Quote of the day

David Merkel, “My simple rule to average people when involved in complex transactions is this: be cynical.  No one is interested in your well-being, and most of the transactional terms are skewed against you.”  (Aleph Blog)

Chart of the day

OpenTable ($OPEN) was not acting well even before the Google-Zagat news.  (Term Sheet)

Markets

Asset class performance since 9/11.  (Bespoke)

Junk bonds are pricing in a 63% risk of recession.  (Focus on Funds)

Companies are buying back stock hand over first.  (Ticker Sense)

The decade in financial markets in graphs.  (research puzzle pix)

Companies

Google ($GOOG) buys Zagat to get more local.  (Bloomberg, Deal Journal,

Value investor favorites Microsoft ($MSFT) and Intel ($INTC) are cheap for a reason.  (The Reformed Broker)

Five warning signs to watch for at Apple ($AAPL).  (Bob Sutton)

Why companies should not be in the pension business in the first place.  (Pension Pulse)

Yahoo!

Yahoo! ($YHOO) is still dead in the water and seeking a deal.  (Asymco, Bloomberg)

Yahoo! has been trading at a discount to the sum of its parts for some time now.  (WSJ)

Carol Bartz speaks out.  (Dealbreaker)

Dan Loeb joins the Yahoo! fray.  (SAI)

Yahoo’s board needs to fire itself.  (GigaOM)

Was Yahoo! really fixable?  (Mean Street, Slate)

Finance

Money managers should eat their own cooking.  (Wealthfront)

TD Ameritrade says thanks, but no thanks to E*Trade Financial ($ETFC).  (Deal Journal)

On the state of model making in finance.  (Emanuel Derman)

Hedge funds

What happens to hedge fund that experience large asset inflows.  (All About Alpha)

How much of hedge fund returns is driven by liquidity risk?  (CXO Advisory Group)

Hedge fund performance.  (EconomPic Data)

ETFs

James Mackintosh, “By making it easy to buy gold the miners removed a big reason for buying their shares.”  (FT)

Interesting timing for the launch of physical copper ETFs.  (WSJ)

ETF volume surged in August.  (MarketBeat)

Global

Is the Yuan still undervalued?  (Free exchange)

Is the window still open for Chinese IPOs?  (FT Alphaville)

The SNB is selling volatility.  (Felix Salmon)

Why a breakup of the Euro zone is likely.  (Credit Writedowns)

Why is Britain still AAA?  (FT Alphaville)

Economy

Bond Girl, “The duration of the Fed’s portfolio is not what is standing between us and economic prosperity.  Get real, people.”  (self-evident via Kid Dynamite)

The labor market is stuck in a rut.  (Capital Spectator)

30-year mortgage rates is at record lows.  (Calculated Risk, MarketBeat)

What rail data is telling us about the sluggish state of the US economy.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

The war on savers rolls on.  (Economic Musings)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

A great guest post from Jared Woodard on “What Options Are Good For.”  (Abnormal Returns)

What you missed in our Thursday morning linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

The space covering startups has matured a great deal in the past few years. (Fortune)

How to be the smartest, most humble, person in the room.  (Altucher Confidential)

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