Quote of the day

Kent Thune, “If one wishes to be wise, however, one will acknowledge one’s own ignorance, observe the herd from a distance, and perhaps shrug in amusement.”  (the financial philosopher)

Chart of the day

Gas prices are at a two year high.  (GasBuddy via Crossing Wall Street)

Markets

Are rising energy costs hurting the consumer?  (the research puzzle)

The yield curve continues to steepen.  (Calafia Beach Pundit)

Why grain is rallying:  the weather.  (Money Game)

The bull market in cattle.  (Fortune Finance also TRB)

Food companies are wary of increasing prices, until they are have to.  (The Source)

The Swiss franc is easing in light of greater confidence about the Euro.  (The Source)

Strategy

How different types of investors should view stock buybacks.  (Musings on Markets)

Hedge funds love the large caps.  (market folly)

Is John Paulson the exception to theory that size hurts returns?  (Insider Monkey also Clusterstock)

Whereas another fund manager pulls back on fund size.  (Dealbook)

Houses vs. gold or why you shouldn’t take financial advice from the Philadelphia Inquirer.  (Felix Salmon)

Finance

The ultimate rundown on the Meredith Whitney-Alexandra Lebenthal muni bond “feud.” (NY Observer also Money Game)

High frequency trading and market instability.  (Humble Student of the Markets)

New financial stability gauges.  (Real Time Economics)

On the differences between ‘macroprudential‘ and ‘microprudential’ regulatory regimes.  (FT Alphaville)

ETFs

A nice summary of exchange traded product tax treatments.  (Morningstar)

Look beyond the “total expense ratio” when comparing ETFs.  (IndexUniverse)

An international preferred stock ETF is coming to market.  (IndexUniverse)

Economy

The economy is “looking a little better each day.”  (Econbrowser)

ADP continues to show growth in private (small) payrolls.  (Bloomberg, EconomPic Data, Global Economic Intersection)

Layoffs have dried up.  Maybe there is no one left to fire?  (Pragmatic Capitalism, Jeff Matthews)

Auto sales continue to rebound.  (EconomPic Data, Calculated Risk)

Economics

The ‘Great Stagnation‘ illustrated.  (Dept. of Numbers also WashingtonPost)

David Leonhardt, “Arguably, the United States now has a corporate tax code that’s the worst of all worlds. ”  (NYTimes)

Eric Falkenstein, “Bottom line: if you are going to do economics, don’t do macro.”  (Falkenblog)

Also on Abnormal Returns

The Superbowl Indicator is a reason why we should take statistical studies with a big grain of salt.  (AR Screencast)

Our Wednesday morning live link look-in.  (Abnormal Returns)

Errata

A short review of The Daily.  (Daring Fireball)

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