Green Taxi

Seriously, can someone please explain? They have taken over our local coffee shops and I read an article a week about them. These things just came out of nowhere and are now the latest fad worldwide.

Today, I got a chart comparing worldwide macaron prices (a dozen, I believe), as if they were to replace the Big Mac Index!

I just don’t get the fuss…

If history is any indication, keep an eye on my travel schedule for the next couple of years. The last two times I have taken a voluntary exotic vacation with Katie (I don’t count my honeymoon as that is a mandatory vacation), the markets have crashed hard.

The first time was in September of 2008. The indications were almost there the day we left for Italy, but Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy on Monday of the trip and by mid-week all hell had broken loose and the markets were in free fall. I spent the nights online working and the days sleeping in the sun while Katie patiently watched in disappointment. The trip was ruined and understandably so.

This time was a bit more gentle, but it still happened. Last week, I left to charter a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands with little hesitation about leaving. Yet sure enough, it happened again. The markets crashed midweek. It started in Europe and carried over the US. At one point, the DOW was down 1000 points intraday and the VIX was up almost 20 points on the week. This week is lining up to be a crazy one, with the potential of a European country or bank defaulting being quite high (today’s rally is still volatility, good or bad).

I have no explanation other than pure coincidence. But, it could surely happen again. I’ll make sure I send out a remind for my sunny vacation of 2012. It might just be the right time to get short again.

*image source: yahoo.com

http://www.good.is/post/infographic-the-size-of-the-oil-spill/

Posting from my iPhone in the Caribbean – not far from the gulf of Mexico – so I can’t provide more than the link. Please have a look, it is an important infographic.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (no coined name yet?) will be bigger than the Exxon Valdez within 50 days at the rate of the spill. As far as I’ve heard, there are no easy ways to stop it in the near term.

Complete nightmare. BP has to pony up for the bill.

One of Jon Stewart’s best. He makes some great points about Apple going totally overboard with this (unless it is all a publicity stunt, in which case they are true genius). He also is hilarious.

“You guys are busting down doors in Palo Alto while Commandant Gates is ridding the world of mosquitoes. What the f**k is going on?”

I have to agree that I think Apple makes some fantastic products. But, they just go a bit overboard with their whole our way or the highway mentality.