Adjusting for inflation makes the past decade look even worse for stocks.  (WSJ)

2009 was the year of the junk bond.  (VIX and More)

Is it time for the dispersion trade?  (Daily Options Report)

20 years of the yield curve.  (Research Puzzle)

Five biggest risks of 2010.  (The Pragmatic Capitalist)

Can Goldman Sachs (GS) take a bite out of the ETF market?  (IndexUniverse)

Hedge fund startups are back, albeit smaller and with lower fees.  (WSJ)

Roger Ehrenberg, “Machine-driven trading will continue to proliferate, and represent a sustained source of alpha.”  (Information Arbitrage)

Howard Lindzon, “The great thing about the stock market is you DO NOT have to call turns. You did not need to buy stocks on March 9th to have a banner year.”  (Howard Lindzon)

Do the smartphone wars come to a head in 2010?  (The Reformed Broker)

Say hello to physical platinum (and palladium) ETFs.  (ETF Database)

Rising mortgage rates threaten the housing recovery.  (24/7 Wall St. also The Money Game)

Investors reached for yield in AAA-rated CDOs.  Who is to blame?  (Felix Salmon, naked capitalism)

The many ways in which the Feds are supporting housing prices.  (Calculated Risk)

Is this the pin that pricked the housing bubble?  (Crossing Wall Street)

“The bottom line is that when reserves pay interest, the monetary base is a pretty uninteresting economic statistic.”  (Mankiw Blog)

Are we seeing a repeat of 1979 in Iran? (Daily Dish also BBC, NYTimes, Economist)

Eric Falkenstein, “A good [economic] theory can often be modeled, though not all theories are helped by modeling (eg, the theory ‘power corrupts’, or ‘the invisible hand’).”  (Falkenblog)

Tyler Cowen, “What are the odds that the best chess player in the world has never played chess?”  (Marginal Revolution)

Putting the odds of airborne terror into perspective.  (FiveThirtyEight)

Is big media going to be successful in 2009 in charging for web content?  (NYTimes)

Movies were recession-proof this year.  (24/7 Wall St. also BusinessWeek)

The list to end all 2009 best of lists.  (Filmoculous)

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