The winter of our discontent

I am not talking about John Steinbeck’s book that helped him to get the Nobel Prize in literature in 1962 (The Grapes of Wrath and The Winter of Our Discontent were mentioned in the Nobel’s citation); of course, the title of the book comes from the opening lines of Shakespeare’s Richard III, (“Now is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of York”).

I am talking about the severe harsh winter we have had so far; the Wall Street fairs no better; more freezing chills, thanks to the turmoil and sell off in the emerging markets.  The Fed announced yesterday that it will continue to trim its bond buying to $65 billion a month in February (it used to be $85 billion a month; and $75 billion a month for January) and that added fuel to the fire for the downward spiraling yesterday.   The market has obviously addicted to the Fed’s so called “quantitative easing” bond buying program (to some this may be a euphemistic way to say government’s printing money).  The market is suffering the withdrawal, so to speak.

Katy had two dispatches to the World Journal (世界日報) published the past two days; they were all about the weather in Pittsburgh; one is rarely seen natural wonder (snow roller). And she never had any report about the weather over the years.

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_pa/24478690/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E9%9B%AA%E6%8D%B2%E5%A5%87%E8%A7%80-%E6%B0%91%E7%9C%BE%E7%88%AD%E7%9D%B9?instance=nj1

http://www.worldjournal.com/view/full_pa/24461188/article-%E5%8C%B9%E8%8C%B2%E5%A0%A1%E6%A5%B5%E5%87%8D---%E5%A6%82%E9%98%BF%E6%8B%89%E6%96%AF%E5%8A%A0-?instance=nj1