Hot Links: Bizarro FDIC

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Dollar down, stocks and commodities _____?  Yeah, yeah, you know the rest.  (Bloomberg) Story of the Day: Bizarro FDIC to borrow money from…The Banks!  (NYT) This was fascinating:  World economies and where we are on the productivity curve.  (Clusterstock) Maryland is the most moneymaking state in the US.  (CNNMoney) John…

Hot Links: Crazy Buildings & Golden Coffins

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Good stuff:  M&A boom coming to S&P 500 as cash positions relative to share prices climbs to the highest in  decades.  (Bloomberg) Or how about big M&A deals coming to the asset management space?  Long overdue.  (Morningstar) Big report on how to fix compensation comes out today…shocker: they’re not fans…

Of Convictions and Assumptions

With stocks, bonds and commodities on a too-good-to-be-true rampage since March, many market participants are struggling with the age old question of when to sell while their bearish counterparts are having a similar internecine conflict over when to throw in the towel and get long with the herd. I found a quote that I believe…

More Hot Links: Jim Grant, David K. Levine & Raekwon the Chef

More Hot Links for Weekend Reading… Irrational Exuberance making a comeback in the rally?  (NYT) Surprise!  Jim Grant (Interest Rate Observer) is bullish.  (InfectiousGreed) Saltwater vs Freshwater schools of macroeconomic thought, redux.  (BronteCap) This weekend’s big story: The David K. Levine response to Krugman’s failure of economics piece.  (HuffingtonPost) Survivor Bias as it relates to…

Dennis Kneale: A Cautionary Tale for the Mainstream Media

“Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the gigabyte.” -Joshua M Brown, September 2009 If you’re going to be on financial television, you’ve got to be one of two things: 1.  An attractive, friendly personality with good interviewing skills or 2.  Someone who has a good understanding of the issues and subject…

Hot Links: Megan Fox & The Siren Song of the Bears

Hot Links for Weekend Reading… David Merkel on ignoring the siren song of bearishness in a bull market.  (AlephBlog) The big BIG winners of 2009: Stocks that are up 400% plus:  (Bespoke) Bonus/ compensation discussions will be prominent at the G-20 meeting next week.  (Bloomberg) Peter Schiff: Letting Lehman go was one of the only…

Can The Stock Market Save The Economy?

A friend of mine, someone completely outside of the Wall Street world, asked me this question a few days ago and in addition to being at an utter loss for the answer, I thought it was one of the more interesting questions one could ask right now. My friend, we’ll call him Dirk (if only…

Flash Trading R.I.P.

Oh, and spare me the arguments about “liquidity”… I applaud Mary Shapiro and the SEC‘s decision to put an end to this practice.  On a basic level, high frequency or flash trading was no different than the rounding error scheme from the film Office Space whereby fractions of pennies “that no one would miss” would be…

Hot Links: Nerds, Dorks, Geeks & Dweebs

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… Global stocks, metals run out of steam overnight.  Copper’s the culprit.  (Bloomberg) My fave post of the week:  Kanye interrupts Bernanke.  Classic!  (LOLFed) Federal Reserve bonus watchdogs will be embedded at Wall Street firms and banks.  (Clusterstock) NYC unemployment now over 10%.  Party on, Wayne.  (Economix) IPO market, coming off…