I have a ton of offline stuff to get to today, but what the heck — here’s a few items of interest:
• Economic data this past week was dominated by NFP — the 207k New Jobs were the best we have seen in quite some time. It was a good, but not great, report. Why? As Barron’s Alan Abelson noted, "It looks like the U.S. economy is now dominated by housing, shopping, eating and drinking." (If no Barron’s subscription, click here). Also overlooked in the data deluge was a pretty hefty downwards revision of GDP for the past few years, knocking off a third of a point.
• Like NFP and Rafael Palmeiro, the economy’s data sounds better than it really is naturally; Call it the case of the Juiced Data.
• Interesting long term discussion on the future of energy prices: Will Oil Markets Loosen or Tighten In The Next Five Years? (via Weeden & Co.)
• China’s Baidu.com exploded out of the gate yesterday, rising more than fourfold. At one point intraday, the $27 IPO broke thru $150. Speculative excess, anyone?
• One way to tell you are in a bull market? All the stock related spam.
• Consumer Issues and Investors: I had a lot of problems with my holiday season purchases, and judging by all your emails, so did many of you. This is an explanation of what it might mean (nearly all the email complaints can be found here)
• I’ve noted in the past that DVD prices are dynamic, while CD prices seem to be etched in concrete. Is this changing? Are CD Prices Getting More Dynamic?
• Despite Cody’s protests, MP3s still get swapped regularly. And look who want’s to help: Yahoo! They have created an audio search engine.
• The Long Tail is of interest to those who follow media, content and technology. Its by Wired Ed-in-Chief Chris Anderson.
• Lastly,this looks like fun: Slate’s Museum Audio Tours — Its the commentary museums don’t want you to hear
