Bankruptcy, Memorabilia, Regulatory Hurdles And A Hearty Appetite

*One heck of a payday. Have you seen how much money the lawyers handling the liquidation of Bernard Madoff’s firm are being paid? The Manhattan Bankruptcy Court has approved payment of $5,010 a day for trustee Irving Picard. That sounds like a lot — until you learn that his law firm, Baker & Hostetler LLP, is receiving $283,179.45 a day for the work the rest of the staff is doing. Wonder if that includes Sundays and holidays?

*And one darned expensive glove. There was no belt-tightening at an auction in Beverly Hills for celebrity memorabilia. A lone white glove worn by Michael Jackson during his “Bad” tour in the late ’80s fetched $330,000. A hat he wore on stage commanded $72,000. One ghoulish collector paid $18,750 for two empty prescription bottles that once belonged to Marilyn Monroe. A military-style jacket that John Lennon wore in a Life magazine photo shoot in 1966 sold for $240,000. And you know what? I wouldn’t want to own any of them.

*Why there are so few new jobs. Tom Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says that businesses considering hiring new workers face a “regulatory tsunami” from the Obama Administration. The hurdles include 200 new rules from the Environmental Protection Agency, 100 new regulations from the Department of Labor, 183 new agencies under Obamacare, and 540 rules and 170 new reports under the new financial regulation bill. Combine that with the vast uncertainty about what their tax rates will be next year, and is it any wonder that most companies are playing wait and see?

*Be glad we don’t “eat like a bird.” Researchers say that if a human burned energy at the same rate as a hummingbird, he’d have to eat 1,000 Quarter Pounders a day. Or consume 40 10-pound sacks of potatoes. That’s sure a lot of French fries.

–Chip Wood