Elections are a funny thing, as much as observers think there are times when the outcome should be obvious, there simply aren’t any slam dunks when it comes to guessing the will of the people.

I guess that is one of the reasons the current presidential election is tantalizing. In my opinion, the media has already anointed a winner for the White House but citizens are going to have their say: The race for the White House may not be a slam dunk except for those that truly believe in the message of their favorite candidate.

Right now I’m more interested in and baffled by a more recent vote. The Yahoo (YHOO) annual meeting was supposed to be something akin to the scene at the O.K. Corral but instead was closer to Woodstock. Disgruntled shareholders made big stinks ahead of the meeting but the vote of no-confidence didn’t materialize.

The last time I was this confused about the outcome of an election was when Marion Berry won election for mayor of Washington DC in 1994. This is after being busted for smoking crack and also avoiding paying taxes (for which he a few months of time).

As bizarre as this series of events was, I can understand it better than the strong (approval) votes the broad of Yahoo received. Many of the citizens in Washington D.C. felt resentment from the way they and their ancestors were treated and saw Berry first as a bold maverick and later as a victim of "the Man."

At Yahoo the only victims were shareholders that now hold shares valued 40% lower than the $33.00 they could have gotten from Microsoft (MSFT).

Jerry Yang is a business maverick to be sure, but is Steve Ballmer "the Man" in Silicon Valley? Should Yahoo shareholders hold such a grudge against Microsoft they are willing to see their wealth freefall into an abyss?


I think at this point Yahoo shareholders want to rally around the current board. I must say this is strange stuff but the thinking had to be that they have no other choice at this point. Yahoo is a listing ship and its big game plan is to hook up with its biggest rival as a surrogate of sorts. Yahoo shareholders didn’t have a say when Microsoft came calling but now that they’ve more or less endorsed the idea the stock is worth more than $33.00 a share. But I hope Yang & Co. have a better plan than subsisting from the crumbs off Google’s (GOOG) plate.

Well, I for one hope not to have to not have to mention Yahoo again for a long time: This saga is now a bore and Greek tragedy in its own right.

Speaking of turning down money, kudos to Brett Favre, for turning down gobs of money (not to play) and instead pursue his dream of leading his football team to glory, again.

This Week

Although there are 68 members of the S&P 500 reporting earnings results this week it will be all about the Federal Reserve and interest rates. The Fed will leave rates unchanged but will also issue a brief statement that could be a market mover.

The economy is too fragile to raise rates and too fragile to lower rates, too. I feel the warnings of “Fire!” are echoing throughout the economic theater, so the big question is how to escape without being trampled and by the same token how not to hesitate long enough to choke on the fumes.