Allen Stanford gets kicked around, but Bernie Madoff can clearly throw down some serious smack. While the former's being moved from one facility to another because he's lost some ground on the cell block, Madoff just earned himself some props.

The engineer of the largest (known) Ponzi scheme in history apparently got into an argument with another geriatric inmate at the Butner, North Carolina federal prison. Of course, it was over the stock market. Does it really make sense to outmaneuver a guy who never needed to know what the market was doing to deliver double-digit returns?

Well, push came to shove, as they say, with the "attacker" stumbling and looking up at a mean, mean Madoff. He got up and ran off.

Robert Allen Stanford has been charged with running one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history and, like any other millionaire, that means he's looking to spend a ton of money on his defense.

Since Stanford's assets have been frozen, he has to get court approval for his expenses, and he's asking for an allowance of $10 million for his legal fees. But the Feds think that amount is excessive and are concerned that that money should go to his victims.

So for now it's in limbo, but Mr. Stanford is already paying the price. The New York Post reports that "Just last week, Stanford's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, sprinted for the exit because he wasn't getting paid. The court, though, is forcing DeGuerin to stay until someone else can be found. That someone might be Robert Luskin, of Patton Boggs, in Washington, D.C., but he, too, will not guarantee legal work unless he gets paid."

While Sir Robert Allen Stanford sits in jail awaiting news on what will become of his alleged $7 billion Ponzi scheme, he's doing quite a bit of complaining.

Bloomberg reports that "For the past week, Stanford, who's in a cell in Conroe, Texas, with from eight to 10 other men, has endured heat and intermittent lack of power when outside temperatures reached 100 degrees or more, his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, said yesterday in a motion asking that his client be transferred to a downtown Houston jail." The filing also noted that one of the men Stanford is sharing a cell with is diabetic and another has a heart condition.

Reportedly, Swiss bank UBS (NYSE: UBS) "systemically and deliberately" violated U.S. law by dispatching private bankers in America to recruit citizens interested in evading taxes.

UBS is now being forced by the Justice Department to reveal the identities of the 52,000 clients. This filing asks that the U.S. District Judge (Alan S. Gold) hold UBS accountable for conducting years of illegal business in the U.S. This business reportedly earned UBS more than $100 million in fees, while costing the U.S. "hundreds of millions" of dollars in unpaid taxes.

Texas billionaire R. Allen Stanford pleaded 'not guilty' today in a federal court arraignment to charges that he ran a $7 billion Ponzi scheme. Not only is Stanford being charged with running the Ponzi scheme, there are also allegations that he paid $100,000 to Leroy King, the former chief executive officer of Antigua's Financial Services Regulatory Commission.

This day has been coming for a while. It seems as though the government has been looking into Stanford's investment company since 2005, but it was only this past February that they shut down the Houston office of his investment company, Stanford Financial Group.

This week, Texans watched a meteorite burn up in the atmosphere leaving a few glowing pebbles in the scrub for astronomers to recover. It turns out that when 3,000 people accepted positions in the Bush administration, they thought they were hitching their career wagons to a star. Now, it looks more like their careers were attached to that flaming out meteorite instead. How so?

With the national unemployment rate at 7.6%, the unemployment rate among those Bush appointees is 75%. Or put another way, only about 25% of those 3,000 folks have found jobs. It turns out that this unemployment rate is much higher than for former Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton staffers -- about half of which had jobs within a month of leaving their government posts.

Priceline (NASDAQ: PCLN) August straddle Expensive at $7.20 into EPS. PCLN is recently up $3.08 to $64.81. PCLN will report EPS after the close tonight. PCLN August straddle is priced at $7.20. PCLN September option implied volatility of 54 is above its 26-week average of 36 according to Track Data, suggesting larger price fluctuations.

Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) option prices Elevated as expected into 8/8 EPS. S is expected to report EPS of 22 cents before the open on 8/8 according to Thomson First Call. Stanford Group says "a key data point will be whether S has been able to turn around its postpaid subscriber business." S August 20 straddle is at $1.70. S September option implied volatility of 39 is above its 26-week average of 29 according to Track Data, suggesting larger risks.

Knot Inc. (NASDAQ: KNOT) August straddle Expensive at $3.50 EPS & Outlook. KNOT, the nations leading wedding resource that reaches over 1 million engaged couples each year, will report EPS on 8/8. CIBC says "the 23% drop in the stock since the reporting of 1Q is largely attributed to investors' growing skepticism of management's ability to effectively monetize its assets. Without a material catalyst, the shares are not yet 'cheap' enough." KNOT August 17.5 straddle is at $3.50 according to Track Data, suggesting larger fluctuations.

Daily options Update is provided by Stock Specialist Paul Foster of theflyonthewall.com.

Harvard, Stanford, Notre Dame, and MIT have all received permission from the IRS to allow donors to invest in their endowments (WSJ, registration required). By structuring investments as charitable trusts, donors receive a regular distribution until death, and then the money goes to the school.

The returns earned by endowments at schools such as Harvard and Yale are impressive. The Harvard endowment has returned 15.2% per year for the past 10 years, crushing the S&P 500's return of 8.3%. In addition to their strong performance, endowments are diversified across so many different asset classes that they often bear a very low correlation to the stock market. While investing in endowments is often inefficient in terms of taxes, the historically higher returns some have earned has more than made up for it.

If tax rules loosen up and allow endowment investors to keep a greater share of their gains, we could see endowments become a popular vehicle for retirement planning. Instead of watching the Final Four basketball games, investors could keep a close eye on which school is earning the highest returns.

I wonder how much correlation there would be between the prestige of a school and the performance of its endowment. As Warren Buffett has said, "Success in investing doesn't correlate with IQ once you're above the level of 25. Once you have ordinary intelligence, what you need is the temperament to control the urges that get other people into trouble in investing."

Google (GOOG) is a great company and seems to have a great future. Google stock has had a great ride, although a turbulent one. I do not own any shares and have been following it since before the IPO. Of course I wish I would have bought some when it initially went public but alas, buying it then seemed like wild speculation and not investing. What did I know for sure. Not much. What do I know for sure now. Not much more. At this point in time Google seems more like a riddle than an investment to me.

There is little certainty in new companies when investing for the long haul. This does not mean it is not a good investment at some price but what price? What is the risk reward proposition? Is Google more likely to be a $200 billion company in five years (only seven companies are now, two are banks & three are oil companies) or a $50 billion company like Ebay or Yahoo? I think the latter has the far greater possibility. With a trailing P/E of 66, tripling its earnings would bring the P/E to 22, still higher than the market average. This is definately a riddle I have no answer to, but on a risk/reward basis, I think I'll just watch others hope and pray and dream while I will be looking for investments.

I know Google is profitable, and that enough people are convinced it will be even more so. If the stock sank to $250 analysts would explain it to us. If it flew to $500 analysts would explain it to us.