Floyd Norris, in his C1 NYT column, says banks haven’t even been following the rules as they are currently written.

The FT reports that there’s still a lot of cash out there, and the private-equity folks aren’t having trouble getting their grubby little hands on it. The pink paper says fundraising in the business is at levels similar to those at the peak last year.

Mr Brem believed investors continued to embrace private equity because they had learnt “the best time to invest is when things look like they are going wrong”.

I guess it’s never a bad time to hand your money over to these guys.

Sprint Nextel posted a whopping $30 billion loss on a write-down of its Nextel unit—yet another example of a dud merger. The WSJ on its Marketplace front, says things aren’t getting better for the wireless company. The NYT puts up high in its C1 story that the company suspended its dividend and raises questions about its solvency in the second paragraph.

Finally, everyone, you can quit worrying now. Buy that condo. Go for that crazy subprime mortgage-backed security. The great and wizened economist George W. Bush has looked into the future and tells us the economy is going to greet us as liberators.

May be time to buy sweets and flowers stocks.

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.