The Monday Rebound

• Was today just a bounce or are we back on track for the bull market?  $$
• Getting the credit for the stock surge was the European bailout of Greece. Global financial markets roared back in response to the European Union's nearly $1 trillion plan to avert a public-debt crisis that has threatened to derail the worldwide economic recovery.  Nothing like helping Greece with their debt problem like borrowed money (new debt) from somewhere else!
• Lots of speculation on when, if, to jump in BP stock.  From gloom, doom, and fear comes opportunity, right?  But is this time different?  Is the catastrophe in the gulf something that could bankrupt BP?  Executives from BP PLC, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Co. began pointing fingers on Monday over who bears ultimate responsibility for the April 20 oil-rig explosion that took 11 lives and is spilling oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The question will loom large at a Senate hearing Tuesday that will hear from executives of the three companies.
• Elena Kagan…  Really.  Someone with no judicial experience?  I don’t know, this seems ridiculous to me.
• Lowest level of taxes since the Truman administration!  I suppose it depends on how you define “lowest.”  Anyway:  Federal, state and local taxes — including income, property, sales and other taxes — consumed 9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reports. That rate is far below the historic average of 12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.
• You know, JaMarcus Russell was the biggest bust since Ryan Leaf.  What made it worse was that the Raiders kept trying to play the guy over and over and over.  The cause of death for his career as a Raiders quarterback was on display almost every day of his three-plus years in silver and black: A chronic and apparently incurable aversion to work and the necessary dedication to his craft.
• Why not appoint JaMarcus Russell to the Supreme Court?  He’s available!