Michael B. Duff

Well take a look at the millions in fake, and thus illegal, bids demonstrated below and tell us just how any of this manipulation is "providing liquidity" – the second the patterns break, the algos responsible for the churn pattern disappear, thus eliminating numerous levels of so called bid liquidity below the NBBO: break enough patterns and you have another flash crash as the market once again goes bidless.

As we said before, if you have gold in an 'unallocated account' , be aware that the bank can do with it whatever it likes. Your gold is often simply not 'there'. What there is instead, is a piece of paper that 'represents' your gold. Many gold depositors probably know this, if they have bothered to read the fine print – but many may not be aware of it, and simply have opted for unallocated accounts because they are cheaper than allocated ones. It seems unlikely that the banks pay their gold depositors one red cent for the privilege of doing whatever they want with their gold – but in all likelihood they continue to charge storage fees for it, whether it is or isn't physically present.

We waited 12 years for Starcraft II, but it feels like they put 12 years of effort into it. Ebert’s quote came back to me because Starcraft II feels like a work of art like a painting or a sculpture. It feels “crafted” — like every detail has been tweaked and shaped and agonized over until some insane perfectionist finally let it out the door.

“What’s the difference between ‘I will love you forever and we’re going to get married’ and ‘I am LeBron James?’” Falk asked. “What constitutes romantic inducements and things that are fraudulent enough for the law to take recognition of?”

Researchers say in lab studies it took just four weeks to restore teeth back to their original healthy state. The gel contains melanocyte-stimulating hormone, or MSH.

This sounds suspiciously like good news. Apparently the oil is breaking down quickly in the natural environment. Only a fool would say there's no impact, but it looks like the Gulf will recover.

Forgive us for being so cynical about the political and bureaucratic classes – but the best way to describe their dilemma is probably by comparing them to a parasite apoplectic about the unexpected, but suddenly seemingly possible, demise of its host. The slightly frightened emotional state of law makers was palpable throughout the proceedings. They are facing a (s)election in November, and it doesn't look good for incumbents, to put it mildly. You have to also keep in mind that most Congressmen are economically illiterate and are hoping for miracles from the Fed chief…

Many friends freely shared personal information and photos, invited the fictional threat analyst to conferences and asked her to review documents. Some "friends" at major companies, including Google and Lockheed Martin, even expressed interest in hiring her, he noted.

The District of Columbia public school system announced Friday that it is letting 226 employees go for poor performance under the education assessment system IMPACT.

Aside from squeezing take-home pay (employers provide almost 70 percent of insurance), higher costs have automatically shifted government priorities toward health care and away from everything else — schools, police, roads, prisons, lower taxes. In 1990, health spending represented about 16 percent of the state budget, says the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. By 2000, health's share was 22 percent. In 2010, it's 35 percent. About 90 percent of the health spending is Medicaid.

Chinese banks may struggle to recoup about 23 percent of the 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) they’ve lent to finance local government infrastructure projects, according to a person with knowledge of data collected by the nation’s regulator.

As of Dec 31, the retirement system had 76 cents in assets for every $1 in liabilities, excluding prepaid contributions. The system's investments declined about 1 percent year through May 31, Mercer said. If they finish the year at this level, the system's overall funded status, excluding prepaid contributions, will decline to about 70 percent, Mercer said.

But its aim is clear: to shift control of England’s $160 billion annual health budget from a centralized bureaucracy to doctors at the local level. Under the plan, $100 billion to $125 billion a year would be meted out to general practitioners, who would use the money to buy services from hospitals and other health care providers.

Dear Libertarians:

I know you are desperate to connect with the American people at this crucial time. But this is not the way.

Your friend,

Me

Here's Reason.tv's guide to what Season 4 of Mad Men will get right—and wrong—about the mid-60s.

The chart is based on the assumption that the current administration should be blamed for the 2009 fiscal year. While this makes sense to a casual observer, it is largely untrue. The 2009 fiscal year began October 1, 2008, nearly four months before Obama took office. The budget for the entire fiscal year was largely set in place while Bush was in the White House. So is we update the chart to show the Bush fiscal years in green, we can see that Obama is partly right in claiming that he inherited a mess…

When Turki first began behaving bizarrely, his father took him to local Muslim clerics to recite the Koran over him. 'But most of them became scared when they heard the female voice telling them that she was a royal jinn (genie) and that no-one can exorcise her unless Turki dies,' his father said. One cleric advised him to shackle his son’s arms and legs in chains and read the Koran to him.

The message is clear — anyone who opposes extension of unemployment benefits is motivated by hate. The only reason to oppose these benefits is because you hate American families and enjoy being cruel to people who have been disenfranchised by this economy. So, if that's the benchmark, should we just go ahead and make these benefits permanent? When is it acceptable to stop paying these benefits? When unemployment is back to 5%? Don't the same moral arguments apply even then?

"Seeing these pictures of Ballmer reminded me of Jeff Skilling's makeover when he took over Enron. Sensing that the market responded to leaders, not geeks, he got lasik, hair implants, lost weight, and rehabbed his wardrobe and PR to look like the innovator he knew the street would respond to. Or, to put it another way, image is everything."

Simply stated: The eclectic assembly of nerdom's finest stood and delivered.

The proposed "Cordoba House" overlooking the World Trade Center site – where a group of jihadists killed over 3000 Americans and destroyed one of our most famous landmarks – is a test of the timidity, passivity and historic ignorance of American elites. For example, most of them don’t understand that “Cordoba House” is a deliberately insulting term. It refers to Cordoba, Spain – the capital of Muslim conquerors who symbolized their victory over the Christian Spaniards by transforming a church there into the world’s third-largest mosque complex.

NEW YORK—At a press conference Tuesday, the NBC television network unveiled its new fall lineup of programs that will be canceled almost immediately after airing. "We could not be more excited for this season of soon-to-be-absent shows," said NBC chairman Jeff Gaspin, standing beneath an oversized "Must-Miss TV" banner. "Joining our Thursday night comedy lineup is the can't-win Father Shane in the 9:30 slot, followed by the never-going-to-be-given-a-chance news magazine Insight. And if you like drama, you're going to be crushed when we unfairly yank our critically acclaimed supernatural thriller Dark Riders after only four episodes." Gaspin added that fans would also be surprised by changes in store for some of their old favorites, specifically that all of them would be canceled.

Investors are understandably scared of the sovereign debt crisis unfolding in Europe. Amid their angst, however, they are ignoring a more likely, and significantly larger, debt catastrophe that is about to hit the nation with the second-largest economy in the world — Japan. Two decades of stimulative, low-interest-rate fiscal policy have made Japan the most indebted nation in the developed world, and as new Prime Minister Naoto Kan recently said, in his first address to Parliament, that situation is not sustainable. Japan has little choice but to raise interest rates substantially, with dire consequences far beyond its shores.

This makes me grin every time.

"We're not sure what the ultimate result will be, but it's clear that with new information through the full speech, a longer look needed to be taken," a White House official told CNN Wednesday. "The White House contacted the department last night about the case and agreed, based on her evidence, that it should be reviewed."

This is the kind of perfectly obvious thing that gets ignored in discussions of education policy.

Shirley Sherrod is not, by this accounting, a person out of touch with the racial history of America. Listen to her speech and it's clear this history is something she remembers vividly; her message to the NAACP audience seemed to be that if she can move past it, so can anyone else.