VACCINATION LIMITS

Well, the mixed market signals continue.

Retail sales--remember them, the ones economists said would soar with the steep decline in gasoline prices--surprised Friday to the downside, oil hit $60 a barrel for the first time this year and the U.S. Dollar dropped a bit as economic growth looks weak based on the University of Michigan February consumer sentiment for January slid lower than what the market expected.

The mixed signals put a damper on just when the Fed will pull the trigger on its long expected rate hike, an event that's almost as anticipated as the dreaded deflation concerns that's been in the news forever and a day. At the same time U.S. government bonds fell in their biggest sell-off in 18 months as yields jumped pushing investors once again out on the riskier asset search limb in their quest for yield.

Currency wars rage on. Another name for it is exporting deflation and the U.S. with its strong dollar has been taking its cue from the Fed by becoming the globe's buyer of last resort. An ill-timed interest rate hike will only complicate the situation.

Meanwhile, the guessing about the new normal for oil prices continues. In Europe the current meme is "fairing better" than expected as last week one of the ECB's big guns fronted the view things there are picking up. Whether they are or not, this is more PR than reality.

The big fairing better is 0.3% quarter-to-quarter growth at the end of 2014 versus the forecast 0.2%. Annualized growth, however, was 1.4% compared to 2.6% in the U.S., the global bellwether everyone seems to envy for the nonce and apparently is prepared to do almost anything to match.

Missed or lopsided results remain the concern as Germany and Spain provided much of that growth, according to one report. The key phrase--touted as a positive--was "less tightening of government purse strings." Translation: austerity takes a vacation, the window dressing period is over.

In certain areas of the U.S. there's a controversy over a recent measles outbreak and vaccination.Though the numbers are small, panic in the DNA of reactionaries comes built-in. 

So the to-vaccinate-or-not-to vaccinate question hit the news as the government rolled out its heavyweights--including that eminent expert on viral infections, Hillary Clinton, to mandate vaccinations for certain age groups.

That's how it always starts--with certain age groups. Hillary is such an expert on the subject she's probably seen zero cases and treated even fewer.

There comes a time when one realizes what matters, what doesn't, what never did and what always will. But it seems there's a vaccine most politicians and bureaucrats routinely get every few years that assures them immunity from that basic truth.

Who said all vaccines are good?