NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 10:15 AM) Are you kidding? I have 40 page documents on investments and what is involved in my health insurance plan sitting on the counter beside me. Telling you what a 401k is? Again, universal. It is a federal law that created it. The agency who holds it for you probably has some labrynthine rules about fees, but the loss associated with that is minimal. Do you really not understand financial risk at all? Because I think you do, and I think you are being intentionally boneheaded to make some sort of point.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 09:44 AM) The fact that a mortgage is "large" doesn't give it some sort of incredible increased significance. People are regularly entering contracts for financial products that last for decades. The average price of a U.S. house is close to $160k. The average retirement savings is about $70k, but you haven't sat here and told me how I needed to consult a lawyer before establishing a 401K plan with Fidelity. Hell, I'm pretty sure I asked and no one here told me I needed a lawyer for establishing a retirement plan. The average family pays >$5000 a person for health insurance, which over 30 years comes to $150k, but same deal. What? Of course it's size gives it increased significance! How can you question that with a straight face? A 401k plan is much simpler to understand as well, there is no 100 page stack of things specific to YOUR 401k that you need to know about... the same rules apply to ALL 401k's, except some slight differences in fees associated with the agency. A mortgage is simply not that standardized. Furthermore, losing financial investments like 401k, or stocks, has the possibility of principle loss alone. Mortgage has that PLUS lots of other risk. Your comparison makes no sense. Health insurance? You are not signing a 30 year contract for that. You are taking what is available to you, which is often only one choice or a few, with very basic differences. If you don't want them, you get none. ???

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 09:26 AM) I've always wondered why that is. It's not like the average man was 4'6" in 1532. Basically, we eat a lot better (or at least, we eat a lot more, and in more variety). Also advances in disease prevention and treatment.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 09:01 AM) I'd like to note one more time. This whole discussion was started by people saying how bad it was that the average person isn't financially literate. Then it immediately moved into "Well in this case you need to talk to a lawyer and anyone who doesn't do so is crazy". This second statement totally and completely undermines the first. Financial literacy is useless if you can't manage to understand the contracts you're entering into without additional consultation. If the 2nd statement is true, then what ought to be taught in high school is "Never enter any agreement without a lawyer present." No it does not. And no one other than you is saying you need a lawyer for everything you do. I said it was smart to have one for something as big as a mortgage, which for most people is the biggest financial transaction they will ever make. I cannot believe you are resorting to this sort of hyperbole. Do you really not see how it is important to go through life understanding basic finance? A lawyer at closing is NOT there to teach you what an ARM is. That rests with the consumer. The lawyer is there to look for some buried clause or hidden cost in the note somewhere.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 08:53 AM) Our evidence that they built it, is that is it there and that they were there at the same time. That's it. The Egyptians don't even know how they were built. That is the same evidence as any of the relationships between layouts, distances, etc. Which brings up another sort of fascinating topic in history... technologies that were gained, then lost. Rome got real good at concrete, but I believe that after Rome fell, there was a period of a few centuries where the European world "forgot" how to make it, before "discovering" it again.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 08:51 AM) They're getting there actually. And there are new laws in place concerning the amount of information that you need to be told as you fill out the various mortgage and loan documents. That's true too, the paperwork is changing. And basic overview sheets that have broad statements of protection for mortgager and mortgagee are now part of the process. Still though, just because of the scale of money involved, I would never go to a mortgage closing without an attorney.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 08:48 AM) If you're too stupid to realize that a 15% interest rate is worse than 8%, or that an adjustable rate mortgage means that the rate will be adjusted ever X amount of years and that payments will go up accordingly, then you shouldn't be buying a home. It's that simple. You shouldn't be able to drive a car without knowing how to operate it, same applies to home ownership. That's what I was getting at. You still should have an attorney present on a mortgage closing, because the few hundred bucks that costs you is well worth it against the risk assocaited with hundreds of thousands of dollars. But just going into that closing knowing the basics of what you are doing, would go a long, long way towards avoiding some of the messes people got themselves into. Then of course, Balta takes that, and makes it into needing a $5M legal team to do anything financially.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 08:30 AM) Stop. Giving. Them. Credit. 2 3 And these aren't ones who were told to start making a different payment. LOL, are you serious here? Not one of your three examples is anything like what you were laughably claiming (that banks would build in, and want to, foreclose on paying mortgagees). One is a check lost in the mail, another is a credit rating issue and bank stupidity, and another is a good example of a re-fi assistance program gone horribly awry.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 08:04 AM) If I have a basic understanding of say, health...I can look at the side of a box/can of food and pretty easily figure out how likely that item is going to be to kill me. If I take out a mortgage tomorrow, I'm going to be 1/2 scared that the bank will find a way to foreclose on me as punishment for making my payments. Scoff at that if you want, but you know I can find stories of that happening in the last 4 years. 1. No, you can't find stories like that, because that would be absurd even if the banks were as evil as you make them out to be. They'd lose money. 2. If you take out a mortgage tomorrow and don't have an attorney sitting next to you like you are supposed to (one who knows about real estate law), then you were stupid - and needed a class in finance as I noted earlier. 3. By nature, an instrument like a mortgage is IMPOSSIBLE to fully reduce down to a cereal-box-side page. If you did that, you'd eventually have the opposite problem - that suddenly the banks could do things not even written in the documents.

