Quote of the day
Neil Irwin, “It might sound great to beat the market. But when you are as big as Calpers and Pimco, in important ways you are the market.” (The Upshot)
Chart of the day

The decline in commodity prices, including oil, is getting serious. (Business Insider)
Markets
The decline to-date has been pretty tame. (The Reformed Broker)
Seasonality is looking up for the stock market. (The Fat Pitch, Ryan Detrick)
Keep an eye on natural gas. (Andrew Thrasher)
Companies
eBay ($EBAY) acknowledges the inevitable and plans to spin-off PayPal. (Dealbook, Recode, Quartz, Business Insider, Stock Spinoffs)
The balance sheet issues/opportunities at Yahoo ($YHOO) are too big to ignore. (Bloomberg)
On the future of Apple ($AAPL) and Google ($GOOG). (Steve Cheney via DF)
Netflix ($NFLX) is pushing farther into film production with a deal to finance a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon sequel. (Variety, Time)
Finance
Could Lehman Brothers have been bailed out? (Dealbook)
Don’t kid yourself, AIG ($AIG) was insolvent in 2009. (Aleph Blog)
The US is still world’s preferred home for IPOs. (FT)
ETFs
Fidelity has cooked up their own version of nontransparent active ETFs. (ETF)
How much money investors have pulled from formerly Gross-managed Pimco funds. (Bloomberg)
Global
We are experiencing the flipside of 1970s-style inflation. (FT Alphaville)
One of these bond yield charts is not like the other. (Pragmatic Capitalism)
Who is buying all those European sovereign bonds? (FT Alphaville)
Economy
Home prices are rising at an increasing slower pace. (Calculated Risk)
The FOMC needs a better editor. (Crossing Wall Street)
The US is once again the world’s largest producer of petroleum. (FT)
Economists
Economists love Uber. (The Upshot)
What an economist can bring to business strategy. (HBR)
Earlier on Abnormal Returns
What you might have missed in our Monday linkfest. (Abnormal Returns)
Top clicks from last week’s Abnormal Returns. (Abnormal Returns)
Mixed media
How mindfulness can affect your spending. (Bucks Blog)
We are not all created equal: on the myth of the 10,000 hour rule. (Slate)
Lessons learned from ten years of blogging about investing. (Random Roger)
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