For the nearly two billion people who mark their calendars by the phases of the moon, midnight ushered in the beginning of the 15-day New Year’s celebration.
According to the Chinese Zodiac – which is pegged to Jupiter’s nearly 12-year orbit around the sun – 2009 is the Year of the Ox.
[img]309|left|||no_popup[/img] Chinese legend, peppered with puzzling myths, holds that the ox carried the rat, who pushed the cat, who nearly drowned and lost the race to be the first year on the wheel of the Zodiac. For those of you following this convoluted legend, 2008 was the Year of the Rat.
People born during Year of the Ox are said to be patient, fiercely passionate and eloquent. Children of the ox are believed to be physically strong, mentally alert, stubborn and abhor failure.
It should come as no surprise that among the other attributes of our 44th president, who started his first full week in office today, was born – you guessed it – during the Year of the Ox.
Prices Down, Sales up
In sharp contrast to the rat, who is characterized as being ambitious and meteoric, Chinese folklore portrays the ox as plodding and reliable. For example, if your neighbor’s cart becomes stuck in the mud, you can always rely on the ox to pry it free.
The Chinese New Year, however, is already starting out mixed.
On the positive side of the ledger, sales of previously owned homes in the U.S. unexpectedly rose from a record low, propelled by the biggest slump in prices since the Great Depression as foreclosures surged. Even though median prices dropped 15 percent from a year ago, purchases increased 6.5 percent.
Finally, a Sign of Thawing
The stock market is up for the second day in a row on news that Pfizer agreed to pay $68 billion to acquire Wyeth Labs in the biggest drug deal in nearly five years. More significantly, in a sign that a thaw may be coming to lending, the deal was financed through a consortium of Bank of America, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. These banks will split in excess of $200 million in merger and acquisition fees for doing the deal.
Despite the good news for Pfizer and the banks that stitched the deal together, layoffs continue at a record pace.
Today, Caterpillar Inc. shares dropped more than 8 percent after the heavy machinery giant announced 20,000 job cuts and posted a lower fourth-quarter profit that was slammed by higher operating costs and an unfavorable foreign-exchange rate.
The Encouraging Qualities of Obama
In a further indication that manufacturing in the U.S. is grinding to a halt, Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., one of the nation’s largest makers of cardboard packaging and one of the world’s largest paper recyclers, filed for bankruptcy in the face of falling demand.
Perhaps it’s our good fortune that Barack Obama was born during the Year of the Ox With the all the burdens he will be forced to shoulder in the upcoming months, he will need every bit of his stubborn patience, physical stamina and indomitable persuasion to get the job done.
An ox sort of looks like a bull, doesn’t it.
John Cohn is a senior partner in the Globe West Financial Group[ based in West Los Angeles. He may be contacted at www.globewestfinancial.com
