When your cost of capital is 0% everything looks attractive.  (Kid Dynamite also Big Picture)

Be wary when a private equity firm looks to go public.  (WSJ, Behind the Headlines)

Using the Taylor Rule as a check on rate expectations.  (Accrued Interest)

One overlooked downside to Fed policy is the dearth of opportunities for yield investors like insurance companies.  (WSJ)

Gold is nearly 20% above its 200 day moving average.  (Bespoke)

Carolyn Cui, “GLD now rivals many of the world’s central banks, among the biggest holders of bullion. If GLD were a central bank, it would rank fifth – just below France and above China.”  (MarketBeat)

John Paulson is launching a gold-focused hedge fund.  (Marketwatch also DealBook)

An early vote for Ford (F) as stock of the year.  (Crossing Wall Street)

How did the “golden cross” strategy perform this market cycle?  (MarketSci Blog)

An extended profile of Ken Griffin and Citadel Group who are trying to put a horrible 2008 in the rear view mirror.  (WSJ also Dealbreaker)

Phibro is looking for more outside capital.  (Clusterstock)

Ways that individuals can play the carry trade.  (Felix Salmon)

10 common characteristics of successful traders from Van Tharp.  (Kirk Report)

Buy-and-holders in 401(k) plans are now above water .  (The Money Game)

On the relationship between sovereign credit spreads and Transparency International’s annual Corruption Perceptions Index.  (Dealbreaker)

High frequency trading is on the rise for the simple reason it is cheaper and more effective.  (FT Alphaville)

How much do hedge fund lockups hurt investors?  (SSRN)

Peter Eavis, “Commercial real estate looks too tough to save.”  (WSJ)

What are the prospects for a General Motors IPO in 2010?  (24/7 Wall St.)

Ironically, House Democrats want to regulate foreign exchange derivatives, the one area that play little or no role in the financial crisis.  (Huffington Post)

Jonathan Ford and Peter Thal Larsen, “If you spool back ten years, Goldman Sachs was considered to be a strong global bank. Its balance sheet is now almost five times bigger. It is simply hard to believe that the ideal size for a global bank should have risen so sharply in a single decade.”  (Prospect Magazine)

By one rate-of-change measure the recession ended in July.  (Econbrowser)

Mike Shedlock, “There is plenty of money available for lending. However, there are fewer businesses wanting loans, and fewer still credit worthy businesses who want loans.”  (Global Economic Trend Analysis)

Why California needs to transition to rail and alternative energy and fast.  (Gregor Macdonald)

Dogbert, Umberto Eco and Abnormal Returns. How news aggregators bring a small measure of order to the world.  (Abnormal Returns also Felix Salmon)

Who wins in an age where people commonly live to 100 years old.  (Humble Student of the Markets)

Investment themes and fads year-by-year from 1996 to present.  (The Reformed Broker)

Does Apple (AAPL) have an Android problem?  (Credit Writedowns)

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