With the launch of The Exchange, Minyans now have a forum in which to express their viewpoints, comment on articles and meet other like-minded financial souls. Minyanville publishes "A Best of the Exchange" each Friday to highlight the many insightful posts and discussions going on behind the scenes. 

Become part of The Exchange and let your voice be heard!

(Editor's Note: Some of the following posts may have been modified slightly from their original form.)

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Biofuel Debate Rages On
Who Has More Level 3 Assets Than Capital?
Who Has Billions in Level 2 Assets?
How Did We Get Into This Mess? Part 2
How Did We Get Into This Mess? Part 2

Trading Radar: Walmart Gets in Holiday Spirit
How the VIX Spike Will Affect 2010
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Why Government Involvement in Health Care Is National Suicide
Trading Radar: Unemployment Expected to Climb

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Professor Sedacca pointed out ten major companies by asking Who Has More Level 3 Assets Than Capital? beginning a discussion between readers and the author himself.

Minyan Dean: Interesting article indeed, but I don't believe all level 3 assets are created equal. L3 assets that are real estate based (directly or indirectly) have greater vulnerability to declines in their unobservable value.

Minyan Fred: What happens if an "observable input" results from one of these companies liquidating a hard to price/sell asset, (eg. forced due to one of the monolines losing their AAA rating status & thus eliminating the AAA rating on some of these assets) that is the same or similar enough to assets that the other companies have in their Level 3 pool)?

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Prof. Depew wrote about Where Your Tax Rebate is Really Going in his Five Things You Need to Know.

Prof. Ford: The move towards more gambling seems consistent w/ Prospect Theory (i.e., taking more risk when behind). From a socionomics perspective, I wonder what triggers these risk seekers toward risk aversion.

Minyan Manny: I usually agree with your commentary. But in this case you are totally off base. The role of speculators in commodity trading and the resulting price action in commodities has been ignored. But let's assume that your basic argument is correct. That the Indian governments suspended trading in essential commodity futures to prevent price discovery. Still the actions of the Indian government cannot be compared to the actions of the Fed. That would be a big mistake.

Minyan William: I am actually glad state and local governments are short on revenue. Maybe, soon they will focus on eliminating all of the unnecessary, pork barrel and/or patronage excess built into their budgets and actually (shhh, don't say it too loud) lower their budgets and the associated tax bills.

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Prof. Jeffery discussed the Biofuel Debate Raging On.

Minyan David: The solution is an energy source, other than petroleum, with sufficient energy density and portability. Clearly this is already being worked on. Given that, energy independence is simply achieved. I don't have a price tag yet, but it is do-able. It does seem clear that corn-like ethanol is not the answer.

Minyan Dan: Require all companies with more than 50 employees to provide transportation. Combine with schools. Set up a system for companies to swap employees with other companies or government agencies so that people who live closer can trade jobs. Let's face it; in a 'service' economy, we could eliminate a lot of companies and not miss anything.