NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 15, 2010 -> 09:25 AM) Yes, Trois is also Unibroue. I encounter it much less often than some of their other products but it might be my favorite dark strong ale of theirs. As for Maudite versus La Fin Du Monde, I slightly prefer Belgian tripels to the darker styles although Unibroue does them all quite well. I had a belgian trappiste on my list, but it was Chimay.

QUOTE (Jordan4life @ Nov 15, 2010 -> 02:01 PM) Not really. If you don't include Sale, who might end up a reliever anyway, we arguably have the worst collection of SP in the minors. And I'm not speaking from total ignorance. I subscribe to BA and follow other prospect-laden sights extensively. This is pretty much common consensus. Two of our top prospects coming into '10, Flowers and Danks, flopped miserably. Mitchell got hurt and was already raw to begin with. Other than a few relievers with decent upside, there's nothing to get excited about. And yes, I know JPN, Scenario or Northside will tell me I'm a minor league devil and I'm wrong. Actually I pretty much agree. We're currently working up our latest Top 25, and its... depressing. Not to say there isn't ANY talent, as any system has some, but overall its pretty bleak, especially for starting pitching above the A level.

Retail Sales report for October came out this morning. Concensus was for up 0.7%, 0.3% excluding auto. Actual results were 1.4% up, 0.4% excluding auto. Also, September revised up to 0.7%. October YoY was up 7.3%.

QUOTE (FlaSoxxJim @ Nov 15, 2010 -> 06:52 AM) La Fin Du Monde, Trois Pistoles and Maudite from Unibroue would all have cracked a list of 50 beers but missed out on my top 20. On any given day though any of them could have made a top of my head list of all time favorites. I've not tried the Trois Pistoles - is that a Unibroue product as well? La Fin Du Monde is good, but not a fave. Maudite, though, hell yeah.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 12:19 PM) The same people who think the deficit commission report is a wonderful idea think that the wars are a wonderful idea. Incorrect.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 14, 2010 -> 12:18 PM) I can offer up a couple practical options here. One of them is cram-down; letting a bankruptcy judge rewrite mortgage loans, just like a bankruptcy judge can do with every other type of loan. That way, people get their credit histories destroyed, but they get to keep their homes, the bank loses some off the top of the loan but doesn't lose the entire loan, and neighborhoods are kept somewhat in tact, rather than evacuated by foreclosures. Another option would be allowing a judge the option of, instead of foreclosure, taking people who would be in foreclosure and putting them in a rental situation; turn the bank into a landlord. The people stay in the house, the house stays in use and avoids deterioration, the people aren't thrown out, and the bank continues taking in payments. Allowing for cram downs may be a not bad idea, but there have to be parameters the judges must work within, or you can have judges doing all sorts of inconsistent things. The owner-come-renter idea is problematic on multiple fronts. For one thing, you are forcing banks to become something they aren't, and will be really bad at, which will be bad for everyone involved. For another thing, you just pretty much told the Owner that they can now do whatever they want to with the home with nearly no reprecussions, which will have some bad endings. Also, there is huge potential for abuse by banks here against renters in that scenario.

Hoiberg wins his coaching debut despite being a few players short and with a nothing roster of talent. Still probably going to be an ugly season for the Cyclones, though. He'll need a few years to get that program back to strength.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Nov 13, 2010 -> 10:20 AM) That I won't defend. Ok - here's how the per diem stuff works on a couple of different levels. I'll try to simplify and use examples that I've run into. Each city/region has their own per diem rates as established by the us government. There's foreign allowances (http://aoprals.state.gov/) and US allowances (http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/21287). For example, because I work for an aerospace company, our rates cannot exceed established per diem guidelines. We get audited by government people all the time in this. However, there's a couple of instances where per diems go out the window. One is if there's no facilities within a certain perimeter of where you're staying - you get stuck with the rates charged - and most of the time it's full up pricing and no discounts received, and two, if there's ANY type of security risks, you have to stay in a pre-approved facility which exceeds the per diem guidelines. What I find funny about this is they tell you where you have to stay, and they know you're going to exceed per diem rates. So, it's an exception right away if people want to make a stink about it. What I cannot tell you about Gov. Christie specifically is if this stuff falls in category one or category two... people know that these expenses are tracked and they don't stay at places without one of the two being the case 99.9% of the time. They're not going to "rip off the tax payor" or stay somewhere extremely excessive because everyone knows these are scrutinzed, let alone scrutinized because said person is running for political office. I just don't think there's much of a story here because of these reasons - honestly, much like I don't think there's a story of $200 million per day being spent on Obama overseas - it's too easy to inflate these type of numbers to make a story that's not a story... i.e. said hotel costs $499 per room per night gross, but on a discount it's $199 per night typically. Oops, it cost $499 because you're the US government! Cha-ching! Talk about inflation. Hopefully that makes sense. Good post. I like this version of kap. I agree that this sort of thing is really a non-story.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 06:19 PM) How many states completely halted foreclosures? I get the impression that the only action acceptable to Balta would be to halt all foreclosures nationally and permanently. Look, its not that I am not symathetic to people losing their homes. I have no doubt that experience would be terrible. But if you borrow money and you can't pay it back, the lender has to have a remedy to cut their losses. If they don't the entire system breaks down, and that's terrible for everyone.

