Texas Instruments to buy National Semi.

Infograph.

Dodd-Frank has plenty of flaws and of course there will be unintended consequences, but what are the unintended consequences of a “trust me, it’ll work out” oversight policy?

Blackstone’s 2007 IPO didn’t create the top for the private equity / leverage buyout orgy, but it’s coming marked the top almost perfectly. And soon we’ll get the debut of commodity trading house Glencore.

Morning Links, c’mon and grab ’em!

Video.

Knapp’s take on where we are in the economic cycle and what that means for stocks appears in this weekend’s Barron’s…

Barry’s column in the Washington Post this weekend is a good one, it talks about how investors should prepare for emergencies before they occur, not during.

Video.

I’m a big proponent of the Frontier Markets theme, but don’t let anyone tell you it’s a hedge.