| China's trillion dollar nonperforming bank loan issue may not be a problem-Bloomberg 2/5 |
| China's land sales earned $234 billion for national and local governments-Bloomberg |
| Sprott: no surprise if gold hits $1500/oz. in 2010, and $2000/oz. by 2012-BusinessWeek |
| Including Fannie and Freddie, national debt held by public is up to $14.2T-Bloomberg |
| China partially bans listed companies raising capital in equity markets-FT Alphaville 2/4 |
| Fannie, Freddie will not be big MBS buyers, Fed is exiting MBS buy program-FT Alphaville |
| Sovereign debt maturity profile raises concerns re: Spain's ability to refi-FT Alphaville 2/3 |
| $40B Blackrock has taken a 5+% position in over 1800 U.S. companies-The Market Ticker |
| El-Erian: hope and faith in government pro-growth policies may be misplaced-Bloomberg |
| Central banks, investors are shifting out of euros, euro-denominated assets-Bloomberg 2/2 |
| McKinsey's total debt to gdp figures show precariousness of Japan and U.K.-The Prudent Investor |
| Strengthening U.S. dollar forces the unwinding of $1.5T dollar carrry trade-Telegraph |
| Low-rate refis have pushed $700B junk debt crisis forward to 2012-2014-NYT DealBook |
| Obama: extend 15% capital gains tax rate on couples earning < $250K-WSJ |
| Cut in winter bonuses contributed to 19th monthly decline in Japanese wages-Bloomberg |
| St. Louis Fed President: U.S. has escaped Japanese-style deflationary trap-Financial Times 2/1 |
| Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increasingly force banks to buy back bad loans-Wall Street Journal |
| Managers of Citi's proprietary trading desk plan to buy it from Citi-Bloomberg |
| TARP Special Inspector General: government's goal is to prop up home prices-FT Alphaville |
| Real estate bond securitization was tried in the 1920s with similar effect-New York Times 1/29 |
| Walmart is shifting to sourcing directly 80% of purchases of its own brands-Financial Times |
| Expansion of Panama Canal may dent continental rail traffic in America-Bloomberg |
| NYSE margin debt increased 30% in December 2009 from February levels-Zero Hedge 1/28 |
| MMFs must hold 30% of assets in cash, 3-month or shorter Treasuries-Bloomberg |
| Portugal's latest draft 2010 budget shows deficit equivalent to 8.3% of GDP-FT Alphaville/AP |
| Wisconsin's pension will borrow up to 20% of assets to lever up-WSJ |
| Jeremy Grantham: Fed has seduced investors into a third speculative bubble-FT Alphaville 1/27 |
| One-month Treasury Bill rate turns negative-Bloomberg |
| Tax the rich measures in Oregon are likely to cost middle, lower class jobs-Examiner/Mish |
| A freeze on federal discretionary spending will not send US into deflation-BusinessWeek/Economist 1/26 |
| Fitch estimates European governments will borrow $3.09 trillion in 2010-Financial Times |
| Interest rate on bank reserves held at Fed may be the new benchmark rate-Bloomberg |
| Greece sold €8bn worth of 2015 bonds at a .3 percentage point premium-Bloomberg |
| Venezuela's central bank dumps dollars to punish speculators-Bloomberg |