Michael Gracie

Doris “Tanta” Dungey of the venerable Calculated Risk blog has passed after a valiant struggle with cancer. In my humble opinion, Tanta is responsible for educating more people about the housing crisis and related issues than any other person in the media, blogosphere, mainstream, or otherwise.

I never met Ms. Dungey, but I always respected and appreciated her outstanding contributions.

She is already missed.

After personally mulling around Friday and finding shops in general dead, dead, dead (as well as not buying a single gift myself knowing everything will be marked down another 50% two weeks hence), the National Retail Federation is claiming traffic was up big time. Some ‘analytics firm’ called ShopperTrak is complicit in the claim, along with Comscore (which missed Google traffic by a mile not long ago) in the online front.

I’ve also heard reports that a certain toy store in New York, which had a line around the block a year ago, had one starting just inside the door this last Friday. Same goes for a certain high end jewelry store.

I can only assume the above named organizations are now taking their cues from the National Association of Realtors (as well as hiring tons of now out-of-work analysts from S&P and Moody’s), or they are surveying nothing but Wal-mart locations. And if the comments from this article are any indication, there are plenty of other people not buying the goods or the bullshit either.

UPDATE: “Indeed, all New York City seemed to be on sale.”

A list not worth saving

And…

Adieu.

We’re hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, and the gathering is going to be a little more intimate than in years past. Hence, out goes the 23+ pounder and in comes the 15′er…

Shrinkage is not so much a result of the number of mouths being fed as the host’s ongoing propensity to hoard leftovers.

I’d disclose the double-super-top-secret recipe but nobody returned their confidentiality agreement – for those without security clearances I can say it involves lots of paprika, oranges, onions, and honey. The preparation process for the mashers, however, is not classified – once you’ve completed the squashing, make sure to add in a brick of cream cheese and an ample supply of sour cream. Finish with finely hand-diced garlic, lightly sprinkled while churning.

And don’t forget to bring dessert!

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Forbes:

You can pick up after your pooch and make sure he plays nice, but it’s your dog’s breed that truly speaks volumes about what kind of owner you are.

So this dog…

…says I’m a diehard rabbit hunter?

The Jan ‘09 contract hit a high of $148.35 on July 11th. Just quoted at $48.60, it’s making new lows everyday.

Love thy Barchart

Over the summer the media was SCREAMING about high gas prices, and auto dealers were flooded with oversized trade-ins at rock bottom prices. Oil executives were marched into Congress at gunpoint to explain.

Call it an oil bubble, or the Yaris-Mini-Smart-Rio-Fit-Elantra-Aveo-Versa-SX4-Astra bubble. Either way, the media is now decidedly mum.

Creating flowcharts from written use cases leads to more written use cases.

Diagramming tools are supposed to make life easier. In my “case” they just create more work.

The credit markets are unfriendly, even to the big guys.

Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Management just had its counterparty rating cut by S&P:

The ratings were cut to BBB from BBB+ on the Kensington Global and Wellington funds, which tumbled about 40 percent this year. Further reductions are possible if the funds, which oversee $13 billion in assets, don’t improve their investment returns, S&P said today in a statement.

Just a smidgen, although when applied across all trades probably isn’t small change. But just to show nobody is immune:

Spreads on insurance against a debt default by Warren Buffett’s triple-A-rated Berkshire Hathaway are trading about on par with that of the embattled General Electric and worse than Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

Note: with the amount of volatility in the air, the latter issue could work itself out very quickly. As for the former, I just have to wonder how much stock folks put in S&P decisions anymore.

UPDATE: More on the Buffett bet.

Even though the summer driving season (and the better part of the fly fishing season) is over, I’m happy with gas prices where they are.

Damn pirates could screw that up.

UPDATE: More. Traders don’t seem to be worried about it though – January ‘09 crude hit a year low of $50.21 as of update time.

UPDATE 2: Make that $48.52.