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

Lifeline Biotechnologies Inc.

(Public, PINK:LLBO)

With the recent gains in Hard to Treat Diseases Inc. (PINK:HTDS) and BioElectronics Corp. (OTC:BIEL), investors were left hungry for more undervalued, high potential biotech companies — Then came LifeLine Biotechnologies Inc (OTC:LLBO). As technology continues to redefine the modern era of medical advancements, certain companies will stand apart from the rest, as is the case with Lifeline Biotechnologies Inc. This company is an innovative medical technology company committed to the improvement of the quality of life through exceptional health care systems, focusing on prevention, early diagnosis, and quick recovery. Recently, the company has made headlines with their innovative Breast Cancer detection system, the First Warning System ™, a dynamic test which collects information over time with an uncanny efficacy. The next several months will prove to be critical for LifeLine Biotechnologies, as they await the FDA’s decision

Headquartered in Mission Viejo, California, and trading on the OTCBB, Auxilio Inc. provides outsourced document management services to the healthcare industry. Founded in California in 2001, the company also has operations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as well as San Francisco, California. Auxilio Inc. owns technology, systems, and methodologies that form the basis of their intellectual property platform. They use this platform to improve hospitals’ document production and workflow processes. This significantly lowers hospitals’ total cost of ownership.

Auxilio Inc. works to invent, develop, and improve systems for managing document activity in hospitals. Their goal is to translate these systems into value for their clients via the company’s onsite teams who implement and manage them. Auxilio serves hospitals and integrated health delivery networks. Auxilio’s target market includes medium to large hospitals and health care systems. Customers served by Auxilio include Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Scottsdale Healthcare, St. Joseph Health System, MemorialCare, and Huntington

By RGE Monitor

A few years back, before this crisis erupted, several economists were concerned about the sustainability of the large global imbalances fueled by the so-called Bretton Woods 2 (BW2) system. These economists recognized the tendency of emerging (export-led) economies to manage their exchange rate systems - the origin of large trade and current account surpluses that, via large foreign reserve accumulation, were financing the mirror of those surpluses, namely the large US trade and current account deficits.

These surpluses, primarily in several exports-led Asian economies, and also in oil producing countries, ballooned to extensive proportions in 2007 and 2008. The purchases of US government bonds by these investors helped keep long-term interest rates low and led many investors to seek out high-yielding investments especially in some emerging markets.

Although we are not (yet) witnessing a US dollar crisis,