Santa's Gravy Train Jumped the Tracks

The producer price numbers released Tuesday were not good news and cannot be blamed on heat or cold. With many government reports, The Business Press Maven screams himself silly talking about how the business media neglect to mention how often and significantly the numbers are revised.

This does not tend to be the case with producer price numbers, to the point that I think the lack of meaningful revision prospects should have been mentioned to help investors understand. However, these numbers were not as bad as they looked, as the stock market realized after a brief coronary. BusinessWeek does a good job of putting the numbers in proper perspective.

I only wish everything else -- even consumer electronics retailers -- could have been written with such calm insight. Then again, as The Business Press Maven's mother used to tell him, if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.