TheDeal.com reports that Yahoo! management is slagging Carl Icahn's recent track record, implying that following Icahn's advice has not been profitable for investors as of late.

From Vox, via Economist's View

Whether you believe commodities are in a bubble or not, there is no doubt that fundamentals are playing a significant role in the price increases.

Via the excellent Economist's View, stocks of grains are at multi-decade lows. As long as stocks are low, grain prices will stay high.

With the sham re-election in Zimbabwe of the incompetent thug, Robert Mugabe, its timely to note that inflation - the ultimate indicator of government failure - has risen, by my calculations, 56,807,877% - give or take a couple hundred thousand percent - over the past year, assuming the inflation index lows occurred 12 months ago, not an unreasonable assumption.

Today, I liquidated a small portion of my The-Economy-is-Going-to-be-Weaker-for-Longer-Than-You-Think Trade, which supplanted The-End-of-the-World Trade after the Bear Stearns bail-out.

I sold some of my gold and my short positions in emerging markets, via sales of the UltraShort MSCI EAFE ProShares ETF, ticker EEV and the Dow Jones REIT ETF, ticker SRS, though I still hold most of my positions in all three. 

I ran a screen this evening on 555 regional banks.  Surprisingly, despite all the horrible news, wealth destruction and poor stock performance, only 27 are trading below tangible book value. 

These are the tickers.  Most trade by appointment, many are in problem states such as California and Michigan, and I assume most have some problems with their loan books.