Once in a Lifetime

The only kind of "Talking Head" that I like is the kind that I saw in concert on a twin bill with the Ramones in Boston.

I don't like the kind of "Talking Head" that convincingly and arrogantly explains to the droolers in the viewing audience why American Tower stock would plummet in value upon the announcement of an AT&T takeover of T-Mobile, and then just as arrogantly explain how American Tower shares would soar once the merger fell through.

You would think that when the initial hypothesis was proven wrong and shares of AMT outperformed the market, they might curb in a bit of the "smug factor" and maybe even do a public mea culpa upon it's subsequent "unexpected" underperformance.

And you would also think that when Deutsche Telecom annouinces that it will devote $4 billion, coincidentally the same amount as the break-up penalty, to expand its T-Mobile network, they would grown tired of the thesis.

But what else can Talking Heads do besides talk?

I know that I'll never be invited into the "Talking Head" club, although I continue to savor my brief taste.

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Wasted on Me

I was up for no really good reason at about 4 AM, particularly since I don't consider Laszlo the Dog's barking at a phantom menace to be a good reason.

Probably more out of instinct than anything else I pulled up the Bloomberg Mobile app on my phone while waiting for Laszlo to protect us from the blowing leaves and saw that the US Futures Market was reasonably flat and the Asian markets were doing nothing special.

I went back to bed neither excited nor dreading the open, expecting yet another quiet day. Maybe the kind of day that I could find the time to complete my furniture repositioning tasks left over from the past two days.

Well, for the very same reasons that it's hard to justify sneaking away to attend to personal hygiene needs, a lot can happen on the international scene.

China decided to loosen up its banks' reserve requirements.

That apparently is a good thing as far as liquidity goes. Although Chinese companies may not like to abide by standard accounting principles, it does seem that basic economic laws apply, even in the People's Republic.

As if that wouldn't have been enough, the European Central Bank and our own Federal Reserve decided to coordinate action to allow foreign banks to access US dollars at lower cost.

What those ECB guys didn't realize was that those American Airline Frequent Flier miles that were thrown in to clinch the deal were going to be close to worthless.

Score another one for "The Bernank."

It was hard, though, to hear all of the cheering from the trading pits, what with the sound of Bernanke led chainsaws felling forests worth of lumber destined for the Treasury's printing presses.

I like Bernanke and think that his calm guidance likely rescued us from the kind of economic travesty that our generation could not possibly endure.

Besides, tell me that Bernanke doesn't look like a highly stylized and mythical lumberjack.

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