Gekko in the relentless press coverage that followed? More

It looks like private equity exec Leigh Abramson is holding up just fine amid the global financial crisis. The former Morgan Stanley Capital Partners honcho and managing director of Metalmark Capital picked up a duplex at 941 Park Avenue for $12.5 million, $2 million less than what the apartment was originally listed for back in April. (Abramson's timing also worked out in his favor: Metalmark was acquired by Citigroup in late 2007, back when the bank was still overpaying for acquisitions.) According to the listing, the five-bedroom apartment was the longtime home of the late pianist Arthur Rubinstein; now Abramson will get to chat about the unraveling economy with fellow resident Stan O'Neal, the disgraced former CEO of Merrill Lynch. Click through for a few photos and a floorplan of the spread.More

Bill O'Reilly cares really, really deeply about the little people, especially the unfortunate folks who have lost their homes during the mortgage meltdown. That's why he says he now plans to track down the perpetrators of these outrageous crimes "one by one." Last night's target: Former Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal, who was evidently leaving his apartment building on Park Avenue when an O'Reilly operative ambushed him and trailed him a few blocks, all the while asking him questions about the $161 million he made last year and whether or not he felt bad for Merrill investors and employees. O'Neal kept his mouth shut the entire time, which didn't exactly make for thrilling television. Hopefully the lack of drama won't deter O'Reilly hooligans from camping outside Dick Fuld's house in Greenwich or bumrushing Jimmy Cayne at his weekly bridge game.

♦  All eyes are on Washington, of course, as lawmakers reconvene to try and hammer out a bailout. [Politico, NYT]
♦  J.P. Morgan Chase has agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the government for WaMu's banking operations and will take over the company's portfolio of loans. WaMu depositors will still have access to their cash; holders of WaMu equity and debt won't be as lucky. [WSJ, DB]More

Happy Birthday | Entourage hottie Adrian Grenier turns 32 today. Former mayor David Dinkins is 81. Jessica Simpson is turning 28. Gallerist Andrea Rosen is 46. Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O'Neal is 57. Times film critic Tony Scott is 42. Theater attorney Freddie Gershon will be 69. Web marketing guru  Seth Godin turns 48. Social fixture Lisa Anastos is 40. And Jeffrey Greenberg, the former CEO of Marsh & McLennan and son of billionaire Hank, is 57.

• Lehman Brothers is reportedly looking to raise capital (yet again) to shore up its balance sheet. The grim news sent the stock down 8% this morning, and likely ruined Dickie Fuld and Erin Callan's day. [WSJ, AP]
• Ken Thompson will have plenty of time to hit the links with Stan O'Neal and Chuck Prince. The Wachovia chief has been ousted amid the mortgage meltdown. [WSJ]
• Dick Grasso's case will be heard before an appeals court today, and he may get his massive payout after all. Perseverance pays off! [NYT]
• Wall Street compensation is on the decline. Porsche dealers quietly weep. [Dealbreaker]