I have a good friend who, as a college professor, frequently asks young people this question when meeting for the first time: "what do you think about?" At the moment she considers most opportune, she gently tosses the question into the conversation like a freshly baited hook onto a still pond, and she patiently waits for the cork to bob.

Reality is setting in once again for investors that the Federal Reserve can't keep funding the so-called recovery forever. Stocks sank yesterday due to stronger-than-expected domestic growth and the likelihood that European growth will soon improve spurred by a rate cut in that region yesterday.