Feeding hope, time for a checkup and surprise, surprise, Roubini’s feeling pessimistic.

• The Globe and Mail. Economic crisis “turning the corner.” “The tide of job losses washing across North America is showing signs of ebbing, feeding hope that the worst of the recession is over.”
• National Post. Emerging markets back in spotlight. “China is up more than 60% year-to-date and many other emerging markets continue to outperform equity indices in the developing world, proving once again that the overseas exposure is an important part of a portfolio.”
• Canadian Capitalist. Stock market reward in two pictures. “When I wrote about the risks of investing in stocks in two pictures, a reader pointed out that I should also write about the other side of the coin – stocks can also rise sharply in a very short time period. That has been the case with the stock market in the past 90 days. Since hitting bottom on March 9, the TSX Composite is up about 40%.”
• Generation X Finance. How to do a mid-year financial checkup – things to think about this summer. “Most people really take a good look at their finances at two main times throughout the year: the very end or beginning of the year and come tax time. While these are great times to focus on your finances it is important to remember that the year is long and your life and the world around you is constantly changing. Since we are closing in on the first half of 2009 already it is a great time to review some key financial items now before the end of the year is upon us.”
• CBS Money Watch. Ben Bernanke: What caused the financial crisis? “In a rare interview with a sitting Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke tells 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley what went wrong with America’s financial system and how it caused the current economic crisis.”
• CBS Money Watch. Ben Bernanke: When will the recession end? “In Part 2 of a rare public interview, Ben Bernanke tells 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley what the Fed is doing to help fix the current economic crisis and when he expects the crippling recession to end.”
• GuruFocus.com. Jeremy Grantham Morningstar interview videos. “Videos of Jeremy Grantham as he was interviewed by Morningstar.”
• Clusterstock. Roubini: 9 reasons the recovery will be a bust. “As we noted yesterday, Nouriel Roubini looks at what most people call ‘green shoots’ and sees ‘yellow weeds.’ Here, he lays out nine reasons why he thinks the coming recovery will be a bust.”
• The New York Times. How Canada does banking. “This is the first in a series about how Canada regulates its economy.”
• Economics Help. The failure of economics. “Since the gravest economic downturn since the Great Depression took many economists by surprise, there has been much soul-searching of the economics professions. In particular are economists placing enough attention to the key issues which actually affect people and society – or do they get sucked into insignificant debates over obtuse mathematical models.”
• Million Dollar Journey. The prepaid funeral: advantages & disadvantages. “There is one guarantee in life and that is we’ll all die. One hundred and fifty years from now the earth will be filled with all new people. That’s a lot of funerals! The funeral industry has huge potential for profit in the next fifty years with a rapidly aging baby-boomer generation. Prepaid funerals are just one of the services funeral homes offer. The question remains, are prepaid funerals worth it?”
• CommonDreams.org. There’s more to life than GDP. “For many years – and particularly since the onset of the global recession – Canadians and people around the world have been bombarded with news about the gross domestic product.”

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