How do I know fountain pens make great gifts? Because I am the recipiant of  this very cool fountain pen from Josh Cotherman, who runs XFountainPens.com.

Fountain pens are a throwback to simpler times to when a pen was something you would loath to misplace. Now some pens are practically disposable, at $1.29 a dozen.

This one, however, is a keeper. The tip is 14k gold, imported from Germany. Thanks again Josh.

A great article from Pensions & Investments on the separte account structure for hedge fund investors:

Institutions are looking for transparency, accountability, an appropriate level of liquidity and alignment of interests, while managers are hoping to remain viable, stable businesses. More fundamental than these disparate objectives, though, is what we all have in common: our core mission as fiduciaries. We have all been entrusted, by the same ultimate beneficiaries, with capital that must be treated with the utmost care and thoughtfulness. When an institutional client invests with a manager, they are becoming partners in the same critical undertaking: building a better future for beneficiaries over the long term.

From John Paulson of Paulson & Co:“The top 1% of New Yorkers pay over 40% of all income taxes, providing huge benefits to everyone in our city and state. Paulson & Co. and its employees have paid hundreds of millions of dollars in New York City and New York State taxes in recent years and have created over 100 high paying jobs in New York City since its formation.

New York currently has the highest income taxes of any state in the country and thousands of businesses have fled New York to states with no income taxes such as Florida, Texas and Nevada, or moved offshore.

Instead of vilifying our most successful businesses, we should be supporting them and encouraging them to remain in New York City and continue to grow."

From New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg:“The majority of people who work in the financial services sector make something like $72,000 a year. They’re hard-working people and just bashing them doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

“And if you focus for example on driving the banks out of New York City, you know those are our jobs … You can’t have it both ways: If you want jobs you have to assist companies and give them confidence to go and hire people.”

“You know, Jamie Dimon is one of the greatest bankers, he’s brought more business to this city than maybe any other banker...To go and pick on him, I don’t know what that achieves. Jamie Dimon is honorable and works very hard and pays his taxes.”