News from around the web: 2009-07-21

Paul’s bill to audit Fed has 274 co-sponsors.

Increased lobbying plus climb in shares equals no reform.

Bubble in Chinese real estate – and with an urban sprawl to make America proud. Thoughts on the unwind are more longer-term sub-par growth than collapse.

Good quotes from Rosenberg and Ariely.

interesting reading on the politics of finance. Hat tip Barry Ritholtz

Obama’s people must see this as the easiest route. Japan, anyone?

Nice chart breaking down how users share articles on the web.

Even the most sophisticated click on spam and they get more viruses too.

Huge CLO downgrades. Another dam breaks.

UBS author of Age of Aging makes good points

Working 7Am to 230pm and then kicking it at the cushy prison for white collar criminals.

"…even if you can tell, you can’t tell how long it will last so you can lose a lot of money betting against it, and even if you have a very long time horizon, who’s to say you won’t be in another bubble when you finally want to sell? Put another way, you may be “right” about an asset price, but if the market is composed of lots and lots of people who are “wrong,” and those people are never going away, what does that get you?"

Froman is another member of the Chicago-Obama-Rubin-Citi nexus

Only 14 countries still are growing oil production. What does that tell you?

We’re talking $470 billion in losses to reserve.

Regional banks’ CRE exposure will be watched.

Corollary to the ‘Lost Vegas’ theme. Hat tip Paul Kedrosky

Ratings agencies penalize corporate for buying back debt.

The EU looks to support Latvia while the IMF balks.

GE buries former highlights that are down 40%

My friend Scott calls this "The Revenge of the Machines"

This bank was nationalized in February.

"Obama embodies two trends that have made the African American community increasingly diverse. He is the son of a Kenyan immigrant — at a time when highly educated people from Africa and the Caribbean are coming to this country in record numbers. And he is biracial — the product of a kind of relationship that long was illegal in many states."

"SEB saw credit losses of 3.6bn kronor, 74% of which was in the Baltics, and made a 2.4bn kronor write-down in asset values in the Baltics and Russia."

This means an export of IP to Russia

Check out the associated picture. Scary

No stopping at the next exit either.