10 Friday AM Reads

By Barry Ritholtz - January 27th, 2012, 9:36AM

Last reads of the week:

• An investor’s worst enemy? Their brain (The Globe and Mail)
• The 2012 Stock Rally Has Erased Bearish Sentiment (WSJ) see also ‘Bailout Nation’ Author Says Correlation Killing Volumes (Traders Magazine)
• Fighting Bernanke Hazardous in Gundlach View of Housing Market (Bloomberg)
• Josh Brown: Perhaps I’ve Been a Bit Too Harsh with Wire Houses … (WSJ)
• Banks Face Bind Over Cash Pile (WSJ) see also Europe could learn from US debt scramble (FT.com)
• In Punishing Year for Hedge Funds, Biggest One Thrived (DealBook)
• GM was the “good” bailout: Jobs, Jobs and Cars (NYT)
• Pic reunites Monty Python members (Variety)
• Supply-side economics at core of Gingrich plan (Washington Post)
• Apple and Google as Creative Archetypes (NYT)

What are you doing this weekend?

Source: WSJ

PERMALINK
Category: Financial Press.

Comments

Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.

8 Responses to “10 Friday AM Reads”

dougc Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 9:42 am
Are we in a recession? GDP was up 2.8 % but 1,9 due to inventory build, also the GDP deflator fell to 0.4% from 2.6 in the last quarter. Looks like ECRI was correct.
constantnormal Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 10:18 am
from the Traders Magazine link:

Ritholtz also believes the rise of exchange-traded funds has contributed to greater correlations, and thus lower volumes. When a whole index is more and more trading as one, there is less and less incentive for selecting individual stocks, he said.

“The only time to own a stock is if you believe it’s going to outperform the index,” said Ritholtz.

The converse of this is that for indexers, who hope to escape risk via index funds … there is no escape. They get pretty much the same action as the stock pickers.

It is said that Mr Market enjoys inflicting the greatest pain on the greatest number … perhaps a better statement is that high correlations produce instability and Minsky Moments.
MorticiaA Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 11:00 am
I’m not a big fan of opinion polls (I’ll make up my own mind, dammit!, AND the public is fickle), but… the chart shows an interesting dichotomy. A higher % of Republicans polled find Gingrich the candidate du jour but the poll agnostic to party affiliation shows Romney would provide a tigher race vs. Obama.

BTW, I took the USA Today interactive survey you posted earlier this week. Jon Huntsman would be my guy. Sigh. Why are the boring-but-rational candidates always out early? But then again Bachmann was out early… perhaps my theory is already disproven.
Khav Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 11:26 am
I’m going to the casino this weekend.

WSJ – “ECRI leading index recovers more”
http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2012/01/27/ecri-leading-index-recovers-more/
Gnatman Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 1:02 pm
The PBS Newshour interviewed Tom Edsall on Thursday night. He was explaining the political climate, But he described the pschologoly differences between conservatives and liberals. 8 minute interview – psychology at 2:30 Now I want his book.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june12/ageofausterity_01-26.html
arogersb Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Before SOPA they tried to kill VCR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnRhETxRj6A&feature=g-all-u&context=G289611eFAAAAAHgAZAA
Winston Munn Says:
January 27th, 2012 at 11:23 pm
Paul Krugman: Newt Gingrich Is ‘A Stupid Man’s Idea Of What A Smart Person Sounds Like’
V Says:
January 28th, 2012 at 3:32 am
Any ideas on what is going on with Baltic Dry Index?