Crazy Drivers and a Crazy Jobs Report

Having returned from parts north of here late yesterday, it is a good feeling to know that the round trip just completed may never have to be made again.

Drivers are getting crazier.

The growing age gap between yours truly and the twenty-something motorists on the road today surely has much to do with it, but, with each long trip like this the perception that the country's roads are less safe as a result of a generation of drivers trained on video games is confirmed anew.

Generally hanging out in the fast lane and moving along at whatever pace seems reasonable (usually 75mph or so), time after time, vehicles approached quickly from behind only to remain about 10 feet off of the back bumper until a hasty retreat to the middle lane was accomplished and they quickly passed.

The sight of the rear view mirror suddenly occupied by a young man in a big truck or a young woman in a sedan or SUV with a cell phone to her ear - these images were equally frightening.

We're getting out of here just in time.

The vast majority of drivers today seem to be quite reasonable, but aside from the 95 mph crowd described above, there is another group that is particularly bothersome - at least to me.

These are the "latchers-on", for lack of a better word - the people who, instead of using their own cruise control, pick out another car and go at whatever speed the other driver goes.

Now, realizing that many people fail to ever use their rear-view mirror, it may come as a surprise that those who do use it get tired of looking at the same car for miles and miles and miles.

It's not clear what they are thinking, but my thoughts on this subject are pretty simple - let's do this separately.

Time after time, after adjusting the cruise control up to 85 mph (much to the displeasure of the copilot), the "latcher-on" stayed close behind. The same result was seen when 70 mph was the chosen pace.

Lane changes didn't seem to matter either - they would stay back there 8-10-15 car lengths and adjust accordingly. Only after slowing to below 60 mph would some sort of threshold be cleared where the driver would begin looking for a new host.

Acquaintances have actually told me that this is their preferred approach to freeway driving - it's weird if you ask me.

Aside from the driving, it was a good trip. We decided against the ergonomically challenged rental home with the gorgeous views and opted instead for much more practical digs on a lot that sloped less than 60 degrees.

We can always walk over to see the view.

The Labor Report

What the heck is going on in the labor market? A total of 180,000 jobs were created in February led by 56,000 in construction and 36,000 in retail trade.

What year is this - 2004?

As usual there were significant revisions to the data for the last two months, both the January and February data being revise up 16,000 to 162,000 and 113,000, respectively.

They say that the pickup in construction hiring is a result of the weather-induced slowdown in February. Another possible explanation is that home builders are rushing to complete what they've already started before lending standards are tightened too much.

We'll see.

The bulk of the new spots were in nonresidential specialty trade (34,000) as opposed to drywall nailers for single family homes (11,000), but it still constitutes a heady reversal from last month's overall decline of 61,000.

It was funny to watch the CNBC crew lamenting the closure of the stock market in observance of Good Friday. "This is another reason why we're losing ground to foreign stock exchanges", someone commented.

If only we could all be trading stocks today ...