This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• John Hussman (Hussman Funds): Rumors of the death of the credit crisis are greatly exaggerated, October 26, 2009. In recent months, I’ve strongly rejected the notion that the credit crisis has been conveniently placed behind us and that the U.S. is now in a typical post-war economic recovery (and can be approached as such from an investment perspective). This view continues to strike me as dangerous and even naïve.

• Dave Nadig (IndexUniverse.com): Nouriel Roubini - big crash coming, October 23, 2009. Roubini will be the keynote speaker at IndexUniverse’s upcoming “Inside Commodities” conference on November 4 at the New York Stock Exchange. IndexUniverse sat down with Dr. Roubini ahead of the conference to take his temperature

Consumer Borrowing Collapses…What’s up with sterling? Option ARMs get ready to reset…Gold falls back to below $1,000…And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Well… The currencies, for the most part, kept the heat on the dollar throughout the day and in the overnight markets. The euro, did rise to 1.45 and change yesterday, while it is hovering right at that figure this morning, so it did give a little bit back.

There were no big announcements last night like we saw on Monday, so the currencies didn’t have anything to push them further. In fact, there may be a “letting the dust settle” period of time, with the Big Dog, euro, before we see any further advancement, given the euro’s huge gains yesterday…

We did have “Mr. Yen” Sakakibara, tell a crowd of people that he

“Words from the Wise” this week comes to you in a shortened format as I do not have access to my normal research resources while on the road in Europe (also see my post “Gone A.W.O.L. - to Slovenia and Switzerland“). Although very little commentary is provided, a full dose of excerpts from interesting news items and quotes from market commentators is included.

While investors’ hopes of an economic recovery might have got ahead of reality, the cartoonists continually reminded us of worrisome issues …

Source: Signe Wilkinson, Washington Post,  June 18, 2009.

The past week’s performance of the major asset classes is summarized by the chart below - a mixed bag so to speak.

Source: StockCharts.com

A summary of

This post provides links to some thought-provoking articles I have read over the past few days that you may also find of interest.

• Tom Lauricella (The Wall Street Journal): Is this bull cyclical or secular?, June 15, 2009. Many investors are now calling the rebound in stocks since early March the start of a new bull market. But it could be only a temporary respite from a longer-term bear market dating back to the beginning of this decade.

• Andy Xie (Caijing.com.cn): Tight spot for Fed, blind spot for investors, June 8, 2009. If you are a speculator and confident you can get out before it crashes, this is your market. If you think this market is for real, you are making a mistake and should get out as soon as possible. If you lost money during your last three market

Foreclosures rise…  Green Shoots, no so green!  Getting on a bus…  Losing a triple A rating? And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day… And a Wonderful Wednesday to you! Not wanting to start the day off with bad news… But I just saw a flash on the TV that said, “foreclosures jumped 32% last month”… More Blood in the Streets, eh? That just happens to be the title of my presentation today… Blood in the Street: Bargain time or just a cease fire? Hey! I don’t make these things up…

OK… Another day here in Sin City… This city is packed with people, everywhere

As to be expected, discussions about the stress tests on the health of the 19 biggest US banks dominated the video airwaves during the past few days, with arguments ranging from whether the tests were necessary to whether they were stressful enough.

For the rest, Warren Buffett held his annual Berkshire shareholders’ jamboree - this year sharing both concern and optimism about the future. And as the nascent stock market rally is looking more tired by the day, the debate intensified on whether this was a “real rally”.

In addition to Buffett and the usual suspects of Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke, commentators featured on camera in this post include Richard Bernstein, Bill Fleckenstein, Nouriel Roubini, Neel Kashkari, Alan Blinder, Russell Napier, Robin Griffiths and Meb Faber.

The selection kicks off with an item in lighter vein - a song entitled

Let’s talk about what money is. For some people it’s M-1 or M-2, and they worry that the money supply is growing too much. For some people it’s gold; gold is the only real currency. I think those ideas each have their place, and there’s some truths to them, but they focus us on the wrong thing.

It’s a bit misleading to talk about money supply, because what money really is is roughly $2 trillion of cash and then $50 trillion in credit. Because what do the banks do? They take deposits in and then they borrow money to leverage them up. I take my credit card and I spend with it. I borrow against a house. I have an asset that rises, and I borrow against it.

We have two trillion dollars of actual cash propping up $50 trillion in credit. If we all

Believe it or not, but based on the classic Wall Street definitions, we’re in a new bull market. As of last Friday, all three major market indices recovered more than 20% from their March 9 lows.

Of course, we’ve been here before. Or as Yogi Berra liked to say, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.”

Recall, back in November of 2008 the markets began an impressive run-up, hitting the 20% milestone, too. Then all hell broke loose.

As a result, not every market observer, myself included, is completely convinced by the recent move. But I will say this - seven notable differences exist between then and now, leading me to believe this very well could be the start of a new bull market.

On Tuesday CNBC did a feature story on home sales in foreclosure central - California. In one suburb outside Stockton, where one out of every 67 homeowners

U.S. stocks soar!  Currencies rally!  Consumer Confidence at an all-time low!  Getting off the bench! And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Well… The trading theme remained in place yesterday, but this time it was reversed. For those of you new to class, or any of you who have been playing horse hooky, the trading theme that has gripped the markets since August is: The deeper, darker, and more dangerous the U.S. economy and financial meltdown, including the credit market’s locked status, the dollar gets bought… If there is any sign of light to all this mess, the dollar gets sold, for whenever the markets get their minds off the mess, they are reminded of awful fundamentals for the dollar.

So…