The New York Times highlights another interesting MLB ritual in today's paper. How can you not chuckle at rookie relievers made to carry gear to the bullpen donning Dora the Explorer, Barbie, and Tinkerbell backpacks? Electronic Arts slogan for its sports video games is, "if it's in the game, it's in the game." I'll be waiting!
In other news, Shelbey Steele writes one of the most intriguing articles I've read in quite sometime for today's Wall Street Journal. It offers an interesting theory into the underlying motives of the current liberal agenda, motives that perhaps operate at an instinctive level, but with which such liberals may not be directly aware. Somewhat haunting but worth the read.
I couldn’t agree more with this assessment of the BAC deal with Warren Buffett. The whole situation reminds me of the allowable "white lie". Bank of America says they don't need capital, but then takes it at a costly price from Warren Buffet just because he's cool, and then in more recent days sells some Chinese assets to raise capital levels even further. Lesson learned? Don't ever trust a bank executive to tell the truth, when doing so could lead to a run on the bank. A run on the bank, after all, would be akin to hurting a depositor's feelings, suggesting that lies in the banking industry are okay and perhaps even justified. Just sayin'...
Another final item I've been thinking about recently is the fact that the price of oil hasn't kept pace with gold on its massive upswing lately. Oil at least is a real commodity in the sense that demand is greatly influenced by a productive need. Oil can also drive inflation, but for some reason no one comments on the fact that gold, above all assets, seems to be the asset that is inflating the most these days.
Gold just seems in dangerous new territory but technically looks beautiful, so it will likely go until it doesn’t, which is the same general pattern that all bubbles seem to follow. But unlike oil that at least can create productive energy on the way down, of what productive use is gold? Why not diamonds instead? Why not tulip bulbs? Why gold?
If some space alien came to earth, would she be more willing to trade her laser bow and arrows for gold or for oil? Unless she's the type that's into Jersey Shore, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton, I'd bet she'd trade for the oil. At least with the oil, she could build a nice fire for herself to keep her frog skin from getting cold.