A partner in big accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers has been named to head a key division of the Securities and Exchange Commission blamed for contributing to the breakdown that allowed Bernard Madoff’s multibillion-dollar fraud to go undetected for 16 years. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro appointed Carlo V. di Florio the new director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations, which conducts inspections of brokerage firms, investment advisers, hedge fund managers, mutual funds and other entities, the agency announced Monday.

M esa Air Group Inc., whose operations include flying regional routes for major airlines like Delta, United and US Airways, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, hoping to shed financial obligations for leases on airplanes it no longer needs. Mesa’s liabilities were $869-million as on Sept. 30, 2009, including $133-million owed to Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier BBD.B-T .

I celand’s plans for economic recovery and the future of its government were thrown into doubt on Tuesday when the island’s president forced a referendum on a bill seen as key to restoring its access to foreign capital. President Olafur Grimsson refused to sign a bill repaying $5-billion to Britain and the Netherlands for money lost by savers in those countries when its Icesave bank collapsed in 2008. A referendum on the bill will be held as soon as possible

With the new year comes a surge of resolutions, many of which won’t be kept. I recently read that 88% of all resolutions are broken.

The stock market zigzagged after reports on factory orders and housing gave mixed signals about the economy. The modest moves Tuesday came a day after the Dow Jones industrials soared more than 150 points on upbeat manufacturing reports in the U.S. and China.

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T he Canadian government plans to issue its first euro-denominated global bond in about a decade, although the amount and its duration remain uncertain, the Bank of Canada said today. This would only be the second foreign-debt denominated bond issue by the government since early 2001. A $3-billion (U.S.) five-year bond was issued in the fall.