The Big Picture

« Returning to the Work Force | Main | The Real Estate Soufflé »

Weekend Linkfest!

Sunday, January 29, 2006 | 06:00 PM

Thanks for all the nice feedback, after last week's linkfest was put up at TheStreet.com.

The most common emailed question: Where do you find all these links? Well, during the course of a week's worth of research, I see tons of great stuff. I cull my favorites articles and columns, saving them and voila! Weekend Linkfest.

Let's get down to it:

• Barron's Alan Abelson notes that the speculative juices are running hot (if no Barron's, go here);

• Awful. That's the only word for Q4 GDP (prelim), as Government spending plunged, the Consumer throttled back, Businesses failed to pick up the slack, Inflation accelerated and Imports (mostly energy) surged. There will be 2 more GDP releases -- a revised and final -- and I expect the data may creep up some.

Tony Crescenzi did a nice job explaining the Causes of GDP Miss and Implications, and the WSJ's always fine online version gathered lots of economist GDP musings. (If no WSJ, go here);

• Good discussion on The Perils of Forecasting; (You already know my views on the subject);

• Is New York City a microcosm of the US? I never thought so, but "Priced out of Brooklyn" implies otherwise. There are surprising similarities between the wealth disparities of Manhattan versus the Outer Boroughs, and the rest of the nation's economic class distinctions;

• Demand for Durables Goods rose 1.3%, but Furniture sales took a big hit;

• Despite the strong week, be aware of the The December Low Indicator's track record; It's pretty damned good -- and that's bad for the Bulls;

• Jim Rogers in BW on Investing in a Material World;

• I was almost a guest on The Daily Show. Almost (so close!).

• Speaking of TV: Rumors abound of a Jim Cramer Wall Street Reality Show

• We know about The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week -- How about Business 2.0's 101 dumbest moments in Business ?

• Forget the Cult of the Bear for a minute, and consider The Cult of Ferrari;

• Enron is proof positive that Markets can be Astonishingly Inefficient;

• IBD looks at how Home Equity Extraction in Q3 Fueled a Shopping Spree;

• The NYT asks "Is the Fourth Year a Charm for the Bull Market?" This is a surprisingly oversimplified single variable market prediction. Simple and understandable are good, but I find that over the long run, oversimplification is a misleading and money losing approach;

• Oil Charts galore:

-Crude Production by Country

-Oil and the Markets

-Oil Futures and Trading

• In a Ruined Country: The Atlantic argues Yasir Arafat destroyed Palestine;

• The Associated Press totally blew a story on Digital Music; If you are going to merely repeat industry press releases, why should anyone take you seriously?

• Former Treasury Secretary and now Citibank Director Robert Rubin on why "We Must Change Policy Direction;"

• There is no indicator more worthless than the Conference Board's LEIs;

• Is there a potential Liquidity Fire Trap?

• An Interesting blog: sound money tips;

• Speaking of Blogs: Here's Forbe's look at the Best of the Web, including lots of blogs;

• Fun with Lists:
- 10 tips to being a better wine buyer

- 50 Books for Thinking About the Future Human Condition

- How to eat Sushi
• Lastly, some pop culture mash up that is simply too funny: A Fan-produced video of William Shatner's version Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

That's all from NY, where its a gorgeous, sunny, 50 plus degree day -- and yet Oil remains over $65 a barrell -- what happens when it becomes seasonably cold?

Get outside, and enjoy the day! (Don't worry, you can finish the linkfest tomorrow -- its supposed to rain!)