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

• Michael Kahn (Barron’s): Setting free the bears, November 2, 2009. The stock market’s astounding run from its March lows has finally run into a real ceiling. After outpacing most, if not all, post bear-market rallies over the past century the inevitable is finally here. But is it part of another correction or something more? The urgency of the sell-off suggests the latter. That said, I don’t see the danger of the market testing its March lows any time soon.

• Charles Githler (MoneyShow.com): Former bears’ take on the market’s future, October 18, 2009. Are we headed for a major correction, or even worse: a resumption of the bear market?What “the best” (former bears) are telling us now …

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U.S. banks are going bad as quickly as a bunch of over-ripe peaches in the summer heat. On the heels of the Colonial Bank failure comes another sizable bank failure.

Guaranty Bank in Texas became the 81st U.S. bank to fail this year. It was the 11th largest bank failure in U.S. history. This kind of thing is becoming so regular it is hardly news when it happens.

But what’s interesting to point out about this one is that the FDIC sold Guaranty to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria of Spain. This is the first time regulators have sold a failed bank to a foreign lender. Such a turn of events would have been unthinkable only a decade ago.

So the world turns. When it comes to the question of who has the money, it’s often a non-U.S. buyer these days.

Speaking of foreign buyers, there is probably no group of buyers more watched and

Chris Wood, street smart Global Equity Strategist of CLSA, yesterday said in an interview on CNBC-TC18 that the US markets remained in a bear market rally while Asia and India were in a secular bull market.

He said the Indian and Asian rally was started by local money, which according to him was a big long-term positive. He added that Asia and emerging markets (EMs) would be the biggest beneficiary of the Fed’s monetary easing. He also said liquidity could lead to massive asset bubbles in Asia and EMs.

Click the image below to view the interview. The video clip is followed by a verbatim transcript.

Q: What have you made of the markets’ move in the past few weeks?

A: I was expecting what I call a counter-trend rally, driven by a counter-trend rally in

A plea to lawmakers…give liquidation a chance!

U.S. stockowners got a break yesterday…the Dow rose 236 points. News reports tell us that investors were listening to Ben Bernanke. He’s speaking to Congress…intending to boost investor confidence. But we can’t find anything in Bernanke’s remarks that would give us much confidence.

In fact, consumer confidence is at a record low. And investors couldn’t have taken much comfort from the Fed chief. Bernanke said the economy would start to grow again in 2010…and then, only if the banking system is stabilized. Of course, Bernanke is talking nonsense. He doesn’t know when the economy will begin to grow in earnest again, and if it does begin to grow it won’t be because the banking system is stabilized. You can stabilize a comatose person. You can stabilize a battlefield. You can stabilize a ladder. But stabilizing a crummy bank won’t help the economy grow. For that