Gather Weekly: unemployment, piracy stocks, health care

This week's Gather articles (12/1-12/5):

Health care reform

• Senate Dems seek to limit tax deduction on compensation for health insurance executives
• Politics, Lumbergh style: Senate will vote on health care bill amendments this weekend
• Glimmer of bipartisanship: several Dems join GOP in health care bill amendment
• But what about the death panels? AARP backs Dems' health care bill

Web

• Mashable's Pete Cashmore on 10 Web trends to watch in 2010
• Explosive growth of social networks: infographic

Sports

• The Importance of the World Cup 2010 Draw: Preview and Breakdown

Economy

• Is the tide turning for unemployment? Initial jobless claims fell to one-year low last week
• The new green economy: marijuana market booming in Humboldt County, CA
• The 10.2% solution: Obama hosts jobs summit today at White House to address unemployment

Politics & legislation

• Duct tape legislation: House bill will fix deadline glitch in unemployment benefits extension bill
  
• Gay marriage bill defeated in New York state Senate
• Capitol Hill's taxing agenda: Congress ponders tax legislation to end 2009
• Democratic leaders advocate additional unemployment benefits extension
• House to extend unemployment benefits, estate tax break before Xmas; jobs bill delayed until 2010

International

• Somali pirate "stock exchange" lets investors fund, profit from piracy

Books

• Christmas gift ideas: NYT Book Review's 10 Best Books of 2009

Current Dow rally is short, small

	Despite a rally of over 50% since its March low, put in a historical context of previous market rallies this current one by the Dow Jones Industrial Average is both short in duration and small in magnitude. . . . more

Dow closes at 10,226.94, a 52-week high

	On Monday the Dow Jones Industrial Average stock index hit not only its highest number for 2009 but also over the last year, with a gain of 203.52 points (2.03%) to . . . more

Berkshire Hathaway board approves stock split

	In a surprising move, the board of Berkshire Hathaway has approved a decision to split the company's Class B common stock shares at a ratio of 50-for 1. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett . . . more

STOC: Graphical S&P 500 ticker

Digital art and design major James Grant has created a pretty impressive application in terms of both aesthetic appeal and information delivery. Grant's . . . more

Barry's Bullish

For now:

Is This Rally for Reals?

Probably not. But what do I know?

For more authoritative opinions, check out this roundtable over at NYT between Simon Johnson, Nicholas Bloom, and Barry Ritholz about the market's rally since its March 9th low. Johnson's all doom and gloom; Bloom's a bit more measured in his take on the situation; Ritholz offers investment strategy more than analysis of the virtues of this recent rally.

(Although Ritholz seems to offer somewhat contradictory advice. If buy and hold is a "losing strategy" in a bear market, then why does he say "For many investors, dollar cost averaging into broad index funds works well" and then actually suggest that they increase their investments during major downturns like the present? "If you want to be a bit aggressive, you can increase your contributions once the markets fall 30 percent or (like now) 50 percent." I think the key here is the difference between active traders and passive buy-and-hold investors - active strategy will change depending on the market situation; for most average investors, passive dollar cost averaging is the way to go regardless of market conditions. And indeed in the case of the latter, increasing that investment during major downturns is a way to pick up extra shares on the cheap.)