The Return of the Links

There was a time where the most popular feature on the blog was my (mostly) weekly set of links to posts on other blogs that had given me something important to chew on. I never intended for that feature to die – and starting today I will do my best to resurrect it.

So without further ado, here is some of what I have been reading and thinking about in the past few days:

• Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture reveals alternative methods for measuring GDP and inflation (neither of which are good news for the bulls)
• Felix Salmon of Portfolio.com provides the counterpoint for Ritholtz and leverages an interesting article by David Leonhardt in the New York Times to make the case for why inflation is lower than we think
• The Bonddad Blog is skeptical of an upturn in consumer spending or housing in the second half of 2008 (BTW, congrats on the upcoming nuptials!)
• Sudden Debt reflects on three decades of sentiment and consumer spending data
• Michael Shedlock at Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis, summarizes Bernanke’s proposals to slow foreclosures, with some excellent housing and mortgage maps
• Jesse at Jesse’s Café Américain has an update on credit default swaps, with some noteworthy banking chart porn
• Asbury Research has an intriguing analysis of the spread between US Treasuries and the Euro Bund
• Random Roger’s Big Picture has a link to a table of world interest rates
• Bespoke Investment Group’s analysis shows that previous winners led Wednesday’s decline
• James Hamilton at Econbrowser looks at changing driving habits and lower gasoline demand in the US
• Paul Kedrosky at Infectious Greed puts the ‘oil bubble’ in historical perspective…twice
• Jason at The Tasgall Group tracks down an interesting peak oil chart
• Brett Steenbarger at TraderFeed highlights sector rotation money flows into technology and financials
• Marc Andreessen at blog.pmarca.com speaks out in favor of dual-class stock structures for public companies
• Babak at Trader’s Narrative has an enlightening piece on cumulative market breadth
• Andrew Clavell of Financial Crookery analyzes Warren Buffet’s approach to selling long-dated index puts
• Don Fishback’s Market Update cautions against buying straddles before earnings announcements
• Adam at Daily Options Report is underwhelmed by the AMEX’s new fixed rate options (I had a similar reaction)
• Condor Options is wary of the internationalization of the VIX
• …and in the event you missed it, my Ten Things Everyone Should Know About the VIX has become my third most read post ever only 1 ½ weeks after it was published
• Finally, Scientific American weighs in on how you can pay off your sleep debt (do it quickly, before the interest rates reset!)