Goldman Sachs is lobbying the government to exempt investment vehicles known as credit funds from the Volcker rule, The Journal reports. If lobbying fails, the firm may be preparing for a game of a "Whac-A-Mole" as it devises strategies to dodge regulators.

An oil discovery in the Celtic Sea may offer salvation for the Irish economy!

Gold mining offers hope for Greece!

A list of nearly 2,000 Greek's with Swiss bank accounts has gone missing as the nation's political system devolves into "tragedy with elements of low comedy."

Leon Black, the chief executive of Apollo Global Management and the presumed buyer of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" for $120 million in May, acquired the high-end art book publisher Phaidon as a personal investment, according to The Times.

Third Point, the hedge fund founded by Dan Loeb, financed Penske Media's acquisition of Variety. Marc Lasry's Avenue Capital and Ron Burkle were said to be underbidders.

Wells Fargo managed to sell bad mortgages without sending embarrassing obscenity-filled emails about it.

Some finance professors sent out an anonymous survey to chief financial officers of publicly traded companies. About 20 percent said they engaged in legal but aggressive accounting techniques to hit earnings targets.

It didn't help that Mr. Rattner was ensnared in the billion-dollar New York State pension fund scandal. Those problems haven't gone away, in fact they only seem to have gotten worse, but Mr. Rattner's book is finished. And, according to an advance manuscript that was sent to the Observer this morning, it looks awfully interesting.

So far, this reporter has read just the opening and the finale, which, normally, is a terrible and book-ruining thing to do. It was excusable in this case, especially because of a three-page acknowledgement passage that is one of the all-time greats.

For starters, the book—whose cover features very serious expressions from Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and President Obama, but not our author—has an alluring table of contents. "Dead Man's Curve" is Chapter One, "Mr. Rattner Goes to Washington" is third, followed by "F**k the UAS," and later "Harry Wilson's War" and "The Chief Executive Shuffle" for the finale. There is a six-page character list, followed by a prologue that opens up with the image of Obama body man Reggie Love watching Tiger Woods in March 2009, who was "then still respectable and heroic." Was Mr. Rattner referring to himself metaphorically? Probably not.

The book, which was written with the help of a Fortune editor, a Team Auto colleague, a financial journalist and four others, begins with lovely turns of phrase. The Oval Office on weekends was filled with "T-shirts and jeans worn by unshaven, sockless men." The president "had the air of a man in the business of calmly executing." General Motors and Chrysler were being "fed intravenously" with cash. And Governor Jennifer Granholm's' voice "barely rose above a whisper," but "a chorus of anxious voices crackled through the speaker" during a conference call with senators.

The book, which comes out next month, and was sent without an embargo, is up to date. Mr. Rattner writes that he was disappointed with Ed Whitacre, who just announced he was stepping down, despite a promise "to see GM through its initial public offering." He is also annoyed that Dan Akerson will be both chairman and CEO, which means the roles won't be separated as he had hoped.

Still, working with "such a talented and collegial group of extraordinary individuals has been the high point of my career," he says. Geithner and Summers were "available, supportive, and decisive," and "servants of the highest order and integrity." And other government people? "Contrary to what some Americans may think," he writes, "the Treasury is blessed with a large array of talented and dedicated staff members."

He saves his best for a close friend. "I pay particular tribute to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who truly knows the meaning of loyalty and standing up for people you believe in." Despite Mr. Rattner's pension fund problems, Mr. Bloomberg has stuck by his side: "It’s certainly true he’s not moving away from Steve," a source told The Observer for the March story.

After that thank-you comes a glorious list of names "to whom I am equally grateful." In order of appearance, just a few of those names are The Times' Michiko Kakutani (he calls her Michi), Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, billionaire Barry Diller, Clinton adviser Vernon Jordon, JP Morgan's Jes Staley, billionaire Leon Black, Senator Chuck Schumer, billionaire David Rubenstein, Harvey Weinstein (thanked twice, actually), Bear Stearns' Warren Spector, billionaire Jerry Speyer, billionaire Mort Zuckerman, Barbara Walters, Lehman's Dick Fuld, The Times' Arthur Sulzberger, the Mets' Fred Wilpon, and Harvard's Skip Gates. He doesn't bother with the Henry Louis part.

But just where was Mr. Epstein's money coming from?

Until today, the only billionaire who has ever been publicly linked to Mr. Epstein is the founder of Limited Brands, Leslie Wexner. But now Cityfile has unearthed yet another billionaire connection. And it happens to be Leon Black, the co-founder of Apollo Management. Cityfile found Mr. Epstein listed as a director on the IRS forms of Mr. Black's non-profit, the Leon D. Black Foundation.

