peHUB First Read

* Is Fortress Investment Group on the edge of insolvency?

* Don’t blame CEOs for coveting perks. It’s just in their DNA.

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, Europe heads higher on pharmas, the Nikkei falls on yen and Hong Kong jumps on China rate cut talk.

* I’ll be at the Columbia PE/VC Conference this morning, to moderate a panel on the “broken” venture capital model. Too bad I’ll need to drive back to Boston before Chris Flowers speaks, although I don’t think there will be a lack of other hacks trying to get a piece of him.

* New IRS data from 2006 shows that the rich got richer, but paid less.

* My boss’ boss’ boss is wrestling with the notion of Twitter as journalism.

* The economy according to Mint, the online personal finance site.

* The next Wall Street jobs.