This is an early and incomplete edition of the linkfest. We will be back to our regular schedule shortly.

Quote of the day

Tyler Cowen, “Italy is house rich, somewhat cash poor, and has a miserable recent history of growth.”  (Marginal Revolution)

Markets

Are munis a screaming buy?  (Total Return)

Markets at work.  China trying to reignite rare earth metals demand.  (FT)

Why analysts ‘herd.’  (Globe and Mail)

Strategy

Investor beware overconfidence.  (MarketBeat also Marketwatch)

How to be a smart consumer of investment forecasts.  (A Dash of Insight)

chess, “In sum, put your ego aside and let the market tell you where your focus should be.”  (chessNwine)

On market timing and whiskey.  (Value Restoration Project)

Using Twitter to gauge the collective mood of the market.  (All About Alpha)

Companies

If Goldman Sachs ($GS) can start acting better what does that say about the market as a whole.  (@zortrades)

The seasonal case for Apple ($AAPL).  (Minyanville)

What is going on with Apple store sales.  (Asymco)

Finance

Spinoffs are a boon to corporate America and America.  (Fortune)

How new CFTC position limits might affect silver.  (Kid Dynamite)

The Fairholme Fund is shedding assets and managers.  (Term Sheet)

IPOs

Groupon releases more data pre-IPO and sets a price range.  (Dealbook, SAI)

Does the US need to make it easier for smaller companies to come public?  (WSJ)

An interesting look at how technology (and VC) could play out over the next few years.  (Information Arbitrage)

Europe

Why Europe has so many summits.  (Buttonwood)

Europe’s undercapitalized banks.  (Global Macro Monitor)

What if Europe keeps missing its deficit targets?  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

Is Southern Europe idleness to blame for the Euro crisis.  (Street Light Blog)

Economy

A look at the Leading Economic Indicators.  (EconomPic Data, Capital Spectator)

Rail traffic continues to grow, albeit slowly.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

The Fed may start buying up mortgage securities again.  (Money Game, Economic Musings)

How might the Fed act in a future financial crisis?  (Real Time Economics)

Remember when we had to worry about paying off the debt?  (Planet Money)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

The great correlation cop-out.  (Abnormal Returns)

Thursday videos:  Leder, Greenblatt and Bogle.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Getting a hedge fund internship, let alone a hedge fund job, is tough.  (Tradestreaming, Clusterstock)

Teens show a surprisingly amount of IQ variability.  (Slate)

Details are leaking out about the Walter Isaacson biography Steve Jobs.*  (NYTimes)

Abnormal Returns is a founding member of the StockTwits Blog Network.

*Amazon affiliate.  You know the drill.