Quote of the day

David Merkel, “Investing is a battle between the past, present, and future.”  (Aleph Blog)

Chart of the day

Another sentiment indicator is back at April highs.   (Trader’s Narrative)

Markets

Market breadth has rolled over.  (Bespoke)

The TED spread hasn’t budged.  (Money Game)

What the heck is going on in the muni market?  (Distressed Debt Investing)

The bullish case for muni bonds.  (Money Game, Bloomberg)

Putting the global market correction into perspective.  (Bespoke)

The $100 billion FX hustle.  (FT Alphaville, TRB)

Cotton has pulled back from record highs.  (MarketBeat)

America hearts weekly options.  (Daily Options Report)

Are there some “golden swans” on the horizon?  (Investing With Options)

Target (TGT) predicts strong holiday season.  (FT)

Legal disputes as an asset class.  (NYTimes via TRB)

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett sends a thank you note to Uncle Sam for the bank bailout.  (NYTimes also Kid Dynamite, Business Insider, Big Picture)

Gates and Buffett differ in their views on Republic Services (RSG).  (YCharts Blog)

Buffett (and Bob Rubin) hate bonds.  (24/7 Wall St., Business Insider)

GM IPO

Is the GM IPO a “warning flag“?  (Big Picture)

Americans just can’t get enough of the new GM.  The offering size increased by 31%.  (Dealbook, WSJ)

The GM IPO does not mean the end of the bailout era in Washington.  (NYTimes, Points and Figures)

Strategy and Tactics

Fundamentals vs. QE2.  (A Dash of Insight also WSJ)

Why a rally based on quantitative easing seems so “wrong.”  (Ultimi Barbarorum also Felix Salmon, Modeled Behavior)

Cheap commissions are great, but that doesn’t mean you should overtrade.  (Chicago Sean)

Coattail (or piggyback) investing has become popular lately, but here are some caveats worth noting.  (AR Screencast)

Is the Chinese stock market becoming a better indicator of the economy?  (Lex, FT Alphaville)

Technology

The downside of the web start-up boom.  (NYO, peHUB)

The meaning of the proposed Kayak IPO.  (GigaOM, Term Sheet)

More talk about whether OpenTable (OPEN) business model can be sustained?  (TechCrunch)

Economy

Annual core inflation hits a record low.  (WSJ, FT Alphaville, Economist’s View, Free exchange, EconomPic Data)

How does the ‘billion prices project‘ track with actual CPI?  (Econbrowser)

There is only one way to offset the effects of inflation.  (World Beta)

Housing starts aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  (Calculated Risk, EconomPic Data)

Mortgage rates are on the rise.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Why the sudden interest in hard money policies?  (NetNet)

Ireland is resisting a bailout, for now.  (Reuters, WashingtonPost, WSJ, Credit Writedowns)

Katie Martin, “This Irish mess is pretty grim, even if it’s not quite as scary as the Greek mess, or as any Spanish mess would be.”  (The Source)

The Jim Chanos case against China.  (Fortune Finance, ibid also Credit Writedowns)

Just because

Five negotiating lessons from the Beatles-Apple (AAPL) saga.  (Dealbook)

Experts are often wrong, yet we seek out their opinions anyway.  (Globe and Mail)

In praise of activity.  (Scientific American)

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