Checking in on asset class performance at mid-month.  (Capital Spectator)

The market is having a hard time getting out of its own way, breadth-wise.  (Trader’s Narrative)

What Jeremy Grantham is thinking about markets.  (Marketwatch, Credit Writedowns, Big Picture, Scribd)

Sector performance by calendar month.  (CXO Advisory Group, ibid)

How much should we read into the VIX future curve?  (WSJ)

Just what the world needs.  A new vehicle to trade the VIX.  (Bloomberg, InvestorPlace)

Selling tail risk protection has become big business.  (Bloomberg also Risk)

Why won’t anybody just de-risk instead?  (Clusterstock)

Will the “cult of equity” finally die?  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Earnings news vs. macro headwinds:  who wins?  (BondSquawk)

Are top-line worries overblown?  (Bespoke)

Why companies feel comfortable holding cash at the moment.  (UpsideTrader)

Are companies reaching for yield with their cash balances?  (CNBC)

Some anecdotal evidence that CEOs are “ready to spend.”  (WSJ)

The world is buying planes again.  (The Money Game, Jubak Picks)

Scrap metal demand points to a strong economy.  (MarketBeat)

Anecdotal evidence of economic strength is not showing up in stock prices.  (AR Screencast)

Investors are now solely focused on the risks of the new stock market.  (Wall St. Cheat Sheet)

The story at Bank of America (BAC) keeps getting uglier.  (Deal Journal)

What can Goldman Sachs (GS) earn going forward?  (MarketBeat, FT Alphaville, WSJ, Bloomberg, Felix Salmon)

Playboy Enterprises (PLA) and the danger to shareholders of a dual class share structure.  (NYTimes)

Private equity still has an interest in hedge fund managers.  (FINalternatives)

Regulators are people too.  They need to have “modest, well-defined goals..”  (Economix)

Keith McCullough vs. Barry Ritholtz on the need for more economic stimulus.  (Big Picture)

Arguments against a double-dip.  (Real Time Economics, Fixed Income Advisor, Trader’s Narrative)

Housing starts continue to bounce along the bottom.  (Calculated Risk, Atlantic Business)

The lowest rolling 10-year inflation rate ever.  (Bespoke)

Do sovereign debt ratios matter?  (China Financial Markets)

Borrowing in another currency often lead to heartbreak.  (FT Alphaville)

Ireland isn’t out of the woods just yet.  (Lex, MHFT)

Is China at risk of overheating?  (beyondbrics)

Vitaliy Katsenelson, “What really amazes me is how people who would not trust the US or European governments to do their laundry, have unconditional faith in Chinese government involvement in its very complex economy.”  (Contrarian Edge)

Why was there a global housing boom?  (Big Picture)

Brett Arends, “The truth is, this is a great time and place in which to be rich.”  (ROI)

The Miller Rule:  The more variables, the more spin potential.  (A Dash of Insight)

Hedge fund manager Hugh Hendry has “a big mouth.”  (DealBook)

Doug Kass talks asks three questions of Nouriel Roubini.  (TheStreet)

Expectations are high for Apple (AAPL) earnings.  (Bloomberg)

Where are all the crazy, good iPad games?  (SAI)

How close are we to the end of the desktop PC?  (CNNMoney)

“UltraViolet is intended to be today’s DVD.”  (NPR)

Mark Suster, “Life is 10% how you make it, 90% how you take it.”  (Both Sides of the Table via infoarbitrage)

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