Saturday, March 26, 2011

Taking Stock

Good morning. It is sunny and especially cold this morning around 20 degrees here in Upstate NY. Winter is hanging on for all its worth. Onto a different idea here, but I am coming to the conclusion that the majority of restaurants serve really so-so food. Its very rare to find a restaurant in these parts that uses simple fresh ingredients and serves delicious easy to digest food. All other places really tweak the food with garlic or salt or butter or all to try to coax more flavor out of the dish. People are being sold a flavor enhanced trick and I'm not sure why this is the standard. Besides that many restaurants use poor ingredients, crappy white flour, concentrates, bad oil, not fresh ingredients. I'm having buyers remorse for a bad dinner last night, I can still taste it now. I know you know what I mean.

The equities market is showing tremendous resilience. In spite of a trifecta of trifectas, stocks are right around peak numbers since the dastardly bottom of March 2009.

Recapping the present triple threat. There is Japan's earthquake, resultant tsunami, and ongoing nuclear crises. There is a spreading revolution in the Middle East which allegedly threatens oil supplies. Finally there is an alarming fiscal crisis in several European countries that lingers on with no clear resolution.

Initially these crises sank the market two weeks ago as volatility crept back into the system, fear that the world was crumbling quite literally.

The rebound is occurring because the prognosis for growth in the world economy is good. Long story short, corporations, and especially American corporations, are making money. That is all it takes. The world could split in half with each half going into its own orbit, and as long as the money is flowing, the markets will rebound.

Now its important to point out that there are many skeptics. So, choose your poison but choose wisely.

Reuters: New quarter, old issues for investors
The primary driver, when everything else is stripped away, is confidence that the global economy is in pretty good condition and with it the corporate outlook.


...global growth is set to rise well above the roughly 3.5 percent long-term average.


...the Japan disasters and North Africa/Middle East revolts should not derail the global economic expansion.

3 comments:

Ed said...

My eyes glaze over on the Wall Street stuff, but I'm with you on the restaurant situation.

What restaurant can you eat at everyday? None! Who can stand such overblown food all the time?

Even if it's good I find you're wowed at the first bite and sick of it by the time you finish.

Jim Sande said...

My favorite one is the 333 in Delmar, ever eat there? I would eat there all the time except its too expensive for me. They have fresh food and it is well prepared. Unfortunately one or two veg dishes. Fish is good there too.

Glynn Kalara said...

I was invited to a B-day bash at a so called Home style Italian Rest. in Philly last nite and the menu was huge and expensive but the endless portions were beyond human scale. I'm sitting here still digesting the gluttonous feat of last evening. I can only do such a thing maybe once a yr. in good conscience, especially since my heart attack. Fortunately , it was all paid for.