Fun With Headlines for Friday Night

The Celtics did not get blown out last night! If you told me the final score before the game and told me the referees would let both teams play as physical as they wanted I would have thought the Boston boys would have won going away. The Lakers played better down the stretch and won fair and square, no complaints. A pretty good game and series. Congratulations to the Lakers on back to back titles, and a nice run for the Celtics.

Quotable
I was checking in at The Reformed Broker this morning and I saw this post where The author had up some of his favorite quotes of the week. Check the fifth one down, it was me! It made my day indeed!

Fun With Headlines for Friday Night
I always like to have fun with headlines or article titles that jump out at me, so here we go!

My "Uh-Oh" moment of the day:
Stocks climb for 4th day after rise in gold stocks
Yikes!

Right on the heels of our discussions on how money will remain cheap forever, here's one that shows why it is better to be a central bank:
BP Finalizing 5-10 Year, $5 Billion Unsecured Bond Offering, 8-10% Yield
Now that is some yield!

So which is it?:
Traders go World Cup crazy as markets languish
or
Stocks post biggest two-week gain since November
The Oil spill and the World Cup will be blamed for any missed earnings numbers or economic data that is lower than expected.

From the department of the absurd:
European Bank Stress Tests Don't Include Sovereign Debt Risks
It must be bad if they are going to just leave it out and not bend the test results to look great like we did here in the US. Wow.

And the big one for the day, by Mish:
Krugman vs. Greenspan on "That 30's Feeling"; Calculated Risk sides with Krugman, I Side with Greenspan
Mish siding with Greenspan, surely the end of the world is at hand!

The whole article is a must read and how you react will in large part depend on how you view things. I have had some issues with CR, and I found the same cliche line used by CR as useless as Mish does:

"I believe the focus right now needs to be on jobs, jobs and jobs."

While jobs are the most important issue, I fail to see how government spending can accomplish real job creation. I do not want to go over all the numbers, it is Friday after all, but government job creation always operates as a net loss of money. The jobs made are not sustainable. Mish throws down the gauntlet:

Challenge to Krugman and Calculated Risk
If you want jobs, name a jobs program that makes fiscal sense...

..Those clamoring for "jobs, jobs, jobs" never bother to explain what happens when the stimulus runs out. It ran out in the 1930's as well. Krugman mistakenly blames that small amount of tightening for sinking the US back into deflation.

Mish also covers some very huge differences between then and now. This is well worth your time and I hope there is a response from those challenged.

Friday Night Entertainment
As if you have not had enough fun all week, a Friday Night joy ride as well!

World Cup Fun
Ok, I have really tried to watch some of the World Cup but it is not easy, I just don't like soccer. To make up for it, here are two related items.

I do not think the North Korea picture is quite right for this poster:

Instant CLASSIC!

I know soccer is hard enough as it is, but this really makes things difficult:

Wow!

Signature Roles for Versatile Actors
I admire actors that can do all kinds of roles and can be believable in all of them.

The Actor Clancy Brown has a long resume including the HBO series "Carnivale", Viking form the film "Bad Boys" (the old one with Sean Penn and Esai Morales, classic film!), and the head guard in "The Shawshank Redemption". To me of course he will always be "The Kurgan" form the original film "Highlander":

Yup.

Now this is going to shock you all, as you all know I am a severe Star Wars maniac! Perhaps no other actor has played so many exciting roles as well as Harrison Ford. To me he is not Han Solo, but always Indiana Jones!:

My favorite Ford film.

Rock Blogging
A few selections of music to get you ready for the weekend.

Reader Lurker asks that I include a song by Jimmy Dean, who passed away last Sunday. And yes, it is the sausage guy as well! A famous folks singer, Dean is probably most known for the song "Big Bad John":

A nice tune. Makes me think of John Henry, the steel driving man.

Lurker also wanted some Rod Stewart which I was not going to play, but Gawains requested The Faces and "Stay with Me" which both has Rod Stewart and does not suck:

Not too bad.

I love Amazon.com (no affiliation, unless they would like to pay me!). I found this all piano tribute to the band Iron Maiden by artist Scott Lavender. It is amazing and it came in two days! All the songs are gems and wonderful, but try out the piano version of "Wasted Years":

The piano really captures the mood of the song and the mellow sadness of the tune. Unreal. Love it! (compare to rock version here)

Have not had AC/DC on in a while, and we could do with a little "TNT":

That song is classic.

Two more songs. What to play, what to play....

Going old school and 80's hair band rock which was the golden age for music! Try out Europe and "Carrie":

That one is really good.

Last call! It has to end sometime, yes?

Closing the show with Journey and "Worlds Apart" which is a total kick ass tune:

NICE!

Have a good night.