From HousingWire, via Clusterstock.

A paper arguing that academic economics has systemically failed, via Paul Kedrosky.

Some random thoughts.

Today, the S&P 500 was down 4.6%.  Since the peak on October 11, 2007, the S&P 500 is down 56%.  It is also down

• 26% since the high on January 5 (39 trading days ago)
• 20% since the high on February 9 (15 trading days ago)
  
• 10% since the high on February 26 (3 trading days ago)

We are deeply oversold.

But who cares?  The market can do nothing but go down.

Why?  From the rumor department

I posted two articles last week arguing that perhaps the banking system is not as dire as seems, which you can read here and here.

From Newsday.

I found out today that my phone may be tapped.  I can call out but am having difficulty with incoming calls.  If I can answer a phone call within a second or two of the phone ringing, I am able to connect with the person on the other line.  However, after a few seconds, if I do not answer the phone, the line clicks dead and is followed by white noise.  I called the phone company and they think the line has been tapped.

- A guy at work, on stocks down to 12-year lows.

I am home sick today, so I am killing time surfing the Internet, posting interesting items and reinforcing my confirmation bias on Running of the Bulls.

Corporate bond issuance has been strong.

In our never-ending quest to find needles in hay-stacks - as opposed to finding them right at our feet - we present to you someone else saying something nice about banking.  From Bronte Capital