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Goldman Arming Itself? :-> This is a riot (well, ok, I might be a week - or a month early on that): Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the...

“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank...

Improved manufacturing data from China on Wednesday suggested its downturn may be bottoming out, but plunging U.S. auto sales underscored the depth of the recession in the world's biggest economy. China's official purchasing managers' index (PMI) for January rose to 45.3, up from 41.2 in December and a record low of 38.8 plumbed in November. The January PMI data at least provide further support to our view that GDP growth should be stronger in Q1 2009 than in Q4 2008," said Mingchun Sun, an economist with Nomura in Hong Kong, in a note. "China's GDP growth will be V-shaped in...

LONDON (MarketWatch) - Shares in Europe recorded another massive one-day fall on Friday following a week of carnage when policymakers and central banks battled to limit damage to the global economy from the recent financial market turmoil. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 7.5% to 205.17, which ranks among the worst one-day performances on record for the index. On Monday, the index closed down 7.6% -- its worst one-day drop ever -- kicking off a week when the Stoxx 600 fell more than 20%. Some strategists are calling this week a bear market within a bear market as...