Phil Grossfield's Blog

My Schedule…and a Little Extra:   My 11-year wedding anniversary is coming up in July…it’s my year to plan.  The real challenge is that my wife is super giving…super thoughtful…and when she buys a gift or plans the night, there is usually a theme involved.  This is of course an impossible standard for any typical man to live up to.  I usually do my shopping and planning relatively close to the celebratory date.  I have learned over the years that the dates on the receipts are extremely important to my wife.  She is a handful, but the rewards of being married to her outweigh these tasks.  So, I’m planning a month in advance which for me is years in advance.  I have the babysitter lined up already…check that off the list.  I have a couple of gifts lined up…check gifts off the list.  Of course a theme to these gifts would be nice but I am a man after all…we’ll see if I can pull that off later.  The real challenge…the night itself…what to do?  Where to go?

My Mystery Quote:   I am not I.  I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see, whom at times I manage to visit, and at other times I forget — who remains calm and silent while I talk, and forgives, gently, when I hate, who walks where I am not, who will remain standing when I die  — Answer

My Market Watch:  It’s an interesting day.  China in an effort to support growth in the economy cut its interest rate by 0.250% which would normally cause American stocks to get better and bonds to get worse.  However, back in America there is talk about Quantitative Easing to offset the European nightmare…this talk makes traders prefer bonds over stocks and when that happens rates stay strong or get lower.  This morning Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke left the door open on Quantitative Easing…as a result, bonds are doing well and are up 25bps from yesterday.  Nonetheless, our rates have come out almost exactly the same as yesterday so it wasn’t enough for our Capital Markets to improve pricing.  In case you were wondering, Quantitative Easing is monetary policy central banks use to try and stimulate the economy. In general, it means they buy assets from banks so the banks have more (quantitative) reserves to lend.  What’s interesting is bonds generally improve on comments about QE, but pricing has simply held steady from yesterday.  Disclaimer

My Schedule:  Available all day…happy hour starts early today.

New Procedures From Me Available Here:  MY PROCEDURES