Balta1701

QUOTE (whitesoxfan101 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 07:23 PM) Both of you Brian's have to keep in mind this was the first preseason game. Funk is brand new to television, Rose has never played an NBA game, and Del Negro has never coached an NBA game in any capacity. Combine that with the fact they were playing a veteran Dallas team that is excited to have Avery Johnson gone, and tonight's poor performance is no surprise. If the Bulls look like they did in the first half tonight in preseason game #8 (and if Funk sounds like he did tonight), they it's time to worry, but tonight is no big deal. Everybody is just going to have to be patient with this team in all regards, it will take them a little while to figure everything out. In that respect, it might be another poor start like you'd often see in the Skiles days, but I think this will be a playoff team at the end of the day. Frankly, unless there's a hell of a lot of improvement in the bottom half of the east...this team should be embarassed if they miss the playoffs again, even if all they do is play their all-kiddie lineup. With that number of top 10 picks, including a #1 pick....

QUOTE (whitesoxbrian @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 07:07 PM) It wouldn't surprise me if the Bulls don't even win 35 games this year. That'd still be a 2 game improvement from last year, and would have left the team 2 games out of the 8th playoff spot. Damn last year sucked.

Things you never knew about...

QUOTE (Alpha Dog @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 06:29 PM) Todd isn't out giving campaign speeches, Michelle is. That makes her fair game. But yeah, they are giving such a free pass to the Palin kids. Just totally ignoring them. Well, one other point...Todd Palin is also involved in a non-trivial investigation in Alaska, faced a subpoena, and has had his testimony contradicted by another witness, such that one of them isn't telling the truth.

This, I think is hilarious.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 05:39 PM) I have no idea if they got the checks yet, or when they will. If anyone has a link that would be helpful. Secretary Paulson hasn't even figured out how he's going to use the funds yet. Today instead of buying up the troubled assets like they were talking about last week, they're talking about using the money to buy shares of the banks and use that as a way of recapitalizing them (like some people thought was a better idea anyway).

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 05:31 PM) I don't really know what they could do. Another bailout? The first didn't work and neither will part II. The market actually went up when the bailout got shot down. Actually you're slightly off on that...the market plummeted when the bailout got shot down the first time...it just also plummeted when it passed.

QUOTE (Thunderbolt @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 04:43 PM) Are we talking about a rotation of Buehrle, Floyd, Danks, Poreda, and Richard? Because that's four Lefties in a row matter where you spin it, and Ozzie usually likes to rotates righties/lefties so as to give hitters different looks. Wow, a 4 lefty rotation to start the season. Man that'd be weird. Have we ever seen that before?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 02:37 PM) They wont want the contracts coming with either. Aren't they getting a new stadium, and didn't they move pretty much every bit of salary they had other than Chavez in the last year?

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 03:13 PM) True on cash buyers, and their buys will help stabilize prices. But more important, the combo of the bailout, lower rates and a clearing out of some of the substandard lenders will create lending opps. Banks still need to lend to survive - and lend they will. Long run, this is a good time to buy. If you look at real estate values in a historic context, in terms of how much they inflated beyond rent values and beyond the historic value where they grow steadily close to the rate of inflation, then housing prices haven't fallen enough yet, they still have another 10% or so to go on average to hit the pre-bubble trend lines, and I have difficulty figuring out how, with the gigantic surge in building that accompanied the bubble over the last few years, they won't be pushed down at least that far.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 03:00 PM) Closing the markets could very well cause more panic. People would take it as a sign that things are completely out of control. The day the market re-opened I would expect to see a lot of selling. It depends on whether or not you have a plan to do anything during the time its closed.

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:32 PM) On a positive note: Oil prices closed at $84 Don't worry, OPEC will take care of that.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 02:42 PM) Also, trend wise, this type of crash out typically means a good time to buy real estate. Except right now is probably as bad of a time in at least 20 years, perhaps a lot more, to be buying real estate, because the bubble is still only half deflated.

