Quote of the day

Michael Pettis, “China’s GDP, in other words, does not need to grow at 7 per cent or even 6 per cent a year in order to maintain social stability. This is a myth that should be discarded.”  (FT)

Chart of the day

MORT Total Return Price data by YCharts

On the destruction of mortgage REITs.  (FT)

Markets

A good explanation for why financials are outperforming technology.  (Pragmatic Capitalism)

A look at the 2004 market analogy.  (Market Anthropology)

The Detroit bankruptcy has made muni bonds a relative bargain.  (Chuck Jaffe)

Yield seekers are still out in full force.  (WSJ)

Strategy

Is holding 2% in your portfolio in gold worth the bother?  (The Reformed Broker)

Should retirees sit in cash right now?  (WSJ)

On the importance of the 20-month moving average.  (chessNwine)

Using a probit model to suss out earnings manipulators.  (Enterprising Investor)

Lists

Nine insights from George Soros.  (ST50)

Ten ways Wall Street plays you for a chump.  (Marketwatch)

Ten ways to save Barnes & Noble ($BKS).  (The American Conservative)

Mergers

The Omnicom ($OMC)-Publicis merger and how digital is changing the advertising business.  (GigaOM, NYTimes, Quartz)

Should consumers worry about supermarket mergers?  (Wonkblog)

Finance

Index funds are gaining momentum.  (Rick Ferri)

More signs of the disruption of venture capital.  (Continuations, TechCrunch)

Can Wall Street divest itself of its commodity businesses?  (Reuters)

Global

Japan has a big jobs transition problem.  (Sober Look)

The Japanese stock market is nothing if not volatile.  (NYTimes)

Why the global middle classes are in upheaval.  (Bloomberg)

On the developed-emerging market convergence.  (Musings on Markets)

Economy

Fed doves are better forecasters than Fed hawks.  (WSJ)

More on the Yellen-Summers debate.  (Econbrowser, Gavyn Davies)

The taper is a done deal. What matters is when the Fed starts raising rates.  (Tim Duy, Sober Look)

An employment report preview.  (Bonddad Blog)

Earlier on Abnormal Returns

What you may have missed in our Sunday linkfest.  (Abnormal Returns)

Mixed media

Why did Bloomberg pull the plug on Bloomberg Black so quickly?  (InvestmentNews)

Overstock ($OSTK) and Amazon ($AMZN) are in a book price war.  (GigaOM)

Why shouldn’t you sign up for Netflix ($NFLX)?  (Pando Daily)

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