Lunchtime Links: Nomura and Macquarie are still hiring - in the US

Nomura released its third quarter results today, and although they were pretty, they weren't that pretty. The Japanese bank returned to profit for the first time since buying Lehman's Asian and European operations, but it also missed analysts' profit forecasts and didn't do as well as expected in fixed income trading.

Ominously, there were also signs that Nomura's scrimping on pay. Bloomberg points out that the bank spent 22% less on staff over the past nine months compared to the same period of 2008, despite adding 600 people in the US alone.

Nor has Nomura stopped hiring yet: CFO Masafumi Nakada said it may still hire "dozens" of people in the US this year. There was no mention of hiring in Europe.

Separately, Macquarie is also continuing with its US build up, adding a new head of DCM from BofA. According to Bloomberg, this is MacBank's 50th director-level hire in the US in the past 12 months.

Macquarie banker busted looking at nudes while colleague talks interest rates on TV. (Clusterstock)

Proposed amendments to the EU's hedge fund bill include a tax on bonuses. (FinAlternatives)

The EU is succumbing to pressure from London to tone down the hedge fund bill. (Wealth Bulletin)

Over the next decade, Obama wants to raise an additional $970bn in tax from Americans earning more than $200k. (Bloomberg)

More than 40% of Americans no longer pay income tax. (Financial Times)

"Very small numbers of people" appear to have moved abroad to avoid the 50p tax rate. (The Times)

RBS still hasn't decided the size of its bonus pool. (Telegraph)

Treasury department is already saying Volcker won't change Goldman Sachs. (Clusterstock)

Volcker simply doesn't get it. (Economics of Contempt)

"I can find a way to say that virtually any trade we make is somehow related to serving one of our clients." (DealBook)

A full $700 billion of high yield debt is now set to mature between 2012 and 2014. (Clusterstock)

Swiss banks fear their employees will cash in by stealing data. (Bloomberg)

"There is no way you can be a cash [equities] trader and not know what's going on in the derivatives market. You'll just be run over, again and again." (Financial Times)

Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein in standoff on who's first to reveal how employees' shares were priced this year. (New York Post)

A short history of Lucas Van Praag's most withering rebuttals. (New York Magazine)

"I sometimes locked myself in the bathroom with Sports Illustrated to relax." (Dealbreaker)