Morning Reading: Madoff, GM, Shipping, SWFs, Snow, etc.

A few links to items worth reading:

• The 17th Floor, Where Wealth Went to Vanish (NYTimes)
• Is a GM Bankruptcy Inevitable? (NC)
• How a GM bankruptcy might play out (TheDeal)
• Some Chinese shipping rates soaring (FT)
• "Hopeless" pound forces Britons to pay more for trips, etc. (Bloomberg)
• U.K. debt seen as almost twice as risky as McDonald’s debt (Bloomberg)
• Pakistan’s index falls to 2-year low after lifting curbs (Bloomberg)
• Sovereign loss funds … (Setser)
• This year’s IPOs fewest since 1979 (Bloomberg)
• Counting the fiscal cost of the current crisis: A glimpse from the UK? (PFM)
• Madoff, as consistent a golfer as he was a trader (NakedShorts)
• Nasdaq 100 Index Rejiggered (Barron’s)
• Man Throws Shoes At George Bush (YouTube)
• Live wind chill temps across U.S. as cold snap hits (Plymouth)