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- Another 2006 Bear is highlighted over at Smart Money. Don't expect any significant gains next year, predicts Richard Bernstein. The stock market will be relatively flat over the next 12 months, he says, with the S&P 500 index ending 2006 at 1225 — not far from where it sits now. High-yielding online savings accounts, which offer modest returns without the risk, could prove a better play than equities. According to Richard Bernstein from Merrill Lynch. (Isn't about everyone bearish on 2006?)
- If you missed the Michigan vs. Nebraska Alamo Bowl game last night, you missed a dandy. I thought Big Blue was going to take it in there on their final drive, and didn't hold out too much hope on their version of the "California vs. Stanford" and The Band play. But 8 laterals later, Michigan was finaly tackled at the Nebraska 10 yard line. If it had been 9 laterals, Michigan might've won! I had Blue -11.5, so chalk up another bowl loss for M'dog.
- More and more identification, credit cards and now cash have RFID tags to identify them. If you're concerned about someone using RFID to pry into your business, how about a Duct Tape Wallet?
- Lunch? Well, leftovers. I strayed from the vegetarian ways last night and had a Thai Chicken Wrap. Well, half of one. So if you're doing the math, that'd mean today's lunch features "the other half." And some tangerine dreams. Thai wrap! (Sounds like something exotic that'd cost you a few bucks in the Red Light District in Bangkok!)
- Boy, the Contrarian Angle on GM gets dicier and dicier, especially if companies have to put pension costs on their books! If accounting rule makers proceed with a plan to compel companies to account for their pension plans on their balance sheets, GM might suffer more than any other firm. Such a change may even wipe out most or all of the auto maker's shareholder equity, which is another way of saying that when all of GM's liabilities are subtracted from its total assets, little or nothing may be left.
- "When I grow up, I want to work on a click farm." Paul Kedrosky on the click fraud issue. (I wonder if the government subsidizes click farmers?)
- Great. Marcus Camby needs surgery on his pinky. He was my fantasy basketball stud. Now I'm starting Zaza Pachulia. Quite a drop off!
- I heard somebody say that the German stock market was up 27% for the year. But that if you had bought it back in January, converting your dollars to Euros, and then sold today and converted your Euros back to dollars, you'd be 10% up for the year. Yeah, the dollar has rallied! Remember back in early 2005 when everybody wanted to sell their dollars for Euros?