Best Links for the Last Seven Days

Here are links to the best articles I've read in the last week:

WSJ Deal Journal - Burger King Is No Value Meal

Clusterstock - Gary Townsend: Obama Forced Goldman's Hand To Disband Prop Trading

The Economist - The odd decouple
Theories about why some rich-world economies are doing better than America's don't stand up.
"America's economy may have some unique troubles, but its fortunes are still strongly tied to the rest of the world," The Economist writes.

The Economist/Free exchange - Nowhere to go
Politics will decide whether a U.S. double-dip recession comes.

Bloomberg - Bernanke Says He Wasn't 'Straightforward' on Lehman
Bernanke told the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission that the Fed did not have authority to save Lehman Bros. and that he regrets not saying that in a congressional hearing at the time.

Reuters - Analysis:  Warnings mount as retail ETF surge gathers pace
"It is important that the industry does not overreach when innovating in the ETF arena," said the Bank of England in its Financial Stability Report.

Reuters - Congressmen warn SEC on blaming high-frequency traders
Republican congressmen, Bachus and Hensarling, wrote that "turning back the clock" on market innovation "could do more harm than good."

New York Times/Economix blog - Young Firms, Not Small Ones, Are the Engines of Job Growth

The Economist/Free exchange - How to fix unemployment
To create jobs, America must build companies.
Research suggests that the best thing the U.S. can do to create jobs and reduce unemployment is to support the formation of businesses, according the The Economist.

Reuters - Bidding wars, scrapped holidays herald M&A pickup
August is normally a quiet month for M&A, but there was an explosion of activity last month.

Bloomberg - Sell Signal on 36% Profit Increase Has Analysts in Math Denial
Stock analysts are turning pessimistic despite recently raising earnings-growth forecasts for the S&P 500 by 36%.

Bloomberg - Deficit Cost Declines Give Obama Stimulus Clinton Couldn't Get

The Economist/Free exchange - Clearing the air

JPMorgan Asset Management - Non-normality of Market Returns

Seeking Alpha - Just One ETF: Emerging Market Debt for Lower-Volatility Diversification

Morningstar - Indexing and ETFs
Summarizing the major equity index providers and the ways to gain access to them through ETFs

Bloomberg - Bernanke Says Fed Will Do 'All It Can' to Ensure U.S. Recovery

Inc. - You Know What Your Company Does.  Can You Explain It in 30 Seconds?

ETFdb - Friday's ETF To Watch:  Inflation Protected Bond (TIP)

GMO White Paper - A Man from a Different Time
James Montier on dividends

Financial Times - Why ETF Expense Ratios Can Be Misleading

Random Roger's Big Picture - The Big Picture for the Week of September 5, 2010