“Effectively you will just intermediate Wall Street and the City of London out of the picture,” said Mr Hands. “It is already happening.” He said the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the world’s biggest SWF, “will effectively replace Wall Street”.

Global IPO numbers have fallen off the map this year, says the FT. More than $21 billion worth of sixty-two different initial public offerings have been yanked so far this year, nearly twice the value of those that have actually gone forward. The $21 billion number is the highest on record. Investors aren’t knocking down the doors for new equity issues, but Visa announced this week it would file for a $19 billion stock offering.

The WSJ reports that struggling Chrysler gave its former CEO a $15 million bonus last year at a time when it was asking its workers for huge givebacks on pay and benefits, and that it lost $2.9 billion in an eight-week period. The Detroit Free-Press, though, reports that Chrysler denies it lost money, saying it was actually profitable in that period, the first two months of private ownership.

In economic news, durable-goods orders slumped more than 5 percent in January, a bit more than Wall Street expected. The WSJ puts it on A2

The Journal reports on its Personal Journal cover that Americans are raiding their 401(k)s more frequently these days as the home-equity-loan well appears to be tapped out. The paper says 18 percent of workers had a loan from their retirement plan outstanding in 2007 compared to 11 percent in 2006.

Finally, Sam Zell is getting some pushback against his idea of selling the naming rights to Wrigley Field, ballyard of the Chicago Cubs, owned by Zell’s Tribune Co. Jay Mariotti, a sports columnist with the SunTimes, reports a “flood” of angry emails to his paper against the idea. His column is headlined “Cubdom Must Rally Against The Evil Zell.”

Opening Bell is your guide to the top business stories of the day from all over. But I can’t read everything out there—it’s 3 a.m., for Pete’s sake! If you’re an editor or reader who sees good work in local or regional papers—anything besides the WSJ, FT, NYT, and Bloomberg—send it my way at ryanchittum@gmail.com.

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