- Sacramento Landing keeps track of the housing market here in, uh.... Sacramento. Check out the grim details. Crikey.
- Wallstrip on Gamestop. I went there last week and picked up a game for the Wii. Seems like games are the same price everywhere; although they do have used games and also older games in a discount bin. They had just stocked 2 Wiis. As I was there, one guy came in and bought one and GME fielded about 5 calls asking if they had any Wiis in stock.
- Irwin Kellner over at CBS Marketwatch pens a column Why the Fed could raise rates as early as this month.
Most of the data available for the quarter to date suggest that the economy is growing faster now than it did in the first quarter. The rate of inflation has picked up as well.
This should assuage those whose primary focus is profits and dividends. Faster growth combined with higher prices generally boosts revenues and thus leads to better earnings.
At the same time, however, it has put the kibosh on the notion that an interest rate reduction is just around the corner. Indeed, there is every reason to think that the opposite is in store.
- C'mon, Irwin. You think they'll raise rates so soon after a .6% GDP and a CPI number of 2.6%? With gas prices up near highs, and acting like a tax hike on consumers? I don't think the Fed is that trigger happy. In Absense of Inflation a couple of days ago, I noted that not everything is going up in price and that consumers have other options out there. Nobody is forced to pay for expensive oranges or high-priced milk. There are other options at the grocery stores. What about technology, Irwin? Nobody ever mentions the things that have dropped in price...
- Can one "pen a column" on the internet? Hmm. How about "taps out a column?" Or "keys a column?"
- Folks seem a little disappointed over The Sopranos finale. You know what? I've never watched even one episode. LOL. But that show has been big water cooler talk. I wonder if HBO is losing subscriptions now that the series is over...? The Sopranos creator defends the finale. Hey, I think it sets up a movie deal down the road....
- Referrals... So I mention Japan's Miss Universe Riyo Mori yesterday, and it sure didn't take long for the Riyo Mori nude search monsters to start pinging The Learning Curve. LMAO. Should've included swimsuit in that list of words. She joins the nude and naked search frenzy with Maria Sharapova, Erin Burnett, and Carrie Ann Inaba. Haven't seen the nude keyword used with Abby Joseph Cohen (not pictured), though.
