Thanks for checking out another edition in our ongoing experiment in long form curation. As always we welcome your feedback.  Items with a * appeared in prior linkfests.

“The ratings agencies turned out to be about as close to a single point of failure for the whole system as you could possibly imagine.”  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

The story behind how the World Gold Council helped create the spectacularly successful SPDR Gold Shares (GLD).  (WSJ* also Kid Dynamite)

What good is Wall Street?  (New Yorker)*

Michael Pettis, “This has been said before, but in a way this crisis is the European equivalence of the American Civil War.  Once the dust finally settles Europe will either be a unified country with fiscal sovereignty firmly established in Berlin or Brussels, or it will be fragmented with little chance of reunion.”  (China Financial Markets)

David Leonhardt, “In both countries [US and China] significant changes are necessary to create more sustainable growth.”  (NYTimes)

Why the US will not get a Chinese-style system of high speed rail.  (Megan McArdle)*

Emanuel Derman on the difference between metaphors, models and theories.  (SSRN via MoneyScience)

The case against health.  (The Chronicle also Economist’s View)

55+ incorrect scientific beliefs that were long held to be true.  (Edge)

On the trade-off between two systems to stimulate the “growth of knowledge.”  (Economic Principals)

Do you read everything in your field today?  (SSRN)

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