The implosion of the CMBS market continues today. AAA tranches of the CMBX are 100 basis points wider. Cash bonds are 200 basis points wider. As an aside, I lack proficiency in the world of CMBS so if someone sees an error please jump in and correct me.

It used to be that the Microsoft-Yahoo clash seemed, at its root, a "personality conflict." Yang and Ballmer's war of words was, at one point, so pointed that Ballmer was said unable to consider an acquisition of any kind while Yang was still leading the firm. Or, that was the press version, anyhow. Around this time Microsoft spent a period in that Texas Hold'em sort of intentions limbo. When strong, attempt to appear weak, when weak, attempt to appear strong. Ballmer didn't want to advertise the degree to which he lusted after Yahoo.

The Carlyle Group has agreed to sell AxleTech International to General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) for an undisclosed amount. Carlyle acquired AxleTech in late 2005 from Wynnchurch Capital. The company makes parts for military vehicles, commercial specialty trucks and off-highway machines.

The capital raising frenzy that Wall Street embarked on this year has been nothing short of phenomenal, Breakingviews notes that the capital raises took various forms--"an elaborate concoction of preference shares, warrants, convertible bonds, ratchets, cap-and-collars and other innovative instruments, as well as issuing plain old equity." Every company has a unique set of circumstance, which results in different costs.

The recent G-20 meeting appears to have embraced the Keynesian notion that in order to stimulate aggregate demand there should be a fiscal stimulus of about 2% of global GDP. Without going too deeply into the Keynesian theory the multiplier effect can then enable this direct stimulus to be translated into more jobs and investment, all of which will enhance aggregate demand in a self-reinforcing manner that should, at least according to the theory, arrest the contraction in global economic activity.