[expat_panama]

name one exec who'd cash in if he boosted the EPS by buying back all but a couple shares while earnings fell by 90%.

Reverse split your stock 2 for 1 ... EPS doubles.

Let's take that to mean you know of no CEO that gets extra for masking falling earnings with buybacks.   We can also just agree that the same applies with stock splits.

[expat_panama]

So a happy St. Patrick's day although futures traders aren't pointing to any new pots of gold,  They got metals down -0.72% and stock indexes off -0.28%.  After all, yesterday's bouce was low volume (dead cat style?).  Seems the up-tick was another bad-news = good-news with the dismal production and housing numbers.  Today's reports are 'lite' with just Housing Starts and Building Permits.

In other news:

In Praise Of Stock Market Short Sellers - James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
Wall Street's Bonuses Should Be a Great Deal Larger - John Tamny, RCM
The DJIA We Know and Love, But Don't Use - Allan Sloan, Washington Post
Low Rates Are Here For a While: How to Play Them - Martin Pelletier, NP
Millions of Workers Seem Anchored To Sideline - Gene Epstein, Barron's
More Phony Obamacare Claims From White House - Editorial, Investor's