••can ye pass the acid test?••

ye who enter here be afraid, but do what ye must -- to defeat your fear ye must defy it.

& defeat it ye must, for only then can we begin to realize liberty & justice for all.

time bomb tick tock? nervous tic talk? war on war?

or just a blog crying in the wilderness, trying to make sense of it all, terror-fried by hate radio and FOX, the number of whose name is 666??? (coincidence?)

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

stock surge

the dow went up 169 points yesterday after h.wilma knocked down a tree to kill a man in coral springs. the death toll reported so far is 6 in the US, 7 in mexico, and 13 in haiti and jamaica.
750k cubans evacuated ahead of deep floods.

many floridians, hardened by 7 previous hurricanes in the last 14 months, failed to take precautions. wilma was at category 3 when it hit the keys and southwest florida, causing major damage. wind speed dropped to cat 2 as the storm swept rapidly across the peninsula, stirring up tornados in its wake. power outages affected an estimated 3.2M homes and businesses and 6M people.

wilma soon gained strength over the atlantic, causing blackouts and flooding in new jersey and contributing to a major new england snowfall.

the stock rise was attributed to president bush's nomination of ben bernanke to replace alan greenspan when he retires as chair of the federal reserve board of governors.

bernanke said he'll aim for continuity with greenspan's actions. he's a welcome departure from the appointee cronyism of michael brown and harriet miers. bernanke may be the john roberts of economists. he's definitely no supply-sider.

still, i would've thought stockholders would show more concern for so much storm damage.

maybe i should look on the bright side: investors may consider the long-term effects of a good fed chair more important than the relatively short-term effects of a hurricane.

trouble is wilma's the 21st named atlantic storm this year, and there's already a 22nd. i think that's the most ever, and it may signal a trend that outlasts even ben bernanke.

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