Are credit default swaps the x-factor in this current market environment? (WSJ.com)

Eddy Elfenbein at Crossing Wall Street takes a look at what happened this past year to the AAA corporate bond-Treasury credit spread.

Nervous buyers and a tighter credit environment are leading to busted deals. (DealBook)

In short, it’s “buyout bingo” in reverse. (FT Alphaville)

Jeff Matthews on the rarefied air of private equity where one can ask your bankers to help pay for your own mistakes.

Rick Bookstaber on how the “tight coupling born of leverage” pops the “myth of noncorrelation.”

CXO Advisory Group takes a closer look at research into what happened to the quants in August.

Greg Newton at NakedShorts points to a new blog focused on hedge fund due-diligence.

Philip Guziec at Morningstar.com on how to play a certain financial stock with options.

John Spence at Marketwatch.com on the burgeoning muni bond ETF market.

Barry Ritholtz at the Big Picture on the prospects for inflation now that “..Fed has all but abandoned their mandate of price stability…”

Aaron Pressman at BusinessWeek.com on what is driving the global commodities boom.

Is it 1989 or 1998? (MarketBeat)

Calculated Risk on why home sellers are (not surprisingly) reluctant to sell their homes at a loss.

Yves Smith at naked capitalism updates on what the markets are telling us about the yield curve, economy and housing markets.

Felix Salmon at Market Movers writes “Repeat after me: The fact that oil prices are denominated in dollars means… absolutely nothing.”

The physics of steroids, baseball and home run hitting. (Reuters)

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