Weekend Linkfest

Heckuva job, Karl: The GOP "thumping" barely gave markets a pause this week. After a strong start -- helped by a bevy of private equity and M&A deals -- the markets stopped a bit to digest the extent of the political realignment. Equities floundered towards week's end.

So far, the first big loser (aside from those pols who lost their jobs) has been big Pharma and health care, which took it on the chin once it was clear the Senate was changing hands.

Making the rounds through Wall Street's echo chamber is the notion that investors had "priced in" a GOP loss in the House of Representatives but not the Senate. I suspect that is an overly narrow view of the political realignment that took place. Also repeated ad nauseum: Gridlock is good.

Maybe. If the situation is desirable, then perhaps gridlock can hold that in place. However, where the environment and trends are weakening, then maybe gridlock isn't an ideal political scenario -- at least if you hope to get anything accomplished.

As we head into the middle of November, we can look forward to retail sales numbers, PPI and CPI (inflation), industrial production and housing starts. We also get the FOMC Minutes, and some Fed speechifying.

But none of that is until Monday. It's the weekend, and you know what that means: Linkus Festivus!

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INVESTING

• The papers are chock full of fingerpointing: Who deserves the credit -- or blame -- for the Democratic rout? And who wins and loses after the GOP fall? My own post-mortem is here. We also pulled together a roundup of of bloggers' takes on the elections..

• Barron's Alan Abelson says the GOP got Bushwhacked. (If no Barron's, go here.) Barron's did forecast a GOP sweep. Their mea culpa was wanting.

• Astonishing: Just how bad was the rout? Using Senate numbers only, the Dems, with 31,591,495 votes, took 55%, versus the GOP's 45%. This is a much bigger shift than 1994 in terms of vote percentages. How did this happen? A combination of voters in the center and, surprisingly, the rich -- many of whom aren't Republican anymore. Across the pond, the FT observed US voters in resounding call for change.

• Bloomberg's Caroline Baum hopes that Divided Government will mean Less Economic Meddling. However, Business may face greater Congressional scrutiny.

• Price-Earnings Ratios on U.S. Stocks Drop, Aiding Bull Market.

• Very cool tool: annualized growth rate between any two days of the DJIA from 1896 to 2006. Also, GDP, CPI, wages, population, gold and more.

• SEC Chief, No 'Cox in Henhouse,' Defies Skeptics.

• Anonymizing Bad Analyst Coverage by rewriting history: Nearly twenty thousand "pervasive and non-random" changes of an unusual nature in I/B/E/S/ analyst coverage suggests that firms are losing analysts' names -- on purpose -- on bad stock calls. The research suggests that particularly embarrassing recommendations are most likely to be anonymized.

• Is There a Gene for Business?

• Five 401(k) mistakes to avoid.

• Bonus Pay for Wall Street Big Five Surges to Record $36 Billion.

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ECONOMY

The Wall of Worry continues to build:

• It's Still the Economy, Stupid.

• Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach says Wrong Time for Gridlock.

• The Short View: US payrolls: don't believe the hype.

• The BLS nonfarm payroll margin of error is +/- 430,000 -- per month! (via Sy Harding).

• The New York Post's John Crudele wants to know why U.S. TREASURY IS DOING THE FED'S WORK.

• There's less to the employment data than meets the eye. (If no Barrons, go here.)

• The global middle cries out for reassurance.

• A Bloomberg video twofer:...