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

• Richard Beales (The New York Times): Exuberance defies sober new reality, September 17, 2009. Is irrational exuberance back in the markets? Evidence abounds that it may be. With financial chaos abating, the return of risk appetite in stock and lending markets is logical - up to a point. But risk-taking that aspires to the boom-time norm, rather than a more sober new reality, could be premature and dangerous.

• James Grant (The Wall Street Journal): From bear to bull, September 19, 2009. Grant argues the latest gloomy forecasts ignore an important lesson of history: The deeper the slump, the zippier the recovery.

• John Hussman (Hussman Funds): Strenuously overbought, September 22, 2009. Our measures of market action

The probably bankruptcy of CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) could have major implications on the retail and manufacturing sectors this week, as many related companies are reliant on the financing giant.

With options running out over the weekend, CIT advisors began preparations for a bankruptcy filing. As of Sunday, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Morgan Stanley (MS) were talking with other banks about a debtor-in-possession loan, used to fund a company’s operations after it seeks court protection from creditors, Bloomberg News reported.

Bondholders held calls last week to discuss whether to swap some claims for equity to reduce indebtedness. Thomas Lauria, a lawyer at White & Case LLP, told Bloomberg that a group of CIT creditors he represents offered to provide $3 billion in new loans to bridge CIT to an out-of-court restructuring or an orderly bankruptcy, but had yet to hear back from CIT management.

“It seems CIT was

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

• Joseph Stiglitz (The Nation): A global recovery for a global recession, June 24, 2009. As developed countries struggle to ensure a quick recovery, they need to think of the effects of their actions on developing countries. It is time to begin the restructuring of our global economic and financial system in ways that ensure that the fruits of prosperity are more widely shared and that the system is more stable. This task will not be accomplished overnight. But it is a task that must be begun, now.

• Philip Stephens (Financial Times): Co-ordination falls away as the global crisis abates, June 26, 2009. There was a surprising degree of co-operation on the international response to

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

Marc Faber, the Swiss-born, Thai-based investor known affectionately to many as “Dr. Doom,” remarked to Bloomberg recently that Mongolia is “torn between two lovers - China and Russia,” and is a country with huge potential. “The country is incredibly resource rich, another Saudi Arabia, next to the largest population in the world.”

Earlier this month Mongolia was approved for a $229.2 million stand-by loan from the imf to help the country stabilize its economy. “Mongolia has been severely affected by the global financial crisis through a sharp reduction in the prices of its main mineral exports, notably copper,” said IMF Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chairman Takatoshi Kato. “The authorities are committed to restoring macroeconomic stability and putting in place the conditions for strong and equitable growth.”

Today, however, copper prices rose to its highest in almost six months in London based on speculation that demand from China,

The revelation of the week in the mainstream press was the 11 people who got million dollar retention bonuses from AIG and no longer work for the company.

But the revelation of the week among financial bloggers belongs to the King of Bears, Dr. Roubini, an economist at New York University. He’s also known as Dr. Doom.

He’s been predicting for years that the economy was headed for a hard fall and that the market would get crushed.

The revelation isn’t that he’s changed his mind. He thinks there’s much more unwinding to do. He’s as bearish as ever…

The surprising revelation is that 100 percent of his savings is in stocks. Why is Roubini saying one thing and doing another?

First off, Roubini’s odd investment choice was first revealed last year in the Financial Times. So it’s not really breaking news. But the issue it raises is very timely…

Is buying and holding stocks just

While on the road in Europe, I am posting a thought-provoking video featuring Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics at New York University and chairman of RGE Monitor, and Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan. The discussion deals with how to predict a financial crisis and the five signs of a bear. They also convey important knowledge on how to cope with the crisis, both on a structural and personal level.

Click here or on the image below to view the video

Source: CNBC, February 9, 2009.

Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and even the mighty Dubai are getting dragged down by the global economic turmoil.  “The global financial storm rolled across the Persian Gulf on Sunday,” reports the WSJ, “as Kuwait’s central bank guaranteed bank deposits and cobbled together a hasty bailout for one of the country’s largest banks.”

– Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, has announced it will pour $2.3 billion in loans to low-income borrowers.

– There are also signs of trouble in boom town Dubai. The WSJ reports that real-estate brokers there say they are seeing signs of “price weakness” there. We can only presume this is real-estate broker speak for “Nobody’s buying.”

– Over the weekend, “Dr. Doom,” aka New York University economics professor Nouriel Roubini, told The Times that the world economy was “at a breaking point” and that