Andy Kessler recently published a terrific opinion piece, entitled “Galleon and the Trouble With Insider Trading” . He suggested that it’s impossible for investors to get a short-term trading edge. It’s better to make long-term investments based on big-picture trends: Information now travels at the speed of light.

On three out of every five days this year Wall Street’s leading firm has made at least $100 million trading stocks and bonds, and creating and entering into derivatives contracts. Out of 194 trading days through the end of September, Goldman Sachs earned at least $100 million from its trading division on 116 of them.

WASHINGTON — Recognizing that a weak economy still needs a government boost, the Senate voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to provide the jobless with up to 20 weeks in additional unemployment benefits and expand a first-time homebuyer tax credit to include a far larger pool of people entering the dormant housing market. The $24 billion bill, passed 98-0, also provides tax relief for struggling businesses.


 
 I agree with you Dylan, but that $24 trillion number is totally bogus. That is the cost to the government if the value of every asset the government is backing goes to zero – a highly improbable occurrence.

Google ‘s third-quarter lobbying expenditures totaled $1 million for the first time — a 50 percent jump from the July-September period last year, the Associated Press reports. According to lobbying disclosure reports, Google’s spent $2.9 million influencing lawmakers so far this year. The tech giant has lobbied on Internet privacy, online advertising and intellectual privacy issues

Go figure this crazy market following another bout of schizophrenia. Take last week, a week that may have flashed bum tidings ahead for investors, even the possibility of a selling panic. First came terrific Thursday, then wicked Friday, as big money was made and even bigger money was lost.


 
 House Financial Markets Committee Chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., will move to strip a controversial amendment from the Investor Protection Act — which the House Financial Services Committee approved with a 41-28 vote today — that would give Finra power over a quarter of all federally-registered investment advisory firms. “He will offer an amendment on the floor to reverse this amendment and he will work with his colleagues to pass it,” Steven Adamske, Mr.