Hello again, everyone. No, Kay. I didn't send you the cold and rain. Who ever sent it to me passed it on to you. I am afraid I got very spoiled by the nice 70s and 80s we had. It is so easy to forget that those temps are 20 to 30 degrees above 'normal.' What ever that is now-a-days. I checked all of the plants in my containers (or on them, as the case may be). They are all protected by 'walls 'o water' or hot caps cut from milk jugs and all were doing very well as of this morning when the temp on the patio registered 36 degrees. I don't think I will put any others out until Monday afternoon when we are supposed to have mid to high 60s again.

I am constantly amazed by how differently the various news channels present the same stories. This morning one of the channels we watch mentioned the Goldman charges and claimed that Goldman created the investment instruments they are charged with fraudulently selling. Other sources yesterday and today make it quite clear that Goldman they did not create the investments. I do wish these people would get the information straight. It is bad enough that they sold the investments without disclosing that the creator, also a client of theirs, was betting against them. I also don't have much patience for the argument I heard yesterday on CNBC that the the investment funds and banks that bought these instruments should have ferreted out the information when Goldman didn't disclose it. There has to be a certain amount of trust and good faith if the allegedly capitalist system is to work and Goldman violated that. Nor does it matter that, as one of the talking heads pointed out, the little investor didn't get hurt directly in this and only the 'big' boys were damaged. Too many little investors put money into the pension funds and banks who put money into investments Goldman pushed.

Newsweek has this op-ed piece by Daniel Gross that makes some very good points on the Goldman case. I remember a furor raised some years ago when investment firms were informing large investors of prime investments or of potential losses before the smaller investors who were either cut out of the money making possibilities or were saddled with the losses. That revelation led to regulations prohibiting that practice. All clients were supposed to have equal access. But, evidently, that practice has simply shifted sideways a bit. Goldman simply serves some clients better than others--and some not at all.