* Salvage job: Can PE firms get anything from TXU?

* 2013 economic battle: Stock market vs. labor market

* Born to die: “Transient” electronics will transform medicine, war & more

* Morning Call: U.S. futures mixed, Europe climbs and the Nikkei flattens.

* Big small deal: Bids for Billabong cut in half

* Joshua Rosner: Let’s outsource failing banks

* Peter Orszag: Diminishing returns from chained CPI

* Naomi Rovnick: Why nearly half of Chinese mining deals fail

* Wish list: How Washington could help mutual fund investors

* Eric Koester: Getting Valley attitude (no matter where you live)

* AIG: Please don’t let Hank Greenberg sue the U.S. on our behalf

* Luke Timmerman: Brain map should get way more than $100 million

* Dairy queen: Margaret Thatcher may have helped invent soft-serve ice cream

* Tweet of the Day: @LaMonicaBuzz Got to hand it to $IACI‘s Barry Diller. He helped $NWSA launch Fox in the 80s. And now by investing in Aereo, he’s trying to destroy it.

* Tweet of the Day II: @Moorehn I used to have an editor who said he was glad he wasn’t a CEO because he didn’t want to see the stock soar when he left the co. $JCP