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

• John Authers (Financial Times): Financialisation genie set loose, October 7, 2009. Not long ago, there were three asset classes: stocks, bonds and cash. Some were not even sure if cash counted as an asset class. The last few decades, however, have seen the “financialization” of swathes of the world economy where prices were not previously set by markets, or at least not by markets led by the same investors who also set the prices of stocks and bonds. But financialization has led to controversy since last year’s crisis.

• Randall Forsyth (Barron’s): Away from Wall Street, credit keeps contracting, October 8, 2009. Financial markets party on Fed largesse, little of which flows to Main Street.

• Eamon Javers

Liberator Medical Holdings Inc., a national provider of direct-to-consumer medical supplies to senior citizens eligible for Medicare, today announced its second-quarter financial results for the period ended March 31, 2009.

The company posted revenues of $5.83 million, up an astounding 309% from the $1.43 million reported for the first quarter of 2008. Liberator Medical attributes the increase primarily to its mail advertising campaign targeting new customers.

Gross profit for the quarter was $3.7 million, up 311% from the amount reported in the same period last year.

Liberator Medical’s net income for the second quarter of 2009 was $94,947, or $0.00 per share.

Mark Libratore, Liberator Medical’s CEO, said that while the second quarter is usually a tough one as customers hold off on orders to first meet their insurance deductibles, the company was able to counter the pullback.

“We are very pleased to announce another record quarter in revenue