- “The global financial system continues to be unsound in the same way that a Ponzi scheme is unsound,” John Hussman writes. “There are not enough cash flows to ultimately service the face value of all the existing obligations over time.”
- On an essentially flat day yesterday, CBOE’s VIX volatility index fell 8.5% to 18.96, lowest levels since April. “If there’s one point I would emphasize when VIX watching, it’s to pay the most attention when it does something unusual,” says Adam Warner, as VIX is exhibiting “clear signs of complacency.”
- Growth of Chinese and Brazilian credit-card balances from 2008 to 2009 “can be a source of either encouragement or worry — or both,” FT’s Alphaville says. “A sustained run-up in debt can be ultimately destabilizing,” blog notes. “So can a burst of capital inflows. And this is all playing out rather quickly against a background of currency wars, central bank interventions, and expected quantitative easing in the US.”
- Remember when the critics came out in droves when Apple (AAPL) released its first versions of iOS without cut-and-paste functionality? “It’s hard to imagine any company launching a new mobile OS would take a similar tack,” John Paczkowski writes. “Yet that’s exactly what Microsoft has done with Windows Phone 7, which will arrive at market next month without that feature.”
- Amazon’s (AMZN) attempting to carve a niche market for Kindle, with plan to launch “Kindle Singles” — essentially works that may be longer than a magazine article but shorter than typical books. MediaMemo blogger Peter Kafka raises some obvious questions: What will pricing look like? How will wholesale pricing work? And is this directed at conventional publishers, or self-published by the authors? AMZN didn’t immediately comment to Kafka.
- Windows Phone 7 may be Microsoft’s (MSFT) best chance at making a serious dent in the smartphone market, Ryan Kim writes at GigaOm. “They’ve done a good job creating something that looks and feels distinct,” he says. “We still need to put the phones through their paces but the basic building blocks are there.”
- Small business optimism barely nudged higher in September, but it still remains at recessionary levels. Poor sales remain the biggest hurdle for small businesses during this sluggish recovery. “Usually small business owners complain about taxes and regulations (that usually means business is good),” Calculated Risk says. “But now their self reported biggest problem is lack of demand.”
- Not only are small businesses not interested in getting more financing, but they increasingly think financing conditions will worsen from current levels, writes FT’s Alphaville, based on NFIB’s small business survey for September. “Maybe investors are front-running the Fed, but small businesses seem unconvinced that further easing will actually loosen credit.”
- Wall Street pay is on pace to break a record high for a second straight year, WSJ reports.
- So far so good. Intel earnings beat expectations. And, as MarketBeat notes, the deets beyond the headline numbers also look pretty solid.
