Quote of the day

“We shouldn’t be criticized for using Chinese workers,” a current Apple executive said. “The U.S. has stopped producing people with the skills we need.”  (NYTimes)

Chart of the day

Should we trust the rally in the Shanghai Composite?  (Global Macro Monitor)

Markets

Why aren’t companies paying out more in dividends?  (Barron’s via Big Picture)

Parsing the data on stock buybacks.  (WSJ)

The not-so-lost decade for the equal-weighted S&P 500.  (WSJ)

Will the next pullback be bought?  (Dynamic Hedge)

How might the bond-stock disconnect play out.  (Calafia Beach Pundit)

Treasury bond ETFs look like they are rolling over.  (Afraid to Trade also Sober Look)

Are equity investors overstating the extent of market volatility?  (Barron’s)

Everybody and their brother is still short the Euro.  (All Star Charts)

A round-up of the picks from the Barron’s Investment Roundtable.  (Money Game)

Strategy

Investing is all about balance.  (Musing on Markets)

On using non-traditional indicators to time the market.  (bclund)

Will investors ever learn?  (Aleph Blog)

Companies

There is still some life in good old Wintel.  (Wall Street Bean, Barron’s)

The opportunity in Carnival ($CCL) shares.  (Stone Street Advisors, FT Alphaville)

Sears Holdings ($SHLD):  when the shorts run out of shares to borrow.  (MarketBeat)

Nokia ($NOK) as a value trap.  (Marketwatch)

Finance

Meet Suze Orman’s investing guru.  (WSJ)

Cramer is right!  The carried interest tax rules need to be changed.  (Business Insider)

MF Global: a post-mortem.  (Turnkey Analyst)

Guess how much it is going to cost to unwind Lehman Brothers?  (naked capitalism)

Just when you were thinking old Wall Street could not get more tone deaf.  (The Reformed Broker, Dealbook)

Hedge funds

Ken Griffin’s hedge funds are once again in the money.  (Dealbreaker, Dealbook)

John Paulson is having a decent January.  (Deal Journal)

Howard Marks makes it clear he is not “prescient.”  (Deal Journal)

ETFs

The big mutual fund companies can no longer ignore ETFs.  (Financial Advisor)

The muni ETF rally is still on for now.  (Barron’s)

Are the biggest ETFs also the cheapest?  (Felix Salmon)

Economy

Ten year inflation expectations are sitting at 30 year lows.  (Carpe Diem)

The Fed is about to become more open.  Is that a good thing?  (Dealbreaker)

A look at the poor track record of forecasting China’s GDP.  (Sober Look)

Four ways to engineer a better tax system.  (NYTimes)

Education

Why college students leave an engineering track.  (Economix)

Measuring the present value of a degree.  (EconLog)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What everyone else was clicking on Abnormal Returns this week.  (Abnormal Returns)

What you missed in our Saturday long form linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

A rave review for the movie Margin Call.  (The Epicurean Dealmaker)

Why you might want to run Windows on your iPad.  (PandoDaily)

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