Was a bit a bit crazed yesterday with the Madoff Montauk US Marshal video and I recorded two new podcasts for today and tomorrow (Marketing Guru, Fed Economist) so I didn’t get a chance to blog.

Here are a few things that caught my eye as something I would have expanded on in Matrix and are worth reading, especially the last two on a single regulator.

* Contract Signings Rise, and Deal-Watchers Exhale [Elizabeth Harris – NY Times]

* Let’s Wind Down Fannie and Freddie [Rob Cyran – NYT/Breakingviews.com]

* Real Estate Exposure Hurting Regional Banks [Walter Kurtz – Seeking Alpha]

* The rise of the renter-chic [Nicolas P. Retsinas – JCHS]

* The financial crisis as moneymaker [Justin Fox – The Curious Capitalist]

* Do Women Make Better Loan Officers? [Catherine Rampell – Economix/NYT]

* Wall Street’s Record Profit One Sign of the Economy Easing, but Americans Say We Are Still a Long Way from Being Out of Trouble [Harris Poll]

* Economy: Hitting bottom is no fun [Andrew Leonard – Salon]

* Why there can only be one basket of regulatory eggs [Felix Salmon, Reuters]

* Dodd Leans Toward One Agency for All Banks [Stacy Kaper – American Banker]