LEI LIES - Bruce Krasting - The Leading Economic Indicator (“LEI”) came in at +.2% in the most recent read. There was a time that I looked at this data set pretty seriously. Not any more. I think it produces a false read. - has why

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J.P. Morgan’s unusual claim - Commentary: The WaMu deal cost the bank billions, it claims - David Weidner - J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has made its reputation as a bank that got credit right. Too bad it slipped up when bailout dollars were at stake. ... In short, J.P. Morgan claims that the FDIC receivership that sold WaMu to J.P. Morgan is liable for some claims against the failed thrift.  J.P. Morgan’s claim may be legally debateable, but by making it, the bank is firing up the wrath of former WaMu employees and shareholders who believe the deal made in the darkest hours of the financial crisis was a set-up that ultimately gave J.P. Morgan the thrift on the cheap. - MarketWatch 

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(QE not needed yet?) Fed's Lockhart Says Need for More Monetary Easing Not Foregone Conclusion - By Vivien Lou Chen and Josh Zumbrun - ... “If in six months or 12 months the economy is operating at the low level it is today” and unemployment is 9.5 percent or higher, “I will be comfortable with taking action,” he said. ... - Bloomberg

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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Shut Down the Fed (Part II) - By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - I apologise to readers around the world for having defended the emergency stimulus policies of the US Federal Reserve, and for arguing like an imbecile naif that the Fed would not succumb to drug addiction, political abuse, and mad intoxicated debauchery, once it began taking its first shots of quantitative easing. - Telegraph.co.uk