Monday links: the debt pile

• abnormalreturns
• April 18th, 2011

Quote of the day

“Daily headlines are almost irrelevant unless they bring us closer to discovering how the debt pile of the developed world will be eliminated in each country – by growth, inflation or default.”  (Buttonwood)

Chart of the day

Retail gasoline sales as a percentage of total retail sales.  (Capital Spectator also Street Sweep)

Video of the day

James Grant talks with Consuela Mack about the dangers of easy money.  (Wealthtrack)

Markets

Small caps haven’t been this expensive compared to large caps in decades.  (WSJ)

Sometimes the market needs a reason to go down.  (Howard Lindzon, Dragonfly Capital)

Management and analysts are seeing diverging opinions on earnings.  (Money Game)

Did you feel the shift in interest rates?  (Points and Figures, FT Alphaville)

March was a tough month for trend followers.  (Au.Tra.Sy Blog)

Strategy

Why Grandma is buying junk bonds.  (the research puzzle)

How does the market typically trade around Easter?  (CXO Advisory Group)

Longer isn’t always better when it comes to backtests?  (ETF Replay)

On the limitations of using a ‘margin of safety.’  (Musings on Markets)

Funds

How ETFs have reshaped investing.  (WSJ)

More MLP ETFs on the way.  (IndexUniverse)

Individual investors are taking tentative steps back into equities via hybrid funds.  (Bloomberg)

Value

A backtest of some of Ben Graham’s rules.  (Empirical Finance Blog)

What spin-offs can teach us about investing.  (Gannon on Investing)

Are the big, cash-rich tech stocks cheap enough yet?  (Hard Core Value via @geoffgannon)

Companies

Perfect World (PWRD) has not been a perfect stock.  (Eric Jackson)

Goldman Sachs (GS) stock is in a funk.  (Bespoke)

Reasons for pause with the Glencore IPO.  (Stone Street Advisors)

S&P vs. USA

Putting the USA on credit watch.  (FT Alphaville, ibid)

How much stock should we put into S&P’s views on US credit ratings?  (Big Picture, Felix Salmon)

What if the US gets downgraded?  (Planet Money, Felix Salmon)

How did the ratings agencies do with their downgrades of Japan?  ( Money Game, ibid)

How we should be looking at the deficit.  (Calculated Risk, Mark Thoma, Curious Capitalist)

Fuel for the austerity fire.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Global

Is it time to lighten up on Canadian assets?  (Globe and Mail)

Do you really want exposure to small cap Russia?  (beyondbrics)

Remember Egypt’s stock market?  (WashingtonPost)

With uncertainty rife, the case for commodity currencies.  (The Source)

Economy

QE2=Y2K.  (Market Anthropology)

The US economy is fighting with one hand tied behind its back, i.e. housing.  (Big Picture, Calculated Risk)

Americans continue to remodel their homes, but not with mortgage equity withdrawals.  (Calculated Risk, ibid)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

An Apple (AAPL) earnings preview and much more.  (AR Screencast)

Our Monday morning live link look-in.  (Abnormal Returns)

Abnormal Returns is a founding member of the StockTwits Blog Network.

Abnormal Returns is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. If you click on my Amazon.com links and buy anything, even something other than the product advertised, I earn a small commission, yet you don't pay any extra. Thank you for your support.

The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.

Tickers: $AAPL, $GS, PWRD

blog comments powered by Disqus