A Bear Market Lurks as Dow Nears 10000 (WSJ)

Surge of 46 percent in the past six months freaks out prognosticators.

For President, Five Programs, One Message (NYT, Alessandra Stanley)

"The president's talk-show grand slam was a remarkable -- and remarkably overt -- display of media management."

Even Glenn Beck Is Right Twice a Day (NYT, Frank Rich)

A modern-day Father Coughlin. "Crazy-quilt cosmology" mixes with populism to blanket the country. (Sounds like another media creation to me.) Read Salon's "The making of Glenn Beck," if you want.

Democrats Target Bank Overdraft Charges: Bailed-Out Firms Lean More Heavily on Fees (WashPost)

Overdraft fees soaring, without telling customers. A run on banks — by mobs with torches — may be necessary.

You Have No Idea What Health Costs: If You Did, You Might Just Want Real Reform (WashPost)

Relying on Kaiser Family Foundation's last Employer Benefits Survey, Ezra Klein notes:

A Proposed Tax on the Cadillac Health Insurance Plans May Also Hit the Chevys (NYT, Reed Abelson)

Volcker, a super czar, is too often ignored by O (NY Post, Terry Keenan)

Barack Obama's got czars for everything, but Paul Volcker, one of his first, can't get no respect from the administration.

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Worth Asking: Who Wins if Dollar Loses? (WSJ)

May not seem like it, but it's risky to bet against the dollar.

Busting Yet Another Market Indicator Myth (Seeking Alpha, Don Fishback)

Long-term mutual fund investors are pulling money out, but net fund flows aren't worth much as indicators.

Slack Attack: Fed Faces Test on Inflation (WSJ)

Trailing Indicators: Out of a Job, Some Decide to Take a Hike (WSJ)

"Depending on one's level of optimism, an Appalachian Trail through-hiker is either a symbol of a jobless recovery or of a still-deepening recession."

U.S. Stock-Index Futures Drop; Barrick Gold, Potash Corp. Fall (Bloomberg)

Pretty good overview of economic indicators, the G-20, and so on. One supposedly top analyst guy says "we are clearly well into the normalization phase and moving into the growth phase."

Yeah, yeah. So they say. It's always the same before a big summit — G-20's meeting this week in Pittsburgh. On the other hand, see Bloomberg's "G-20 Push on Banking Capital Threatens Profits From Goldman to Barclays."

Ratings Downgrade (New Yorker)

What are we supposed to do with Standard & Poor's and Moody's? "[E]ven though nearly everyone knows that the agencies are compromised and exert too much influence, the system makes it impossible not to rely on them."

Capital Cushions Fuel Prospects for Takeovers (WSJ)

"[S]ectors in which the gap between the best- and the worst-capitalized companies is the largest are likely to witness the most consolidation. Such sectors include autos, telecoms and technology, capital goods and the paper industry."

M&A Boom Signaled for S&P 500 Index on Record Cash (Bloomberg)

A buyer's market if you're interested in purchasing that company you've always wanted to buy, fire most of its employees, and flip it for a big return.

WPP Chief Tempers Hopes for Ad Upturn (WSJ)

"Grayish" picture of the ad industry's prospects for recovery.

Fed Rejects Geithner Request for Study of Governance, Structure (Bloomberg)

Public review of Fed's workings? Fed says no way.

Silent Treatment on Bank Write-Downs (WSJ)

A "somewhat bizarre accounting treatment suddenly has come to the fore."

A High-Stress Hustle for At-Home Entrepreneurs (WashPost)

SEC Bid to Speed Probes, Win Esteem Stumbles on Bank of America (Bloomberg)

Federal judge Jed Rakoff's ass-chewing on BofA settlement is "a terrible blow," says former SEC chair Arthur Levitt.