Quote of the day
Joe Weisenthal, “Not only would it be impossible for state bankruptcies to be clean, they’d inject a massive amount of uncertainty into the existing muni bod market.” (Money Game)
Chart of the day
WTI vs. Brent: whom to believe? ( the research puzzle also WSJ)
Markets
Barron’s still has got the ability to move stocks on Monday morning. (The Reformed Broker)
Mean reversion at work: country stock market performance in 2011. (Bespoke)
Dividend increases, absent banks, are on the rise. (WSJ)
Hints of volatility in quant strategies. (FT Alphaville)
Who sold what in the muni bond sell-off. (Minyanville)
Strategy
John Paulson is still bullish on America. (Dealbook also FT Alphaville, Street Sweep)
A handful of thoughts from Jeff Saut. (market folly, Pragmatic Capitalism)
A look at the large cap vs. small cap debate. (Capital Spectator)
Hedge fund replication can only do so much. (All About Alpha)
Jim Simon speaks. (Infectious Greed, Pragmatic Capitalism)
Companies
Barbarians at the table: JC Penney (JCP) adds two activists to the board. (WSJ, ibid)
Making the argument that Apple (AAPL) is cheap. (Global Macro Monitor)
Do you want to pay for stuff with your iPhone? (Bloomberg)
Sometimes company decisions land us in the “vast muddle.” (Virulent Word of Mouse via Economist’s View)
Finance
On the long term shift from dividends to buybacks. (Aswath Damodaran)
The PPIP is profitable, for now. (Dealbook)
Global
More on the UK GDP disappointment. (Gavyn Davies)
Not every austerity plan hurts stock performance. (The Source)
Emerging market consumer companies are not priced for a dose of inflation. (Bloomberg)
Style comes to emerging market ETFs. (IndexUniverse)
Economy
An improvement in consumer confidence. (EconomPic Data)
Who do you believe more: the BLS or Ronald McDonald? (The Reformed Broker)
Few signs of hope in the Case-Shiller figures. (Calculated Risk, Big Picture also Free exchange)
Signs of life in commercial real estate. (Trader’s Narrative, Bloomberg)
Apparently negative equity doesn’t affect labor mobility. (FT Alphaville)
Edward L. Glaeser, ‘The moral heart of economics…is a fundamental belief in freedom.” (Economix)
Books
In praise of Umair Haque’s The New Capitalist Manifesto. (Big Picture)
Sports+Freakonomics=Scorecasting. (Freakonomics)
Mixed Media
Why blog? Blogging=learning. (SMB Training)
Eric Falkenstein, “If you have good discipline, access to easy information is a good thing.” (Falkenblog)
Paul Kedrosky, “Is it possible to do credible inter-generational comparisons in professional sports?” The case of men’s tennis. (Infectious Greed)
Our early morning look-in. (Abnormal Returns)
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