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Elsewhere on Friday:

Financial pathology libraries all over the world are clearing their shelves for the surge in Bear Stearns autopsy reports… The unique aspect of the Fortune autopsy came from Cayne himself, delivering his first substantive comments since the collapse. He should have kept his self-serving trap shut. 

Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan now says the world faces a “once or twice in a century event”. Faith in the financial system has been called into question. Taxpayers will have to rescue more banks. Missing is any hint of apology for his role in incubating this crisis as monetary overlord for 20 years.

Berkshire Hathaway investors likely won’t find much to rejoice about when the company reports its second-quarter results Friday.

How has Barcap avoided the silly risks that others wallowed in? It’s difficult to be sure, since on paper Barcap is stuffed to the gills with CDOs, and monoline exposure and leveraged loans. But its apparently sitting on the less toxic stuff.

Suddenly, Australia doesn’t look too badly placed economically after this week’s quartet of central bank meetings.

The hedge-fund break-up that’s about to separate two star money managers at Tudor Investment Corp has been in the planning stages for about six months, negotiated quietly over business lunches in New York, Boston and Greenwich, Conn.

It has become received wisdom on Wall Street that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has damaged American competitiveness… But do the facts support that wisdom? No.

Sprint-Nextel didn’t pull its convertible offering because a merger is in the works. Instead, people familiar with the offering say the deal suffered from garden-variety investor ennui.

Note to victims of accidents, medical malpractice, broken contracts and the like: When you sue, make a deal. A study of civil lawsuits has found that most of the plaintiffs who decided to pass up a settlement offer and went to trial ended up getting less money.

There is an interesting tug-o-war between the value of capital and the value of management evident in hedge funds, but even more strikingly highlighted perhaps in reinsurance. This is worthy of examination if only for the fact that they sit at opposite ends of the proverbial rope, producing (at present) an unimaginably large gulf between the two.