The Daily Feather – Soul Food

“Soul-warming, trusted soup that brings a smile with every spoonful.”

Campbell Soup Company

Oh, the weather outside is frightful. But the fire is so delightful! I admit it, I’m all for letting it snow. This summer’s market weather is running thin leaving me hankering for some comfort food. In studying the history of the ultimate healing dish – chicken soup – I learned something. Did you know that 10,000 years ago, fowl was not domesticated? “Wild chickens” roamed freely. The minute Southeast Asians built the first coop, chicken soup came to be. The Ancient Greeks’ version was touted specifically as a tonic. The boiled chicken bones that make the broth just so. The carrots and celery. The rich noodles. Are you with me? On that last count, we have Campbell Soup Company to thank as they brokered the holy matrimony between the soup and the noodle. Though it doesn’t roll off the tongue as it was originally named in 1934 – “Noodle with Chicken,” the company that celebrates its 130th birthday next year got lucky when a radio announcer misread an advertisement for the soup, calling it instead what we all grew up with – “Chicken Noodle Soup.”

As for what’s not “M’m, M’m, Good,” that would be the increasingly questionable integrity of our nation’s statisticians. Revisions have become so commonplace that federal agencies’ data make their counterparts crunching the numbers in the Middle Kingdom blush. Whether it was the $1.1 trillion not saved in the last six years or second quarter consumption that was so off, the National Inquirer of financial media – Zerohedge – noted the revision was a nine-sigma miss.

While stocks’ sigh of relief yesterday was audible, as the yield on the 10-year finally traded on fundamentals, we wouldn’t be too sanguine about calling the ‘all clear’ on the risk-off trade. Across the board, the data were awful.