Saturday Links

• Flash Crash panel discussing some possibly very productive ideas.  These ideas could make the market much safer for small investors and even make non-stock investors' bank deposits much more secure. Some highly intelligent minds involved.  This is highly recommended reading. From Reuters
• SEC initiates new rule to prevent "unfiltered market access".  This will be very good if they can manage to enforce the rule.  Prevents fat cats from having an unfair advantage over small investors.
• Laura Rozen (one of the best journalists you can read on foreign policy, and what is happening in politics of other countries) writes on Egypt and Mubarak.
• A very fascinating post from "The Financial Philosopher" blog.  Worth the read.  I should give a hat tip to Kent Thune over at The Big Picture blog for this.
• Some terrific journalism from LA Times on bloated government salaries out in California.  Some local government agencies "execs" got over $300,000 in yearly salary in 2009.  Story by Sam Allen of the LA Times
• Microsoft up to their usual idea thievery.  It wasn't enough to rip off Apple, kill off Netscape's browser through monopolistic practices as well as kill off other innovative software companies. Now Ballmer and Microsoft are stealing from Google.  From Barry Ritholtz' The Big Picture blog.
• Be careful buying any stocks where the company is based in China, including Chinese stocks listed on U.S. exchanges.  You are throwing your money into the toilet so U.S. securities dealers can rob you blind.  From BusinessWeek
• Why does the Chinese government seem so friendly at the beginning of relationships with foreign investors???  So they can steal foreigners ideas, steal foreign technology, and after assimilating the ideas into Chinese companies boot foreigners out of their markets.  Simple. Read about some of that Here at Harvard Business Review.  Written by Thomas M. Hout & Pankaj Ghemawat
• Be careful if you happen to sneeze in the same room an overly-sensitive Jew is inhabiting.  It could lead to serious accusations against the sneezer.  Dan Snyder, owner of the lowly Washington Redskins, got his panties in a wad.  From Tablet Magazine.  Snyder happens to be the consensus (almost unanimous) worst owner in all of the NFL.

For dog "aficionados".  Two dogs playing tetherball.  I swiped this from Andrew Sullivan's 

The Dish blog at Atlantic magazine.