QUOTE (since56 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 04:47 PM) This year we had warm weather, but I could see some world series games snowed out in Minneapolis ( if the twins could ever advance beyond the first round). They don't even need a World Series, they are going to be playing baseball in April and even March.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 05:32 PM) Thats odd, all I see is hate in those initial posts. Then quite honestly, I think you are seeing what you want to see, or expected to see. I've never been as huge a Bush hater as some here, I think he was doing what he thought was best. He was just not a good executive, and he made a bunch of mistakes including one gigantic and tragic war. And for me, all I see is people poking fun at his lack of depth. On what planet is that hate? Now, Sqwert's post, borders on it. I'll give you that one, and so will he.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 03:59 PM) I've been impressed by how little effect that pressure has had. Do you actually read the news? Have you not seen all these lenders hard-halt their proceedings, then start cranking again much more slowly? Have you not see all the states and localities putting new requirements out there?

So with about 40% in, 89.8% of the ballots have gone uncontested to Murkusbhdfluiabhlsbnl, and of the 9.8% contested, most of those ended up being granted to her as well. Looks like this is a done deal. Hell, she'd probably win even on just the uncontested ones.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 03:55 PM) I haven't gotten the impression that the courts are forcing the banks to do that at all. A handful of AG's are trying, but they're so, so, so, so, so late to the game here. I don't remember saying the timing was good. Also, you are dismisisng the fact that this was not such a big issue before, because the volume of foreclosures was so much lower. And lots of people have gotten on the banks about this stuff, which you know because you've pointed them out: judges, AG's, auction companies, county sherriffs, mortgage holders, REO's, etc. That's a lot of pressure, and its a good thing.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 03:43 PM) If they don't have the documents, do they actually own them? Yes, but as I just said, its good that the courts and auditors and what not are now forcing the banks to prove it and do it right.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 03:15 PM) Matt Taibbi has another long, totally worth reading tome out in this month's rolling stone, this time he's sitting in on one of the Foreclosure kangaroo courts in Florida. Some fun parts are the judge trying to admonish him for coming into what is by law an open courtroom, his actual examinations of bank documents, and the point at which a homeowner who is about to be foreclosed on actually shows up and it turns out that the plaintiffs hadn't brought her documents at all; had she not shown up, she'd have been foreclosed on without any documentation. A portion of one good section: This section you clipped in really shows the author's common thought process with many Americans - that banks who are trying to foreclose on owners who aren't paying their bills is somehow the evil banks' fault. I find that disturbing and uneducated, not to mention dangerous. Now, as he points out, certainly the banks are not handling the mortgage paperwork and procedures well. The immense flood of these things has overwhelmed their systems, and they are running to catch up, which is causing s***ty situations to occur. So I am glad that has been highlighted, because courts and other entities are now forcing the banks to put on the resources necessary to handle it. This is a good thing. But other than pointing out the exceptions (which he characterizes as much more than exceptions), his whole article is basically a piece making out banks trying to get back what they rightfully own as being somehow evil. If people all think that way, that's very, very dangerous, because if banks become unable to recover defaulted loan assets, then guess what happens?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 03:06 PM) But China isn't. Nothing they provide is true. Isn't what? Providing good data? No they aren't, you're right. That's what I'm saying though, that is something that will come with time, because it has to if they want to continue to grow. As to Balta's comment, its all relative. The numbers any country puts out are questionable, but China's are outright pulled out of someone's ass.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:42 PM) The best answer is...that figure itself would be $6-$7 million ish. I think that's way more than I'd pay for Putz. Given that the bullpen looks as thin as it does right now, I think I might. $6M sounds doable, even better at $4-5M.

