Here’s another random assortment of interesting things happening out there in the rest of the world…

WSJ’s newly free blog states that there is chatter that another hedge fund may be on the brink of failing and that it may be responsible for some of the gyrations in the energy, bond, and currencies…

Before the election, many people thought there was a plausible conspiracy to keep the gas price down and help the republicans get re-elected. Unfortunately, crude oil keeps going down. Maybe it is just the futures contracts expiring? If so, this is a time to be a buyer…

The NYMEX IPO’ed this week to much fanfare and excessive jubilation. Come on people, NYMEX is worth $12 billion? Seems like everyone likes the exchanges — it’s the 7th exchange to go public in the US and every one of them has posted ridiculous gains since their IPOs.

Let’s all make fun of Jim Cramer together. Oh, let’s make fun of Donald Rumsfeld too while we’re at it…

P/E compression takes a long time.

The bearish case: Dr. Copper predicts a recession. The bullish case: I’ll let it speak for itself.

Take comfort in the fact that you’re rich — even if you make minimum wage. “Fed Min Wage= $5.15/hr. At 40 hrs/week, 52 weeks per year, our worst case scenario is still in the top 13th percentile of the world.”

Want to buy a supercomputer? Try the PS3. Just don’t send your personal assistant and let them name-drop… To sum up… Sony (SNE) creates batteries that burst into flames, and now sells an $800 gaming console for $500.