Interesting tidbits from the week:

SLUUURRRP: Bill Winters, co-CEO of JPMorgan, admitted to
Reuters that the bank experienced a “real brain drain” from 2001 to 2004. The reason: not enough dough.

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MAXIMUS MINIMUS: Faltering lad mag Maxim is going to hire a bunch of artsy photographers in an attempt to become relevant once again, according to Mediaweek. Their new strat also includes covering fashion and tech — in others words, becoming simultaneously gay and geeky. Sounds like a plan.

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FUGLY STARS: On Thursday, a link someone sent me showing before (touchup, or in some cases — REDO) and after photos of celebrities was up during the day, but down without any reason given when I tried to check it out later from the privacy of my apt. You should see it though … horrific.

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TARNISHED HARVARD: If you can make it through this super long article, you’ll learn how the “kids from Harvard” — in charge of setting up Russia’s capital markets — effed things up, royally. Among their misdeeds: investing in Russia despite obvious conflicts of interest, creating fake jobs for their cronies, paying off journalists … and other things — like awarding the first mutual fund registration to girlfriends. You know, the usual.

One choice quote: “‘You’re as worthless as a dick on a stump,’ Sokin liked to banter in Russian to Hay, who found the expression endlessly amusing.”

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BEST SKI GLOVES: Finally, a useful article from Slate. Spyder Whistlers ($85) come out on top.

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THE NEW HEDGE FUND: is private equity. At least that’s my take on this
BusinessWeek article. Yes, MBAs are all over it, but more than that — and this something that I did not know, but in hindsight seems obvious — CEOs and managers are looking to PE firms as a good career move.

Anyway back to the young people — here’s an excerpt: “These students, not yet wary of the public life, are chasing the huge dollars in private equity. The median annual compensation for a 2005 Harvard Business School grad who went to work for a private-equity firm was $174,500, compared with $135,000 for the rest of the class. Last year’s Stanford grads did better, with median total compensation of $232,000, compared with $140,000 for the class. Some private-equity funds pay as much as $300,000 to fresh MBAs.”

Don’t they made way more than that? Hm.

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MINDMELD: HEDGE FUNDS & P.E.: So I take it back. PE isn’t the new hedge fund, because that trend is now at least one year old, sez the Economist. More fund flows went into PE than hedgies last year. Uh oh! The Economist also reports that hedgies are extending their lock-ins. The lines are blurring…

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YOU’RE … BOOTIFUL: This is the number 1 song in the U.S.?