Rich managers, poor clients. The masters of the universe have been humbled. Economist  see also: Hedge funds have had another lousy year, to cap a disappointing decade. Going nowhere fast.

“What aspects of society can I bribe with promises to get myself power?” Rick Rule Audio. King World News Japan’s Shinzo Abe prepares to print money for the whole world. Telegraph

Gerard Depardieu flees France to seek asylum from Socialist wealth tax. Telegraph Why don’t bad ideas ever die? Rithotlz, WaPo

The Top Five Career Regrets. Harvard Business Review If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there. ♫ Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke. Rolling Stone China Had Its Best Day In Years Last Night. Business Insider The Dumbest Thing You’ll Hear All Day. Reformed Broker The transparent DealBook conference. Reuters … Continue Reading

“The price of gold and the U.S. stock market will both hit record highs in 2013, contend forecasters at Merrill Lynch.’ Merril ‘unapologetically bullish’ for 2013. Globe and Mail Blankfein, Dalio, Schwarzman, Rubenstein, Krugman + Commentary. Live Blog: DealBook’s Post-Election Conference. NYTimes “The “expected and therefore fully priced in” excuse for an unchanged market does not work.” El-Erian: Historic… Continue Reading

Fed Expands Asset Buying, Links Rates to Joblessness, Prices. Bloomberg “One of the most mysterious market phenomena is momentum – the tendency for fast-rising stocks to keep going up. How come such an obvious market anomaly is not arbitraged away?” The financial system: Market failure. Economist “The Chinese are hardworking, literate, relatively obedient and totally obsessed… Continue Reading

FRONT RUN THE FED! “It’s going to be massive and open-ended in size.” Fed Seen Pumping Up Assets to $4 Trillion in New Buying. Bloomberg Joe Wiesenthal Interviews Jan Hatzius. Goldman’s Top Economist Explains The World’s Most Important Chart, And His Big Call For The US Economy. Business Insider Swashbucklers Transformed, and Now Much Tamer. Dealbook

Haywood Securities initiates coverage of Petroamerica Oil Corp. (C:PTA) with a Sector Outperform rating and a price target of C$0.55. Read our coverage of PTA, and do your own due diligence. Petroamerica Representations of value, or the unexpected double history of banking and the art world. Gold, Golden, Gilden, Glittering. Believer “No money EVER gets made in meetings.” How I… Continue Reading

Life is unfair. The Gospel of Wealth Fails the Inequity Test in Primates. Scientific American Shots fired… Taibbi vs. Carney. “What the banking system really needs is a guy who will step in and force bankers to go back to being boring, risk-averse drips who lend businesses money to buy new equipment or fleets of trucks… Continue Reading

“The lies are screaming to the heavens.” Dan Gertler Earns Billions as Mine Deals Leave Congo Poorest Nation. Bloomberg “With commodity-supply constraints easing, Chinese growth slowing and producer-company returns normalizing,” it is tempting to say the super-cycle is over, Currie wrote. “Current developments are simply the next phase of a commodity-investment cycle that began in… Continue Reading

“We lower our 3-, 6- and 12-mo gold price forecasts to $1,825/toz, $1,805/toz and $1,800/toz and introduce a $1,750/toz 2014 forecast.” Gold cycle set to turn on improving US recovery. Goldman Sachs “He completely lost the narrative,” one investor told us. “It was obvious the ECB would not let that happen.” Paulson Said to Blame Bet Against… Continue Reading

Bill Gross: We may need at least a decade for the healing. Strawberry Fields – Forever? PIMCO “If somebody bought Berkshire Hathaway in 1965 and they held it, they made a great investment — and their broker would have starved to death.” For Buffett, the Long Run Still Trumps the Quick Return. Dealbook At long last, an operator CEO. Incoming… Continue Reading

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: “We may find that the supercycle is still in rude good health next year as China cranks up construction again, and America turns the corner.” The world’s commodity supercycle is far from dead. Telegraph Josh Brown: “The stupidity of having such an obviously unbalanced economy is the more important discussion we should be having right now. The… Continue Reading

Goldman: The Economic Crisis Ends In 2013. Business Insider Popular Delusions: The bull case for safe havens. The Big Picture Of warplanes, the homeless, teachers’ unions, oil, drugs, immigration and monetary policy. National Post Norway Wealth Fund to Spend $11B Adding U.S. Real Estate. Bloomberg Could Fine Art And Collectibles Become A New Asset Class? Forbes The… Continue Reading

“We would urge you to keep faith.” A $10 Trillion Bet on China and India. HBR “Placement of op-eds is a standard part of the influence game, but it’s rare for readers ever to find out who is behind the curtain.” From Russia With PR. ProPublica Bond Investor Gundlach Buys Stocks, Sees ‘Kaboom’ Ahead. Bloomberg Will First Quantum launch… Continue Reading