This came to me via email today.  I apologize to whomever published it since I do not have a link. 

From The Big Picture.

Michael Lewis is one of my favourite writers - I have read Liar's Poker four times.  Lewis has penned a superb article on Iceland, and how a nation of 300,000 fisherman and smelter workers because a global powerhouse in banking.  If you want to understand the insane credit bubble that is collapsing all around us, this is a must read.

A while ago, we suggested that the US government become a giant hedge fund.  Instead, the government has decided to become a prime broker!

However, someone in the Ministry of Finance in Japan reads Running of the Bulls because Japan is thinking about buying stocks!

The following are the median price earnings ratios of the Russell indices.  The first ratio is the PE relative to 2008 earnings, the second is the PE relative to forecasted earnings for 2009.

Russell 1000 - 8.1x, 9.6x
Russell 2000 - 7.0x, 8.4x
Russell 3000 - 7.5x, 9.0x

From Tony Crescenzi at RealMoney.

Over at Seeking Alpha, Mark Sunshine points to seven factors that may indicate the economy is in the process of bottoming.   They are

According to one measure posted at The Big Picture, stocks have been this oversold only twice before, at the bottoms in 1932 and 1937.

Last week was the first week of the year with no defaults!