Life is so rich it is hard not to touch upon the light, the serious, the dire, and the helpful when one consistently reviews its variety through the myriad stories that appear daily. For example, I live here in California, an energy island, if you will, a land cutoff from the easy flow of gasoline that other parts of the US east of the Rockies enjoy.
- Since there are no pipelines to bring in gasoline from elsewhere in the U.S., tankers are delivering fuel from Asia and Europe. Add the strictest clean-air policies in the nation and you get the most expensive gas in the country.
And because California is an energy island, gasoline here is the most expensive in the US. It has, once again, crossed over the $4 mark, whereas elsewhere in the US, prices average just about $2.88. Some might see this as dire, or serious, especially in light of the oil spill that just happened off our pristine coastline near one of the wealthiest communities in California.
- A broken onshore pipeline spewed oil down a storm drain and into the Pacific Ocean for several hours before it was shut off, creating a slick some 4 miles long across a scenic stretch of central California coastline, officials said.
California already leads the US, and most of the world, in alternative energy production, so, this spill will only add fuel to the energy pushing that train. Yes, this is serious.
- Japan’s economy, the world’s third largest, expanded at an annualized rate of 2.4 percent in the first three months of this year, above a median market forecast for a 1.5 percent rise and following a revised 1.1 percent expansion in October-December, official data showed.
The above is serious and helpful as well, relative to the market, relative to the global economy. Japan is coming back, and it is not just showing up the government numbers; it is reflected in actual yen spent, money coming in from other countries.
- Spending by visitors jumped to the highest level in at least 20 years, adding about 0.1 percentage points to Japan’s gross domestic product, data showed. That’s no small change for a country that’s trying to claw itself out of decades of economic stagnation.
Twenty years is a while, for sure, as is three years, which is just about the amount of time it has taken Japan to reverse the stagnation slide it was mired in for twenty years or so. This is helpful to know, and it is helpful to the global economy, which, by the way, is ignoring the recent bad economic data from the US.
- The flash purchasing managers’ indexes for May are due Thursday, with little change expected to the overall story: a solid bounce back in the U.S. and steady growth in Europe, but ongoing weakness in the world’s second-largest economy, China.
The above could be dire, or not, for the market when the numbers come out. More than likely, if the folks paid for such analyses are right, the market will be just fine. If they are not correct, the market will be just fine as well, as it will signal a rate hike from the Fed is still further out, something still talked about and, thus, seemingly important to the market. This is helpful.
And now we go to the light, or, rather, the light headed.
- A new mobile service, straightforwardly named Drunk Shopping, hopes to hold your hand through the experience of buying something you definitely don’t need, probably don’t even want, but couldn’t live without for five fateful minutes.
The above is helpful because it makes me smile. The world might be a dire place most of the time, and Life might be serious most of the time, but the fact that some folks drift about ignoring the reality in which most of us live, that they simply live to shop drunk, and that others spend time catering to that, well, it makes me smile, as I said.
- Deep within a cedar forest in British Columbia, Dan Sutton is building what he hopes will be the most energy-efficient, high-technology greenhouse for growing cannabis. Spurred by the booming market for medical marijuana, he and a group of biologists and engineers have experimented for almost three years with digital sensors, lighting arrays, software programs and ventilators to design a greenhouse system with the lowest energy costs and highest crop yields.
Now, the above is light, serious, helpful, and dire all at once. Think about it. Okay, well, maybe a slight explanation is helpful. It is uplifting to see the power of creativity applied when capitalistic forces are at work. This is light and helpful. It is good to know that folks actually care about efficient agricultural practices, after decade upon decade of not caring. This is serious, as many current agricultural practices are highly inefficient, which is dire for all of us, given our limited resources, particularly water..
Finally, it could well be dire if marijuana becomes legal everywhere, as then we will have a lot of folks running around saying, “Hey man, let’s go munchy shopping?” Yup, this could be a real problem.
Trade in the day; invest in your life …
