peHUB First Read

* Tom Robbins keeps digging into how NYC Comptroller Bill Thompson talks the talk on placement agents, but doesn’t walk the walk.

* Candover’s chairman says he’s sorry.

* NY Post reports that Clear Channel is in early talks to restructure its debt, and the term “prepackaged bankruptcy” has been broached.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures are mixed, London inches lower, European shares flat as oil and banks cancel each other out, the Nikkei hits a two-week closing low and Hong Kong falls three percent.

* Dan Mitchell: Defending Cheerios, Cereal of Liberty.

* The Hank Morris-Bear Stearns connection.

* Healthcare banker Jon Symonds is leaving Goldman Sachs for Novartis. Does that mean his grand plans for PE-backed pharma R&D have fizzled?

* Peter Coy: Why the bankruptcy process no longer works.

* MG Siegler: Twitter’s spectacularly awful 24 hours.

* How to set up an offshore tax haven in Panama. So easy, even an intern can do it: