Look, I can understand counterfeiting Gucchi or Prada stuff and even electronics like Iphones. But Condoms... Really?? That is just... absolutely absurd.

This doesn't seem like it should end well. Large amounts of institutional money coming into the housing market, pushing prices up. Blackstone is apparently getting into it in a big way.

Here's a fun one. Remember Fabrice Toure, owner of the infamous emails from Goldman that the SEC is still battling of Abacus? Apparently, he is now at University of Chicago and is even a TA.

[quote]The SEC sued Goldman and Mr. Tourre, then a vice president, in April 2010, alleging they misled investors on a collateralized-debt obligation called Abacus 2007-AC1 that produced big losses for investors and big gains for hedge-fund firm Paulson & Co. A collateralized-debt obligation, or CDO, pools loans, such as subprime mortgages, with slices of the security sold to investors.

Firstly, I had to laugh when I saw the Reuters story and the accidentally published Soros obituary. Imagine the look on his face when he saw that story. Secondly, I wasn't exactly laughing when I saw this story this morning.

Ok, so maybe not exactly corner the market but still; just when you thought the Bit coin saga couldn't get any weirder, our dear friends the Winklevii show up to make it even stranger. It isn't enough that they won a massive Facebook settlement and are attempting to be venture capitalists apparently. They claim to hold 1% (~$11million) of all bitcoins outstanding.

Are they trying too hard, or is it just me? Is this really what the world has come too?

I'll be honest, I actually chuckled when I first read this one. Samoa airlines (didn't even know they existed) is now charging by weight for passengers.

Ever notice how everyone tries to break complex geo-political issues with huge economic ramifications into one chart? Yeah, it's impossible not to notice it. Anyway, the Atlantic put together one chart to show just how ADD we have really become:

Yes, we really do want everything in one tidy little ball and the financial media is absolutely serving it all up on a silver platter.

Just when you thought you could hide your money somewhere on the internet the treasury department has to step in and kill all the fun. I'm sure many people on here are familiar with virtual currencies like bitcoin, which are now straight in the cross hairs of officials.

Just in case anyone was worrying about running out bonds to buy China looks to be gearing up for a massive push towards urbanization through a bond market reform.

I'll admit, I've long been critical of how the Chinese do things and certainly I'm dubious of the viability of this massive of an effort. There are major structural deficiencies in China and to think that local government are going to be able to foot the tab for much of this is a stretch. Last time I checked many localities in China were underwater anyway and they still have to deal with slowing growth and a lower class clamoring for wage reforms. Not that any of that is necessarily a deal breaker, but, certainly should be cause for concern.