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

Despite rising Treasury Note yields, US stock markets yesterday closed at their highest level for 2009. Also, commodities were driven higher by reports indicating that the recession is abating, but the US dollar retreated on concerns of the huge issuance of government bonds.

Elsewhere, Chrysler completed its deal with Fiat, the US Treasury Department announced that ten banks would repay TARP funds, and the Obama administration is dropping its plan to cap salaries at firms receiving bailout funds and has backed away from a large-scale reduction in the number of agencies overseeing financial markets.

Coverage of these events on camera this week included discussions with John Hussman, Chris Whalen, Peter Peterson, Paul Krugman, Mohamed El-Erian, Laszlo Birinyi, Jim Rogers, Jim Grant and Francisco Blanch.

The selection kicks off with the highly regarded John Hussman sharing his wisdom and concludes with an interesting snippet on Africa as an investment destination.

Contrary to the prevailing analysis, we believe that the Obama and Bush administration insistence on protecting banks at the expense of the taxpayer is the result of a Machiavellian effort by Goldman Sachs and other major banks to influence U.S. economic policy by infiltrating the corridors of power.

Today, we duly note that Goldman Sachs has just hired former Barney Frank staffer Michael Paese to be its top Washington lobbyist. This position was formerly held by Mark Patterson, the current chief of staff at the Treasury.

Pease and Patterson are not the only ones to pass through the revolving door between Washington and Goldman. Bush’s Treasury secretary, Hank “The Hammer” Paulson is a former Goldman CEO. And his replacement, Tim Geithner, was mentored by Gerald Corrigan, a former New York Fed president and current partner and managing director of the Office of the Chairman of Goldman Sachs.

Who else was President Obama considering

NYSE CEO: More Consolidation Coming

Duncan Niederauer sees more shakeout taking place in the exchange industry. At least that is what the NYSE Euronext chief executive said during a speech on Thursday, according to Dow Jones Newswires' Jacob Bunge.

Niederauer also said the NYSE Euronext is planning to register its London-based clearinghouse as a U.S. trust bank, the article added.

You can read the full report here.

From Top To Bottom & Back

Whether the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottomed on Nov. 20 is debatable, notes John Prestbo.

But the executive director of Dow Jones Indexes writes in his latest MarketWatch column that whether stock indexes have hit a trough or not, it's likely any rebound will take some time to work through the economy. He goes on to trace the history of bear markets and put the Dow's recent performance into some sort of perspective.

You can read the story