We hope you are having a pleasant weekend. A few items to check up on to start the week.

Andy Serwer at Fortune sits down with the new head of Harvard Management Company and finds him trying to navigate the huge endowment fund in a world in a "stable disequilibrium."

Greg Newton, of NakedShorts fame, has an article in this week's Barron's on the seemingly oxymoronic notion of hedge fund indexing. Newton discusses the large difference in returns between the so-called investable and non-investable indices. In addition he notes the niche nature of this product which targets investors seeking easy, due-diligence free access to hedge fund returns.

Another piece in Barron's discusses the difficulties in hedge fund due diligence and why many investors do too little due diligence in a haphazard way.

Random Roger discusses hedge fund investing and the value of simplicity in portfolio construction.

Gretchen Morgenstern at the New York Times looks at the intersection of shareholder democracy, fiduciary conflicts, and the outrage over executive compensation in regards to Pfizer (PFE).

Andrew Feinberg at Kiplinger's discusses how investors should evaluate trading services' track records, including the most heavily advertised service.

We have been discussing the prospects for alternative energy, including ethanol. Danny Hakim in the New York Times reports on the transformation of an old brewery into the "Northeast's first ethanol production plant." Seeking Alpha has linked to a number of their reviews of alternative energy stocks.

Leave it to the federal government to lose money on minting coins that nobody even wants. Floyd Norris in the New York Times discusses the implications of rising metal prices on the production of the penny.

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