QUOTE (supernuke @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:43 PM) I'm interested to see how this turns out. I won't be submitting a list though as I'm sure I'll be the lone vote for all my Canadian beers. I have on canadian beer on my list (Maudite), and almost had a second (Molson Canadian).

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:36 PM) Part of the issue here though is that I think everyone who matters to the system sort of realizes that they've been lied to. It's that weird, quasi-police state thing where you know bad things are happening but you're not strong enough on your own to do anything about it. Especially in the economic arena, the people with the money both here and there aren't stupid enough to believe the Chinese government. Instead, they're willing to close their eyes and protect the system, because it's a system they're benefiting from. Except that's changing now, has been for a few years. China's combined growth in energy use, exports, and general global impact coupled with up-yours monetary policy and lack of transparency have reached a point where its more bad than good for the world. That's why you are seeing a constant rise in noise from the rest of the world, both developed and developing, for China to get with the program. Its being done gradually so that they don't cause a bigger problem, but China will eventually boil to death like the proverbial frog if they don't act eventually. And so they will, just not in the timing or on the terms the rest of the world would prefer. They'll do it when they need to, a day which is coming soon.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:35 PM) Where does he say it's "very mediocre overall?" His complaint is that it's not an expose of who he is personally, but that he just discusses his 8 years in office. Well, that makes sense since the book is called "Decision Points," you know, the decisions he made while in office. Also, I love this: Just like I said - "well, he didn't apologize for ruining the world, so....meh." If Bush admits no mistakes in his memoirs, anyone who calls him on it wants to have him apologize for ruining the world? The only person in this thread bringing the hate-hate-hate or the bias to this discussion appears to be you. He's a former President and a human being in a very, very, very difficult job - he made mistakes, lots of them. He doesn't have to admit to them, but if he doesn't, he's rightfully going to get called out for it. Your repeated straw man doesn't even vaguely match the reality of any of the posters talking about the book.

Hopefully no one actually thinks the Twins bump in attendance is reflective of some new ongoing reality. Every city and every new stadium gets a big bump that first year, diminshing over the next few, and eventually returns to something relatively close to their previous numbers (probably slightly above). The Twins are not now suddenly going to get 15k new average attendance every year for eternity.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:23 PM) All of that assumes confidence in the system after their general public learns of the generations of lies they have been told. Would you keep sending money to Bernie Madoff after his collapse? The provisions of at least vaguely accurate data is really the only thing that will solve the confidence problem, and that is somethign relatively easy to fix. Your Bernie Madoff line is kid of ridiculous. A more apt description would be a hedge fund manager who kept all his numbers tightly held and questionable, then suddenly took his fund open to the public (which is illegal in the exact scenario, but this is just a general idea here). As long as he could provide numbers and audit of those numbers that was reasonably believeable, they'd get investment.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 01:56 PM) We don't even need to sign a closer. Just give Putz some fair market value and you have your closer. It's not like he's going to get more money than Jenks will get in arbitration. I was just thinking about that. Seems like he'd get par money with what Jenks would get via arbitration, maybe even less, so why not? QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:01 PM) Why does Jenks's arbitration number matter? Jenks isn't going to be offered arbitration. See above.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Nov 12, 2010 -> 02:19 PM) It won't be a blip that takes them down, it will be a confidence factor. When it comes time that they have to cut back outlays and people lose confidence in the system, China will fold like a house of cards. Nothing that comes out of that country is real, from their economic numbers, to their employment numbers, to their social outlays. It is all fabrication and lies to keep up a ponzi scheme. Stop the confidence, and it goes under. I think this is a vast overstatement (ponzi scheme), but its certaintly true that the base economic data is closely held and not nearly as accurate as most large economies are capable of generating. And while that's a problem, its a problem that will fix itself quickly if or when the unpeg their currency. Once they do that and are subject to that level of scrutiny, their only choices will be to stay shut and see their economy crumble, or improve their data provision. They'll do the latter.