The top of today's reading list reports on the rise of online education and the impact on traditional colleges, and the tenth article discusses how the stretch for yield has pushed up the prices of junk bonds. The bonus (11th article) points out some peculiarities about where the current stock market is compared to history. 

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• Here Are 10 Things We Learned About The Economy And Markets In 2013(Steven Perlberg, Business Insider)

• Academics Who Defend Wall St. Reap Reward (David Kocieniewski, The New York Times)

• The Most Important Driver Of Profit Margins (Sam Ro, Business Insider) As long as cost of labor reduced by increasing productivity grows more slowly than inflation profits will continue to increase. This is projected to continue for at least another 2-3 years. Read also ‘Trickle Down Thievery (and Hoarding)’…Thank You Technology (Howard Lindzon, StockTwits CEO) Hat tip to Barry Ritholtz,The Big Picture.

• Why Merck Is Planning to Change Its Research Strategy (Eric Schall, Wall Street Cheat Sheeet)

• This Ends In A "Planned Economy" – Bundesbank President (Wolf Richter,Testosterone Pit) Hat tip to Roger Erickson.

• US credit risk appetite hits euphoria (Walter Kurtz, Sober Look) Push for higherfixed income has pushed high yield (junk) bond prices up (yields down) even as US Treasuries have moved in the opposite direction. Such spread compression (smaller differences between risky and safe yields) has pushed into a seldom visited extreme.

BONUS

• Have Historical Peaks Taken Place When the Dow Did This? (Chris Kimble,Advisor Perspectives dshort.com) Other major market declines have occurred from much higher five-year average return levels, except for 2007.

Click on chart for more complete graph display at Advisor Perspectives dshort.com.