What Caught My Eye Today

Economy - Pushing deficit concerns aside, Democratic and Republican leaders appeared close to agreement with the White House on emergency tax cuts and benefit increases to jolt the economy out of its slump. Democrats said greater GOP flexibility over giving income tax relief to poor families with children had moved the talks forward. Dare I say that these guys managed to find a middle ground on something? Lawmakers learned during the day that the government's deficit already would swell to $250 billion this year because of falling corporate tax revenues — then they signaled they were willing to balloon it higher by more than $100 billion with a stimulus package. Pish-posh. What's a mere $100 billion here or there? Nothing a strong economy won't be able to fix. Plus it isn't like this massive deficit is going to come back to haunt this particular Congress anytime soon. Nope we'll leave that to future generations.

And then there was the stock market. If you like roller coasters, you'll love today's action. It started with another stomach-turning drop at the open, and a loss of more than 300 points by midday. Then stocks changed course, raced higher and closed with a dramatic gain of nearly 300. Amid tumbling housing prices, an ongoing credit crisis and growing fears of a recession, turbulence has become a hallmark of Wall Street in recent weeks. The Dow Jones industrial average finished the day up 298.98 at 12,270.17. It had been down 323.29 at its low point. The swing from negative to positive territory of 631.86 points was the largest point move since July, 2002. At its lowest point yesterday, the Dow was 17.9% below its October closing high, meaning that the stock market has come perilously close to the 20% threshold that defines a bear market. Call me a pessimist but the fact that we missed an official bear market by 2% doesn't may me feel any better about the beating my retirement plan has taken in 2008.

Gaza - If you all think that the U.S. has issues with securing its borders, just remember this--it could always be worse. To prove my point, I give you this next item. Tens of thousands of Gazans flooded into Egypt today through a border fence blown up by militants — puncturing a gaping hole in Israel's airtight closure of the Gaza Strip and giving a boost to Hamas. In a shopping spree that was both festive and frenzied, Gazans cleared out stores in an Egyptian border town, buying up everything from TV sets to soft drinks to cigarettes. The chaotic scenes came almost a week after Israel imposed a tight closure on Gaza, backed by Egypt, in response to a spike in Gaza rocket attacks on Israeli towns. The breach, though likely temporary, seemed certain to strengthen Hamas in its showdown with Israel, the West and its Fatah rivals — relieving some of the pain of an international blockade of the Gaza Strip following Hamas' violent takeover of the coastal territory in June. It also raised Israeli fears of an influx of weapons and militants to Gaza and threatened to undermine crucial Egyptian participation in a Mideast peace push by President Bush. The United States expressed concern about the border breach. Israel demanded that Egypt take control of its border. Hamas called on its rivals to help come up with new arrangements for Gaza's crossings. Egypt's leader said he had no choice but to let in the beleaguered Palestinians. But Arab and U.S. officials in Washington said the Egyptian government assured the United States the border would be closed quickly. Hmm. So I wonder how those peace talks are going that President Bush is so keen to close on before the end of his presidency.

NASA - I sort of wish that my first entry of 2008 for these guys would have been a bit more promising. Unfortunately, they seem hell-bent on making themselves fodder for the late-night talk show hosts. NASA said that a survey of astronauts and flight surgeons found no evidence of launch day drinking by crew members, despite a report last year of two cases of drunkenness. I'm sorry, but they needed to conduct a survey to confirm this? The allegations of drunken astronauts arose last July. NASA established a panel of aerospace medicine experts to look into astronaut mental health. Experts, citing unidentified sources, reported heavy drinking by two astronauts right before their respective launches, one from Cape Canaveral and one from Kazakhstan. Doctors' concerns about the astronauts' inebriated state were supposedly overruled by management. Perhaps I'm looking at this from the wrong perspective, but if I'm getting ready to fly into the great beyond on a space craft that everyone agrees is well past its prime (I'm talking about the space shuttle. Don't get me started on those flying relics the Russian send up.) I'm thinking a drink or two is in order.

Thrift - Being thrifty in uncertain economic times is never a bad idea, but this item takes things to the extreme. A women in Shreveport, Louisiana has been saving her pennies for almost 19 years and she was making plans this week to cash them in at a bank — all 55,000 of them. She knows the $550 won't make her rich, but says the symbolism reinforced frugal spending habits. I'm probably going to get flack for saying this, but why do stories like this always seem to occur in places like Louisiana or Alabama. Do they put something in the water that the rest of us know nothing about?

Baseball - All-time U.S. baseball home run king Barry Bonds asked a federal court to dismiss criminal charges that he lied to a grand jury about past steroid use. "The indictment in this case falls woefully short of meeting the pleading requirements the Constitution imposes," Bonds' lawyers said. "Some portions of the indictment are so vague that it is simply impossible to be certain what untruths Mr. Bonds is alleged to have uttered." The motion alleges that the government is unfairly making overly broad allegations against the former San Francisco Giant. Notice that the motion says nothing about Bonds not lying, just that the allegations are unfair or vague. You have to hand it to the legal profession for coming up with these elaborate ways to to screw with the law.

Golf - Tiger Woods, who will be bidding for a fourth successive victory at this week's Buick Invitational, described his chances of completing a calendar grand slam as "possible." Although Woods became the first professional to hold all four majors at the same time by winning the 2001 U.S. Masters, he would dearly love to repeat the feat in a single season. Technically, a calendar grand slam is possible for anyone in the PGA right now. It's only January. That said, I wouldn't put it past Tiger to pull it off. He's got some motivation you know. Jack Nicklaus, never did it.