Welp, Bernanke and his crew at the Federal Reserve reduced the fed funds rate to 3.50%, from 4.25%.  If they’re trying to make me feel better, it’s not working.  Between yesterday and today, all I’m getting is bad financial news.  Asian stocks are tanking (so are ours), houses are devaluing by 10-20% (yikes), foreclosures increasing, unemployment is hitting the middle class.  All around suckiness!  So what is the Fed trying to accomplish?  Are they trying to stir the economy up?  Tell us that inflation is a ways away?  Screw all the countries holding the almighty dollar?

In a way, I feel fortunate that time is on my side.  This is a down swing and things will be better in time.  But some folks don’t have a lot more business cycles to go through before they want to dip out of work and into their retirement savings.  I was chatting with a guy at work about this and trying to keep things in perspective about the stocks.  The economy will always get better.  He agreed, but added that he just doesn’t have that much time to wait this out. 

So the Fed’s probably going to keep lowering rates.  And I’m just going to keep feeling uncertain and unsteady because when are they going to bottom out?  At 1%?  In Ben we trust?   

Wanna know who’s going to win the elections? Forget the newspapers, take a look at who people are putting their money on and you’ll get a more accurate reading. Warning: This site isn’t safe for work. I mean, it’s gambling basically.

Here’s something I never knew: Each Trader Joe’s store employs a team of artists to write all the signs, price tags, and labels.  Who knew!?  I met a TJ artist this weekend.  She’s fresh out of college and paints murals decorating the store.  It takes her about a week to complete a mural.  Currently she’s working on a farmer’s market scene.  She says most people mistaken the wall art as wallpaper. 

Workwise, they give her leeway to design the art, provided she stays within a given theme (like a vegetable or farmers market).  So she shows up, pops on her iPod and paints an artichoke.    Nice gig huh?        

Too Many Asians at this School: Racialized Perceptions and Identity Formation is an eye-opening research article written by Jenny Tsai. Basically, her findings suggest that we like being white. White is the new pink! Acting white is good. It’s cool and it’s fitting in. Acting foreign is FOBby and unsocialized. So how does one go about proving ones whiteness? Date a white person, have lots of white friends and curse at your parents.

After reading this article I immediately did a mental self assessment of my friends y’know, to see how well I do on this white continuum. Let’s see… 4 Asians (ooh off to a bad start), 1 black, 1 white! YESS!!, 1 Latina. That’s it?? I dunno where that puts me but I’m off to go make some more white pals. One is not enough! Especially since there’s no such thing as too much of a good thing.

Update: I emailed Jenny for her article and she directed me to this link. It’s free, in PDF if anyone’s interested.

Tomato pickers for fast food joints like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King, get paid $0.01 to $0.02 per pound of tomatoes picked. They haven’t seen a pay raise for about 30 years. Now, they’re finally getting a pay raise of one cent. Hallelujah! That’s a 50% raise! Guess who’s cheaping out on them? Burger King. They won’t pay! Doesn’t make sense. It’s not like they have to absorb the added expense anyway. In the end, we’d all pay for the extra fraction of a cent worth of tomatoes on our sandwich. What’s the big deal?

Mascara. First it’s lead in lipstick, now it’s mercury in mascara. Do you see a pattern here? Yeah, they alliterate! Cool huh? Well that, and they’re heavy metals in cosmetics! I didn’t even know it was lawful to put Hg in cosmetics these days but what do I know? So what’s next? Evil in eyeliner? Oh wait, evil is not a heavy metal. Whew. We’re saved. Because as we all know, if you have to walk out the door with nothing else on, let it not be eyeliner.

Ok girls it’s all one big conspiracy, guys are trying to make us stupid by sticking lead in our cosmetics. Pb in LIPSTICK!! I eat that stuff. I eat lots of it. Heck, I’ll even put it on just to lick it right off. So next time your sweetie pie wants to smooch you, apply a generous layer of lipstick and commence Operation Right Back Atcha. Muahahaha. Does lead make people diabolical?