Sunday Links Sparkle Like Diamonds

News and views from around the web:

Floyd Norris, behind the TimesSelect firewall, notes that sometimes it pays for banks to stick their heads in the sand, although he stops far short of suggesting that this might be one of those times.

In 1990 and 1991, when many banks went under, regulatory forebearance probably saved some from meeting that fate. A refusal to recognize a reality that turned out to be temporary now looks wise.

Al Ries thinks the iPhone will fail because "divergence devices have been spectacular successes" while "convergence devices, for the most part, have been spectacular failures". Um, can anybody say cameraphone? Or Blackberry?

Edward Hugh has 7,681 words on Latvian economics. I dare you to read them all.

Pat Toomey claims that raising taxes on private-equity shops "can only have a major adverse effect on the industry and a host of unintended consequences". But he doesn't explain why, and he also doesn't explain why private equity principals and companies should pay much lower taxes than anybody else. File under: "stunningly unconvincing".

Brad Greenspan, the would-be Murdoch spoiler seeking a minority stake in Dow Jones, says that the company should launch a new business television channel to compete both with CNBC and with Murdoch's forthcoming channel. 'Cos launching TV channels is so easy.

Scott Armstrong says that "even when done properly, statistical significance tests are of no value".

Michael Bloomberg says you should spend seven days a week at the office. Best Buy, not so much.

And finally, something that the buyer of Damien Hirst's $100 million skull might be interested in: Diamond derivatives!