Do you realize the significance of September 9, 2009? Well, for one, there will not be another single digit combination for another 92 years, until 1/1/01 in 2101. 9/9/09 will take another century. There is an excellent article in CNN.com worth a read. Let me summarize some interesting points:
1. There was a rush of weddings this day in China because 9 is an auspicious number, sounding in Chinese like longlasting. For this sort of reasoning, you don't give 4 items in a gift because 4 sounds like death in Chinese (and Japanese). Remember 8/8/8? That was the Chinese Olympics, for this number sounds like wealth. They take these digits with some seriousness over there. Heck, 90% of Americans believe in some kind of afterlife, so what's the difference? There were a lot weddings also in Australia, but the reason given was that the combination would make it easier to remember your anniversary. The Stratosphere in Las Vegas will marry 99 couples today at 9:09PM, and charge $99.09.
2. Both Wednesday and September have nine letters, and September 9 is the 252nd day of the year, and 2+5+2 up to 9.
3. The Tim Burton animated film, 9, opens today. Doomsday movies are all the current rage, with 2012 coming in two months, but 9 is post-apocalyptic, featuring 9 puppets, with the protagonist named 9 (they have numbers for names) voiced over by Elijah Wood. Listen to Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau and more. I won't give away the ending. There is an Oscar buzz.
4. Both the Beatles' remastered 14 albums ($260, but, ah, if you belong to Barnes and Noble, you can get it for $234) and Rock Band video game ($54 for XBox and Wii software, but $250 for the premium edition) were released today, said to be inspired by their Revolution 9, where this digit is repeated. Can you believe that their last public performance was 40 years ago?
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I just read the September 4 issue of The Economist, and on pages 81 and 82 I noted the following interesting facts:
1. Are we paying too much in taxes? Fifteen major countries are listed below. About 25% of our earning is taxed (if you made $100,000). Well, Switzerland is under 20%, but, India, Italy and Sweden are north of 40%, and the U.S. has the second lowest tax rate. I wonder what the Republicans might say to all this?
2. The Dow Jones Industrials are doing great, right? Yes, we are nearly 9% up for the year. Did you know that this is the lowest increase in the world? All the major countries are listed. China is plus 82%, Russian and Indonesia +76%, Turkey +75%, and India, Argentina and Israel in the 60's. Japan is a tepid +20% and Europe +15%. Remember Switzerland above? They are the second worst at +12%, with the United Kingdom at +10%. The USA is the only country listed with a single digit increase. This was for the August 26 index when the DJI average was at 9544, almost exactly the same as today. But don't go into any depression about our poor performance. Last year China and Russia both saw around a three-quarter drop in their stock markets, while the U.S. only fell by about a third. The current prices worldwide just represent technical adjustments to the ending recession.
3. While I'm at this, I noticed that the U.S. trade balance for the past 12 month period was minus $640 billion (yes, billion). The next worse was the UK at -$140 billion. Germany is +$182 billion, Saudi Arabia +$212 billion and China +$269 billion. If this concerns you, be somewhat reassured by Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman, who has said that trade deficits are not necessarily important.
The Dow Jones Industrials today rose 50 to 9547, while Japan and Hong Kong drooped and European markets all increased. Crude settled at $71/barrel and gold dropped $12/toz to $989. Stephen Jobs received a 45-second standing ovation at an invitation only gathering today in San Francisco, but made no monumental statement, the best probably being that the iPod Nano will come with a video camera, FM radio, voice recorder and pedometer. The disappointment was that Eric Schmidt, Chairman/CEO of Google was present...and no announcement came.
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Tropical Storm Dujuan skirted past Japan and is heading in the general direction of Alaska. By Friday, it could still be a 60 MPH cyclone at 50 degree North Latitude. A tropical depression appeared between the Philippines and Hainan, will soon be named, but shows no signs of becoming a full-fledged typhoon. If, in the East Pacific, Linda does not make it as a hurricane today, she will weaken over the next few days and remain on a course to nowhere. North of South America, Fred is now a Category 3 hurricane at 120 MPH, but seems in no hurry to go anywhere, and is actually moving north, rather than west, and, like Linda, does not appear to be interested in making any landfall.
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