There was a nice little snippet on Reuters that I said I'd get to yesterday in the post about the 10,000 jobs lost via ADP.  Simply put there are way too many issues / implications to discuss in a single post - we've touched on it here and there over the years, but I'll focus on just one issue - that is, the misalignment between short term incentive packages and long term benefit.

Long time readers will know that the best return on investment (ROI for you wonky types) in America is lobbying dollars.  For a pittance you can purchase present your case to a Congressman or woman and generate multitudes of that same dollar spent in return.  It appears Federal Reserve and Treasury officials are also on sale (aisles 7 and 10 respectively) so hurry on in, but only those with annual revenue of $500M+ allowed in on the bidding! Our financial oligarchs are top dogs at playing the game but it's across all major industries.

The segment on CNBC, right before the close yesterday, featured commentary from Rick Bensignor and David Darst. There were a couple of points made in the segment that seem to have been accepted as truthisms that I think are actually counter-productive.

With bond yields and stock markets in the world’s major developed economies petering away, more people are asking: Where can we find investment returns?
Wall Street’s answer: Emerging markets.
The long-term growth prospects in emerging markets are certainly attractive. But with the propensity for another round of global economic crisis and the intertwining of economies, the risk associated with those investments is quite high.
The economic outlook for major economies has deteriorated rapidly.

The market should be down today.  Why not?  Sentiment.  (AR Screencast)

The presidential election cycle is about to turn positive.  (Crossing Wall Street)