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Sheena Iyengar believes the choice overload problem is "one of the biggest modern day choosing problems that we have." The more options we have, the less likely we are to choose any one of the options. Iyengar says this is true for buying jam, and for putting money away for retirement. She discussed some techniques for handling the choice overload problem in a recent talk at TEDSalon NY2011 :

There is a lot of political talk about the good and bad of private equity firms these days, but Paddy Hirsch steps away from the fray in this Marketplace Whiteboard to explain just what it is that private equity firms do: Private equity explained from Marketplace on Vimeo .

At the Marketplace Whiteboard , Paddy Hirsch explains re-hypothecation . The term found its way into the news with coverage of the MF Global Holdings bankruptcy. Hirsch warns us not to be fooled into thinking that it is some sort of special, magical tool, just because some traders came up with a strange name for the practice: Re-hypothecation from Marketplace on Vimeo . Meanwhile, the bankruptcy of MF Global Holdings could have a lasting impact on commodities markets. And that is hitting some American farmers, according to Jeremy Bernfeld and Eric Durban of Harvest Public Media . Read MF Global case leaves cloud over commodities markets here .

If junk bonds have become so popular-- beating out equities for the last five years , for example--are they still "junk"? Marketplace 's Paddy Hirsch says that while the moniker isn't quite accurate, these bonds do have a certain "trash or treasure" way about them: What is a junk bond? from Marketplace on Vimeo .

The next few weeks are crucial for the state of the European Union economy. A lot needs to happen, and just about all of it requires an influx of euros, says University of Chicago Booth Business School professor of finance Raghuram Rajan . But where will the money come from? It is hard to see Germany or other solid economies putting up enough euros given the current political climate. So Rajan urges us to look toward his former employer, the IMF. From Ragan's commentary at Project Syndicate : Indeed, the eurozone’s problems might soon become too big for its members to address. The world has a stake in their resolution. And it has an institution that can channel help: the International Monetary Fund. The IMF could set up a special vehicle along the lines of its New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB), which would be capitalized by a first-loss layer from the EFSF with the IMF’s own capital comprising a second layer. This NAB-like vehicle could borrow as needed from countries, including the United States and China, as well as tap financial markets. It would offer large lines of credit to illiquid countries like Italy, with conditionality intended to help such countries resume borrowing from markets at reasonable cost. A special vehicle is required because the amounts that must be made available far exceed what IMF members can usually access, and it is only right that if the eurozone seeks such amounts for its members, it should bear a significant portion of any potential losses. At the same time, the Fund’s capital resources would back the vehicle if the first-loss buffer provided by the eurozone were eroded; that way, the market would understand that strength from outside the eurozone can be brought to bear. Read A Standby Program for the Eurozone here .

Martin Feldstein calls Greece's mix of overwhelming government debt and a free-falling economy an "otherwise impossible situation." Greece will default, as Feldstein argues that is the only way out. But after it defaults, will it leave the euro zone? Having its own currency just might open more options. Feldstein argues there are two reasons that the key influencers in the Euro zone (Germany and France) do not want Greece to leave. At least not just yet. From Project Syndicate : First, the banks and other financial institutions in Germany and France have large exposures to Greek government debt, both directly and through the credit that they have extended to Greek and other eurozone banks. Postponing a default gives the French and German financial institutions time to build up their capital, reduce their exposure to Greek banks by not renewing credit when loans come due, and sell Greek bonds to the European Central Bank. The second, and more important, reason for the Franco-German struggle to postpone a Greek default is the risk that a Greek default would induce sovereign defaults in other countries and runs on other banking systems, particularly in Spain and Italy. This risk was highlighted by the recent downgrade of Italy’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s. A default by either of those large countries would have disastrous implications for the banks and other financial institutions in France and Germany. The European Financial Stability Fund is large enough to cover Greece’s financing needs but not large enough to finance Italy and Spain if they lose access to private markets. So European politicians hope that by showing that even Greece can avoid default, private markets will gain enough confidence in the viability of Italy and Spain to continue lending to their governments at reasonable rates and financing their banks. Read Europe’s High-Risk Gamble here .

The oldest members of the baby boomer generation are turning 65 this year--the official retirement age. Not exactly the best time for a lot of new retirees to start selling off equities. In a new Economic Letter , Zheng Liu and Mark Spiegel of the San Francisco Fed 's Economic Research Department point out that "U.S. equity values have been closely related to demographic trends in the past half century." And that is cause for a little worry: Since an individual’s financial needs and attitudes toward risk change over the life cycle, the aging of the baby boomers and the broader shift of age distribution in the population should have implications for capital markets (Abel 2001, 2003; Brooks 2002). Indeed, some studies attribute the sustained asset market booms in the 1980s and 1990s to the fact that baby boomers were entering their middle ages, the prime period for accumulating financial assets (Bakshi and Chen 1994). However, several factors may mitigate the effects of this demographic shift. First, demographic trends are predictable and rational agents should anticipate the impact of these changes on asset demand. Consequently, current asset prices should reflect the anticipated effects of demographic changes. In addition, retired individuals may continue to hold equities to leave to their heirs and as a source of wealth to finance consumption in case they live longer than expected (e.g., Poterba 2001). Foreign demand for U.S. equities might also reduce the downward pressure on asset prices. However, the effect is probably limited for two reasons. First, other developed nations have populations that are aging even more rapidly than the U.S. population (Krueger and Ludwig, 2007). Second, there is substantial evidence of home bias in equity holdings. Individual investors typically hold disproportionate shares of domestic assets in their portfolios. For example, in 2009, the foreign equity holdings of U.S. investors were only 27.2% of the share of foreign equities in global market capitalization. While the low level of international equity diversification is still not well understood (Obstfeld and Rogoff 2001), it suggests that foreign demand for U.S. equities is unlikely to offset price declines resulting from a sell-off by U.S. nationals. Read Boomer Retirement: Headwinds for U.S. Equity Markets? here .

There has been a fair bit of skepticism about the quick rise of value investors have put on the stocks for LinkedIn and Groupon . The phrase "tech bubble" has even come back into the parlance. But Marc Andreesen , who knows a thing or two about big public offerings from his days as founder of Netscape, is not buying it. All he's buying is the stocks of these two high tech companies. And he explained why in this interview with Kevin Delaney of the Wall Street Journal :