Three Up: Aussie Drought, Jon Corzine, Hip

While the focus of the news has been on Egypt, it's worth noting three items, one of which is personal.

First up is Australia. While the disastrous floods in the eastern part of the country, a nasty drought has hammered the country's wheat growing regions. The financial blog Zero Hedge noted the meteorlogical situation and its impact on wheat prices. The issue of inflation in food prices has political impact, and has been directly linked to social unrest in a number of countries. The absence of a strong Australian wheat harvest is likely to pressure wheat prices upward. That's good news for US farmers, but not for consumers of the staff of life.

Meanwhile, Jon Corzine slipped back into the financial news. The former Goldman Sachs CEO and chairman began working in the same roles at a derivates trading enterprise called MF Global in March 2010. (I don't know what "MF" means, but I do have a salacious guess.) It seemed like a long way from a firm most of the public associates as the epitome "Wall Street." One

wondered what Corzine had up his sleeve besides a part-time gig teaching public policy at Princeton. Today's news provides an answer. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York announced MF Global would be among 20 financial institutions characterized as a "primary dealer." This is big money, as they can trade directly with the Federal Reserve. As the Wikipedia entry on primary dealers notes, "arguably, this group's members are the most influential and powerful non-governmental institutions in world financial markets." Welcome -- or should one say "welcome back" -- to the club, Citizen Corzine.

Last, but not least, is my newest venture in hipness. It has nothing to do with calculated posing in select New York bars. Rather, I'm in a New York hospital getting a hip replacement. Recovery is moving along at the anticipated rate, so far. For those who have called, e-mailed, texted, and/or visited, please accept my gratitude for your care and concern.

Aussies Say "G'Day" to LA

According to a story in today's Los Angeles Times, Australians brought the most overseas tourists to LA in 2010. The "G'Day" crowd flocked in record numbers to soak up the settings and personalities familiar from  America's principal exports: television programs and feature length movies. Of course, Los Angeles is a natural gateway for Australians visiting the United States. Southern California's climate bears a striking similarity to the populated areas Down Under. And LA's physically extroverted atmosphere neatly fits the Australian national character.

While Aussies enjoyed life in Los Angeles, they were not the largest group of tourists. That title belongs to Mexico, with Canada a distant second. There are some who would say Anglos are LA's largest tourist group, and that the city, by its history, location, and population, is Mexico's second largest city.