Looking back over the latest few weeks of economy data, something stands out: Things are playing out almost 100% different than what people expected

The weekly retail data has been great. Today's number was one of the best in a year. We had a few dicey weeks right when the gas surged, but everything's hunky dory on this front.

On the other hand, the big stuff has not been good. Every single piece of recent housing data has been a miss...and then today, it came out that the March auto sales numbers dipped sharply from February. Also, construction numbers beyond housing have been poor.

So basically, the high-frequency consumer stuff has been fine, and the big money, investment stuff has backslid. We'd rather have it be the other way around.

This short Joe Weisenthal piece was posted over at the businessinsider.com website yesterday...and it's Roy Stephens first offering of the day. The link is here.

The Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania is a prime example of taxpayer spending that refuses to die. Representative John Murtha steered some 150 million of taxpayer dollars to this eponymous airport over the last decade and despite the fact he died more than a year ago, the money keeps on coming.

Three years ago, we first visited the tiny airport, and found a monument to pork barrel spending: An airport with a $7 million air traffic control tower, $14 million hanger, and $18 million runway big enough to land any airplane in North America. For most of the day, the only thing this airport doesn't have is airplanes.

This yahoo.com story was sent to me by reader 'Roger'. The video runs 3:28 minutes...and is worth your time. The link is here.

Legendary oil man T. Boone Pickens warns supply constraints could send oil prices back to all-time highs by this summer.

He argued that increased production from Saudi Arabia would not be able to offset the impact of tighter supplies caused by Iran sanctions.

This very short piece was posted over at the businessinsider.com website yesterday...and is Roy Stephens second offering of the day. The link is here.

Global Finance is publishing a sweet list of the world's top 50 safest banks in their April issue.

Rankings were determined by credit rating and balance sheet. Only major institutions qualified.

Main takeaway: American banks are really not safe at all, at least compared to their global peers.

Not a single U.S. bank figured in the top 20...and just five are in the top 50.

This is another businessinsider.com story from yesterday...and another Roy Stephens offering as well. It's a one-minute read...and it's worth it. The link is here.

This is the shortest item I've ever posted. It contains two graphs...and two sentences containing 14 words in total.

The sentence that accompanies the first graph reads "What you see with one-minute bars." The second graph is accompanied by a sentence that reads "What the algos see in 9.5 seconds."

This is computer-driven trading...another name for high-frequency trading. Both charts are worth a minute of your time...and expand them to full-screen size for maximum effect...especially the second one.

This zerohedge.com piece was sent to me by reader U.D. yesterday and is a must read. The link is here.

So here it is again, clean, simple, precise...and so easy it can be printed out and pinned to one's wall - the chart below from Citi's Matt King puts everything in its proper perspective (if in a slightly optimistic light).

The first two columns show the "impact" of Lehman and the Greek PSI - i.e., the amount of debt that was eliminated. These two tiny bars are what nearly caused the end of Western civilization (per Hank Paulson), and led Europe on a two year voyage to preemptively offload Greek exposure to European (and American) taxpayers.

That's the good news.

The bad news is the column on the far right. This is the amount of debt that in Citi's estimate, has to be "reduced" across the four major developed markets for the world to return to a sustainable debt level. That's right: $30,000,000,000,000. By 2016. And after that it just gets even more parabolic.

This zerohedge.com piece was sent to me by Australian reader Wesley Legrand. Not only is it a must read, but I suggest you read it very, very carefully as well. The chart tells all...$30 Trillion worth. The link is here.

“People that are assuming it (QE) is off the table based on these minutes are wrong. I would really fade this trade. I don’t see why gold would be getting crushed based on these minutes. I looked at the minutes and yes, the Fed didn’t come right out and say QE3 is coming. They are not going to do that. They are never going to do that.”

"They know that complicates what they are trying to do. The Fed is trying to stimulate the economy with inflation, without letting people know there is inflation. It would complicate this charade if they were to telegraph their intentions because that would make prices rise even faster."

This blog was posted over at the King World News website yesterday...and the link is here.

This past Sunday I had the good fortune to be interviewed by Dr. Dave Janda over at WAAM 1600 all-talk radio out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. The interview runs about twenty-five minutes...and it's posted over at the davejanda.com website. The link is here.

Unemployment in the euro zone reached its highest level in almost 15 years in February, with more than 17 million people out of work, and economists said they expected job office queues to grow even longer later this year.

Joblessness in the 17-nation currency zone rose to 10.8 percent - in line with a Reuters poll of economists - and 0.1 points worse than in January, Eurostat said on Monday.

This Reuters story was filed from Brussels on Monday...and I 'borrowed' it from yesterday's King Report. The link is here.

Many German politicians and tax collectors are furious about Switzerland's decision to issue arrest warrants against three German officials who bought a stolen CD with tax data. The move has gone down well in Switzerland, where politicians have praised the country's assertiveness. But it is unclear how the Swiss authorities will proceed -- the main witness is dead.

I ran a similar story to this in yesterday's column, but this one is far more in-depth. Like yesterday's story on this issue...it, too, is posted over at the spiegel.de website...and is another Roy Stephens offering. The link is here.

Yesterday the finalists for the Wolfson Economics Prize were announced.

This year, the prize is offering £250,000 to whoever has the best idea for an orderly breakup of the Euro. There was also an honorable mention to 10-year old Jurre Hermans of the Netherlands.

I don't know about you, dear reader, but his solution probably makes as much sense as the rest of them.

This story really had some legs yesterday...and showed up in The Guardian, The Telegraph...and even The Wall Street Journal. This particular copy of the story, complete with drawings, was posted over at the businessinsider.com website yesterday...and I thank Roy once again for sending it. The link is here.

The first story is headlined "Uruguay willing to trade rice for Iranian oil". The second bears the title "Japan refiners decide to continue buying Iran oil"...and the last story is headlined "Gilani renews commitment to Iran pipeline". All of these stories are worth skimming...and all are courtesy of Roy Stephens

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China said on Tuesday that the nation’s biggest state-run banks have too much power and ought to be broken up because they earn far too much money.

The remarks, delivered during a national radio address while the prime minister was traveling in southern China, were unusually bold and appeared to be a direct challenge to others in the nation’s Communist Party leadership to speed up reforms of the nation’s financial system.

According to China National Radio, Mr. Wen said: “Frankly, our banks make profits far too easily. Why? Because a small number of major banks occupy a monopoly position, meaning one can only go to them for loans and capital.”

This story, filed from Shanghai yesterday, was posted over on The New York Times website and is courtesy of reader Phil Barlett. The link is here.

Yesterday's pounding of gold amid the announcement of the Federal Reserve's minutes was "pure manipulation ... executed almost without camouflage," gold advocate and mining entrepreneur Jim Sinclair told King World News last night. But, as it is manipulation "against the tide of the market," Sinclair adds, it will fail as gold goes to $4,500. May we all live to see the day.

I thank Chris Powell for wordsmithing both the title and the introductory paragraph. Jim's comments are well worth reading...and the link to the KWN blog is here.