Independent research firm CreditSights finagled a sit-down meeting with Goldman Sachs' treasurer, Elizabeth Beshel, and head of investor relations, Dan Holmes. And I'm not sure if I'm flattered or disappointed that analysts get fed the same trite storylines from banks that I had previously thought were reserved strictly for journalists.

You can tell just from the title of CreditSight's report that they didn't get much more than boilerplate talking points on why Goldman is just so darned awesome, "Goldman Sachs: Franchise Fosters Group Behavior." But reading the takeaway points, I found that Goldman was not only tooting its own tuba, but beating some of its competitors over their heads with it.

Pity Edward J. Epstein, the reviewer who had to read the three latest books (there are six for sale on Amazon.com at this posting, soon to be a seventh, and at least three more in the works) on Con King, aka Bernie Madoff.

Writing in the WSJ, Epstein concludes that that the one by Erin Arvedlund might be the best account so far.   That would be "Too Good to Be True: the Rise and Fall of Bernie Madoff," which probably could've done without the subtitle.  The NY Times also seems to favor Arvedlund's effort, though the reviewer for the Times is decidedly less informed than Epstein about the whole mess. "Too Good" also gets the most stars among Amazon readers, for what it's worth.  Arvedlund knows the material; she was wise to the ruse early, writing an unfortunately ignored piece in Barron's eight years ago.

Just a few weeks ago, it seemed pretty clear that the Federal Reserve wasn't all that concerned about CIT, one of the biggest small business lenders in the country. I'm getting the impression that's changed.

Yesterday, CIT put out a short, succinct press release that it had reached an agreement with the Fed to provide it a plan in regard to its corporate governance, credit practices, capital and liquidity and its businesses. And really, that announcement was just kind of tacked on. The news was seemingly that CIT had adopted a poison pill.

Bank of America on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against ColonialBancGroup, seeking more than $1 billion in cash and loans.

Apparently, Bernard Madoff's passions went beyond just scamming folks out of their life savings.

Sheryl Weinstein, former finance chief at the Women's Zionist Organization of America (Hadassah), claims she had an affair with the married Madoff. And she plans to tell all about it in a new book, "Madoff's Other Secret: Love, Money, Bernie and Me, which will hit bookshelves later this month.

Greetings:

I am the business columnist for the St. Petersburg Times newspaper in Florida. I am interested in learning from CFO and getting their take on this economy and the challenges at such a competitive time. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks--Robert Trigaux

Amid the hysteria, it's hard to come by informed information about health-care reform these days. I saw a recent interview, however, that actually offered some insight into what employers can expect if Congress passes a universal health-care legislation. The Q&A, found on the Wolters Kluwer Health Talk Reform blog (http://healthcare-legislation.blogspot.com/) , was with Kathryn Bakich, the national director of health care compliance at The Segal Company.

European bank regulators are making the Fed look like a pushover with a move to force their charges to forgo interest payments on hybrid securities. According to an analysis by research firm CreditSights (sorry, no link), the Euros insisting that banks skip payments on preferred stock and other such instruments where contractually possible.

That's a big deal because it makes the securities more like permanent equity than debt, and thus shores up their capital. But it calls into question whether the banks should be able to deduct any interest they've already paid on these securities.

Success is often a relative term. That's surely the case in the restructuring of General Motors.

Restructuring bankers at Evercore and turnaround specialist AlixPartners are in a battle with the U.S. trustee in the GM case over fee requests related to the work they've done both leading up to and during the automaker's bankruptcy. Those fees include "success" fees of $17.9 million and $13 million, respectively, even though the U.S. government had to step in to head the restructuring and take a stake in GM.

Pretty big deal, this settlement where UBS, the biggest private bank in the world, is going to start throwing its secret-bank-accouht customers under the bus. The Swiss giant has fought the U.S. tooth-and-nail in efforts to maintain client privacy. Word comes now that the jig is up.

This from the NY Times: "Of the names on the agency's original list, prosecutors are focused on several thousand Americans with offshore accounts containing tens to hundreds of millions of dollars."

This additional detail from the WSJ: Lawyers involved in the case now believe UBS will agree to turn over some 8,000 to 10,000 account identities.  IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman is quoted: "We will release more details when the Swiss government signs the agreement as early as next week."

The U.S. government originally had sought the names of 52,000 account holders it suspected of tax evasion.  Lucky and/or savvy UBS Swiss account holders have already taken advantage of an amnesty program rolled out earlier this year in which they were allowed to come clean and pay fines, presumably avoiding criminal tax-evasion charges. UBS is taking it on the chin here -- it's a blow to its business and the bank a few months ago agreed to a $780 million fine for hiding $50 billion in customer deposits.

The deal announced today is a victory for tax-evasion prosecutors and critics of the long-sacrosanct "offshore banking industry," a scam by any other name, and it represents perhaps the first serious nail in the coffin for the tradition by which wealthy people hide their assets.