According to Cityfile, the details of Mr. Epstein's past have never been particularly clear. What we know: He was a math teacher at Dalton and a trader at Bear Stearns before venturing out on his own. What we don't know: just which high-profile clients were funding the private jet, large homes, and underage massages that invited the media's attention.

Mr. Black's publicist declined to comment on Cityfile's discovery.

David Bowie and his wife, supermodel-actress Iman, are moving into their golden years-Major Tom turned 51 last month, after all. And to celebrate, they've bought themselves a 5,000-square-foot loft at 704 Broadway, near East Fourth Street. The loft was on the market for $1.7 million, and the couple were said to have paid about $1.5 million.

It's a bargain for the Man Who Fell to Earth, who last year crash-landed in a big pile of cash. Mr. Bowie sold $55 million worth of bonds in 1997, based on the guaranteed continued sales of 25 pre-1990 albums like Space Oddity and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (the Prudential Insurance Company of America gobbled them all up; get a piece of the rock, indeed). You guessed it: He's Britain's wealthiest rock star, worth $919 million, according to Business Age magazine.

The loft is on the ninth floor, just below the penthouse, which includes a rooftop swimming pool. The reasonably sunny pad is smack-dab in New York University territory-near Nobody Beats the Wiz and the Antique Boutique. Not exactly the city's most chic neighborhood. But Mr. Bowie is still just young enough to be a Grammy nominee: This year, he's up for best alternative album for his mimicking the current drum-and-bass sound on the Earthling album. His new neighbors and their trust-fund, techno-gleaming life styles could help him keep it alternative. Mr. Bowie's representative had no comment at press time.

320 Central Park West (Ardsley)

One-bed, one-bath, 950-square-foot prewar co-op.

Asking: $342,500. Selling: $338,000.

Maintenance: $911; 33 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: 10 weeks.

OLD-TIMER FAST-FORWARDS TO TIMES SQUARE CONDO FROM THE WAY WE WERE Barbra Streisand hangs her special mirror, the one that has two faces, in this Emery Roth-designed 1931 co-op. Roth, of course, designed the Beresford and the San Remo apartment buildings as well, Art Deco contemporaries of the Ardsley, all on Central Park West. Ms. Streisand's building is known more for the facade's vaguely Mayan terrazzo implants than its celebrity content (maybe because it's a little farther north, near 92nd Street). The seller of this apartment remembers well when Roth was stacking up this Art Deco magnificence: He was 25 when it opened. At 92, after living in this one-bedroom apartment for many years and sitting on the co-op board up until a year or so ago, he decided it was time to move. The apartment is on one of the building's top floors, where it is set back, allowing for a terrace. It's on the wrong end of the building to see the park, though; it looks south over the Upper West Side. When the seller was but a sprightly 84, he renovated the apartment, putting in new etched-glass doors and burnishing the prewar details so all it requires is a paint job. He's moving over to where the action is-Times Square-into a new condo at West 43rd Street and Ninth Avenue. The buyer is a single woman. Meanwhile, the seller will always have the "Memories." Broker: Bellmarc Realty (Fern Budow); Halstead Property Company (Camilla Cassels-Smith).

120 East 71st Street

Five-bed, six-bath, 4,320-square-foot prewar town house.

Asking: $2.5 million. Selling: $2.25 million.

Time on the market: three months.

FINANCIERS HEDGE ON SWINGERS' STREET During his swingin' bachelor days as a partner at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., financier Leon Black lived on two floors of this five-floor brick town house, located across the street from the satiny lair of international right-wing gossip columnist Taki Theodoracopulos, left. But Mr. Black was only renting; his landlords had bought the house in 1975, renovated it and cut it into three apartments (two duplexes and a one-bedroom apartment on the top floor). They lived in the lower duplex, below Mr. Black, but later moved into Mr. Black's apartment. Lately, though, they had been using it only part-time while they built a house in Florida. The buyers are a family-Dad has a good job on Wall Street. (You know, today's shiny and healthy new Wall Street, the one that's not at all sleazy, like the 1980's Wall Street that Drexel Burnham symbolized.) With their family expanding-though not as fast as their portfolios-it was time to get out of that Fifth Avenue co-op and into something more comfortable. They're moving into the owner's old duplex on floors three and four-which is configured for two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a dining room, living room and 20-foot-deep terrace-and plan to annex the skylight-fitted fifth-floor unit, too. And they'll rent out the bottom duplex (maybe as a hedge against all that unpleasantness over in Asia). Broker: Leslie J. Garfield & Company (Jed Garfield); Christopher J. Infante International Real Estate (Christopher J. Infante).