Rep. Charlie Rangel narrowly avoided a reality TV-esque fiasco by walking out of his ethics trial, because the ethically-sound Donald Trump was set to testify against him, along with another upstanding citizen, AIG chief Hank Greenberg. Too bad! [Metropolis]

Kimora Lee Simmons has good reason to munch on some cupcakes today. It's her 34th birthday. Given the events of the past year, former AIG chief Hank Greenberg probably isn't in the mood to celebrate, but it's his 84th birthday all the same. Others turning a year older today: Comedian Will Arnett is 39. Lance Bass is turning 30. Columnist George Will is turning 68. Actor Richard Jenkins is 62. Former SNL castmember Ana Gasteyer is turning 42. ESPN reporter Erin Andrews turns 31. Pia Zadora is 55. Gallerist Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn is 42. And two of the city's top lawyers, Ed Herlihy and Paul Roth are turning 62 and 70, respectively.

• Details on what's been discussed—and what's on the agenda—as President Obama meets other world leaders at the G-20 in London. [BN, NYT, WSJ]
• The House has approved yet another bill to restrict bonuses and compensation at financial firms that have received bailout money. [NYT]
• Former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg will give testimony in front of a congressional panel in Washington today. [WSJ, CNN]
• The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits surged to a nearly 26-year high last week. [Reuters]
• The Justice Department has opened about 100 criminal investigations into wealthy Americans who skirted tax laws as clients of UBS. [Dealbook]
• Real estate prices in NYC have taken a big hit thanks to Wall Street. [Reuters]
• Good news: hedge funds are back in the game, it seems. After a lousy 2008, investors are "tentatively returning to the sector," report some. [FT]

Forbes's somewhat suspicious list of the world's billionaires is now online. You can look through the complete list here, but as you can probably imagine, it wasn't a very good year for members of the ten-figure club. The 2009 list includes 793 people—it's down 30 percent from last year—and a handful of notable New Yorkers (like Sandy Weill and Hank Greenberg) saw their names vanish. NYC's richest man, according to the mag? That would be Michael Bloomberg, who saw his net worth jump 39 percent from $11.5 billion to $16 billion. So did the mayor have such a fantastic year? No, Forbes had just been underestimating his stake in Bloomberg LP in years past, although they didn't bother to mention that. [Forbes, NYP]

• Stocks appear positioned to rise this morning after tumbling to their worst levels in more than a decade during yesterday's trading session. [CNN, MW]
• More on what the government is trying to do with the billions it's been pumping into AIG. Meanwhile, the insurance giant's founder, Hank Greenberg, has filed suit against his former company and accused it of fraud. [NYT, NYP]
• Citigroup is still hoping to shed a handful of "non-core" assets, including its mortgage and insurance operations, Japanese brokerage, and private-label credit card business. [NYP]

♦ In a extraordinarily bold move, the U.S. will use $250 billion to take equity stakes in major financial institutions like Citigroup, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase as part of an effort to restore confidence in the system, unlock the credit markets and "avoid financial collapse." [WSJ, NYT]
♦ The government's move isn't unprecedented, although not everyone is very happy with the "partial nationalization" approach. [NYT, WaPo]
♦ Global markets continued to rise overnight as investors responded to news of the government's plan. [Bloomberg]
♦ Notwithstanding the bailout, some hedge fund titans like Steve Cohen, John Paulson, and Israel Englander are staying on the sidelines and keeping their billions in cash. [WSJ]

It was former AIG chief Hank Greenberg's turn to testify before the House today, and as expected he blamed everyone but himself for the insurance giant's historic collapse. ("How did this happen? I was not there, so I cannot answer that question with precision.") Unfortunately, Greenberg delivered his remarks in writing because of an illness. Or maybe he was just scared of getting manhandled by a bunch of crazy old ladies from Code Pink?

♦ Invoking emergency powers, the Fed will create a special fund to buy up commercial paper—short-term debt that companies typically use for such things as payroll—in an effort to ease up the credit markets. [Bloomberg]
♦ Wachovia and its sparring suitors, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, have agreed to a two-day truce as negotiators try to work out a resolution. [WSJ, DB]
♦ Did you miss Lehman CEO Dick Fuld's testimony before the House yesterday? A recap. [WSJ, FT, NYT]
♦ Bank of America reports that profits plunged 68% in the third quarter. [CNNMoney]

♦ The Senate is expected to vote this evening on a revised version of the bailout bill. [NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg]
♦ Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has spent the past day and a half working over lawmakers and lobbyists, trying to change minds. [Bloomberg]
♦ President Bush has signed into law a low-interest loan package for American automakers. [WSJ]
♦ UBS plans to cut 1,900 investment banking jobs. [Bloomberg]
♦ Wells Fargo chair Richard Kovacevich says "he feels like a kid in a candy store." At least someone is feeling good. [DB]

Geoffrey Raymond is the artist who's been making a name for himself with his portraits of disgraced CEOs, turning up outside office buildings and encouraging employees to "contribute" to his art by adding an inscription of their own. He was outside Bear Stearns shortly after Jimmy Cayne was ousted; last week, he stood outside AIG with a Hank Greenberg painting set up on an easel. But it isn't the safest line of work: When he appeared outside Lehman Brothers with a portrait of Dick Fuld (which he eventually sold for $10,000), he says he "almost got beaten up by a 'drunk, angry' employee wearing one of the firm's corporate softball league jerseys." [NYO, previously]

♦ All eyes are on Washington, of course, as lawmakers reconvene to try and hammer out a bailout. [Politico, NYT]
♦ J.P. Morgan Chase has agreed to pay $1.9 billion to the government for WaMu's banking operations and will take over the company's portfolio of loans. WaMu depositors will still have access to their cash; holders of WaMu equity and debt won't be as lucky. [WSJ, DB]

How is Hank Greenberg, the ex-CEO of AIG, feeling today? Not good! Sure, he's pissed that AIG's current management team led by Bob Willumstad didn't turn to him for his "suggestions and help." But he's a lot poorer, too: His shares in the insurance giant were valued at more than $700 million last year. As of this morning, his stake is worth roughly $28 million. [WSJ]

• Goldman Sachs reports that earnings slipped 11% in the second quarter, but still better than expected [WSJ]

Maurice "Hank" Greenberg is the chairman and CEO of the private investment and insurance company C.V. Starr & Co. He's far better known as the former chairman and CEO of the insurance giant AIG, a job he was hounded out of by former attorney general Eliot Spitzer.

So the big news in media circles, if you care about that sort of thing (and, really, what's more exciting, Danny DeVito drunk on 'The View'? We think not.), is Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's plan to buy the New York Times. This morning's Post reported that the "billionaire insurance titan" has been "buying huge blocks of New York Times stock to break the Sulzberger family's stranglehold on the media empire." This afternoon, CNBC's Charlie Gasparino (yeah, just pretend that you know who he is) advanced the story, claiming