links for 2010-02-09

For the nation’s hospitals, at least, the cost of doing nothing in Washington translates into tens of billions of dollars each year in medical bills that go unpaid by patients with little or no insurance.

Last Wednesday, a housing-price index for Canada's six biggest cities posted its seventh straight monthly gain, showing home prices in November are now back to their prerecession peak. Another broader measure shows the average home price in 2009 hitting a record. Home building has picked up too, with housing starts in December jumping to their highest level since October 2008…The 2009 price increase of more than 20% came as personal income in Canada fell nearly 1% and total employment was 1.4% lower than the year earlier. In a December report, the Bank of Canada warned that household debt—largely mortgages—was 1.42 times disposable income during the second quarter of 2009, a record high.

this is the first time we've seen both historical volatility and volume rise on a sustained price decline since the bear market ended last year.

Options will be volatile for as long as U.S. market trades off the European markets. This will make options trading particularly challenging. What is cheap today could be expensive within an hour, and vice versa. Rest assured that market makers, who have the ability to rapidly increase or decrease options volatility in response to market conditions, trudged into work Monday ready to do whatever it takes to succeed in the market. When the future's uncertain, dialing volatility up or down often does a remarkable job of evening out the odds.

U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data showed investors increased their bets on further dollar gains in the latest week. Dollar net long positions were at their highest in 11 months. The net short euro position versus the dollar rose to a record high, according to Barclays and Scotia Capital data.