ETFs As The World's Playground

Kirk Shinkle, one of the most experienced and artful markets reporters on the national scene, takes an interesting look at ETFs as they've "evolved into a playground for index designers, offering easy access to esoteric corners of the market and far-flung reaches of the globe."

Shinkle, who now writes for U.S. News & World Report, takes an entertaining jaunt around the globe to see all of the sectors and countries ETFs provide access to these days. Along the way, he bumps into our own Matt Hougan for a quick observation.

You can read the story here.

Corporate Bonds Set To Rocket? Now that the largest bond fund manager in the world is making plans to enter the exchange-traded funds marketplace, it's worth noting that its top corporate fixed-income manager is predicting banner times in 2009 for the asset class.

Mark Kiesel tells Bloomberg News that despite the fact corporate bonds are heading

18 banks have gone under so far this year. But how do you know if yours will be next? Keith Fitz-Gerald says the IRA Bank Industry Stress Index can be used like a financial X-ray to see what’s really going on in the banking sector.

This from Money Morning:

When federal banking regulators last week seized the Houston-based Franklin Bank SSB (FBTX), it became the 18th bank failure this year amid the ongoing credit crisis. With total assets of $5.1 billion and total deposits of $3.7 billion, Franklin wasn’t the largest bank failure this year – that honor belongs to IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (OTC: IDMCQ), which had more than $30 billion in estimated assets when it was seized by U.S. banking regulators in July. At the time, IndyMac was also the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history, reaching all the way back to 1934, U.S.

18 banks have gone under so far this year. But how do you know if yours will be next? Keith Fitz-Gerald says the IRA Bank Industry Stress Index can be used like a financial X-ray to see what’s really going on in the banking sector.

This from Money Morning:

When federal banking regulators last week seized the Houston-based Franklin Bank SSB (FBTX), it became the 18th bank failure this year amid the ongoing credit crisis. With total assets of $5.1 billion and total deposits of $3.7 billion, Franklin wasn’t the largest bank failure this year – that honor belongs to IndyMac Bancorp Inc. (OTC: IDMCQ), which had more than $30 billion in estimated assets when it was seized by U.S. banking regulators in July. At the time, IndyMac was also the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history, reaching all the way back to 1934, U.S.