In 1961, the great free-market economist Milton Friedman wrote a paper called “The Lag in Effect of Monetary Policy,” wherein he discovered a six- to nine-month delay in how long it would take for a change in monetary policy to be felt in the economy and the stock market.

The World Bank downgrades its world economic forecast, A few lessons from the school of German-style hyperinflation, Will we be seeing you in Vancouver this year? And plenty more…

“Little else is required,” Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, once remarked, “to carry a state to the highest degree of affluence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice; all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

The fate of the global equity market rally now comes down to China. Will it continue to stockpile hard assets? Will the data points continue to soothe and impress? Much is at stake either way…  

There is quite a bit of discussion right now about if this market rally is real, and if it is how long it can last. The last round of corporate earnings weren’t as bad as many expected, and there seems to be some tempered optimism that this could be a sustained rally.

Experts roundly agree that the recession is only a short-term blip in the long-term escalation of oil prices. And this time, there are 1.05 trillion reasons why oil is going to climb well past its peak last year.

By sucking the air out of energy prices and sapping private investment, the financial crisis submarined solar energy last fall. But a silver lining has emerged around the dark cloud that has blanketed the sector for so long.

Internally, the Japanese are still not big spenders. The population is not only ageing… it’s shrinking. That’s not happening in the US.

Is the crisis really over? Commercial paper spreads have come down dramatically. Libor rates are (hmm – almost) back to normal. Even high yield spreads are narrowing.

“Never in the history of the world has there been a situation so bad that the government can’t make it worse.” -Unknown