Snow Before Halloween!

We're expecting snow in the New York area. It's not even Halloween. All this seems perfectly consistent with the madness I've been dealing with for months now. Where to start?

Let's start with the government's prattling about dealing with the budget deficits. All talk, no action. Find me one thing they've done that will have any kind of real positive impact going forward...Well, I'm waiting.

Then there's Europe. Stocks shot up last Thursday because the Euro-folks agreed that their banks would admit that the Greek bonds they're holding are worth 50% less than their face amount. At the same time they're going to lend the Greek government another $100 billion. Question: Will they write this new debt down 50% right away or wait a while? Of course they'll make believe they'll get paid back some day, even thought they know they won't.

China's been struggling with inflation. They announced it's not a problem anymore. And it looks like people are accepting that statement as true. This after more and more Chinese companies turn out to have phony financials. So we're going to believe that they've whipped inflation now? That's the way it looks.

Oh, and let's not forget about the ongoing "Occupy Wall Street" crew in Zucchotti Park. Not that I go out of my way, but you can't help hearing some of their comments about what they're doing there. And in spite of writing a letter to clients and friends about this recently that attempts to understand what's bugging them, whenever I hear one of them speak I scratch my head. Do they have any idea what they're doing?

There's a lot more, but I'm trying to finish up for the weekend. 

So what's a little snow before Halloween when the world's already crazy. They say we're only getting some wet snow in the city. You've got to go north and west for any real accumulation. But if, for some reason, we wind up with a few inches on the ground, I won't be surprised and I won't complain. I can always shovel the stuff up. As for the other madness, it's not going away, no matter how much I shovel.