Nassim Taleb, author of The Black Swan, predicts trouble ahead for world economies. The Black Swan is a metaphor for unexpected events because people view the world as something structured, ordinary and comprehensible.

Some of his statements are factual, and some are conjecture. Here is list of quotes from his interview on CNBC:

Today's Beige Book was effectively ignored because Ben Bernanke's testimony defended the low-rate or no-rate policies that left no concern of a Fed rate-hike rush any time soon. EIA weekly inventories showed a surprise for the bullish case based on draw downs and T. Boone Pickens called for $95 oil... And earnings are so far up in most of the DJIA components.

Here were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 11,123.11 +103.69 (0.94%)
Nasdaq 2,504.86 +38.87 (1.58%)
S&P 500 1,210.65 +13.35 (1.12%)

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Today could be called the Bernanke cheer. Ben Bernanke managed to successfully convince Wall Street that interest rates were not going to rise any time soon. A slate of favorable earnings also added to spate of news that overseas emerging markets.

These were the unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,374.84 +92.43 (0.90%)
S&P 500 1,105.12 +10.52 (0.96%)
Nasdaq 2,235.59 +22.15 (1.00%)

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The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement indicating again that interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time. The decision was not unanimous with one dissenting vote.

The Fed continues to avoid any potential language which could disrupt the financial markets. Chairman Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression, does not want to do anything to damage the current stabilization in the economy. This is particularly true with a controversial vote on the Chairman's confirmation coming soon.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement indicating again that interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time. The decision was unanimous.

The Fed continues to avoid any potential language which could disrupt the financial markets. Chairman Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression, does not want to do anything to damage the current stabilization in the economy.

So, I was flipping through some articles in Rolling Stone, when I found a very interesting economic story - yes, in Rolling Stone. The article, "Wall Street's Naked Swindle," takes a look at what happened in the options pits leading up to the death of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers. According to the article, an unknown option buyer made "one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen," by shorting Bear Stearns. The unknown trader felt that Bear Stearns would lose "more than half" of its value in nine days or less, a bet that one financial analyst likened to buying 1.7 million lottery tickets.

What is crazy is that this bet paid off, leading to only one conclusion: insider trading (cue dramatic music). When Bear Stearns dropped from roughly $63 to $2 per share on March 17th (just six days later), the person purchasing the options made roughly $270 million. Senator Chris Dodd from the Senate Banking Committee thought that something wasn't on the up and up with this trade, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) promised it would look into the trade. Of course, nothing has happened since.

The Commerce Department released GDP numbers today for the second quarter, and showed that the economy shrank less than expected for the April - June period.

According to today's report, second quarter GDP figures dropped by 0.7%. Before the report, analysts had been expecting to see that GDP actually dropped by 1.1%, providing some fresh evidence that the economy will probably start growing again during the second half of the year.

Today's news boiled down to two issues. First was that five DJIA components reporting earnings this morning, with details on three components. The second issue was Ben Bernanke testifying that inflation was not a huge concern because the economy is likely to stay frail for some time. The markets were mixed to down most of the day until a late day rally saved shares.

Here were today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,911.71 +63.56 (0.72%)
S&P 500 954.10 +2.97 (0.31%)
Nasdaq 1,914.13 +4.84 (0.25%)

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Bank of America (NYSE: BA) CEO Ken Lewis threatened to use a "material adverse change" (MAC) clause to kill the agreement to buy Merrill Lynch because he wanted to get a lower price, according to the Financial Times. New e-mails reveal how he was then pressured to proceed with the deal.

A House committee on oversight and government reform is investigating whether or not undue pressure was put on Lewis in order to complete the deal to purchase Merrill Lynch. Reportedly, the Federal Reserve would not comply with the committee's request for documentation and e-mails regarding the accusations, but the committee issued a subpoena to the central bank on Tuesday. Lewis is set to testify about the matter today at a congressional hearing.

Fed Chairman Bernanke gave an outline of regulation for banks and financial institutions today, and the weekly jobless claims gave some hope that tomorrow's unemployment might come in under expectations. There is a "sell the news" mentality that is going around ahead of the stress test and there was some tech profit taking after John Chambers was less optimistic. It looks like at least some profit taking is actually possible to see again.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 8,376.64 -135.64 (-1.59%)
S&P 500 907.28 -12.25 (-1.33%)
Nasdaq 1,716.24 -42.86 (-2.44%)

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An outspoken group of Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) shareholders has been calling for CEO Kenneth Lewis's head lately, with investors none too pleased by the bank's near-disastrous acquisition of Merrill Lynch. However, testimony is hitting Wall Street today that indicates Lewis was simply following government orders by keeping hefty losses at Merrill under wraps.

Lewis testified under oath before New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo in February, asserting "it wasn't up to me" to disclose Merrill's fourth-quarter losses toward the end of 2008.

According to Lewis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson pressured him to stay mum about Merrill Lynch's troublesome balance sheet. The regulators reportedly urged Lewis to proceed with the merger, warning that the deal's failure would "impose a big risk" to the nation's financial system.

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says it'd be easy to follow the herd and doubt the staying power of this rally, but that's not his style.

People think I am nuts . . . even more than usual. All they can talk about at the cocktail parties and the lunches and on the Street is how bad things are. They want to hide in gold. They want to hide under the bed. They think that every move is false and every rally must be sold. The negativity is so thick that even my closest friends think that I am being wishful about the turn. Oh, and heaven forbid there would be one positive article in The Wall Street Journal about this market. Just one!

Two weeks have passed since I posted Is the stock market spring loaded? Could it move 3,000 points higher now? and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has climbed about 750 points finishing yesterday at 7660. That is after a day in which it went down 116 points giving up some of Mondays gains.

There is an old adage on Wall Street that simply states, "Don't fight the Fed". It is has been referred to and commented on for years and we are seeing it in action again. We saw it last week when Ben Bernanke the Federal Reserve Chairman was going to speak and some wondered what he might be able to do to help the ailing economy, since the adage, in general, refers to interest rate movement.

Earlier in the session we were looking at lower oil prices, but the mood has changed, and the precious crude is trading higher with the overall market today, picking up nearly 2.5% on the day.

Yesterday, despite rumors to the contrary, OPEC decided to leave its oil output alone, and this had the initial reaction of sending prices lower in early morning trading. With oil prices falling sharply since last summer, many analysts had been expecting to see a production cut from the group, but instead OPEC announced that it would be leaving its output unchanged, and stated that previous cuts were starting to take effect.

If we learned anything from Tuesday's market, it's that it is spring loaded, pun intended. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 379.44 or 5.8%, closing at 6,926.49. The NASDAQ and S&P were up even more. All this on skimpy news from Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) that it may have made a profit in the first two months of the year. That was all it took to get the market to pop!

For it's part, Citigroup jumped even more, ending the day at $1.45, for a $0.40, or 38.10% gain. Sending a memo to employees is not a novel approach to getting some stock buzz when anything more could have ended up being a lawsuit for potentially misleading investors somewhere down the road.