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Features of the week

Interesting stories and interview links lie ahead. Read on for the features of the week...

1. Reactions to last night's Republican debate. Ron Paul is doing quite well in MSNBC.com's online rating poll, sharing high positive marks with Mitt Romney.

2. EU regulations to affect the City of London. Apparently, New York is not the only city feeling the pressures of financial regulation; Londoners are a bit agitated over regulations from Brussels that will "attempt to create a harmonised, pan-European market for financial services".

See FT's story for futher details of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, or Mifid.

3. Dow Theory flashes a "Buy" signal. The technical confirmation is taken as a bullish indicator by the investment officers quoted in the article, but I'd like to get Richard Russell's (editor of the Dow Theory Letters) take on it.

I know John Mauldin said Richard Russell kind of took him by surprise recently by saying he expected further upward movement in the major averages, but I know that Russell has got to be shaking his head at this market nonetheless.

As he often reminds his readers, Dow Theory is also about value, and valuations in the U.S. stock market are anything but cheap these days.

4. Nassim Taleb talks about Black Swan events in this Econtalk interview.

5. "Dollar decline tracks U.S. fall from grace". Jim Rogers and others are quoted in this Reuters article on "the ebb and flow of global power".

6. "Reuters in Play, and Data Uber Alles". Paul at Infectious Greed says that a just-announced takeover approach for Reuters is evidence of "a rapidly changing business media landscape."

According to Paul and friends, data, not reporting, is what's driving the business.

7. Murdoch goes trophy hunting. The Economist on Rupert Murdoch's aspirations in the business media space and his proposed takeover of the Wall Street Journal.

8. A gold coin as big as a pizza, or, "Finally! A 100-kg gold coin". Thanks to 321gold for the link.

9. From Bloomberg.com, "AMP, Marc Faber Cite 1920s Theory for Commodity-Stock Optimism".

10. Microsoft eyes takeover of Yahoo. An inevitable outgrowth of the "Google threat"?

Update
: It seems that one blogger was right in saying this takeover deal would turn out to be nothing more than PR buzz and an overhyped prelude to a partnership announcement.

11. Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting is underway and media coverage is, of course, ample.

Reuters has an overview of the proceedings (and news of Buffett's quest to find a future chief investment officer for Berkshire), while Bloomberg weighs in with a brief interview clip with Warren Buffett discussing Berkshire's future growth and business prospects.


Update: Latest news out on Berkshire is that they are ready and willing to do a big business aquisition. This kind of echoes what Buffett said in the Bloomberg interview clip (see link above) about competing with the private equity gang lately for deals.

Read and enjoy - you're up to date!

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