I am struggling to decide what is more bogus, the retail sales data or the US Congress hearing on steroids in baseball.

I am not going to parse the retail data like Barry does so well. From time to time (if not frequently), the government spits out an economic report that is so inconsistent with previous months or other sources for the same issue that I just don’t waste my time trying to analyze how they mess up so dramatically. Given that I have a bullish bias right now, my critics can just skip the usual comment about how I am always so negative and refuse to accept positive data. First off, this data is not positive. At best it is not negative. With certainty, it is useless. It’s always fun to disagree with the financial entertainment networks who have been hyping this report as some sign that the consumer is not struggling. And of course, suggesting that it’s a good reason to buy stocks. I don’t disagree that there are reasons to be optimistic about individual stocks - this retail sales data is not one of them.

As for the inquisition of Roger Clemens, what a freaking joke! I don’t enjoy baseball. I don’t worship sports celebrities. More importantly, I don’t enjoy watching members of Congress wasting time and resources on subjects like this. I’d prefer that they investigate how the government can spit out so many bogus economic reports.