Below are links of an eclectic variety.

Woolly Mammoth to Be Cloned – Discovery News
Within five years, a woolly mammoth will likely be cloned, according to scientists who have just recovered well-preserved bone marrow in a mammoth thigh bone. Japan's Kyodo News first reported the find.

A Government Censors a Blog – techdirt
Be thankful for your liberties and freedoms, as some governments secretly censor information (in this case, a blog) without apparent due process.

Expose an Alleged Financial Crook and be Fined Millions – Seattle Weekly
Apparently bloggers need to be careful writing about crooks and ponzi schemes.  The unintended consequences of the Court's actions will likely be more anonymous, offshore blogging.

Aunt Midge Not Dying in Hospice Reveals $14B Market – Bloomberg
When private equity firms salivate about for-profit hospice investments, what is the probability that Medicare (i.e., taxpayers) is being pillaged and plundered?

Stephen Hawking on Time Travel - Letters of Note
This one is short and comical.

Truckin' - got my chips cashed in
Keep truckin - like the doodah man
Together - more or less in line
Just keep truckin on

-- Grateful Dead, Truckin’

There are many indices to use to gauge economic activity and Coventry League tends to gravitate to proprietary and idiosyncratic ones. 

However, we incorporate established indices as well, including a trucking activity index as a leading indicator: Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index, or PCI. 

Essentially, a unit of Ceridian manages payment cards that trucking companies and drivers use to, say, fill up their tanks with diesel. It measures diesel fuel purchases at 7,000 truck stops nationwide.  The big picture of the index is a measure of the flow of goods to U.S. factories, retailers and consumers.

So, what’s the index suggesting?  Near-term economic sluggishness at best. 

Coventry League may or may not have its chips cashed in…

................................................
"Biographies: Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index." Economic Data | Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.ceridianindex.com/about-the-index/biographies/>.Biography of UCLA economics professor, Ed Leamer, who is chief economist for the Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index.

Durden (ZeroHedge), Tyler, and Lee Adler (Wall Street Examiner). "The Pulse of Commerce and The Chicken's Dilemma | ZeroHedge." ZeroHedge | On a Long Enough Timeline the Survival Rate for Everyone Drops to Zero. The Wall Street Examiner, 13 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/pulse-commerce-and-chickens-dilemma>.

Gross, Daniel. "The 18-Wheeler Recovery: What Trucking Statistics—yes, Trucking—can Tell Us about the Economy." Slate Magazine. 13 May 2010. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.slate.com/id/2253823/>.

Maio, Pat. "Trucking Activity Boosted in California by Exports." North County Times - Californian. 13 Sept. 2011. Web. 15 Sept. 2011. <http://www.nctimes.com/business/article_2d91a1dc-10e4-5dca-80c9-06bb5e7fdb28.html>.

Please reference “Iran's Kish Oil Bourse Begins Oil Transactions in Euro and Dirham” dated 19 August 2011 from Hamsayeh.net.

Having an oil exchange that trades in multiple currencies, including a basket of global currencies, provides an alternative in the marketplace for those who don’t want to rely on any specific fiat currency (a currency not supported and backed by some tangible commodity).

Rolling Stone Magazine is becoming a source for provocative investigative journalism. 

Here is its most recent article (17 Aug. 2011) titled "Is the SEC Covering Up Wall Street Crimes?" by Matt Taibbi.

Also, here is a related Rolling Stone's article by the same author from earlier this year (16 February 2011) titled "Why Isn't Wall Street in Jail?"

Enjoy.

Below is an infographic highlighted by Grist.com depicting the cost of eating healthily. This can also be explained from subsidies for junk food (high calorie, low nutrition) that aid and abet the perpetuation of a health care provider complex.

Or, what comes around, goes around: Please reference "Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields" as well as the links regarding the investigations by the SEC.  The latter is likely just theater to appease the locals (U.S. citizens and farmers); the former has teeth.  Nevertheless people globally have had enough of the atrocious behavior and products (pesticides, herbicides, genetically modified whatnots, carcinogens) from Monsanto and some other similar companies, and their enabling politicians.  And, some international governments, fortunately, are responding accordingly.  

The chart provided by Financial Times yesterday regarding a "AAA Bubble" is mostly self-explanatory, although the article has some good off-links.  And, for those who want a refresher on credit ratings, a good starting point is this Wikipedia article.

The allegedly intentional misdirection of language in Silver Lake/Skype’s employees’ stock options agreement demonstrates the lengths that some firms and managers go to apparently cheat other people, clients and employees. 

For further reading about the behavior of aforementioned companies and managers, reference some of the links below.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of lessons that may help to mitigate perpetuation of unethical behavior by certain parties and individuals:

Lesson 1: The Devil is in the Details (ideally have an attorney vet one’s important agreements, or read thoroughly and ask questions)

Lesson 2: Asynchronous communication: unethical behavior that becomes transparent to more ethical employees, potential employees, and limited partners (public pension fund managers, foundations, etc.) generally ultimately wields a high cost to the alleged perpetrators (e.g., Enron, Lehman, Allied Capital, et al.).

.............................................................................
"Brian O'Shaughnessy." Luxembourg | LinkedIn. O’Shaughnessy is an alumnus of NYU and Merrick College holding a degree in “political science.” Currently Head of Global Communications at Skype and formerly worked for Google, who self proclaims not to do evil.  One wonders about the opinions of his alma maters and former employers regarding the option agreement topic. Web. 07 July 2011. <http://lu.linkedin.com/in/brianoshaughnessy>.

Davidoff, Steven M. "A Clash Between Venture Capital and Private Equity - NYTimes.com." Mergers, Acquisitions, Venture Capital, Hedge Funds - DealBook. 06 July 2011. Web. 07 July 2011. <http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/in-silicon-valley-a-culture-clash-sullies-a-romance/>.

Salmon, Felix. "Downgrading Skype and Silver Lake to ‘Evil’ " Wired.com. 25 June 2011. Web. 07 July 2011. <http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/06/skype-silver-lake-evil/>. 

Salmon, Felix. "Skype’s Options Plan and Silicon Valley Norms | Felix Salmon." Analysis & Opinion | Reuters. 07 July 2011. Web. 07 July 2011. <http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/07/07/skypes-options-plan-and-silicon-valley-norms/>.

  Remember the good old days of leveraged buyouts (LBOs)?  

You know, buy control of a company by using a pile of debt, firing a lot of employees, and selling some hard assets.  Then, use the cash flow to pay capital providers and financial sponsors of the transaction through principal payments, interest and special dividends.  In the medium- and long-term, this behavior tends to destroy (read: bankrupt) companies due to reasons such as not adequately investing in maintenance and human capital and necessary SG&A.

Now, apply the old LBO model to a sovereign nation and what do you get?  [Well, besides the decline and fall of the Roman Empire.] You get a lot of debt, misallocation of taxpayer dollars to things like subsidies (corn, sugar, etc.), excessive global military presence, and lack of infrastructure maintenance.  

That said, an article titled “Life in the Slow Lane” by The Economist (April 30, 2011) indicates a red flag of not maintaining one’s infrastructure.  I suppose this is another data point that complements our blog from March 2011 titled “Remember the Off-Balance Sheet Shenanigans of Enron?”