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Elsewhere on Monday,

- Welcome to Helldorado

- “With food riots in dozens of countries, isn’t it time to admit that the whole idea was a giant, if well-intentioned, mistake?”

- Warren Buffett’s Vega games. More…

Comment and analysis from Monday’s FT:

Lina Saigol: M&A can’t get no satisfaction
Are the rock stars of M&A banking an endangered species? It’s certainly starting to look that way. Ask any chief executive of a large global company to name Wall Street’s top dealmakers and they will start to stutter. More…

A bit of Friday levity, courtesy McSweeney’s.

Word problems for future hedge fund managers:

Elementary (AGES 5-10)

Dick has $1m. Jane has $1m. If Dick and Jane both give their $1m to T. Boone, More…

Yes, this is a charity plug.

The annual May-Fair event happens this year at the Cafe de Paris in London. But you will have to be quick since it takes place next Thursday, May 15, getting underway at 6.30. More…

Elsewhere on Friday:

What do you get when you cross good, thematic long-term investors and stock pickers with quarterly or annual redemptions? Perverse decision-making and style drift. Or a portfolio manager with an ulcer. More…

While it is still too early for hedge-fund honchos to celebrate, the biggest winners so far this year are some of the funds that had the biggest losses over the brutal summer of 2007, reports the WSJ. Last summer, More…

Have you wondered what it is like to be a real stock market trader? Have you been secretly memorising ticker symbols? If you happen to live in the UK, here is that once-in-a-lifetime chance: via hereisthecity.com, More…

Elsewhere on Thursday,

- “No-one in the City feels the need to change his underpants. After all, what chance do public sector workers have of ever recognizing a well-informed decision?”

- “Nearly 80% of affluent Americans believe a recession has already hit the US and optimism about the US is at a record low among the well-to-do.” More…

News and analysis from the FT:

Martin Feldstein: Why prepositions matter
A misstatement (due to a misleading preposition) that the US economy expanded in the first quarter creates an inappropriately sanguine view of the months ahead and therefore reduces the prospect of strong action to prevent the deep decline that may otherwise occur, More…

The unexpected resignation of a star hedge fund manager, poor performance and the forced restatement of costs overshadowed GLG Partners’ Q1 results. Noam Gottesman, chairman and chief executive, said the group that listed in New York in November was “facing cross-currents near-term”. More…

Elsewhere on Wednesday,

- Do contracts matter any more?

- You say tomato….Saudi’s “investment company”, “not a sovereign fund”

- “It isn’t unrealistic to think the Saudis oil export revenue could approach $400 billion a year if oil stays above $120.” More…

Michael Spencer, founder of inter-dealer broker Icap, is ploughing tens of millions of dollars into a new hedge fund to profit from frontier markets in Africa and the Middle East amid a rush of money into the region. More…

A massive thank you to all who voted - and left such kind comments. FT Alphaville has been honoured at the Webby Awards, taking both the judges’ panel and the People’s Voice awards in the business blog category. More…

Elsewhere on Tuesday,

-  Microhoo! postponed..

- … but don’t expect a a knee-jerk Yahoostock buyback

-  Bloggers dissect the Microsoft-Yahoo nondeal

-  Borrowing from retirement plans is surging. More…

The latest on Tuesday:

- UBS confirms Blackrock sale and reports a first quarter loss of SFr11.5bn, along with job losses of 2,600 this year in its investment bank - statement

- “More recently, conditions in the housing market have deteriorated sharply.” More…

Target, the discount retailer, is to sell about half of its store credit card portfolio to JPMorgan Chase for $3.6bn, in a deal that follows activist investor pressure from Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management. More…

A growing number of hedge fund managers are trying to persuade investors to back new ventures by offering discounted fees to help make up for losses at failed funds. The latest are the $3bn London hedge fund Endeavour Capital and the $2.5bn flagship fund of New York’s Drake Management (see separate report), More…

Sentinel Management Group, a Chicago-based money manager that collapsed last year, and two of its senior executives were charged by US regulators with fraud in the handling of $562m of customers’ money. More…

Drake Management is to close its $2.5bn flagship hedge fund after investors failed to stump up enough to keep the formerly high-flying New York fund operating.

James Mackintosh reports in the FT:

Drake, More…

Elsewhere on Thursday.

- Criticism of the Fed chairman seems unfair and after the fact. Not only have Bernanke’s unorthodox moves staved off a full-fledged financial meltdown, but they also have done so while reducing the inflation risks inherent in the traditional policy response of merely slashing interest rates. More…

Och-Ziff, the hedge fund manager that went public in 2007, made a Q1 net profit of $50m on the strength of a 30% rise in assets under management. The group last November had the biggest ever hedge fund IPO, More…

Elsewhere on Wednesday,

- “We are not running out of food or natural resources; this is an entirely man-made disaster caused by the Fed opening wide the monetary floodgates.”

- Is the lack of an uptick rule to blame?

- Private equity ranking - Carlyle come top

- “I’m skeptical. More…

Elsewhere on Tuesday:

- Bear - the “worst policy mistake in a generation.”

- “By buying equities, SAFE is encroaching on CIC territory. Word has it in Beijing financial circles that CIC is furious.” More…

Elsewhere on Monday, 
- Quantum’s Jim Rogers is buying Chinese shares again.

- “If China goes into a recession, God knows.”

- “What Chairman Ben Bernanke needs isn’t a gradual withdrawal from easy money but membership in Central Bankers Anonymous.” More…

All but one of the 25 largest US mutual fund managers saw their long-term assets fall in the first quarter, as returns dived and investors pulled out of funds. In the worst start to a year for more than a decade, More…

In case you missed these stories:

Hedge funds buy back the farm
Hedge funds and investment banks are swapping their Gucci for gumboots as they bet on rising food prices by spending billions of dollars buying farms across the world, More…

FT Alphaville has been nominated for a Webby award, in the category of best business blog. We are pleased, nay delighted. But we need your help. These US awards are the Oscars of the internet world and, More…

Elsewhere on Friday,

- The Fed should raise interest rates.

- The case for 2-1/4.

- TSLF success.

- RIP Bond Rally, 2005-2008.

- “The SEC is the 1930’s response to the stock market.”

- Ich bin ein Berliner: More…

Comment and analysis in the FT,

Mohamed El-Erian: This crisis is far from finished
During the past few weeks we have seen a growing number of market participants predict an end to the dislocations that erupted last summer and claimed victims throughout the financial system and beyond. More…

Gabelli Funds, an investment adviser to mutual funds, on Thursday agreed to pay $16m to settle SEC charges involving a market-timing arrangement with a UK-based hedge fund. The agreement with Gabelli, which neither admitted nor denied the agency’s findings, More…