Steven Pearlstein has an excellent column in the Washington Post today explaining the problem with Wall Street compensation policies for the layman. Most times these explainers or arguments are too complicated and esoteric, which works in the Street’s favor.

— The Wall Street Journal gets results on some of its reporting earlier in the year. The House Ethics Committee will open a formal investigation into Congresswoman Maxine Waters, whom the paper earlier reported helped a bank in which her husband had a stake get bailout money.

— The New York Times advances the ball a bit on the unfolding Galleon hedge-fund insider-trading scandal. The paper reports Galleon’s head got an insider-trading tip in 1998 from the same woman now at the center of the case. She got prosecuted. He didn’t. The paper reports the case remains sealed. Time to open it up.

— And with that, I’m off for the weekend and for the first part of next week. Next time you hear from me, The Audit’s D.C. bureau will be its Seattle bureau. Never fear, Audit Chief Dean “Davy Crockett” Starkman will be holding down the fort in the meantime.