At the Nasdaq, Times Square Alliance President Tim Tompkins was scheduled to ring the opening bell, signaling the resumption of business as usual—we hope. The New York Stock Exchange, which hadn't closed for two consecutive days due to weather since 1888, was also set to open.

"Our building and systems were not damaged and our people have been working diligently to ensure that we have a smooth opening," NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer said in a statement.

But good intentions are no guarantee of positive results. The Times reported yesterday that the New York Stock Exchange was experiencing "connectivity problems," while the Journal reported criticisms of the exchanges inadequate preparations for extreme events such as severe weather or terrorist attacks.

A few other notes from around Wall Street:

Goldman Sachs Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn discussed the most critical operations to get up and running with Bloomberg Television yesterday: "Tomorrow is month-end ,and we are heading to the unemployment Friday and then the election is next week," he said. "The clients that really need people in the building are more of the trading clients."

Traders are leaving for work extra early to make sure they're ready for today's open, The New York Times reports.

One market pro is expecting "significant volatility" in today's trading.

AIG CEO Robert Benmosche said the company's costs related to the storm would be along the lines of costs related to Hurricane Irene. “We don’t see it as anywhere near the tsunami,” he said at a conference yesterday according to Bloomberg, referring to the tsunami that blasted Japan last year.

Citigroup's offices at 111 Wall Street will be closed for weeks, according to a memo from CEO Michael Corbat obtained by Bloomberg.

Pimco CEO Mohamed El-Erian writes of Sandy that "after an immediate negative impulse of several weeks, the impact on GDP as a whole will be mixed to slightly positive."

From Jess Pressler's New York magazine profile of American Insurance Group CEO Robert Benmosche:

Benmosche was so notoriously frugal that soon after they got married, his wife Denise granted him a divorce just to avoid unfavorable tax laws. “We were in the hotel in Santo Domingo, and I said, ‘Oh, look, honey, we can get a divorce for $400,’ ” she says. “I knew if we didn’t go through with it, he would be so angry come April 15.” Benmosche pulls a sitcom-­husband face. They remarried the following year, although for the past ten they’ve had what he calls an “off-and-on relationship” that seems, at least in Croatia, to be mostly on. Still, Denise lives in Manhattan, while Benmosche, who has various “female companions,” lives mainly in tax-friendly Boca Raton. I’m wondering how rude it would be to ask if finances had anything to do with their not getting a second divorce when Benmosche comes up with an anecdote he says describes his “philosophy of life,” from when he was driving the Coke truck back in high school.

(If you count yourself as too classy to settle for the "various" companionship a government-owned CEO, fear not: Mr. Benmosche expects the Treasury to divest its remaining stake in AIG by the end of the year.)

Whither Europe: European governments have about three months to save the monetary union, George Soros said at the Festival of Economics: "I expect that the Greek public will be sufficiently frightened by the prospect of expulsion from the European Union that it will give a narrow majority of seats to a coalition that is ready to abide by the current agreement. But no government can meet the conditions so that the Greek crisis is liable to come to a climax in the fall. By that time the German economy will also be weakening so that Chancellor Merkel will find it even more difficult than today to persuade the German public to accept any additional European responsibilities. That is what creates a three months’ window."

Investors wonder whether central bankers can come to the rescue again, as Europe signals another tumultuous summer for markets.

Self-defense: Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Robert Khuzami defended his agency's low tally of prosecutions against top investment banking officials for charges arising out of the financial crisis. For one thing, said Khuzami, decisions on mortgage-backed securities weren't made at banks' highest levels. For another: “We are responsible for regulating 35,000 entities, and yet we are about the size of the D.C. police force.”

The SEC investigator suspended last month after he confided in co-workers his desire to carry a handgun had previously applied for a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but was denied.

One insider trader hit the speaking circuit, hoping to build up some goodwill ahead of his sentencing today.

What's in a hedge? Rule makers contemplate the Volcker rule and JP Morgan's recent $2.3 billion "hedging" loss.

Fee fie: Bankruptcy lawyers are under pressure to justify fees that often exceed $1,000 per hour. The lawyers will have their chance to defend themselves today, at a public meeting with the Justice Department's Trustee Program.

Golden oldies: AIG CEO Robert Benmosche looks to the European debt crisis and sees retirement ages moving as high as 80.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

A few deals that would help AIG repay the government are expected to wrap up soon. AIG's Asian life insurance subsidiary AIA is trying to assess demand for its shares as it prepares an initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. That deal is expected to net AIG somewhere between $10 billion and $15 billion. Fellow insurer MetLife said that it expects to finish its purchase of AIG's American Life Insurance Co. for $15.5 billion on Nov. 1.

AIG was making noises about an accelerated parting of ways with Uncle Sam as early as its Aug. 6 second-quarter earnings report, and Wall Street onlookers have been closely watching the expected sales of non-core businesses to see gauge how soon the company could return to the private sector.

AIG still owes somewhere in the neighborhood of $90 billion to the government. The company owes about $20 billion on a credit facility with the Federal Reserve, and the Treasury still owns $69.8 billion in preferred shares of the company.

A.I.G. seems to have shown how even the most maligned company can deal with Mr. Feinberg, who controls the pay of the company's top 13 employees (it was the top 25, but 12 have left the company). Last month, C.E.O. Robert Benmosche led the insurrection by floating the idea he might leave the company, and wound up with a $7 million dollar compensation package. Now, Mr. Feinberg is backing down from even lower-level executives, lifting a $500,000 pay cap, and and apparently reconsidering his pay recommendations for the company's top 75 employees (for which he has an advisory role).

"On Wall Street the alleged showdown is being followed as anxiously as a "Lost" cliffhanger," reports ABC News, which happens to be the network on which 'Lost' airs.

McKinsey was preparing a plan for the financial giant that was titled, rather cryptically, "Project Destiny," but the company's C.E.O., Robert Benmosche, decided that the company has too many advisers already.

"I am busy getting lists of bankers, lists of lawyers, how many consultants we have," he grumbled in a document obtained by Bloomberg News. Mr. Benmosche plans to come up with his own vision, which sounds about like Fran Lebowitz when we asked her about McKinsey a few weeks ago: "If I needed advice I'd ask myself!"