MADE IT BACK...

...but we're off again this time to Illinois for the other mob of grandkids.

Anyway, nothing much happened of any particular note except for the Pope visiting Cuba and just landing in the U.S. where he was greeted by Il Duce, the misses, the kids and the First Momma in Law.    By the by, I hope His Holiness has some forceful words on diet to go along with climate change because one member of the previously-mentioned entourage has PORKED UP!  Some where along the line she must have decided that something had to be done with all of those healthy school lunches that the kids wont eat and bravely took on the job singlehandedly.  Waste not, want not, I always say.  Girl has guts.

The DOW was down about 170 today.  No real reason say the pros.  Little nervousness, no real direction from the Fed, bit of concern over China.  Nothing really there except for a feeling that risk off for a bit might be a good thing.  Along those lines, Treasury issued $15 billion in one month bills today.  The coverage was a modest TEN TIMES and the yield?  Zero.  Now there is an administration cost and I don't know whether the yield was straight up or on a discounted basis as that is the manner in which these things are sold, but at the end of the day if you're going to lose a bp here and there, what the hell is wrong with cash?  Course I don't know what the one month dollar is either (too lazy to check) but if you get the increasing feeling that there might be a perception that things might not be all that sturdy out there you are probably not alone.  Trying to figure out whether the FX market is playing a role in a one month T-Bill auction borders on being a bit odd.

Oh, Tsapris won again if anyone cares.  38% of Greece voted for him, then again when the Russians start killing Syrians in wholesale lots the population of Greece might expand and if he promises the flood of refugees enough of what he doesn't have to give them, he might sneak up to 50.1%  Ah, stability!

Finally, CNBC mentioned today that the situation in Brazil might be quite serious from a global standpoint.  Someone told them that PETROBRAS is probably the largest debt issuer in the world with a junk rating or any other rating for that matter.  Always good to pay attention to those things.  They'll catch up with the commodity market situation next time around where the word from the coffee shop in Pampa, Texas is that the good ol' boys round thar are about sucked as dry as Spindletop.  All kidding aside, I don't see any end to this merry-go-round and there really is resentment directed towards the Fed for it's lack of direction in it's policies which is no help at all at this stage...EXCEPT it may make folks come to realize that for direction people, you looking towards the wrong institution.

Papa Francesco, Ora Pro Nobis.