Summer Slowdown, A New Tea Store, Who Need's PC's, and the London Olympics-

Over the weekend, Greece citizens decided to elect a government that is more responsible than a completely idiotic party. Well at least they did not decide to do the stupid thing, however slim the margin was. In fact, many argue the best thing for Greece and Europe would be to have them leave the European Union. I know this, I am pretty confident Germany is fed up with all things related to Greece, and at this point so am I. I find it amazing there are those who believe the fault lies with Germany because they enabled poor fiscal habits by the countries in Southern Europe. Still, Germany finds itself in a tough position as 42% of its exports are to the rest of Europe. If you think Germany wants to see the Euro fall apart, you are badly mistaken.



In the United States, again we see the same old calls for more monetary stimulus to counteract a possible slowdown in the economy. Hello, do these people ever operate in the world? Do they not know the summer is always slower? People do take vacations, slow down, take it easy, you know, that kind of thing. Today, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke decided to extend 'Operation Twist' until the end of the year. Great, continued record low interest rates at the long end of the bond curve. It has really worked so far, hasn't it Uncle Ben? He would argue it has, as the economy is not in recession, or even depression. I suspect until the election in November, we are at a stand still, in the economy, in the stock market, and politically, whether we like it or not.



The NBA Finals continues this week as the Miami Heat have jumped out to a 3-1 game advantage over the Oklahoma City Thunder. As always, playing smart and not making mistakes are usually the path to success, and this series has been no exception. Turning the ball over and not making open shots are not winning recipes.
The Olympics is less than a month away, and I am very excited to see them. I think England will do a great job as a host and the world will be captivated, as always, by the pageantry and great competition. Apparently, tickets are very hard to get-http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-20/olympic-tickets-sell-for-20-times-face-value-on-secondary-market.html



I recently started drinking loose leaf tea and really enjoy the experience. There are many different kinds of flavors, with a great majority of them potentially very good for you. Many kinds are high in anti-oxidants, which have a number of positive health attributes. Apparently, Starbucks agrees with me as they are opening a store in Seattle which just sells tea-http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2018473295_tazo20.html



Finally, it is interesting to see more and more of the world move away from personal computers. I love the Ipad, and if Intuit ever makes a Quickbooks version for it I am in like flynn. The PC is probably not going away any time soon, but it will be nice to have more options than to be stuck with Microsoft products, which I think are awful. Here is an article about a move to virtual pc's-http://www.businessinsider.com/this-company-just-yanked-out-500-pcs-to-get-windows-7-from-the-cloud-2012-6

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