Quote of the day
Josh Brown, “The life of a professional speculator is an unpleasant one, filled with highs and lows but ultimately unsatisfying and, in all probability, mentally ruinous.” (The Reformed Broker)
Chart of the day
Is Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ) stock finally cheap? (Value Plays)
Markets
Don’t look now but natural gas prices have bounced…hard. (Sober Look, WSJ)
Dividend stocks are not a substitute for Treasuries. (CBS News also Income Investing)
Now yields on 20-year TIPS are negative. (Crossing Wall Street)
Strategy
How innovation undermines investor expectations. (The Psy-Fi Blog)
When income isn’t really income. (Total Return)
A primer on expectancy. (The Zikomo Letter)
Companies
This time around the sell-side outdid bloggers on Apple ($AAPL) earnings. (Apple 2.0 also SAI)
David Merkel, “It takes thought and effort to create a big organization and prosper.” (Aleph Blog)
Why do so many CEOs crap out? (Dealbook)
Finance
Being a bond trader is not the job it used to be. (NYTimes)
Sandy Weill says break up the big banks. (CNBC)
ETFs
ETF players love Vanguard. (The Reformed Broker)
Are ETFs backsliding into mutual fund fee land. (Ari Weinberg)
A look at the WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income ($DEM). (YCharts Blog)
Global
Europe needs a panic button. (Economist’s View also Telegraph)
The bear case for German bunds. (Buttonwood)
The UK recession accelerates. (Free exchange)
India may soon be getting its own 4G wireless network courtesy of the Reliance Group. (WSJ)
Norway is the least risky sovereign credit according to the Blackrock Sovereign Risk Index. (Income Investing)
Economy
The manufacturing economy is cooling its jets. (Real Time Economics)
How much is the “skills gap” affecting the unemployment rate? (Bloomberg)
The economic recovery has never become a geographically-diverse one. (Calculated Risk)
Food vs. gasoline: which inflation is worse? (Real Time Economics)
A look at the US’s debt overhang. (MarketBeat)
Americans are refinancing their mortgages like crazy. (Calculated Risk)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you missed in our Wednesday morning linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Incentives
Why loss aversion may help drive better pay-for-performance schemes. (The Atlantic)
Incentives work: the case of blood donations. (Marginal Revolution)
Mixed media
OS X Mountain Lion is out: should you upgrade? (Daring Fireball, GigaOM, Pogue, TUAW, Technologizer)
Why do we only drink cow’s milk? (Slate also Bittman)
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