Balta1701

I'm quite certain I've addressed a number of those points before, most notably the fact that the GSE's simply weren't a major part of the real subprime expansion, but the thing that hurt them was the elimination of $8 trillion or so in total housing wealth in this country. But, I don't think I've posted the analyses that strike at the heart of one of your claims...that the Community Reinvestment Act was a major contributor in causing banks to create bad loans because they were required to do so. It turns out...your claim that those funds are more likely to end up in foreclosure is simply inaccurate. I'll cite my data from a statement by one of the Fed Governors last December.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 03:31 PM) I saw somewhere today that the support was around 40%. I can't remember where because I was flipping channels, but I know it wasn't Faux. Am I allowed to link to Kos in this thread if it's just for data? Pollster Support level (previous where available) Gallup 52 (53) 2/4 CNN 54 2/7-8 Pew 51 (57) 2/4-8 Rasmussen 37 (42) 2/4 CBS 51 (63) 2/2-4 There is actually one pollster out there which has been showing 40% support for the stimulus package; Rasmussen. That however, has so far been the outlier. The trend lines are noteworthy, but the 15-20 point baseline difference suggests that Ras. is doing something fundamentally different in how they're asking the question or how they're sampling. And, as always, take note of which media organization chooses to cite the outlier the most heavily.

This is quite good. A Fox News report this morning copied almost verbatim from a set of talking points the Republicans sent around this morning. They copied it so exactly that they even matched the typo.

QUOTE (scenario @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 01:35 PM) Over the last 5 years, Baseball Prospectus has predicted the Sox to win 11 less games per year than actually happened. So, if that trend stays the same, we should win 85 games this year. What happens to that # if you exclude 2007?

QUOTE (Soxbadger @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 11:07 AM) Must be a slap on the wrist (imo). I wonder what the government gets out of having him do a plea deal.

More detailed version from ESPN:

Ouch.

The local sheriff actually appears to be putting in the effort to assemble a solid case against Mr. Phelps.

David Aldridge at NBA.com on what may be driving trade talks; the economy.

Alex Rodriguez will face a perjury investigation.

From now on, all discussion of Geithner's bailout plan is required to refer to the package as the "Bad Assets Relief Fund."

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 10:11 AM) The market is now down over 300 points in a sign of what they think of the bill and our Sec Tres's latest boost of confidence in the banking crisis... Given that the plummet was directly correlated with Geithner's speech (200 points within 1/2 hour of Geithner's speech starting), and the market has actually been going up the last few days as this bill has approached passage, I'd say government by DOW suggests that we should pass a better version of this bill and bury Timothy Geithner alive.

In an interesting bit of change, last night, the Huffington Post became the first web-only journalistic outfit (excluding ones employing homosexual male hookers) to ask a question at a Presidential press conference. And, another interesting change from the previous administration...it wasn't a softball, it was a challenge from the left. The President dodged the question. Meanwhile, the Washington Post, Katherine Graham's old paper, the paper that broke Watergate...their guy asked the President of the United States for his reaction to ARod.

Take THAT Pecota!

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 09:31 AM) No one knows what this is going to look like 6 weeks from now, let alone 6 months from now. I have a very good idea what it's going to look like 6 weeks, 6 months, and probably 6 years from now. "Bad."

Geithner's guess. I'm still not certain that they actually have any clue what is going on. I think the markets are down pretty heavily on this plan because he didn't propose more government money yet. Anyway, just to point this part out...Wall Street continues to prevail in getting what it wants, because they haven't been wrong about anything yet.

QUOTE (MO2005 @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 09:16 AM) Are there any new updates from the Sox side on this guy? No.

QUOTE (Texsox @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 08:58 AM) I thought he had to be confirmed? Blago got to pick and that was the only step? It's complicated. The Constitution gives the Senate the right to determine the winner of an election. But that would be a senate seat not coming from an election, it's coming from an appointment. In other words, if the Dems wanted to make a stand, they may have had grounds, but it would have tied things up for months until the Supreme Court got a chance to decide exactly how that clause would apply in that case. Aside from that though, there was no official confirmation hearing that the person had to pass. Blago could have appointed anyone he wanted.

ARoid to likely be called before Congress. Alex, if you're going to lie, make sure it's something they can't demonstrably prove you're lying about.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Feb 10, 2009 -> 07:42 AM) I'm done with this team if that's the price it takes to get Amare and they balk. We give up basically one piece of worth in a streaking Tyrus Thomas for the best post scorer in the game who is 26... Seriously. If it comes out that that report is true, and the Bulls pass to hold onto this dogs*** core, I am officially done until both Pax and Vinny are fired. I never thought I'd say that. Well, regardless of what happens, I can guarantee you that enough people will assume that the cheapest price they read anywhere was the actual offer that the Bulls could have taken, and that the Bulls chose not to take it, so it's obviously the GM's fault.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 9, 2009 -> 06:45 PM) What did you post earlier about a completely different statistic being used to prove something that wasn't really relevant? Why post the ratios instead of the actual CEO compensation numbers? The rate of increase got out of control after the government tried to fix this. It doesn't give me great hope that they can fix it this time. Really that big public knowledge it what brought the whole stock and options thing into vogue, because others found out what they were missing out on, and this was a way a public company could give more money to a CEO without writing a bigger check. This wouldn't have happened if the government had stayed out of the way. Because I'd say 90% of people out there don't post the raw #'s, they post the comparison numbers. It makes sense anyway, it normalizes out the average inflation. And quite frankly, when I googled it, the first 10 graphs or so all showed it in that normalization. Here's the only presentation of the raw #'s I could find. Source is here, indirectly using the WSJ name. Grabbing a few extra details: I think the normalized one is also interesting in that it actually increases the boost the last 5 years or so, because the median income has declined relative to inflation. And one more point...if you accept that a huge chunk of corporate profits being tied up in bonuses and salaries is a problem, but you say that the government can't fix it, please offer up a solution, because right now nothing is going to fix it, and as I mentioned, the bonus reward for producing high quarterly/yearly profits combined with the lack of penalties for long term failure is almost a guaranteed method to continue driving the explosion of investment bubbles.

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Feb 9, 2009 -> 05:26 PM) Owens is not so much younger and has been unable to string together more than a month of consistent MLB play. Wise has at least done something recently. He's had 3 months in the big leagues.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Feb 9, 2009 -> 05:35 PM) The irony of that is if the government hadn't have made the disclosure of executive salaries a law for public companies, we would have never gotten into the situation where there was a public bidding war for executives, and their compensation packages would have never blown up the way that they did in an effort to out do one another. Are you coming back to Sarbanes/Oxley for that again? Because executive compensation was through the roof before that happened. It may not have worked but it was at least a proposed idea for fixing what was already being viewed as a problem; this graph. Sarbanes/Oxley may not have been a part of the solution, but it isn't the cause of the problem. That problem was there well before that bill.

And while we're on the subject of things done in our names...there was a case about a week ago of one of the former Gitmo detainees where the British were refusing to release some of the information about what happened to the guy, ostensibly because the Obama administration was still asking them not to. I think it leaked.

This is essentially inexcusable and indefensible. More at link.