Tuesday Link Dump

There's lots of interesting stuff since yesterday both in the Mainstream Media and in the Blogosphere. Some of it is actually useful - I realized it was tome to refinance my mortgage (after all, I've been in the house for almost 3 months already. Herr are the latest tidbits:

First, on the lighter side: Did Bin Laden die from eating tainted spinach? Maybe it was a CIA Plot. And one blogger is trying to engage in what can only be called Elmo Arbitrage.

MarketWatch.com discusses how a cooling off in the housing market has resulted in a decrease in the rate on the benchmark Treasury rate. After reading it. I just did my refinance on my house (saved about $1,500 a year). For all you finance and econ faculty out there, the piece has a lot Oof good material for illustrating the Fed, interest rates, and inflation.

There's been a bit of insider-trading related news: Dealbook reports on the not-guilty plea by former hedge fund manager Hilary Shane, who allegedly shorted shares just prior to a private offering by Compudyne. And Marketwatch tells us that the SEC is planning to ramp up enforcement of insider trading in concert with self-regulatory organizations like the NASD and NYSE.

Bloomberg News reports on the increase in FBI investigations related to corporate fraud in general and options backdating in particular.

Political Calculations is finally getting around to putting up an index to all the online tools they've created.

Dan Melson at Searchlight Crusade asks (and answers) the question "Should Negative Amortization Loans Be Banned?"

The Daily Options Report talks about changes in automatic exercise provisions for slightly in-the-money options.

Marketwatch.Com reports on how the SEC is revamping Edgar (their online system for looking up filing information). I was just using it about an hour ago, and it can definitely use a more user-friendly system.

And last, but not least, Jim Mahar at FinanceProfessor.com discusses financial risk management (specifically, fuel hedging by airlines).

Back to work: I've got data to torture and the English language to mangle (that's called "writing papers, for you non-academics...)