Balta1701

Everyone always wants to pawn their work off on you

Could just check a Zagat guide.

Awesome restaurants.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 30, 2010 -> 09:15 AM) UE claims drop sharply (34k) to 388k, lowest since July 2008, beating expectations. 425k is generally the threshold where job growth begins (below that mark), and 375k is the number for where the gains are enough to bring down unemployment in any measureable way. The single readings (minus an outlier) and moving average have been below 425k for a while now, and it appears we may be approaching the 375k level. BTW the peak in March 2009 was 651k. How much of that is the blizzard though?

You should turn it Y-rated.

Very likely already happened.

Obviously you need to get mopping.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 07:53 PM) it's abstract. who gets counted as an economist? Also, what 'economists believe' is not finite - most like to leave an out (just in case their prediction is wrong). Example: Economist "Well, health care costs are going to go up... unless blah blah blah... then of course they go down." Then a week later the same guy will make a statement that totally contracts his entire argument the week before. The remarkable thing though, there's actually an easy answer to who counts...the NBER...National Bureau of Economic Research. There might be another professional organization or two that I don't knwo about, but when there's a nice easy professional organization covering pretty much everyone who directly works in that field, y ou can go to it. Polling economists thorugh this method has become a pretty standard method that is done all the time on general economic issues.

Maybe Kincaid just doesn't realize that the janitorial conversation is the natural end result of his question.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 09:31 PM) Bulls are #3 in ESPN's Hollinger ratings. Our strength of schedule in the last 10 has been .403, that's probably why we're surging in the defensive categories. It's not gonna get any worse either, I count like 7-8 games against good teams in the next two months or so. Yeah, through Dec. 7th or so the Bulls had the toughest schedule in the NBA, and IIRC it wasn't really even close. They got every impossible game out of the way early other than a couple with the Heat and Boston.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 07:44 PM) What is shows is if you go to Ozzie with a personal situation he likes to discuss it over dinner with the rest of his family. If, for some reason, you want to jab Ozzie in the future, and by no means do I think what Jenks did was right, then you will be subject to Oney airing out all of your personal laundry. It really isn't good. I still think, if I were in that locker room, I'd be much more angry about Jenks opening his mouth than about the fire-back.

#3 in def. eff. already? That means we've been surging upwards in that.

QUOTE (ptatc @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 06:45 PM) Players understand the problems of distractions. They wouldn't hold it against a team. Even if they did Jenks had 3 loses last year. An FA who looked it up, not that any of them care about individual player stats they usually want to know how good the team is, they would see he lost 3 games. that's better than many other closers in the game. And those players are going to say the exact same thing about the Oney guillen distraction.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 06:53 PM) *waits for witch hunt jokes* You know how some of us keep saying "No one cares about the former half term Alaskan governor"? Even fewer people should care about the failed Senate candidate from whatever East Coast state she was in.

I don't want to be the one cleaning that up.

QUOTE (fathom @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 06:27 PM) Our own captain talked after he re-signed about how it was a distraction last year. Do you think that having a closer blowing games because of personal issues is a distraction as well? And maybe is the sort that angers potential FA's and trade options?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 06:08 PM) What's really sad is that I wasted my time, again. You have no idea what you are talking about. I can cite people who say the exact same thing about anyone who says what you said about oil being traded in dollars.

Wikileaks has probably set back openness and democracy in Zimbabwe.

QUOTE (WCSox @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 05:52 PM) could negatively impact their ability to sign free agents down the road. Really folks, let's be honest...when do we ever actually expect this to happen? This season we've already won a couple of FA bidding wars and in the past we've had our GM's and managers ripping departing players repeatedly.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 05:46 PM) I know he was, but come on now, the Saints aren't going to shrivel up and die because of the cold. They played well offensively in the NFC Championship game in Soldier Field January of 06'. The difference was, their defense was a bit suspect then. Well, it isn't anymore. I think it's safe to say that it's offense isn't playing nearly as well now (more TO's, fewer yards and points per game). You could of course say the same thing about the Bears' offense.

In case you haven't checked, this has now hit the front page list on ESPN.com.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 05:30 PM) They do me...I don't worry about the Saints because of their offense...I think the Saints/Packers/Eagles all have elite offenses. I worry more because of their defense. The Saints and Packers have very good defenses. The Eagles, especially since Assante Samuel has been banged-ed up, do not. I'd much rather face an Eagles/Falcons road to the Super Bowl than have to mess around with the Saints and Packers... I think he's talking about the Saints offense versus the December Lake Michigan.

QUOTE (Y2HH @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 04:59 PM) It's a contributing factor, which you cannot dismiss. Oil prices rising 22% over the last few months is not because people are suddenly using X% more oil in relation to that exact rise in price...if you really believe that's the ONLY cause, I have some beachfront property in Canada to sell you. There are MANY factors that drive commodity prices upward in addition to demand, and the value of the dollar happens to be of them. Of course you can't translate a 22% rise in oil prices to a 22% rise in oil consumption, that's just silly. No one would say that oil consumption dropped 50% between June and December 2008. That's the inelasticity in the oil markets hitting you. If demand for oil is slightly above supply, but it takes a substantial cost increase to push demand back downwards, then you're going to get a substantial cost increase.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 04:59 PM) And the biggest factor being that crude oil is traded in dollars. Oh come on, this is just getting sad. It doesn't matter what the international exchange unit is for oil. A lower value for the dollar relative to other currencies would mean that we'd get less oil per dollar whether oil was priced in dollars or in any other unit.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Dec 29, 2010 -> 04:36 PM) That's kind of the point - they know what would happen with QE2, and it's happening. Oil's up 22% since then, I wonder why that happened? Oh, it's pent up demand all of a sudden, right? Would you say that the economic forecasts since QE2 was announced have improved, stayed the same, or gotten worse?