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

• George Soros (Financial Times): Do not ignore the need for financial reform, October 25, 2009. It is not the right time to enact permanent reforms. The financial system is far from equilibrium. The short-term needs are the opposite of what is needed in the long term.

• Paul Sandison: The two main threats to democracy and modern capitalism, October 20, 2009. In the present burgeoning economic crisis, already well over a hundred million people across the globe have been thrown into poverty, despair, sickness and are struggling to avoid a premature death. Billions of people abroad are vowing never to allow the United States and the United Kingdom to do this to them again. The remaining question is whether the

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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.

• Dan Holland (RealClearMarkets): An interview with Doug Kass, September 21, 2009. Hedge fund manager Doug Kass has been called many different names over the course of his storied and successful, nearly forty-year investing career. Names like the “Bear of Boca”; “The Peerless Prognosticator of Palm Beach”; as well as the “Anti-Cramer.” He’s earned them all. As a noted short seller unafraid to swim against the tide of consensus, he seems to relish his self-appointed role bucking Wall Street groupthink and profiting handsomely from betting against the crowd.

• Intelligent Investing Transcript (Forbes): Jean-Marie Eveillard, September 14, 2009. An interview by Steve Forbes of Jean-Marie Eveillard, is senior adviser of First Eagle Funds.

• Peter Boone and Simon

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China is Investing Billions in Renewable Energy One firm has already built China’s largest wind turbine manufacturing factory. And it’s working with the Chinese Science Academy to develop new wind, solar, and geothermal technologies… for which it will own 70% of the rights. But this company’s business reaches far beyond the Chinese border, with operations in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. It’s first quarter net income increased by 294% over a year ago. Click here for the full report.

The financial services industry in the United States and Europe is still reeling from the financial crisis, shedding tens of thousands of jobs each month – even a year after the crisis hit its apex.

However, recent evidence suggests that the financial services industry in Asia – particularly China, which was largely isolated from the toxic assets that caused the crisis – is starting to rebound.

Indeed, many …

“It looks like things are finally turning around,” said a friend at Saturday night’s dinner. “Not at all… ” we replied. Paul Krugman says the world “avoided a second Great Depression.” He’s wrong too.

The stock market crashed in ’29. The market then bounced. After a few months almost everyone was persuaded that the “worst is over.” But the worst was just beginning. It wasn’t until 1932 that the stock market finally hit bottom. By then, it beginning to seem like a depression… and only years later did economic historians tag it as a ‘great’ depression.

This depression is still wet behind the ears… We’re still in the bounce phase. On Friday, the Dow went 113 points higher. And as the bounce continues, more and more investors will come to believe that stocks are in a new bull market and that the economy is back in growth

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“It looks like things are finally turning around,” said a friend at Saturday night’s dinner. “Not at all… ” we replied. Paul Krugman says the world “avoided a second Great Depression.” He’s wrong too.

The stock market crashed in ’29. The market then bounced. After a few months almost everyone was persuaded that the “worst is over.” But the worst was just beginning. It wasn’t until 1932 that the stock market finally hit bottom. By then, it beginning to seem like a depression… and only years later did economic historians tag it as a ‘great’ depression.

This depression is still wet behind the ears… We’re still in the bounce phase. On Friday, the Dow went 113 points higher. And as the bounce continues, more and more investors will come to believe that stocks are in a new bull market and that the economy is back in growth

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It’s a good day for robbing a bank – they’ve got money for a change! How fast the bankers redeemed themselves… just a few months ago, we were making jokes about them:

“What do you say to a banker who has lost his job on Wall Street?”

“Uh…can I have fries with that?”

But now they’re geniuses again. And they can prove it…just look at their pay stubs!

And if there’s any fear that these dumbbells might blow themselves up again, you can forget it. They’ve got the full faith and credit of the United States of American behind them. Here’s the latest from Associated Press:

“The watchdog overseeing the federal government financial bailout says the government’s maximum exposure to financial institutions since 2007 could total nearly $24 trillion, or about $80,000 for every American.

“The whopping amount compiled by the inspector general for the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program takes into account about

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A Dow Jones report published last week quoted Standard & Poor’s Financial Services as theorizing that the $700 billion global Islamic finance industry would “weather the financial crisis” and moreover would resume its growth on the support of “high demand for Shariah-compliant products, which are considered less risky than convention debt.”  While the global issuance of sukuk fell 35% to $5.3 billion in Q2 compared with last year, a 164% surge in volume in this year’s second quarter compared to the first signaled renewed and robust interest, according to analysts.  In fact, Standard Chartered Bank’s CEO of Islamic banking predicts a primary market of “close to $10 billion” by year’s end.  The biggest sukuk issuers YTD have been Malaysia and Indonesia, followed by Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the largest Middle East economy.

Facilitating sukuk’s global growth will be certain legal changes (i.e., tax system overhauls) currently

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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

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It’s the Ultimate Fighting Event - Worldwide Economic Mud Wrestling! See it now! First, the Honey Hun … German Chancellor Angela Merkel took on a whole pack of central bankers and economists, charging that they were going to make the situation worse by spending money they didn’t have… and causing inflation.

Then, historian Niall Ferguson - Professor Punchy - took a jab at the meddlers in the pages of the Financial Times. His point was simple enough - that the feds were spending trillions of dollars without really knowing what they were doing. If they borrow money to stimulate the economy they are just taking money out of the private economy and diverting it to public spending. There’s no gain in that, he said.

Watch out Niall! The Nobel Knucklehead - economist Paul Krugman - hit back.

We’ll return to this grapplefest. But first, let’s take a look at what is happening

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I've gotten a few questions from readers and colleagues about what sources I turn to for information about the markets, exchange-traded funds and related topics.

The list is long and varied, and ebbs and flows over time. But here are some of the sources (public, private and otherwise) that I turn to in my day-to-day reading. I'm sure I'm leaving out quite a few sites, but this at least is a partial list.

NATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

IndexUniverse.com and IndexUniverse.eu: It goes without saying that IndexUniverse.com and IndexUniverse.eu are the best sites on the Web for information about ETFs and how they are used in portfolios.

IndexUniverse.com

IndexUniverse.eu

Slate/The Big Money: Those two Web sites aside, I start my day at Slate.com, and its sister finance site The Big Money. I find the daily news summary (and weekly magazine summaries) the best meta-journalism on the Web. They offer

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