Quote of the day

Sheila Bair, “They should have let Bear Stearns fail.”  (NYTimes also Big Picture)

Chart of the day

Bond yields are once again in retreat.  (@jackdamn)

Strategy

Scott Bell on the life of an investment advisor, “I don’t have a magic bullet or crystal ball, but somehow I’m still supposed to know.”  (I Heart Wall Street)

It is hard to gauge portfolio performance without the right tools.  (WSJ, The Reformed Broker)

Taxes are more important than alpha.  (Empirical Finance Blog)

How to reduce trading stress.  (Attitrade)

The US dollar index is consolidating.  (Afraid to Trade)

Companies

Wal-Mart ($WMT) is ever so slowly going private.  (Barron’s)

The case for being long Apple ($AAPL) and short Google ($GOOG).  (TrendRida)

LivingSocial is coming public.  (FT, WSJ)

What is the endgame for Twitter?  (TechCrunch)

ETFs

Russell Investments is getting more aggressive in the ETF game.  (Barron’s)

Why ETFs have become so popular.  (NYTimes)

How to sift through hundreds of new ETFs.  (ETF Trends)

Finance

Meet Beal Financial “an FDIC-insured hedge fund.”  (WashingtonPost)

Pension fund return assumptions are still out of whack.  (WSJ)

Global

The really are few good choices when it comes to Greece.  (NYTimes)

China hearts corn.  (WSJ)

Economy

Looking for statistical reasons why the jobs number was so bad.  (Calafia Beach Pundit, Money Game, macroblog)

Time to worry:  temporary employment is declining.  (Pragmatic Capitalism, Real Time Economics)

How close are we to a second recession?  (Mark Thoma)

The significant role that manufacturing still has in the US economy. (Real Time Economics)

Why unemployment matters.  (Megan McArdle)

Economic growth:  what is good for?  (Economist’s View)

MBAs killed the US economy.  (Time)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you missed in our Saturday longform linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Top clicks this week on Abnormal Returns.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

A great story on the power of the blog.  (The Inoculated Investor)

Reviews of two new investing books.  (NYTimes)

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