It's no secret that credit and equity markets have almost been joined at the hip since the credit bubble began to burst. However, there has been an interesting divergence at key turning points, as the following chart suggests:

Another day, another post for DailyFinance. In today's edition, "Got a Job? Don't Expect a Raise Anytime Soon," I highlight one indicator that suggests wages and salaries have more room to fall.

I admit I don't spend as much time drilling down into the details of company announcements and earnings releases as I ought to. It's hard enough keeping up with and sifting through government statistics and other big-picture data series.

A week ago, I highlighted a report from the Financial Times, "FedEx Warns on US Recovery," in which the head of the U.S. transportation and logistics company expressed concerns about the health of the economy:

The market value of the high yield FINRA-BLP Active U.S. Corporate Bond Index relative to its investment grade counterpart has now exceeded the level seen in May 2007, at the peak of the credit bubble.

While the U.S. is not quite there (yet), a growing number of countries have reached the point where their ability to pay for the fallout from the financial crisis and past policy mistakes with loans and funny money is a challenge. So, as the New York Times notes in "Struggling Governments Get Creative to Raise Income," they are resorting to plan B (or is it plan C, or D, or E?).

I've signed on as a writer for Daily Finance and just published my first column, "Do Oil Price Moves Signal Trouble Ahead for the U.S.

OK, time for a bit of crowdsourcing on a familiar subject. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, the bottom is at hand in the property market:

We interrupt the euphoria in the stock market to bring you this breaking news flash --

...if you think "black swans" are something to worry about, how about a black penguin?

Economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman has claimed there's little reason to be concerned about trillion-dollar deficits and a parabolic run-up in the amount of money our government is borrowing

Just because people aren't eating out as much as they used to doesn't mean they have lost their appetites. Based on the following reports, it appears that a growing number of Americans are developing a taste for do-it-yourself culinary delights:

In "Safe...or Sorry?" I discussed some of the many risks municipal bond investors have been ignoring in their Quixotic quest for safety and high yields.

This week's Barron's details yet another financial time bomb ticking in the shadows of state and local government finances in a report by Jonathan R. Laing, entitled, "The $2 Trillion Hole":

Question: If things keep getting better in consumerland, why aren't retailers looking to hire more staff?