Michael's Reference

Sy Harding. "The stock market this week is saying I was wrong in warning in last week’s column that we might already be back in recession in this, the third quarter of the year. I have to agree that the alarming trend of worsening economic reports since May seemed to turn a bit more mixed with this week’s reports."

Carl Swenlin. "The Investment Company Institute (ici.org) compiles statistics on mutual funds and publishes them monthly. (There is a one month delay between the end of the month being reported and publication.) Decision Point has been collecting these data for almost five years, and we finally have enough to start charting it. Amounts shown on the charts are in billions."

Puru Saxena. "BIG PICTURE – Global stock markets are in a multi-year bull-market and nominal prices are likely to appreciate for several more months. In our view, we are currently amidst a normal multi-week consolidation phase and most stock markets are likely to stage a sharp year-end advance. "

James Quinn. "It is par for the course that with oil hovering between $70 and $80 per barrel Americans have continued to buy SUVs and Trucks at a rapid pace. Politicians don’t have constituents screaming at them because gas is $4.00 per gallon, so it is no longer an issue for them. They need to focus on the November elections. It is no time to discuss a difficult issue that requires foresight and honesty."

Kevin Brekke & David Galland. "With the great bond stampede that began in 2009 continuing, giving rise to the very real possibility of a bond bubble, we decided to check the relationship between bond returns and bond fund inflows to see if there might be a correlation. Take a look at this chart..."

JR Nyquist. "Once upon a time there was a nation, free and proud. It was armed and ready for war. Its warriors were battle-ready and disciplined. But the leaders of this nation were socialists, and they were opposed to their own country's armed forces. In secret collaboration with a foreign power, they ordered their country's disarmament. They eliminated military units, they slashed military spending, and promoted commanders who were willing to disband their own armed forces."

Steven Bauer. "I recently read that, “mathematic models have proven that holding 25 – 30 securities will yield the most cost-effective level of risk reduction.” They go on to say that foreign investment decline slower, and a half a dozen other similar remarks. Why would you choose a slow decline of your assets over being in cash? Slow erosion verses 2% on your money."

Hurricane Earl has been downgraded to Category 2, but forecasters warn it is still "large and strong." Rain bands have moved onto the coast of North Carolina.

Cammie King Conlon, who played the ill-fated Bonnie Blue Butler in "Gone With the Wind," used to joke "that I peaked at age 5."

A fire on an oil and gas production platform in the Gulf of Mexico is out and there is no indication of an oil sheen, the Coast Guard said. There were no serious injuries.

Thad Allen, the government's point man on the oil disaster, said crews are expected to begin efforts Thursday to remove the blowout preventer on BP's ruptured well in the Gulf of Mexico.

A survivor of a massacre in Mexico that left 72 dead advised other would-be migrants to stay at home to avoid a fate like the one he and his companions met.

The United Nations appears to have been aware of rape by rebels in eastern Congo earlier than it originally said it was, according to an internal e-mail and a humanitarian bulletin.

"Resistance operations" will continue against Israelis despite the arrests of Hamas activists in the West Bank, a Hamas official said Thursday.

An Ohio death row inmate who has repeatedly claimed his innocence was spared execution, after the state's governor Thursday noted "legitimate questions" about evidence used to convict the man.

Chris Meek put his motorcycle in storage in Wilmington, North Carolina, to protect it from Hurricane Earl as the Category 4 hurricane headed toward the North Carolina coast.

Despite a spate of rare late-August showers, Southern Oregon limped out of the 2009 water year Wednesday with rainfall tallies 13 percent below average — the fourth consecutive year of below-average precipitation.

State budgets are being squeezed by unprecedented amounts for the third year in a row as legislators are forced to close gaps of up to 50 percent of state spending.

God did not create the universe, world-famous physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book that aims to banish a divine creator from physics.

Justice Department civil rights lawyers filed suit against Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona on Thursday after talks collapsed on a deal to provide federal investigators with requested documents.