November 2010

This month, the San Francisco Giants, a team few people outside of the Bay Area notice, with a roster of players few people outside of the Bay Area notice, brought home San Francisco's first World Series title. Improving as they progressed through the playoffs, the Giants determinedly won the championship, conceding only one game of the final series to the Rangers. Edgar Renteria, an aging Giants infielder on the verge of retirement, hit the winning home run in the last game, going out like the champion he became. It was a lyrical, magical victory, befitting the golden city by the bay, poetically inevitable and long to be remembered by baseball fans of all persuasions.

And, oh yeah, there were mid-term elections yesterday. As expected, the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives. Not unexpectedly, the Democrats kept control of the Senate. Gridlock is in our future. Then, today, the Federal Reserve announced that it would print $600 billion and use it over the next eleven months to buy long term U.S. Treasury securities in an effort to stimulate the economy. Various Wall Street analysts had prognosticated that the Fed would announce at least $500 billion, which is financial markets speak for saying they wanted more than $500 billion. The $600 billion was a tepid ante up by the Fed. The Dow Jones Industrial Average offered fair commentary, rising 26 points, or less than 0.25%. In spite of all the headlines, soundbites, points and counterpoints, nothing really surprising happened in the world of politics or in the financial markets. Nor will any of it be remembered like the Giants' World Series win.