Features of the week

Inflation, furor over oil prices, '87 crash reminiscences, and a lot more. That's what we have in store for you in this week's edition of, "Features of the week".

1. From the Economist, "How the Fed made the subprime mess worse".

2. A crude oil super-spike. We're seeing a lot of drivel this week about a crude oil price bubble as prices have shot well past the $80 mark towards the $90 level.

As of today, some "experts" are even appearing on TV to decry the speculative price move and declare oil prices to be "not appropriate". That settles it; close the markets, we now have an expert to set prices for us at the "appropriate" level!

Sorry to repeat this information so quickly, but for anyone who would like to revisit the fundamentals that have been driving the crude oil and energy markets for the past several years, please see our recent post, "The path to $80 oil".

3. "When Crash Means 'Buy'". WSJ revisits the 1987 crash and the advent of the "buy on the dip" credo.

See also, FT's "The anatomy of a crash: What the market upheavals of 1987 say about today".

4. Enron accounting at Citigroup. Mish on the shady accounting put in place by Citi in the big SIV superfund mop-up plan. Please see the following links (item 1) (item 2) at Bear Mountain Bull's blog for more backgound on the whole SIV and M-LEC bailout fund issue.

5. Greenspan questions 'superfund'. Though he'd probably come out for it were he still in the Fed's employ.

6. Anatomy of the Ron Paul Nation. Cyd Malone comments on his involvement with the Ron Paul campaign.

7. FT.com has launched a new video segment called "View from the Markets". Investor Mark Mobius, their first guest, speaks on emerging markets.

8. Buffett sells entire PetroChina stake. Got sick of hippies yelling at him about Darfur. Just kidding.

9. "I Am Not a Number - I Am a Free Man". James Wisdom writes at Daily Speculations.

10. Hyperinflation Across the Globe. Fabulous rundown of past hyperinflations from Mike Hewitt's Dollar Daze blog.

11. An interview with Charles Kirk, of The Kirk Report.

12. A Stoner's Guide to Making Egg Fried Rice. Follow the handout.

That's it, gang. Enjoy your weekend and thanks for reading Finance Trends Matter.