Keith just spent half his opening on the latest Talibunny Tale, but we can’t bear to watch.

Yesterday I posted on the Satyam fraud – Satyam is an Indian outsourcing company.  Pricewaterhouse Coopers is Satyam’s auditor.  And because PwC missed the $1 billion elephant in the room, they might have a problem:

PwC said it was examining [Chairman and CEO] Raju’s statement but could not comment further due to confidentiality issues.

The fraud could cause problems for PwC. Since Satyam was listed in the US, investors can turn to the courts there for recompense, and there are legal precedents for holding auditors accountable.

I love the smell of litigation in the morning.

$1 Billion Fraud at India IT Group [FT]

• Unindicted war criminals: 1
• Fun brothers: 4
• Documented hummers: 1

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Earlier today in the comments we speculated as to the characteristics of a PUMA.  As a public service, I found one for you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65awpykCvAs

Discuss.

First it was the banks. Then Fannie and Freddie. Then AIG.  Then Shittybank. Then the automakers. Then the former millionaires created by Bernard Madoff. Then CRE.  And now?  Larry Flynt.

Turns out that even this vice industry — which has weathered many other economic downturns — has gone limp under Bush. Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis and Hustler magazing publisher Larry Flynt have asked Congress for a $5 billion bailout, arguing that their industry is also one of the “nation’s most important businesses“.

I can’t even begin to speculate who the next supplicant will be.

And I can’t wait to hear David Vitter’s floor speech.

Porn Industry Goes Limp: Seeks $5 Billion Federal Injection [Think Progress]

The contract jobs I work on have been outsourced in part, mostly to India.  That’s why this warms my cynical black heart:

NEW DELHI — Satyam Computer Services, a leading Indian outsourcing company that serves more than a third of the Fortune 500 companies, significantly inflated its earnings and assets for years, the chairman and co-founder said Wednesday, roiling Indian stock markets and throwing the industry into turmoil.

Sweet.

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This photo of a forlorn-looking Eiffel Tower was taken by me, your intrepid Foreign Correspondent, at midnight on New Year’s Eve to document the fact that THERE WERE NO FIREWORKS. Little did I know, however, that all the action was happening out in les banlieues of Paris and beyond, where Champagne and canapés have been replaced by the annual torching of cars to ring in the New Year.
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