Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Good Morning America, How Are You?

Yesterday I thought up a new way to thwart my pet Crow.  Yes, I have a Crow that is fearlessly unafraid of me.  I've never seen a crow that was fearless.  They always fly off when I open the door to my house at least to the top of the tallest tree when I'm outside.  I think it is a female, and she has a nest in my neighbor's fir tree.   She does not fly off, and I've walked up to a few feet from her.  So, I'm not resorting to blast cannons (as we did in California).  I hated those things, and there were ineffective on crows after a short period of time.  Nor am I going to shoot her (which may be a mistake ultimately - a mistake I'm willing to make). 

So, I made up a cover for my beds and will use bird netting.  Then she can run around my two acres of lawn eating whatever she is eating; instead of eating my beans, peas, radishes and whatever else is coming up.  I made the thing out of PVC, and anchored it with re-bar.  I'm going to use the same technique for broccoli and Cauliflower except for a different reason.  I'm going to use the same design to put shade cloth over the cool crops.   I had to buy PVC, but the total outlay was $9.00 for both structures - excluding the shade cloth which I expect to scrounge from my neighbor's greenhouse when she throws away last year's shade cloth.

Stupid me... I left the water on last night on my front yard.  At 2:00 AM this morning I woke up and remembered it.  I got up, sort of dressed, and staggered out to the farthest part of my yard from my house to turn the water off. 

The night was dark, and scary too.  I avoided this and that, but did stick my foot in a gopher hole.  Soldiering on, I made it through the vast darkness.  And then? A freaking coyote started yipping over at my neighbor's cabin (about 30 feet from my water valve).  I nearly leaped over the fir tree I didn't see.  May my sins not wake me up at 2:00 AM in the morning is all I can say about that.

Summary:

Did you have fun yesterday in the USA stock market?  I talk to so few people any more, but when I was working full time traveling between NY, London and Stuttgart, I found people were really upbeat when the market went up, and despondent when it went down.  That never made any sense, by the way, since most of the Quants I knew traded both directions (long or short). 

Somehow, though, even the pros feel better about the world when the equity markets rise.  Of course, Ben Bernanke called that a virtuous cycle where stocks rise, people feel better, and thereby invest (or spend, spend, spend). 

There is no real economic news today for traders (or investors) to digest.  On the corporate front there is plenty of activity, but we'll have to wait and see.  At 6:37 AM PDT, the market is making a down move, and VIX is making an up move.  I would not trust that if I was a day-trader.   The 2014 stock market is still in a "bull" market, and one can get hammered on the short side. 

I do not call direction of the markets.  All I can say, is early trading points to profit taking at this point.

The USA economy is improving; wait no its not; wait yes it is, and the data continues to be confusing.  Housing improved, and consumer confidence rose for the first time in months.  Yet something is wrong with consumer spending.

Retail Stores across the county are in trouble. Looking at some data that about.com put together the list of U.S. Retailers closing stores, going bankrupt and going out of business, just keeps growing.

Things like: 300 Blockbuster stores, 300 Sears, 225 Staples, 223 Barnes & Noble, 200 Radio Shack, 180 Abercrombie & Fitch, 175 Aeropostale, 155 Sbarro, 150 American Eagle, 150 Rent-A-Center, 145 Brown shoes / Famous shoes, and the list goes on and on.  

Hard from looking at retail sector that the economy is fine.  If so. They why all the closings?  The list is much longer, I just didn't have the space to deal with the list here.

Leave it up to the Italians.  The news is out on GDP.  The Italians wanted to improve their GDP numbers, so they announced?  -- ha -- they would be adding "estimated revenues from prostitution and illegal drug sales.  What?  You read that right - politicians at their finest I must say.   So if Italy includes the estimates, how will the tax revenuers collect?  The Bank of Italy (this is not kidding) says the criminal economy was 10.9% of GDP.  Contrary to popular belief, crime pays.