QUOTE (Steve9347 @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:34 PM) You can't shut down the markets for an extended period. Depends on your definition of extended period. For example, they were shuttered for roughly a week after 9/11. For an alternate and perhaps more relevant example, immediately after taking office, when faced with a seeming unending run on banks, FDR ordered a 4 day "Bank holiday" which essentially shut down the banks, delaying the bank runs, giving time for a little bit of calm to appear, and giving him time to push through emergency legislation. I don't think we're at the point where this should happen yet, but panicked selling begets more panicked selling. Perhaps if you give time for some of the panic to subside, then everything will come back closer to an equilibrium. At least that's the thinking. That's half me playing Devil's Advocate and half me thinking if we lose another 2000 points in the next week maybe we should.

So, worth a little bit of your time if you have it today is this NYT piece, 4 pages, going through Greenspan's role in the buildup of these bubbles and in particular his work in helping expand all these complicated crazy credit swaps/derivatives/whatever the Hell they're called.

QUOTE (Tannerfan @ Oct 9, 2008 -> 12:23 PM) What would it take to get Ichiro? Man that would be so f'n cool. I'd Imagine they'd do him straight up for Danks + Quentin, maybe with Floyd thrown in.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Oct 8, 2008 -> 05:01 PM) Chicago will not evict people whom do not pay mortgage http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081008/D93MFL900.html I know this sounds like a good thing to do, but in reality it's a horrible policy. Things like this are the types of policies that can lead to a complete collapse of financial systems. If it ends up being everyone with a mortgage may just decide to stop paying, and never get evicted, the whole system is FAIL. So, there is some backstory here...the guy instituting this policy will still perform evictions, but only if the bank provides documentary proof that the people he's evicting actually have been notified and given 120 day warnings. The idea is to avoid the mess where a person goes in to foreclosure and either isn't told at all before they're evicted or even worse when a property owner goes in to foreclosure and the people he's renting to wind up being evicted despite having paid their rent in full and no warning given to them whatsoever. Don't see how it's inappropriate for a bank performing an eviction to follow the laws even if that makes it a little more expensive for them.

So, thankfully, the government has no interest in any non-terror-related phone calls and can be completely trusted with that information. It's not like they'd pass ones they thought were funny around the office or anything totally inappropriate like that, right? D'OH.

Something like 9-32 IIRC, or very close to that. I think win #9 of that sort was Game 3 of the DS.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 8, 2008 -> 03:22 PM) I'd be in favor of a woman moderating the debates again. Couric gives woman news journalists such a bad name, why not let another woman showcase their abilities so they can get recognition and be more represented in the late night news programs so rooted in the past. Like who?

Last time I was there we spent some time on a Thursday evening @ Studio 54 at MGM. Dance clubs aren't exactly my thing, but the wife enjoyed herself. I haven't been to any others though so I really don't have a good way to compare.

QUOTE (bmags @ Oct 8, 2008 -> 01:27 PM) I feel like Andrew Jackson would be the man to condemn for that. His wife was a pipe smoking woman of ill repute.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ Oct 8, 2008 -> 08:25 AM) Didn't they cut off Fields leg at the knee or someithing? I don't think he will be very fast. Josh was actually 8/10 on steals this year with some very bad knees and missing a decent chunk of the year. I can't get my site for his other years to load for some reason right now, but he's at least not anywhere near Konerko level. He'll swipe a few if healthy and can probably score from first on most doubles.

QUOTE (ChWRoCk2 @ Oct 8, 2008 -> 11:36 AM) Can't complain with the production Toby Hall gave us. Actually I think we can.

Prior to this season, John Danks had never pitched more than 130 innings. This year, Danks pitched 200+ innings. Typically, you're putting a pitcher at elevated injury risk if you inflate his innings load by more than about 30 or so per year, give or take. We're well outside the margin of error.