The number of banks that didn't make their monthly dividend payments on TARP funds skyrocketed to 29 in August, up from 18 in May. Banks can choose not to make payments during a given month, allowing the dividends owed to accumulate unpaid.

Financial crisis or the Great Recession, if you still remember them, seems so far away… we are now in the best six-month stock market rally since 1933. The bulls have been running riot in the stock market, seemingly unassailable and making money effortlessly, while the bears are licking their wounds.

The better than expected US jobs data is likely to reinforce the view that the economy is stabilizing after a generational financial crisis. Some economists have even suggested that the economy will rebound strongly in the third quarter, with a surge in vehicle production. However, any fledging recovery could still be threatened by strong economic headwinds.

Today’s better than expected manufacturing reports from China, the Euro Zone, the U.K, and the U.S. seem to indicate that investors have accepted the possibility that the global economy may have righted itself and is now poised to improve even further.