“It is easy to ignore the storm if you look at the opposite horizon.  When the storm reaches your location there can be no more ignorance.”

I hate to tell you, but the storm has reached your location and it is a Category 5 hurricane. The levees are leaking. Ignore it at your own peril. The 6,000 sq ft McMansion buying, BMW leasing, $5 Starbucks latte drinking, granite countertop upgrading, home equity borrowing days are coming to an end. The American consumer will not go without a fight.  More>>

"The worst is yet to come in the U.S.''
-Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund  More>>

Do you remember a time, only a short while ago, when virtually anybody could start a hedge fund? It seemed so easy: billions of dollars were being thrown around like confetti, even at first-time managers. You could make money with your eyes closed. Or so it seemed.  More>>

From Paul Krugman: Greenspan: not a mensch >>More

Here's something you may not have considered: The massive losses taken by Wall Street Banks and Brokers is going to wipe out their profit for the next few years. About $500 Billion in write downs have already occurred. Best estimates for the total that will get written down range from $1 trillion to $2 trillion dollars. >>More

"If they are too big to fail, make them smaller," former Nixon Treasury Secretary George Shultz said.  More>>

Tim Knight: Awww, hell, it's too late to do a post, and I've for a stack of newspapers to read. In the meantime, I found this handy shorthand guide to stock investing:  More>>

This post is by Jim Fitch of Some Assembly Required.  More>>

At this point, you would have thought the Efficient Market Hypothesis would have died a quite death. But as is its wont on Wall Street, myths, bad theories, and old information linger far longer than one would expect.  More>>

The Securities and Exchange Commission, in a reversal, is considering bringing back a price rule to curb short sales.  More>>

Big Picture: Wow, lots of interesting responses from yesterday's 300 Point Dow Gains? During Bear Markets ONLY. I appreciate those of you who actually do a little research, and sent in some form of analysis.  More>>

To all those recent bottom callers in Housing or Financials, here is yet another data point that reveals these two sectors are actually getting worse, not improving.  (Why does it seem that so many posts begin that way?)  More>>

The NYPost is looking at the winners and losers in the NY area hedge fund community:  More>>

Calls of a bottom in either housing or financials have been premature. Those perennial optimists who keep incorrectly making those erroneous bottom tick attempts need to consider the following: More>>

In the world of hedge funds, it is harder to hide from the financial crunch.

Since the crunch began, these elite money managers have generated strong returns by focusing on areas such as commodities, emerging-market stocks or betting against troubled banks.  More>>

Peter Hong at the LA Times asks: Should you buy a home now? More>>

A picture is worth...

"The climate is turning desperate for small businesses. They are in crisis, and, as these numbers show, it's getting worse and worse."

- George Cloutier, founder of American Management Services

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Here is the data from the Department of Labor for the week ending July 26th. In the week ending July 26, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 448,000, an increase of 44,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 404,000. More>>

Short selling has been a major topic on Wall Street lately, with the focus mainly on the short interest of individual stocks.  Below we highlight the US ETFs with the highest short interest as a percentage of shares outstanding as well as the ones with the highest short interest ratios.  More>>