Dan Holland has just interviewed Wall Street chronicler Charlie Gasparino’s. The first few paragraphs of the interview that appeared on RealClearMarkets are published below.

There’s good reason to believe that Gasparino’s latest book, The Sellout, will become the definitive book on the current financial crisis and the events that led up to “The Great Recession.” Spanning three decades, The Sellout pulls no punches in chronicling the rise and fall of excessive Wall Street leverage and risk taking, as well as the cast of colorful characters that ultimately brought the US financial system to its knees. It will hit bookshelves tomorrow [Tuesday].

RealClearMarkets: You sat down recently with Wall Street legend Teddy Forstmann to discuss your new book and the genesis of the mess we now find ourselves in. Forstmann said it all began as a “cold” back in the 1970s and 1980s, and that since

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The stock market has become overheated since exploding off its March lows and could be in for a strong correction, economist David Rosenberg told CNBC.

“It is overvalued by at least 20%,” Rosenberg, formerly chief economist at Merrill Lynch and now with Gluskin Sheff & Associates, said in an interview. “But it comes down to what your view in corporate earnings (is) going to be. By the time you’re up 60% from any egregiously oversold low, you’ve already got the earnings recovery.”

Source: CNBC, October 27, 2009.

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Meryn King, the British counterpart to U.S. Fed Chair Ben Bernanke, had this to say in a speech yesterday: “The United Kingdom faces two fundamental long-run challenges. First, to rebalance the economy, with more resources allocated to business investment and net exports and fewer to consumption. "That is consistent with the need – now widely accepted – to eliminate the large structural fiscal deficit and to raise the national saving rate. It is part of a need for a wider rebalancing of domestic demand in the world economy away from those countries that borrowed and ran current account deficits towards those that lent and ran surpluses." Everything he has to say about the UK is true in spades for the US. The US. is more dependent on consumption than is the UK and perpetually runs trade (current account) deficits. We need for the US to ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 19, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Google Inc. (GOOG), Bank of America Corporation (BAC), American International Group (AIG), Citigroup (C) and GMAC Inc. (GJM).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Friday’s AnalystBlog:

Google Stuns the Market

Google Inc. (GOOG) reported third quarter results that blew away all estimates. Earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a dollar and 20 cents. Revenue beat the consensus by around 40%.

Revenue

Gross revenue of $5.94 billion was up 7.6% sequentially

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Bank of America Corporation’s (BAC) third quarter 2009 loss came in at 26 cents per share, substantially worse than the Zacks Consensus Estimated loss of 10 cents. This compares unfavorably with earnings of 15 cents in the prior-year quarter. The worse-than-expected results came in due primarily to continued weakness in the U.S. and global economies as well as stress on the consumer, which continues to result in high credit costs. The results for the quarter were negatively impacted by $2.6 billion in pretax mark-to-market and credit valuation adjustments on certain liabilities, including the Merrill Lynch structured notes, and a $402 million pretax charge to pay the U.S. government for termination of its asset guarantee term sheet. However, strengthening reserves, capital position and liquidity were key positives during the quarter.    The results for the quarter exclude total preferred dividends of $1.2 billion. The preferred dividend paid ...

As always, piece was available to subscribers well before pricing and open. VRSK - Verisk Analytics plans on offering 85.25 million shares in a range of $19-$21. Insiders will be selling all of the shares in this deal, VRSK will receive no monies. If over-allotments are exercised, insiders will be offering 12.75 million shares bringing the total deal size to 98 million shares. BofA/Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley are leading the deal, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, William Blair, Fox-Pitt Kelton a ..

This week on Consuelo Mack WealthTrack three outstanding financial world figures share their “one investment” recommendation for a long-term diversified portfolio. The guests are: Bob Doll who runs three large cap funds at BlackRock; John Montgomery who heads up a family of funds using computer models at Bridgeway Capital; and Tom Petrie, Vice Chairman of Bank of America - Merrill Lynch, who is a veteran observer of the energy sector. As always with WealthTrack this is excellent viewing material.

Note: The transcript of this interview is not available yet, but will be posted here as soon as it arrives.

Source: Wealthtrack, October 9, 2009.

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This is Part 2 of a guest contribution by David Kotok* and Bob Eisenbeis** of Cumberland Advisors. (Click here for Part 1.)

Note to Readers:  This is the second of our two-part commentary on the Fed’s exit strategy and the role the Fed has played in complicating its own operating strategies and ability to conduct monetary policy.

In their Wall St. Journal op-ed entitled “The BLOB That Ate Monetary Policy” (September 27, 2009), the Dallas Fed’s Fisher and Rosenblum use the movie metaphor of the BLOB to describe the “too big to fail” banks.  They argue that these BLOBs stood in the way of the Fed’s monetary policy’s low interest rates and thereby “gummed up” the “monetary policy channel,” which would otherwise be able to stimulate economic activity.

The op-ed doesn’t name names.  But we will.  If you examine the list of the Fed’s primary

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The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday asked for a jury trial related to its lawsuit against Bank of America Corp. (BAC) for misleading shareholders about bonuses to Merrill Lynch employees before the companies merged in January.   U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff last month rejected a $33 million settlement between the SEC and Bank of America over the $3.6 billion in bonuses. The District Court Judge said that SEC's accusations of inadequate disclosure by the bank over bonuses paid at Merrill Lynch must go to trial. The date of trial is set for March 1, 2010.   Though BofA overpaid for Merrill Lynch, the deal makes strategic sense now. With the acquisition of Merrill Lynch, BofA gained a global investment-banking platform, profitable retail brokerage addition and significant equity-underwriting capacity, all of which it lacked earlier. For the first half of 2009, Merrill contributed $1.84 billion....

Raser Technologies Inc. (RZ) yesterday provided an update on its geothermal activities and its PHEV project. The company is gradually transiting from a developmental stage company towards a geothermal power producer.   Raser is progressing rapidly on the Lightning Dock No. 1 geothermal project. Recently it bagged final approval from the New Mexico Oil Conservation Division (OCD) for injection of geothermal fluids. The company is also in the process of negotiating a revision to its power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District. The revision is expected to include an increase in the expected output from the Lightning Dock project as well as an increase in the price of energy under the PPA.   Raser is now in the final stages of testing the fifth production well that is needed for the completion of its first geothermal plant Thermo No. 1 as ...