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Oct 8, 2011 -> 03:33 AM) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/28/o...e=Ozzie_Guillen 30 best Ozzie Guillen tweets My personal faves... The best of my life is not hear yet will coming iam a warrior whit a lot hard and marbles I want to buy some pipes soon let me know where is a good pipes what I saw on the field today was a lot of grass...

Sort of funny how this works... Theo has a massive rebuilding project in front of him as it is, but in order to even have the privilege of taking a shot at it, the already-thin minor league system with the Cubs has to be thinned out even further.

Wow... dude with 8 posts remembers his thread and resurrects it from 6 years ago?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Oct 13, 2011 -> 05:49 PM) It doesn't shock me at all. Have you actually tried to read an understand the fine print on a finance contract? I filled out a couple hundred when I was in sales and I couldn't figure out at least 1/3 of the material in it. You are missing the point. You don't have to understand every piece of fine print in a 100 page document like that. Your lawyer at closing is supposed to do that. What I am saying is, you could avoid a large percentage of the financial trouble people get into, if they simply understood the basics of mortgages, can loans, etc. QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 14, 2011 -> 06:30 AM) The bankers are supposed to be the experts on financial risk anyway. The problem came from derivatives, which meant loan originators didn't care if you could pay out back because their profits were not going to come from waiting court 30 years for you to repay. I don't understand this post. It looks like you are trying to say that loan originators didn't care about risk because they were going to make money via "derivatives" anyway... which makes no sense at all, as no such thing was occuring.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 13, 2011 -> 06:52 PM) The black death hit numbers on the low end of estimates (what took place post Columbus)in places in Europe (30-50%) And ironically, the one place in North America where the black plague still exists and still kills people every year is the indian reservation complex in the Four Corners area.

Epstein is not a God, he's got a near-zero chance of making the Cubs into a contender in 2012 unless the team gives him a $200M payroll. He was given a 5 year deal, and I figure it takes at least three for any plan he comes up with to get to fruition. Cubs will suck in 2012. After that, we'll see what Theo is capable of.

I'm actually not bothered much by the Ventura hire, I might even like it. But... what does piss me off is what is happening after that. If you are going to hire a very raw manager - one who apparently has many of the necessary tools, but perhaps not the skills yet - I think that can work pretty well with the right person. The way it would work is for Robin to learn, and learn quickly, from the right people around him. What he desperately needs is a bench coach with loads of MLB experience. What he apparently will get is a guy with NONE. And that does piss me off, because it sets up a guy who might be a very good manager, to fail.

Quick update on Sox AFL players at this point... BATTING Saldino: In 15 AB: .200/.294/.333/.627... 2 BB, 3 K... 1 SB, 0 CS Short: In 28 AB: .214/.290/.429/.719... 3 BB, 12 K... 1 SB, 0 CS (That K number is pretty gross) Blanke: In 10 AB: .200/.333/.300/.633... 2 BB, 1 K... 0/0 SB/CS (very limited playing time so far) PITCHING Doyle: In 2 starts, 7.2 IP: 1.17 ERA, 0.26 WHIP, 0 BB, 4 K (only given up 2 hits) Petricka: In 3 games, 3.2 IP: 2.45 ERA, 1.64 WHIP, 2 BB, 6 K Griffith: In 3 games, 3.1 IP: 16.20 ERA, 2.70 WHIP, 4 BB, 1 K (ouch!) Doyle and Petricka looking pretty good. None of the position players doing much yet.

