TGIF -- Friday Morning Ramblings

1. Well, this is not good. I saw this last night on CNBC; the television was mute, but I thought I saw it. Now, in the WSJ, no link, Hewlett-Packard Co plans to cut its workforce by 30,000. It doesn't say whether this is stateside only but it certainly will be a large number of US employees. To put this in perspective, the magic number for "new" jobs is 200,000 and the magic number for first-time unemployment claims is 400,000. Thirty-thousand is a significant percent of both numbers.

2. It will be interesting if the mainstream media ignores the recent bombshell coming from the president's literary agent. I always find it amazing how folks try to re-write history. It will be interesting how long Drudge leaves this up as his headline story.

3. New York state has not yet banned fracking but my hunch is it will. A state judge has already upheld the "right" of "towns" to ban fracking. So, I find this rather interesting: apparently New York pension funds have taken quite a hit with outsize investments in Chesapeake which may be one of the country's top fracking companies.

4. And finally this, also from the WSJ: Food stamps and the $41 cake. You don't even have to click on the link to know what the story is about. But there are a few interesting data points: a) how some of us arrange our daily trips to maximize efficiency (and others don't); and, b) the income of the average Costco shopper is nearly $100,000. Where are the obesity police when we need them most?

5. Turkey (the country) is still seeking to join the EU. Wouldn't it be interesting to see Greek leave the EU and Turkey enter?

6. The link at Drudge is broken, and googling the subject brings one to some questionable sites, but all-the-same, it's an interesting story. The New York Times reporters who got a lot of heat for releasing details of the bin Laden mission said they got the information from the "White House podium." I'm not sure what was exactly meant by that. I find it more interesting that the link to a reputable source has been broken.