peHUB First Read

* Treasury Dep’t names nine PPIP managers, although it says more than 100 firms applied. So much for wanting highly-competitive bidding. Wonder how many pure private equity names were among the denied, since there really aren’t any among the chosen (Oaktree and Investco/WL Ross are as close as it gets). Theo Francis has some related thoughts.

* Ryan Lizza goes in-depth on Sheila Bair.

* Mark Suster: Is VC too fat and happy?

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point upward, London rises early, European shares extend gains, the Nikkei hits 7-week closing low and HK and China shares finish up.

* Jenny Sanford was on her way to becoming an I-banking powerhouse, until she met straying hubby Mark.

* Exiled Chinese auto tycoon reportedly may launch a green car project in Alabama. Al Gore is among his supporters, although it’s unclear if that means Kleiner Perkins will pony up some dough.

* Microsoft search engine Bing has surpassed Twitter, Digg and CNN.com, in terms of traffic. Not bad after just one month on the WWW, although my guess is that the vast majority comes from IE users who enter bad URLs.

* Tweet of the Day: @fredwilson: Sand Hill Road is the app store for money. It’s amazing that so many VCs work in the exact same place.

* If I’d been a banker… Felix Salmon ponders his own criminal tendencies.