If it's Monday, that means a new edition of the Carnival of Investing is up. You can find an item by us in the 26th edition over at the Candian Capitalist.

Apparently we are not that bad off. Ticker Sense compares the decline here to the rest of the world.

The increase in market volatility has been a boon to some investors according to Gregory Zuckerman in the Wall Street Journal.

Speaking of options, Gregg Greenberg at TheStreet.com catches up with Robert Olstein on the options backdating scandal among other topics.

Adam Warner thinks the VIX options are "misunderstand (and) superfluous."

CXO Advisory Group reviews some research that shows low volatility/high value stocks tend to outperform.

Cyrus Sanati at breakingviews thinks investors should re-think the forthcoming ethanol IPOs.

The Peridot Capitalist wants to fire Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft (MSFT).

Alpha magazine has an interesting, (somewhat long) profile of David Williams whose firm serves as a prominent "outsourced trader" of equities for some of the world's highest profile hedge funds.

Shefali Anand at the Wall Street Journal reports that an influx of institutional money into lower cost mutual funds have reduced the industry-wide average expense ratio.

Add Kevin Hassett at Bloomberg.com to the blame Alan Greenspan crowd.

Matthew Lynn at Bloomberg.com looks at a new biography of Adam Smith that characterizes him more as a "moralist as not an economist."

Mark Thoma at Economist's View weighs in on how people throw Adam Smith's name around.

If you thought coffee was powerful, just look at what the college kids are using these days. (via Washington Post)

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