Further DOWn

To Market To Market Jiggedy Jog

The stock market was down again today and of course the pundits know exactly why. Did the bad news cause the drop or did the market drop cause the bad news. I remember Jerry Tarkanian when he coached all those years at UNLV. For years he was one of the winningest active coaches in the country. Well, maybe suits in Shawnee Mission, Kansas didn't view him as a winner but say what you will, he knew how to chalk up victories. So what doas a retired basketball coach have to do with the stock market? Nothing directly, but after a game that would see-saw as the market has of late, some sporstwriter would inevitably ask him about momentum. "Did the momentum swing cause your team to win the game?"

Jerry had a pat answer. The game did not follow the momentum swings, the momentum was in the hands of who was winning, or making a run, or doing their think on the court. Coach Tark, as the guys called him had some of the wisest and sensible philosophies ever.

Meanwhile, back at the market Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been subpoenaed in a collusion investigation. The dollar dropped to a new low against the Euro (Save your Confederate money, boys). Consumer borrowing has slowed dramatically (is that such a bad thing?). Mortgages are difficult to obtain even for people with good credit, and gas pump prices are over $ 3.00 per gallon. Those are today's headlines in nearly every business section of every paper in the US.

Some of the topics that aren't as easy to find in the Daily Grind include 95% of the Super Bowl ads have been sold, gold has surged to a high of more than $ 837 per ounce (aren't you glad you kept that wedding ring after the divorce?), US stocks made a strong comeback from their day's low, Nvidia (whoever they are) doubled their earnings, and there are hints that interest rates might be dropping.

It just makes a guy wonder. I remember the textbook used in my college statistics class back in the late 1800s. The title was, "How to Lie With Statistics.

Dr. Forgot