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• SocGen's Gold Sleuth Calculates Further Losses Ahead
  Societe Generale's Michael Haigh correctly predicted this year's rout in gold by using a math problem to measure a feeling. His arithmetic says there's worse to come.
• Stocks Slide as Fed Says Bond Purchases Could Slow
  Stocks are closing sharply lower and bond yields are rising after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said the central bank could slow its massive bond purchases this year.
• Gold Hits One-Month Low on Bernanke's Reduced Stimulus Talk
  Gold fell to a one-month low after the Federal Reserve chairman said he expects to slow the pace of the central bank's bond purchases later this year and bring them to a halt around mid-2014.
• Pimco's Gross: Markets Misinterpreting Bernanke on Inflation
  Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Bill Gross, manager of the world's biggest mutual fund, said investors who are selling Treasurys on expectations that the Federal Reserve will scale back its accommodative policy are missing the influence of inflation on the Fed's decision.
• Bernanke Vows to End Quantitative Easing in 2014
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the U.S. central bank expects to slow the pace of its bond purchases later this year and bring them to a halt around mid-2014, comments that weighed on stocks and pushed bond yields to a 15-month high.
• Bernanke Says Most on FOMC Don't Favor Sale of Agency Debt
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said a majority of Federal Open Market Committee members don't favor selling the Fed's holdings of mortgage-backed securities when it begins to exit record monetary stimulus.
• Obama Said Not to Have Begun Search for Bernanke Replacement
  Amid speculation over who will succeed Ben Bernanke as Federal Reserve chairman, there are no signs that President Barack Obama has begun a formal search.
• Hatzius Says Fed Chairman Change Wouldn't Upend Policies
  The Federal Reserve won't make major policy changes regardless of who leads the central bank after Chairman Ben Bernanke's term ends in January, said Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.'s chief economist.
• Bernanke: Fed Likely to Reduce Stimulus Later This Year
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday the U.S. economy is expanding strongly enough for the central bank to begin slowing the pace of its bond-buying stimulus later this year.
• Author Todd Wood: Interest Rate 'Shock' is Coming
  The bond market is a bubble that's headed for a massive burst, says Todd Wood, who worked for more than 10 years as an emerging market debt trader.
• Home Depot Co-Founder Langone: Bernanke Is 'the Ultimate Lame Duck'
  Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's words no longer carry the same weight as they did previously now that he is apparently on his way out, says billionaire investor Kenneth Langone.
• Harvard's Ferguson: Regulation Has Made Americans Dependent on Government
  Regulation in the United States is out of control, making Americans overly dependent on the government, says Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor.
• Ralph Acampora: Look for New Leading Sectors to Emerge
  The recent erratic activity of the stock market, with its repeated failed rallies and big point swings, signals a correction may already be under way, according to technical analysis expert Ralph Acampora, senior managing director at wealth management firm Altaira.
• Berkshire Hires CNA's Fortin in Buffett's Business Insurer Push
  Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. hired Dan Fortin as senior vice president of the company's new commercial insurance unit.
• Fox Fires Tobin Smith for $50,000 Stock Endorsement
  Fox Business News commentator Tobin Smith is out of a job after it was revealed his company, NBT Equities Research, was paid $50,000 to tout stock as a celebrity endorsement.
• Obama to Merkel: Economic Policies Must Improve Lives
  The need to balance budgets should not distract from the ultimate goal of economic policy, namely improving people's lives, President Barack Obama said on Wednesday in what appeared to be a dig at German Chancellor Angela Merkel's focus on austerity.
• Author Neil Irwin: Expect Continuity at Fed After Bernanke Leaves
  The expected departure of Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve won't bring significant changes to the direction of the central bank, according to author Neil Irwin.
• World Bank: Fed Won't Make 'Short and Sharp' Policy Switch
  The World Bank is concerned about the spillover effects on developing countries of a slowing of U.S. money creation and will move to provide affordable capital when borrowing costs rise, its president said on Wednesday.
• ValuEngine's Suttmeier: Bank Stocks 'Have Had Their Run'
  It's time to take profits in bank stocks, according to Richard Suttmeier, chief market strategist at ValuEngine, who also fears the broad market cannot continue higher without the participation of those stocks.
• Fortune: Equametrics Offers Automated Trading Platform to Main Street
  Automated trading is blamed for increasing stock market volatility and even creating "flash crashes." And now the startup firm Equametrics wants to provide automated trading — now used only by Wall Street traders — to the public, according to Fortune.
• CNNMoney: The Possible Downside to Moving to a No-Income-Tax State
  Moving to a state with no income tax may seem like a simple way to escape taxes, but it can actually create complications and cost money in back taxes and penalties, according to CNNMoney.
• Study: Income Inequality Rising Because of Tax Code
  Changes to the tax code in recent decades has helped increase inequality, argues a study by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
• WSJ: Euro Thrives Despite Economic Slowdown
  The protracted recession in Europe hasn't been enough to hold down the euro recently.
• Inflation at 53-Year Low Gives Fed Time to Press on With QE
  The lowest inflation since the brink of the Kennedy-era economic boom in the 1960s is buying time for Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke to press on with the central bank's $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.A gauge of consumer prices excluding food and energy that...
• Roubini: Fed Faces 'Treacherous' Path in Exiting its QE
  The Federal Reserve has a difficult balancing act to perform in pulling back from its massive easing program, say Nouriel Roubini, a New York University economist, and Ian Bremmer, president of Eurasia Group, a consulting firm.

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