* Larry Dignan: Welcome to the patent valuation bubble

* 2 years late and billions of dollars short: Justice begins probing S&P mortgage-backed securities ratings

* Morning Call: U.S. futures signal steep losses, London falls early, gold hits record-high, European shares tumble and the Nikkei slips below 9,000.

* Activist author: Carl Icahn defends his record

* Invictus pokes more holes in the “Texas Miracle”

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* Rebecca Lynn: A VC’s take on why Google is buying Motorola

* Question time: What CEO recruiters would ask presidential candidates

* When meeting with a VC firm, entrepreneurs shouldn’t cross their streams

* Andrew Johnson: Market volatility not affecting bank investments in tech

* How did I miss this? Patriots punter interned at private equity firm during lockout 

* Matt Levine: Accused insider trader blogs about SEC incompetence, sort of admits to insider trading

* Tweet of the Day: @LaMonicaBuzz I’m going to start an ETF for college football violations. Ticker symbol NCAA.