Wednesday 10 Spot

Here are 10 items that caught my eye:

• Bears prowl Wall St as insiders dump stock (Reuters) A massive rally in U.S. stocks since March has reawakened bullish spirits, but insiders are jumping out of the market in a sign the run up is getting stretched.Company executives are selling stock at a rate not seen in two years after a near 50 percent rise in the S&P 500 from a March 9 low. That suggests directors and managers may think stock prices are nearing the top end of their range in the current economic climate.

• Rogoff: Why we need to regulate the banks sooner, not later (FT) Too many policymakers, investors and economists have concluded that US authorities could have engineered a smooth exit from the bubble economy if only Lehman had been bailed out. Too many now believe that any move towards greater financial regulation should be sharply circumscribed since it was the government that dropped the ball. Policymakers should not be obsessed with moral hazard and should forget trying to micromanage the innovative financial sector.

• Growth in “Potential GDP” Shows Limited Potential (Hussman)

• Odd WSJ Real Estate Story on Vermont Mortgage Regs: (Economist’s View) The tenor of the article is that Vermont has overregulated the mortgage market preventing…wait for it…the unforgivable error of restricting loans to those who can prove an ability to repay.  Worse yet, consumers receive explicit notice of high rates and brokers are held accountable:

• Your Handy Health Care Cheat Sheet

• Credit Card Firms Face New Curbs This Week (Washington Post) The first phase of the landmark credit card legislation signed by President Obama in May will take effect this week, forcing card issuers to give consumers more time to pay their bills and to consider interest rate increases. Starting Thursday, issuers must give customers 45 days’ notice before raising their interest rates, instead of 15 days as previously required.

•  A Nuclear Renaissance Beckons Electricity demand is expected to increase 50 percent by 2030. NRC has received 17 license applications for 26 new nuclear power reactors. These are the first applications for new reactors since the late 1970s. In addition to new reactors, the NRC has seen an increase in licensing applications related to uranium recovery and fuel-processing facilities.

• Americans Pay The Most For Cellphone Service (Consumerist)

• Debate’s Path Caught Obama by Surprise (Washington Post) President Obama’s advisers acknowledged Tuesday that they were unprepared for the intraparty rift that occurred over the fate of a proposed public health insurance program, a firestorm that has left the White House searching for a way to reclaim the initiative on the president’s top legislative priority.

• Visualizing up to ten dimensions (boingboing)

Anything else you are to note?