Donny Lucy elected free agency? Kind of surprised there, I don't see him getting much of a shot anywhere at a major league job, or even a decent minor league starting job. I guess he's decided he needs to take one last shot at things in another org. The Sox really like the guy by all accounts, he just can't hit major league pitching well enough to stick. I'd be surprised if he doesn't end up coaching somewhere in the Sox system in a few years.

That was an excellent read.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 13, 2011 -> 09:20 AM) Well, again, with this case I don't have a problem with what the FBI did, I have a problem with the media portrayal of "DANGEROUS IRANIAN TERROR PLOT FOILED!!!" And there I agree to an extent... no doubt about it, the media loves to blow these things up beyond their actual impact.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Oct 13, 2011 -> 09:13 AM) This made me laugh. If the left can point out that the GOP has brainwashed conservatives to think what they think, so has the left. He likes to spit out the "facts" but has no idea what they actually are, or why what he wants is a good thing: The parallels with some of the videos we have seen from Tea Party rallies are amazing. Different stupidity, but stupidity none the less. And in both cases, of course, one idiot does not characterize the entire movement either.

QUOTE (StrangeSox @ Oct 13, 2011 -> 08:45 AM) No, because this: is what has happened numerous times. At no point is there an actual, real plot capable inflicting harm on anyone. I'm not saying they're setting people up; my problem with this is portraying the arrest as the FBI actually "foiling" a plot. Without the FBI's help, there is no plot. A google search of "FBI foils own plot" turns up plenty of examples of this exact scenario happening: http://politics.salon.com/2010/11/28/fbi_8/ I just completely disagree with your characterization. There clearly was a plot that this guy himself suggested. Was the plot completely formed and ready? Not in this case, no. So what?

QUOTE (bigruss22 @ Oct 13, 2011 -> 12:21 AM) I do think mortgages are harder for people to understand, but yes same principle. Personal finance classes should be mandatory in every state for high school students, understand just how much those student loans will cost you, or how much that mortgage really costs. In terms of the "liberal education," I went through all that and I personally think that's overblown. There are lots of people out there who have that mentality, but in many advanced and AP courses I saw more competition and drive than anything. Everybody knew that we were all competing against each other for those top schools. And one more point, this is why high school athletics are so important, having that extra competitiveness for students really teaches them hard work and effort can pay off. I've harped on the bolded before, many times. It shocks me that people graduate high school in this country without understanding the basics of a checking account, credit card, mortgage, car loan, and basic investments.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 12, 2011 -> 03:22 PM) Too bad exactly this didn't happen with the Tea Party. Instead they were mocked as idiots and racists, and now people are crying that the same thing is being done to the Occupy movement. Funny how that works. Did you not notice, that is pretty much what this article is about? And when I just said a few days ago, how parallel these things really were, you instintively argued about it. Now they are the same? QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Oct 12, 2011 -> 03:53 PM) The SEC proposes the Voelker Rule, of course with exceptions for the Government... Banks can't make money off of you, but the government can! http://www.securitiestechnologymonitor.com...lyClose__101211 Um, pretty sure you have to exempt the US Government in this rule, since by nature any market activity they perform is on their own behalf, and furthermore you cannot split the US government into multiple entities. Paranoid much?

QUOTE (Rex Kicka** @ Oct 12, 2011 -> 11:58 PM) I think once it's shown that 9-9-9 actually doubles taxes for a family earning 50,000 dollars a year, he'll fade. Although truth be told, he's looking like someone whos running for a cable tv contract rather than President. You might actually want to make appearances in early primary states if you want to be competitive. Yeah, Cain is just what Perry was a month or two ago - flavor of the month. He's got a lot of flash and dash, and people like the outsider angle... but once they realize how ridiculous his ideas actually are, he'll fade in a hurry.