Monday linkage — some things from off the beaten path:
• Jeremy Grantham calls markets at a Boring Fair Price!, and he is Waiting for Markets to be Silly Again; Since early March, the market has had the type of strong speculative rally that often follows extreme declines.
• After calling for a generational bottom in early March, Doug Kass now likes Cash (TheStreet.com)
• Tenacious G: Inside Goldman Sachs, America’s most successful, cynical, envied, despised, and (in its view, anyway) misunderstood engine of capitalism (NY Mag)
• 10 Members Send Letter to Federal Reserve on Goldman Sachs Gambling with Government Money
• Subprime Sequel: Mortgage fraud has doubled since 2007, according to the FBI—and the fraudsters include everyone from individuals fudging loan forms to thieves who steal millions from lenders and victims alike. The danger is with Mortgage fraud skyrocketing, the housing market won’t rebound if it’s tainted by sleaze. (Reader’s Digest)
• UBS Bans Leveraged, Inverse ETFs (ETF Database)
• Fear, Falling Demand Keep Loans: The total amount of loans held by 15 large U.S. banks shrank by 2.8% in the second quarter, and more than half of the loan volume in April and May came from refinancing mortgages and renewing credit to businesses, not new loans, an analysis by The Wall Street Journal shows. (MarketBeat)
• Three months EHS in a row means what? Are EHS Improvement stretching three months something special? Was it in 2006 or 2007? (The Mess That Greenspan Made)
• The despicable Ben Stein (Felix Salmon)
• Earnings game: Don’t take the spin Because it’s let’s-play-beat-the-number season (i.e., when corporate earnings are reported), let’s look at what a game it is (Bill Fleckenstein)
• Real Yields Highest Since 1994 Aid Record Debt Sales: Treasuries are the cheapest relative to inflation since 1994 after consumer prices fell 1.4 percent in June from a year earlier. (Bloomberg)
• Get ready for banking’s next headache: Though housing markets remain weak, analysts expect credit problems over the next year to center on $1.8 trillion worth of commercial real estate — mortgages on office and apartment buildings and shopping malls, as well as construction, development and industrial loans. (Fortune)
• Distressing Gap: Ratio of Existing to New Home Sales: In many areas, home builders cannot compete with distressed and REO sales, and this has pushed down New Home Sales (Calculated Risk)
• Why Counting Money Can Make You Happier (Time)
• Funny stuff: The Associated Press discovers the Web
Anything else clickworthy?
What's been said:
Discussions found on the web: