The Reyes Report

This morning’s Herald International Tribune (my morning read) contained 3 noteworthy reports:

1. Iowa caucus is today … and I found myself a little sorry that candidates don’t work that hard to personally introduce, listen and explain themselves in all states. I almost feel like the voters in Iowa actually have it easy: they can chose to avoid the information, but at least it’s all out in front of them. Good luck to everyone … we certainly need some new leadership with a thinking head, a heart in the right place, and some new ideas and the gumption to pursue them. What? That shouldn’t be too hard to find, right?

2. Singapore dollar is UP … second strongest currency in all of Asia. Well whoopty freaking do. Not so good for those of us here exchanging the crappy dollar for the super-strong singaporean cent. Ugh.

3. (The icing) The housing market in the US is falling hard and fast … except in NYC where condo prices are up 51% year on year and co-op apartment prices are up 21%. WHAT!? Conrad, this pipe dream of ever buying inside the 212 is exploding before our eyes. On the positive side, I learned why — foreign investors. How nice of them. They can’t buy co-ops though, so that’s a + for us … of course, we can’t afford to buy co-ops either. Ah, such is life. Didn’t someone wise once say, “A fish and a bird may fall in love, but where would they build their nest?” If anyone hears of a fixer-upper on the UWS for about $200K I hope you’ll let us know!

Yet I continue to read the paper in the morning to find all its uplifting news … like the atrocities in Kenya, the “welcoming” North Koreans now offering guided tours of (one specific, some-say fake) town , searching for Ms Bhutto’s assassin, global warming … and the pretend “environmentalists” prospering from it (see Fiji water’s latest), and round and round. What a way to start the day / year.

Speaking of news, there were no updates about Japan’s latest whale-hunt or the terrible oil spill off South Korea, guess they’re saving those little gems for the weekend edition.