In my larval, pre-blogging days, I always faced the back-to-school moment with abject dread.  It meant returning to a program of the most severe, mind-numbing regimentation in the ghastly New York City public schools after a summer of idyllic unreality in the New Hampshire woods, where I went to a Lord of the Flies type of summer camp.  And so here I am, many decades later, still uneasy as the final page of the August calendar flies away in a hot Santa Ana wind, and a great hellfire closes in on the far eastern reaches of Los Angeles, and the American money system falls into a peculiar limbo, and every fifth person is out of work, or going bankrupt, or glugging…

Japan Election Rout Shakes Shares; Shanghai Composite Falls Nearly 7%; Walt Disney Adding Marvel to its Roster; Baker Hughes Buys Rival BJ Services; PetroChina Gaining Athabasca Tar Sand Control; Petrobras Wants 30% Stake in Brazil Reserve Wells; India’s Economy Grows 6.1%; JPMorgan: China-Taiwan Interested in Mutual Opportunities; Funds Dumping U.S. Consumer Stocks

The major indices may be in negative territory today, but it is a good day for Wall Street. If the nation’s largest companies are buying, consumers cannot be too far behind.

A comparison of Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:PLA) and Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) allows us to define the only proper strategy to trade the upcoming FriendFinder Networks IPO.