In 1991, John Meriwether lost his job at Salomon Brothers in the wake of a government bond scandal; he then proceeded to open up his own hedge fund: Long-Term Capital Management. After the collapse of that fund nearly torpedoed the entire global economy -- and was chronicled in the highly readable When Genius Failed -- Meriwether has gone through a string of less notable ventures.

His latest is now coming to an end. Bloomberg reports that "JWM Partners LLC is closing its main Relative Value Opportunity II fund after losing 44% from September 2007 to February 2009."

It's hard to have much sympathy for the investors who lost their money putting their faith in the mastermind of one of the biggest disasters in the history of global finance, although he was more conservative this time around: The Relative Value Opportunity II fund was leveraged just 15 to 1 instead of the more than 25 to 1 that led to the demise of Long-Term Capital. This time though, Meriwether's fund was a victim of market problems instead of a cause of them.

MAJOR PAPERS:

• John Meriwether, whose Long-Term Capital Management lost $4B in 1998, has new troubles with JWN Partners, as his Meriwether's largest hedge fund has fallen 28%, and another market fund is also down. Investors have until Monday to ask to pull out their investment, the Wall Street Journal reported.
• The Wall Street Journal also reported that failed mortgage provider New Century Financial might be able to get back some of its lost funds by suing its auditor KPMG, according to a court appointed investigator who looked at the company's demise.
• After reaching a deal that allows its customers to access many of Universal Music's songs, the Financial Times reported that Nokia Corporation (NYSE: NOK) is in talks with the other three leading record companies - Sony Corporation's (NYSE: SNE) Sony BMG, EMI and Warner Music Group Corp's (NYSE: WMG) - about giving its customers access to their catalogues.

• Comscore has released its February "U.S. paid clicks" report, according to a source, which reportedly said Google Inc's (NASDAQ: GOOG) paid clicks in the U.S. during the month increased 3% year-over-year; however, the 'slight, slight improvement' from January may not actually be, the Silicon Alley Insider reported, since Comscore did not adjust for Leap Year. Google's paid clicks in December were up 12% and up 27% in November.