The Daily Dish - March 30, 2010

Temperatures in the 70’s this week. You gotta love that. PD says 78 and sunny on Friday. It’s almost worth suffering through Cleveland winters to be able to experience the joy of how good it feels when the weather turns. Kind of like being a Cleveland sports fan. We’re by far the most tortured fan base in America. But when we do get that elusive championship … man is it going to be a great feeling.

Here’s the million dollar question on the weather though. Is there one more blast of evil coming? Seems like about 50% of the time we get that one last blast of snow in early to mid-April. With temps heading up to the high 70’s this week, it almost seems unfathomable. But I remember having that same feeling two years ago … a couple weeks before I was building mini-snowmen on top of the visitor’s dugout during a snow delay at the Indians home opener against the Mariners.

By the way, the Indians home opener is 13 days from today. Not that I’m counting. Plenty of good seats still available!

Quote of the day …

“You learn far more from negative leadership than from positive leadership. Because you learn how not to do it. And, therefore, you learn how to do it.” ~ General Normal Schwarzkopf

Market …

The stock market continues its charge. The Dow ended up 46 points yesterday and has now risen in 18 of the past 22 trading sessions. It’s at it’s highest level since September 2008, which is when Phase II of the Mortgage Meltdown really started. The government took over Fannie/Freddie, stocks totally went in the tank, and we had about six months where 30 year fixed rate mortgage rates were in the 4.75% range.

Is this stock market rally overblown? Or is it justified? The optimists would tell you that the economic data these past few months, without a doubt, is evidence that we are now truly in the throes of the long awaited economic recovery. The pessimists will tell you that the numbers are mainly a byproduct of federal intervention, that nothing will truly get better until consumer spending picks up, and that consumer spending will show no significant increases with unemployment this high. And that unemployment is likely to stay high based on the fact that a lot of the lost jobs just aren’t coming back. And that some of the jobs that would normally come back aren’t going to, because companies all across America have learned how to work leaner and make employees more productive through this economic downturn.

I’m with the pessimists. And I’m about as optimistic person as you’ll find. I hope I’m wrong though.

Two big releases today. The Case-Schiller Home Price Index at 9 AM, and Consumer Confidence at 10 AM.

And the vitally important March jobs report looms on Friday.

News …

~ Ohio Added to New Federal Foreclosure Prevention Program

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/03/ohio_added_to_new_federal_fore.html

~ Ohio Consumers Snapping Up Rebates in Appliance Program

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/03/ohio_consumers_snapping_up_reb.html

~ Government Set to Sell it’s Stake in CitiGroup, Make 8 Billion in Process

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/26/AR2010032604938_pf.html

~Sarkozy Urges World Finance Rules in US Speech

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100329/ap_on_re_us/us_us_france_5

~ Fed’s Evans Very Concerned About Joblessness