The Daily Dish - January 26, 2012

The Plain Dealer has removed Tony Grossi from the Browns beat. The move comes after Grossi tweeted that Browns owner Randy Lerner was a “pathetic figure, the most irrelevant billionaire in the world.” Grossi immediately realized what he had done and deleted the tweet, but not before many people had copied and pasted it or re-tweeted it to others.

Grossi, of course, was spot-on in his analysis of Lerner. He’s a silver spoon in his mouth buffoon that has never had to achieve anything on his own in his life. That has been hoodwinked by one regime after the next. The Browns have been a league laughing stock since returning to the league in 1999, and it all starts at the top.

Like most of the Plain Dealer’s sports writers, Grossi has been outpaced over the years by smarter, wittier, harder working writers on the web – most of whom have other jobs. He’s far from popular in Cleveland, especially since he has taken to Twitter, where he comes off as surly and angry. Me personally? I still read Grossi. He knows football, even if he has gotten lazy as a columnist.

Grossi came out and publicly apologized for what he called “an accidental tweet”. However, we’re still waiting on an apology from the Plain Dealer for employing Bud Shaw and Mary Schmitt Boyer.

The new aquarium opened up downtown last weekend. I’m anxious to see it.

But the prices totally caught me off guard. $22 for an adult and $16 for a kid? Is Sinatra performing in there? For comparisons sake, adult admission to the Great Lakes Science Center is $14. And the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame is the same price, $22.

Apple is proof that American consumers are still willing to pay up for a great product. But if your product is not GREAT, people are much more particular in how they’re spending their disposable income.

I hope the Aquarium is cool. Cleveland needs more attractions like it.

And finally, Bruce Springsteen is coming back to Cleveland. When he came back in ’09, he played for three hours, no intermission. As someone that has seen Bruce 4-5 times, dating back to the mid 90’s – it was the best Springsteen show I’ve seen.

Tickets for the concert go on sale at 10 AM this Saturday. Prices are listed at $42.50, $62.50 and $98.

Quote of the Day …

“Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.” ~ General George Patton

Market …

It was another positive day for stocks yesterday after Apple’s earnings release Tuesday night and then the release of the Fed statement yesterday afternoon. The Dow ended the day up 81 points and finished the session at 12,756 … its highest close in 8 months. Investors in US stocks are less concerned with Europe, encouraged by the improving domestic economic data, have been impressed with corporate earnings reports … and it’s leading to a run up in stocks.

Regarding the Fed, as expected, they pushed back the date for any likely increase in its benchmark interest rate by at least a year and a half, until late 2014 at the earliest. And held off on any additional bond buying for now. As the Fed gauges the mortgage rate climate and the possibility of a more expanded refinance program, we could see another round of bond buying announced at their next meeting in March.

The Fed also reduced its outlook for growth this year but is slightly more optimistic about the unemployment rate. It expects the economy to grow between 2.2% and 2.7% in 2012. That’s down from its November’s forecast of between 2.5-2.9%. But it sees unemployment falling as low as 8.2% this year, better than its earlier forecast of 8.5%. The unemployment rate in Dec was 8.5%.

The forecast they released also revealed that some Fed members wanted to extend the period of record-low interest rates beyond late 2014. Additionally, for the first time, the Fed publicly stated their target for inflation in the US, which they said they’d like to see stay at 2%.

This morning, we’ve already seen a couple big economic releases come out as well. Weekly first time jobless claims came out at 377,000, which was slightly above projections and 25,000 higher than last week’s much lower than expected #. The average of four-week claims fell slightly, down 2,500 to 377,500. The monthly average smoothes out seasonal quirks and is viewed as a more accurate gauge of labor-market trends.

We also received news from the Commerce Dept that orders for US-made durable goods rose 3.0% in December on stronger demand for civilian aircraft, machinery, and primary metals. Durable goods are items considered to be useful for at least three years (such as vehicles, large appliances and computers.) The increase was stronger than expected. This is the third straight monthly gain and the fourth in the past five months. Excluding transportation, orders rose 2.1%, the fourth straight gain. The increase was stronger than expected.

News …

~ Federal Reserve Unlikely to Raise Rates Until 2014

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/01/federal_reserve_unlikely_to_ra.html

~ In Historic Shift, Fed Sets Inflation Target

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/25/us-usa-fed-inflation-target-idUSTRE80O25C20120125

~ Bernanke Opening the Door to the Federal Reserve a Little Wider

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2012/01/bernanke_opening_the_door_to_t.html

~ Fed’s Low Interest Rate Pledge Boosts Markets

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/feds-low-interest-rate-pledge-111727765.html

~ New Housing Task Force Will Zero in on Wall Street

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/new-housing-task-force-takes-aim-at-wall-st.html

~ Jobless Claims Rise, but Trend Points to Improvement