Serena Ng and Karen Richardson in the Wall Street Journal note a trend of public companies taking on debt, a la private equity, to pay shareholders a significant dividend.

John Carney at DealBreaker.com has more on these “DIY buyouts.”

Going Private on the question of “moral hazard” and bank lending standards to levered entities.

Larry E. Ribstein at American.com on how Blackstone’s planned IPO is ushering in a “new kind of public firm.”

breakingviews.com on what each Blackstone Group employee is “worth.”

Accrued Interest will pass on the Blackstone Group initial public offering.

FT Alphaville passes long some so-called secrets of success of private equity powerhouse KKR.

MarketBeat reports on some defections from the newly public Fortress Investment Group (FIG).

Hedge funds near $2 trillion in assets under management. (via DealBook)

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture on what the Fed thinks about the dual problems of incipient inflation and sputtering economic growth.

Greg Ip in the Wall Street Journal on the difficulties the Fed is having in espousing a “nuanced message.”

Housing will “suck” in 2007. (via MarketBeat & Econbrowser & Big Picture)

Jeff Miller at A Dash of Insight with more on trying to quantify the economic impact of housing declines.

Volatility remains volatile. (via Daily Options Report)

Van K. Tharp at TheStreet.com with two lessons learned from building model trading systems.

CXO Advisory Group with evidence on why “gurus” might espouse extreme forecasts in public.

William Samuel Rocco at Morningstar.com has five steps towards “better international investing.”

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