Count Basie reminisces on Kansas City and the birth of the Blues. He performs an affectionate tribute to his mentor, Fats Waller. (Excerpt from Jazz Casual 07/21/68)
hat tip boingboing
On Thursday, we reviewed the many ways to Send Aid to Haiti.
In addition to traditional donations, you can also use your cell phone to send money:
-To donate $10 to the American Red Cross, text Haiti to 90999. The amount will be added to your next phone bill. (You can always donate to the International Response Fund, www.redcross.org).
I did this, and was impressed how the Red Cross gives you the option to cancel every step of the way (they are a 1st class outfit).
There is another one more way to help: Apple Computer and the Red Cross will let you donate to Haiti right through the iTunes Music Store:
click the graphic below to go to the ITMS donation page
Amazon is running an excellent selection of $5 albums in DRM free MP3s , (if you like that sort of thing).
I prefer my music mostly in the form of cold shiny discs. However, Amazon selected over 800 albums, about 50 per genre across rock, jazz, country, new age, 2009 discs you misses, etc. at the bargain (legal) price of $5 bucks per.
These 2 dozen caught my eye:
• A Boy Named Charlie Brown by Vince Guaraldi Trio
• Classic Sinatra – His Great Performances 1953-1960 by Frank Sinatra
• Monk
• John Coltrane And Johnny Hartman
More after the jump . . .
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
According to the just reported CFTC data for the week ended Tuesday, the net speculative long position in crude rose to an all time record high dating back to 1990. It’s up 25% on the week and has doubled over the past 5 weeks. With the regulatory scrutiny in DC there may have been some reclassifications between commercial and non commercial traders so the comparison to historical data may not be apples to apples but the direction and degree of the longs are still worth noting.
How many of you thought that headline was on the level?
Such is the state of affairs in the world that such a headline could a) seem plausible b) only come from our pals at the Onion: Dubai Debt Crisis Halts Building Of World’s Largest Indoor Mountain Range.
Excerpt:
Representatives from the emirate of Dubai announced with disappointment this week that its recent debt crisis has forced developers to halt construction on the city’s long-planned 22-mile-long indoor mountain range.
The culmination of a decade’s worth of ambitious and expensive building projects, Dubai’s estimated $100 billion debt officially brought work on the artificial mountain range to a stop on Tuesday.
“This is a very sad day for the emirate of Dubai,” Crown Prince Hamdan bin Mohammed al-Maktoum told reporters at a press conference held inside the gold-plated anti-gravity chamber in his palace. “Although I believe it is the basic right of all who visit us to be able to scale to the top of a 15,000-foot-tall manmade snowcap, these tough economic times have made it an impossibility. Never before has our proud municipality faced such a grave crisis.”
See? Its not only California suffering from tough economic times !
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For several months, I had been getting increasingly curious about the fact that the St. Louis Fed’s FRED data and economic research service was no longer indicating a vertical “recession bar” from the period starting around mid-year 2009. Finally, today, curiousity got the best of me and I called my St. Louis Fed contact. This was his response (confirming what I’d already inferred):
Apparently the two staff economists that review the FRED charts believe July 2009 is the date they believe the NBER will announce as the end of the recession. From what I understand a similar “call” was made toward the end of the 1990-91 recession.
If I was to highlight one source they used it would be Jeremy Piger’s (University of Oregon), recession probabilities. He was a staff economist until about 4-5 years ago.
I’m not entirely sure I agree with their assessment, but do think it noteworthy that one of our Federal Reserve banks has apparently “called” a July 2009 end to the recession. I should have inquired on this point sooner, but life got in the way.
FWIW. Carry on.
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Industrial Production Index (Series: INDPRO)
Total Nonfarm Payrolls: All Employees (Series: PAYEMS)
Trailer for Floored
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3 minute short film created exclusively for Cinelan, “The Transition”
Source:
Trading-Pit Glamour Dims as Chicago Computers Ascend in Film
Tony C. Dreibus
Bloomberg, Jan. 15 2010
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aVuWpivMV_2s&pos=13
Recent substantial increases in the price of crude oil and other energy products have had a significant impact on American consumers. These increases have been, and continue to be, a matter of intense focus at the Commission due to the key role that futures markets play in the critically important price discovery and risk transferal processes. The CFTC shares the concerns of Americans and Congress, and is committed to ensuring that the nation’s futures markets operate fairly and efficiently, and that the price of crude oil and other energy products is determined by the fundamental forces of supply and demand. The CFTC has undertaken a wide-range of actions to ensure that the energy futures markets are operating free of distortion.
One of the many actions taken by the CFTC to study the effect of speculation on energy prices was to reclassify its Commitment of Traders (COT) data. The old data used to offer a look at the net positions of Hedgers/Commercials, Large Speculators, and Small Traders. As the markets evolved throughout the years, these classifications became blurred by hedge funds, index traders, and swap dealers. For this reason, the CFTC now offers its COT data in a different classification format. As the second chart below shows, this same COT data is now broken down by Managed Money, Producer/Merchant, Swap Dealers, Other Reportables, and Small Traders. For a complete explanation of what is included in each category, see the following CFTC link.
By classifying the data in this way, the CFTC hoped to offer more insight into the effect of speculation on market prices. Unfortunately, as the highlighted quote in the story above suggests, the data has been somewhat underwhelming so far in this aspect.
Charts after the jump . . .
The first look at U of Michigan Jan confidence at 72.8 was below expectations of 74 but up a touch from the 72.5 reading in Dec and is the highest since Sept ’09. Current Economic Conditions rose 3 pts to 81 to the highest since March ’08 and is the bright spot within the data and we’ll have to see if the reason is some improvement in the labor market or at least stabilization that has been seen in the initial jobless claims data. The Economic Outlook though fell 1.4 pts. Inflation expectations rose .3% to 2.8% after two months of declines as gasoline prices have risen to 15 month highs this week according to AAA. I highlight gasoline prices because it’s a high profile price point that influences inflation expectations.
"Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent." —John Maynard Keynes
After 3 quarters in a row that averaged just 1.2%, Q4 GDP grew 2.8%, a touch below expectations of 3.0% BUT Nominal GDP grew well below forecasts. Because the price deflator was up just .4% vs the estimate of 1.9%, Nominal GDP was up 3.2% vs the estimate of 4.9%. Personal Consumption rose 2.0% vs the forecast of 2.4%. Fixed Investment rose 3.3% helped by a 5.2% increase in equipment and software spending and residential construction rose by 10.9%. Trade was a slight drag on GDP growth and government spending was as well led by a 12.5% decline on national...
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