What should we make of the record spread between the 10 and 30-year Treasury bond?  (Crossing Wall Street, dshort)

If companies are loaded with cash, why are they still borrowing?  Because they can (and cheaply).  (AR Screencast also research puzzle pix, EconomPic Data)

AMZN’s reaction to earnings pretty much sums up the entire market’s performance this earnings season.”  (Bespoke)

Traders have been betting against the Yen (and JGBs) for a long time.  (Money Game, FT Alphaville, Street Sweep)

Is the rally in wheat a preview of further commodity price increases?  (MarketBeat, FT Alphaville, The Reformed Broker, VIX and More)

We are living in a “risk on/risk off” world these days.  (TheStreet)

Congress is going on vacation.  Good news for the stock market.  (Marketwatch)

High correlations are pushing individual investors to the sidelines.  (FT Alphaville)

The number of bears is ebbing.  (Bespoke)

How much longer can Bruce Berkowitz keep it up?  (ROI)

ETF Deathwatch for August.  (Invest With An Edge)

The money illusion and market valuations.  (The Psy-Fi Blog)

Why certain indicators provide similar signals.  (MarketSci Blog)

Eddy Elfenbein, “Much like the housing bubble, the Higher Ed bubble is being driven by cheap, government supported credit.”  (Crossing Wall Street)

Trading algorithms leave (weird, often beautiful) tracks.  (The Atlantic)

“As trading continues to speed up to unfathomable heights measured in micro-nanoseconds, I keep my focus on trying to find ways to  s l o w  d o w n my trading.”  (Chicago Sean)

What role does financial distress play in the cross-section of equity returns?  (Journal of Finance)

Investor sentiment, not the business cycle, drives financial anomalies.  (SSRN)

What CEO characteristics matter for performance?  (Journal of Finance)

More on the corporate cash situation.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Top line growth is tepid at best at the biggest consumer companies.  (Credit Writedowns also Bespoke)

Who would want to buy Barnes & Noble (BKS)?  (Atlantic Business, MarketBeat)

The John Mack era is officially over at Morgan Stanley (MS).  (CNBC)

Is Goldman Sachs (GS) going to spin-off its private equity (and prop trading) business?  (Reuters, Clusterstock)

What role did lower real interest rates play in the housing bubble?  (Economix, WSJ, Big Picture)

The ADP employment report indicates continued slow jobs growth.  (EconomPic Data, Calculated Risk)

The ECRI WLI is widely misunderstood.  (Big Picture)

Why does any one support private macroeconomic forecasts?  (Marginal Revolution, Capital Gains and Games)

The ISM Non-manufacturing survey comes in ahead of expectations.  (Calculated Risk, EconomPic Data, Atlantic Business)

We all know the economy is slowing.  Why we should worry about the unknowns.  (Money Game)

Small business sentiment is awful.  (naked capitalism)

Inflationary expectations are not stable.  (Macro Musings)

Analysis on why a compromise on the extension of the Bush tax cuts is likely.  (Macroadvisors, Real Time Economics, A Dash of Insight)

BP (BP) gets closer to permanently plugging the Macondo well.  (WSJ also NYTimes)

A review of Mike Bellafiore’s “One Good Trade.”  (The Crosshairs Trader)

The new Blackberry Torch won’t save Research in Motion (RIMM).  (SAI, ibid, Tech Trader Daily, 24/7 Wall St., DailyFinance, Technologizer)

A closer look at the cash situation at Apple (AAPL).  (asymco, ibid via Daring Fireball)

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