- The market seems to be having as much trouble waking up today as I am!
- Strong reports in the labor market and rapid expansion in the services sector has Treasurys selling off a bit. These are the kinds of reports that keep Fed member Janet Yellen awake at night worrying about inflationary pressures. If you like Fed jawboning, todays reports should suit your fancy. We'll hear more chatter about how unlikely it is that the Fed will lower rates anytime soon. And if the economy is humming at current rates, why would they?
- Al Gore's kid arrested. The son of global warming guru Al Gore was arrested early yesterday on suspicion of possessing marijuana and prescription drugs after deputies pulled him over for speeding - going 100 miles an hour in an energy-saving Toyota Prius, authorities said. Timing a little off if he wanted to bunk with Paris Hilton. Or maybe he is trying to get in on the "rehab is hot" craze. Good advertisement for the Prius, because who knew the hybrid could go 100 mph! Of course, how much conservation and global warming prevention can the Prius do at that speed anyways?
- There are tons of one-liners for this, I'm sure. I'll keep an eye out.
- Speaking of Paris Hilton, shares of Hilton Hotels Corp soaring on takeover offer from Blackstone.
- iPhone quit working after four hours. At first I thought it was just a hiccup when the iPhone was working fine one minute, then wouldn’t turn on the next. I tried the prescribed reset (hold down the Home and Sleep/Wake buttons at the same time for several seconds until the device restarts) with no luck. Black screen, period. But when I plugged it in the Apple logo appeared as if restarting. Then it vanished, the screen went black again, and a few seconds later the logo reappeared, as if restarting. Again. Then again. And again. Trouble in paradise.
- Dentist this morning. Three teeth in a bear market. Two have chipped fillings, and a third has a cavity. Set up an appt in the future for the drillin' and fillin'.... Bleh.
- Here's a shocker: Kids rarely apply nutrition information. The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on some healthy snacks and nutrition education - videos of dancing fruit and hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well. But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. Geez. Videos of dancing fruit? A cool billion, eh? This is the kind of stuff that brings out the cold-heart fiscal conservative in me. Eliminate the program. If the government wants to spend a billion, why not on dancing strippers instead of fruit? At least somebody would be enjoying that. Well, maybe they already are spending cash on that.... LOL.
- I'm taking a long lunch and getting a work out in. I need to tap into some energy here.
