This has been a busy first quarter for the travelogue, although there is not one single interview to show for it. Several very good conversations, some well intentioned and informative emails, but not one formal, put on the suit, get out the lead face-to-face with anyone who had an actual position to peddle. So in the interest of keeping my skills sharp I've been working on several independent projects, and I'll let you know eventually if any of those turn out: remember, re-invent!

Nevertheless, I'm trying to keep an open mind about the state of the economy and the difficulties of 13.5 million Americans competing for survival. One series of incidents that I have found bitterly entertaining have been the attacks on CNBC aired by The Daily Show's John Stewart, the Daily Show, of course, being the only regular news show that is truly honest. If you haven't caught any of this, take a look at Stewart skewering Jim Cramer this week. You have to give Cramer credit for showing up, he knew what was coming, although I'm not sure he anticipated the public airing of a private interview he did in 2006, in which he describes the best methods of manipulating the short market. Pure felony. 

But the best (or worst) event that occurred recently was Citicorp Chairman Vikram Pandit's announcement that January and February were "profitable" months for the albatross, soon followed by BofA jumping on the two month profitability bandwagon. Renewed confidence in the financials caused the market to jump over 500 points this week as a direct result of this news. 

Well, it was bad enough that banks were stuck on a quarterly cycle of earning forecasts, but it appears that we will soon be announcing month to month. This should keep the day-traders and true manipulators happy (see: Stewart vs Cramer), but for the rest of us down 50%-70% in our retirement assets, which we were advised to keep "long", this is another blow below the sloar plexus. Pressure on banks to achieve quarterly forecasts kept them in questionable investments and dubious practices for many years, for which we now eat the rotten fruit. 

Me, I'm planning to stay away from CNBC until they start catching the bad guys rather than collaborating with them. I think maybe I'll move it all to cash and just go fishing...