A look back at 2011: Taxes, bailouts, and American idiots

Some stories are worth revisiting, again and again.

FORTUNE -- Different people have different year-end traditions. Mine include distributing my wife's delightful Chanukah cookies to my colleagues, and leaving singing messages to the tunes of "Jingle Bells" or "Auld Lang Syne" on my office voice mail. On the professional front, I re-read what I've written during the year, a sometimes painful exercise, own up to mistakes I haven't already corrected, and MORE

Pre-Marketing: Yahoo suitors set stage

* Alexis Madrigal: There is no next Facebook

* Clubhouse insider: Stevie Cohen is bidding on the Dodgers

* Yahoo takeover update: Alibaba and Softbank hire a lobbyist

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point higher, London rises early, European shares flat after Italian debt auction and the Nikkei falls.

* John Hempton: Sears liquidation sale

* Ucilia Wang: 10 solar trends to watch in 2012

* Pre-IPO: What the SEC asked Groupon

* Maid in Manhattan II: Get ready for DSK, the movie

* MORE

Obama's unforced Fed error

Obama undermines his strongest attack on Mitt Romney.

President Obama yesterday announced plans to nominate Jerome Powell to the Federal Reserve's board of governors. Somewhere in Iowa, Mitt Romney was cheering.

Powell served as undersecretary of the Treasury under President George H.W. Bush, but after that spent eight years as a partner with private equity firm The Carlyle Group.

That's right: Obama, who already is using private equity as a cudgel to bash Romney, has MORE

Will private equity buy Sears?

Private equity doesn't have much interest in Sears

Sears Corp. (SHLD) made headlines yesterday by announcing plans to close up to 120 Sears and Kmart locations, following weaker-than-expected holiday sales. It seems that the retailer's plan to partially convert its physical locations into something akin to distribution centers for online shoppers hasn't quite worked out too well.

My initial thought was that Sears should now be ripe for private equity firms, until I MORE

Mu Sigma raises big money for big data

Mu Sigma, a profitable provider of "big data" analytics and decision-support services to large companies, today announced that it has raised $108 million in private equity funding. General Atlantic led the deal, with firm CEO Bill Ford joining the Mu Sigma board of directors. Sequoia Capital, which led a $25 million investment in Mu Sigma just eight months ago, also participated and increased its stake.

I spoke about the deal with MORE

Pre-Marketing: City for sale

* Kathleen Gray: City for sale

*  James Surowiecki: The return of layaway

* He hate who? Obama nominates ex-PE pro to Fed board

* Bloomberg: Don't give up on sensible Dodd-Frank ideas

* Morning Call: U.S. futures point lower, London falls early, European shares climb and the Nikkei dips.

* Out of focus: KKR directors leave Kodak board

* David Whitford: Mitt Romney means business

* Fred Wilson: Startup successes are first mocked and misunderstood

* Steven Davidoff: For Wall Street deal-makers, sometimes MORE

Mitt Romney means business

In an interview, the Republican presidential candidate says he'll reduce corporate taxes and overturn regulations. Will that be enough to turn the economy around?

By David Whitford, editor-at-large

Mitt Romney stumps in New Hampshire.

FORTUNE -- Mitt Romney came to Manhattan for a day in mid-December to ask for money from his Wall Street friends. In a tactical shift preceded by Newt Gingrich's unexpected surge in the polls, he also sat for MORE

M&A

Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: ALXN) has agreed to acquire Enobia Pharma Inc., a Montreal-based developer of therapeutics for serious bone disorders, for up to US$1.08 billion in cash. The deal includes a $610 million up-front payment and up to $470 million in milestone-based earnouts. Enobia has raised over $130 million in VC funding, from firms like CTI Life Sciences Fund, Desjardins Venture Capital, Kirchner Investment Management Corp., OrbiMed Advisors, T2C2 and MORE

Private equity deals

TPG Growth Asia is part of a bid to acquire Chinese cable-maker Fushi Copperweld Inc. (Nasdaq: FSIN) for $363 million, or $9.50 per share (27.3% premium to Wednesday's closing price). The consortium also includes Abax Global Capital and Fushi Copperworld chairman and co-CEO Li Fu. www.fushicopperweld.com

Alibaba Group and Softbank Corp. have hired Washington, D.C. lobbying firm Duberstein Group, according to a federal disclosure form. The two companies recently offered to buy back shares in Alibaba and MORE

Venture capital deals

Uptake Medical, a Tustin, Calif.-based developer of non-surgical treatments for lung diseases, has secured around $35 million of a $41 million funding round, according to a regulatory filing. Past backers include Affinity Capital, Arboretum Ventures, GBS Venture Partners, Onset Ventures, Prism VentureWorks, Maverick Captial and WRF Capital. www.uptakemedical.com

OneSun LLC, a Sausalito, Calif.-based energy company focused on ultra low-cost solar based on green chemistry and biomimicry, has raised around $35 million in MORE