peHUB First Read

* NY Times reports that the SEC is investigating whether civil charges should be brought against the private equity firms that paid "finder's fees" to Hank Morris, in order to get access to NY Common Retirement Fund. Seems like SEC is mostly concerned with if the firms disclosed the Morris relationship, which will be hard to prove one way or the other, given that the forms were "lost" by Morris' alleged co-conspirator David Loglisci. I wonder if the SEC also has the authority to look into how political contributions affected fund commitments. If so, it should do so. * Jim Cramer says he was set up by Jon Stewart. * Pete Lattman identifies the PE firms that offered to help Skype's founders buy their ex-company back from eBay. * Morning Call: U.S. futures lower as investors digest Goldman issue plan, London up in early trading, European shares rise, the Nikkei slips on autos and Hong Kong soars to four-month high. * Matt Asay: It's time for payback on VC open-source investments. * Joe Weisenthal live-blogged this morning's Goldman Sachs earnings call. * Speaking of Goldman, Felix Salmon wants no part of that $5b capital raise -- saying that the cure for Wall Street's ills is to get smaller, not larger.