Start spreadin' the news ...

Man, they sure use their car horns a lot around here. I bet half the people in California don't even know what their horn sounds like or where to push on the steering wheel if they wanted to find out.

Here in New York City, honking your horn seems to come as easily as exhaling.

The shot you see below is from my room - I'll venture outside shortly and announce my arrival to this fair city.
After taking a bus from Pennsylvania where I'm visiting relatives, I made the cardinal mistake when exiting the Port Authority Bus Terminal - I made eye contact with someone. I just had to look away and keep walking hoping they wouldn't follow - they didn't.

For those of you just tuning in, I'll be speaking on Tuesday morning here at the New York Hard Assets Conference at the Marriot Marquis Hotel in Times Square. I'll be on a panel at 8:30 AM - "Causes and Consequences of the Current Credit Crisis" and then at 10:30 AM I'll be making a presentation "Buy the Stocks? Or, Buy the Commodities?"

I'll probably post the paper here in PDF format sometime later this week.

Next month I'll be going to Long Beach to participate in another panel at the Hyatt Regency - more on that later.

ooo

This week's cartoon from The Economist: