Bloomberg Analysis: Trump Is Worth Less Than One-Third Of What He Claims

But three billion is still nothing to sneeze at. Details.

Gawker Posts Huge Cache Of Bain Docs

Gawker has posted 954 pages of previously unseen and labyrinthine Bain financial documents which they say may reveal proof of Mitt Romney's attempt to cloak his massive holdings in tax-proof domestic and offshore accounts.

Bain isn't a company so much as an intricate suite of steadily proliferating inter-related holding companies and limited partnerships, some based in Delaware and others in the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and elsewhere, designed to collectively house roughly $66 billion in wealth in its many crevices and chambers. When Romney left in 1999, he and his wife retained significant investments in many of those Bain vehicles—he claims they are "passive investments" and that they are managed in a blind trust (though the trustee isn't blind enough to meet federal standards of independence). But aside from disparate snippets of information contained in his federal and Massachusetts financial disclosure forms, his 2010 tax returns, and SEC filings, the nature of those investments has been obfuscated by design.

Gawker says that the documents are so deliberately vague and complex that they cannot begin to decipher what they actually say. They are asking forensic accountants and their readers to dig in.

OctoLoans

Not that you've been wondering, but these days the Octomom is shilling for a payday loan company.

The site offers payday loans with high-interest rates. "If anyone knows financial hardship Nadya does," the site states. "This is why she has decided to endorse our service OctoLoan which connects you directly to a lender when you need money quickly."

USA! USA!

Sen. Carl Levin Calls Out Goldman Sachs Partner For "Shitty Deal"

And you probably haven't heard "shitty" used ten times in three minutes on C-SPAN.

Bernie Madoff Sentenced To 150 Years

Billionaire scammer Bernie Madoff was just sentenced to 150 years in prison.

Judge Denny Chin said the sentence was a symbolic one for a crime that showed "extraordinary evil" and "took a staggering human tool." Madoff , addressing the court in a dark suit for about six minutes, said that when he started the scam, he thought he'd be able to "work my way out." He said he lives in a tormented stated and expressed regret of leaving a "legacy of shame" to his family and grandchildren." Madoff said his wife Ruth will make a statement later today. He maintained that he acted alone, saying, "How do you excuse lying to brother and sons? How do you excuse lying and deceiving a wife who stood by you for 50 years and still stands by you? There is no excuse for that and I don't ask for forgiveness." He then faced his victims in court and said, "I'm sorry."

Prosecutors continue to look into charges against Madoff's wife and family.

Subprime Losses Wrack Citigroup

The deepening banking crisis hits Manhattan hard with this news from Citigroup.

Citigroup plans to announce a writedown of as much as $24 billion and layoffs that could total as much as 24,000 due to subprime and credit-related losses, CNBC has learned. Citigroup plans to announce a $24 billion writedown and layoffs that could total as much as 24,000.

Slightly on the upside, apartment rents are dropping downtown as the financial meltdown continues.

Crock Options

From the New York Times:

Bonnie Brown was fresh from a nasty divorce in 1999, living with her sister and uncertain of her future. On a lark, she answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google, then a Silicon Valley start-up with 40 employees. She was offered the part-time job, which started out at $450 a week but included a pile of Google stock options that she figured might never be worth a penny.

After five years of kneading engineers’ backs, Ms. Brown retired, cashing in most of her stock options, which were worth millions of dollars. To her delight, the shares she held onto have continued to balloon in value.

Sigh. Right about the time Ms. Brown joined Google, my employers in California also went public. By the time the creditors came to padlock the corporate headquarters near Sacramento, my thousand-or-so stock options were worth six cents each.

Go Greyhound

New records were set yesterday when the U.S. dollar continued its decline against foreign currencies. The Canadian dollar, currently the strongest currency in the world (seriously) is now trading at $1.10, the Euro is $1.47, and the British pound is at a 26-year high at $2.10.

So much for foreign vacations this year, eh? Meanwhile, Manhattan is just swamped with international tourists taking advantage of the relatively cheap hotel rooms and electronics, so at least there's that.

Loonies Now 1:1 Against USD

Your on-the-cheap Canadian vacations and shopping excursions are pretty much over, as the Canadian dollar hit one-to-one parity with the American dollar today, a benchmark it's been inching towards for the last year. Loonies haven't gone 1:1 against the USD since 1976. Topping that bit of bad news, the Euro also reached its all-time high against the USD today - $1.40. And the British pound is currently over 2:1 on the USD.

Mexico still seems to be a bargain, at least for now.