Another day, another airline fee and this time it's for carry-on luggage! Is there no limit to these fees? Spirit Airlines, out of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is going to start charging a fee on August 1, 2010. The only group that is not chagrined are probably the nudists that travel light when vacationing.

Given all the fees the airlines are tacking on they might as well evolve into banks. Actually I think this is another instance where business has learned a bad lesson from government agencies. The government may require legislative action to raise taxes but bureaucrats the world over seem to be able to add new fees at will.

Today was a low volume trading day without much economic fanfare as many market participants were out or were talking about the Christmas holiday rather than the markets. The manufacturing output was reported for the Dallas and Chicago Fed Districts, but this in and of itself is rarely enough to heavily influence the markets. There will be more traders around on Tuesday and Wednesday most likely, but then it is likely to peter out again on Thursday ahead of the New Year's Day holiday this Friday. The markets were mixed throughout the trading day, and the real position for an up-close or down-close was something not known until the very end of the trading day.

Here are today's unofficial closing bell levels:

Dow 10,547.30 +27.20 (0.26%)
S&P 500 1,127.78 +1.30 (0.12%)
Nasdaq 2,291.08 +5.39 (0.24%)

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In some pie-crazed parts of the world -- in this case, Dallas -- the competition for business can get so fierce, some chains will do just about anything to get your money. Even if that money is, well, pesos.

On Monday, Pizza Patron (with 59 stores spread across Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada and Colorado) began a two-month trial period in which they will accept Mexican currency at 12 per U.S. dollar (the current rate being approximately 11 to 1) to honor their Hispanic patrons and to make sure that no one -- no matter who they are or what they have in their pockets -- has to go without a large 15" or half 11" pizza (which appears to be the only things they offer on their menu). Hmm.

And while the news orgs will apply such obvious tags as the "growing Hispanic influence" and the "stifling immigration problem" -- because, believe me, all the major networks are covering this -- the real issue, I think, is whether or not a reactionary fallout will occurr. Will McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) start accepting all those impossible-to-exchange Scottish pounds? Will Burger King (NYSE: BKC) take those German marks left over from your backpacking trip through Europe?

The answer is, most likely, "nein."

B. Brandon Barker is the author of Operation EMU