Greg Ip at WSJ.com on the how (and why) the stock market and economy often diverge.

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture on the divergence between economic growth and employment.

James Picerno at the Capital Spectator on the rising trend in initial jobless claims.

Kevin Kelleher at GigaOm.com on how a rising stock price may save Steve Jobs from the Apple (AAPL) options backdating scandal.

Felix Salmon at Market Movers notes the surge in Mac sales is driving Apple’s earnings (and stock price).

Citdeal Investment Group is reportedly getting into the hedge fund seeding business. (via Financial News & DealBook)

Buyout firms are lining up for Wendy’s International (WEN). (via DealBook)

Does the UK have a subprime mortgage problem? (via FT Alphaville)

Mebane Faber at World Beta has a handy checklist for those interested in becoming a market timer.

CXO Advisory Group investigates the validity of a popular equity market sentiment measure.

Speaking of sentiment, Jeff Miller at A Dash of Insight doesn’t see any anecdotal evidence of a surge in investor sentiment.

Roger Ehrenberg at Information Arbitrage on the rise of social networking sites for stock-picking.

Joseph Weisenthal at the Stalwart has had it up to here with the whole Freakonomics phenomena.

Stephen D. Levitt at the Freakonomics Blog asks the question, “Am I ruining economics?

Josh Wright at Truth on the Market writes, “Economists need not apologize for uncovering clean causal relationships in less complex settings.”

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