First half asset class performance in perspective.  (Capital Spectator, Economist)

“Equity investors’ hope should be that the ennui continues until the economic news catches up with the rally.”  (Breakingviews also Market Talk)

Another measure indicates investor complacency.  (Trader’s Narrative)

Handicapping the next possible bubble.  (The Pragmatic Capitalist)

The MacroShares housing ETPs are more complicated than they look.  (Daily Options Report, ibid)

“High correlations are a signal to start treating market signals with extreme prejudice.”  (Felix Salmon)

Do correlations matter when the world is on fire?  (Abnormal Returns)

Do emerging market bonds still offer value?  (WSJ)

The world’s safest (and riskiest) sovereign debt.  (Alea Blog, ibid)

International REIT performance is beginning to diverge.  (IndexUniverse)

The existence of dark pools of liquidity continue to “pose a continuing challenge to transparency.”  (Dealscape)

Are any and all IPOs getting done so as to boost bank earnings?  (Dealscape)

Should we fear the IPO mania in China?  (Time)

“Madoff was not the biggest crook of this stock market cycle.”  (Dasan)

Not surprisingly the finance industry wants to kill the proposed consumer finance protection agency.  (NYTimes also Atlantic Business)

Is Wal-Mart’s (WMT) support of employer-required healthcare a cynical attempt to hurt its competition?  (Clusterstock, ValuePlays)

“The answer is capitalism’s dirty little secret: excessive lending was the only way to maintain the living standards of the vast bulk of the population at a time when wealth was being concentrated in the hands of an elite.”  (FT via Infectious Greed)

Scoring the debate over the culpability of the CRA for the housing crisis.  (Curious Capitalist)

“By most measure like price-to-income, price-to-rent and real prices, a large portion of the probable [home] price declines are behind us.”  (Calculated Risk)

Zero Hedge vs. Dennis Kneale.  (Crossing Wall Street, Zero Hedge, Market Ticker, Wall St. Cheat Sheet, Clusterstock)

How many kids do you know are running a hedge fund out of their dorm room?  (DealBreaker also FT Alphaville)

Seven interesting investment sites.  (New Rules of Investing)

“I think that the general difficulty that many people have in understanding statistics is an important problem, because it leads people to misinterpret the world around them.”  (Baseline Scenario)

Moneyball the Movie is dead.  The story behind the story.  (NYTimes)

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