Hot Links: Charlie, AOL, J Crew, MLB, Schumer & Biden

What I'm reading this morning:

Hot Links for Weekend Reading

Let’s start off with The Daily Beast’s Charlie Gasparino‘s take on the BofA/ Ken Lewis/ John Thain showdown.  Thain went off on his former boss but Charlie stayed neutral: “Watching these guys go at it is kind of like watching old World War II footage of battles between Germans and Russians; you want them both to lose.”

My new buddy Michelle Leder of footnoted.org did a radio interview this week with Marketplace where she discussed the hidden perks for execs at companies like J Crew and Abercrombie.  The text of that interview is here.

The Deal Professor takes on the AOL/ Time Warner unravelling from start to finish over at the WSJ’s DealBook.  He calls it The Deal From Hell, which is pretty accurate.

How much did your favorite Major League Baseball franchise’s value drop in the recession?  EconomPic has the answers and some great charts to illustrate the data.

Activist investing is something I’ve always been passionate about and Eric Jackson‘s blog Breakout Performance is a great resource of up-to-date information on the topic.  He wrote about a bill being prepared by NY State Senator Chuck Schumer that will give more power to shareholders of a public company, including a say-on-pay.

The details of Barry Ritholtz‘s June 3rd investment conference are out, including lineup of speakers and price tag, at The Big Picture.

The SEC has learned to make cool maps into PDFs!  FT Alphaville has their visual representation of how a Citigroup investment banker was able to tip off friends and family around the country on mergers and buyouts before they happened.

And finally, are Vice President Joseph Biden‘s son and brother involved in a hedge fund ponzi scheme?  And if they aren’t, why so much pressure from attorneys on a blogger for posting the connective details?  And now assets have been frozen!  Bronte Capital owns this story, check it out here.