StrangeSox

You can name sets of three players, but you need realistic means of them getting together on the same team in the near future.

QUOTE (MexSoxFan#1 @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 04:54 PM) Good for him but... I don´t get why players would turn down so much money for a ring, especially considering that they are role players and probably didn´t make a ton of money in their prime years...I hate to sound greedy but I´d make as much money as I can as a player especially since we know a sports career is essentially over by your mid to late 30s.Guys like Barkley and Malone chasing rings I get, they made top dollar in their prime, but Bibby? Bibby's contract in 2002 was worth 90.5M. If Bibby wasn't an idiot with his money, he should be set for life with or without $5M. The emotional satisfaction of winning a championship will likely have a bigger impact on his life than 5M.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 04:51 PM) You're telling me there is no combination of 3 players out there that could be better than Miami's big 3? I have no idea because of salary cap/rest-of-roster concerns. But Miami automatically gets a differential status because they have the most talented player in the league as part of their three.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 04:48 PM) What would prevent another 3 headed monster team to form like the one in Miami? Lebron James has a twin?

Also, the argument goes that the US economy got plenty of benefit by not losing another 1M jobs in late 2008/early 2009. They also placed some tight controls on executive bonuses and pay at the companies, so unlike the bank bailouts, it's not like it was used to finance billions in bonuses for the people that f***ed it all up to begin with.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 03:52 PM) This isn't an argument against TARP. It's an argument about giving a bailout to a company that survived and is now profitable and not expecting that they pay ALL of that money back, even if it's slowly over time. Why should they get the double benefit - we saved them from totally collapsing, and we're giving them a break by not making them pay back 14 of the 90 something billion we gave them? That's f***ed up. They're selling stocks at market value. The alternative is to hold on to stocks. I would have thought you'd be happy with the divestiture.

They got a ton of stock in return for the loans. The government is looking to divest from a private corporation. So it's either do that now, take minimal losses and let the "free market" get back to work for GM and Chrysler, or have the government continue to hang on to the shares until they go up enough. Kinda deflate all the "ZOMG! Obummer gonna nationalize it all!" hysteria that was rampant, though.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 02:49 PM) Yeah, that's kinda what i'm saying. Why on earth did we agree to just give them money without expecting them to pay it back if they stayed in business? What idiot signed us up for that? Bush The idea was to save potentially millions of jobs from disappearing overnight and turning this into a full-blown depression. $14B seems like a bargain for that, no?

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 02:39 PM) Ops can't be looked at for Pierre though because he is a slap hitter, his slugging % is always going to be terrible. I don't know the numbers, but I bet his average and OBP were decent this month. But yeah, his d is terrible and the lack of power he provides is scary bad for even the worst slap hitters. .286/.365/.704 The .704 isn't terrible with that OBP only if he's still got speed. He doesn't, so it's terrible.

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 01:39 PM) Historically he's a worse hitter with runners on. Why? Because quite frankly in high leverage situations he's just not very good (cause he has a majorly flawed swing and he's going to struggle even more when pitcher X is more focused due to the situation, e.g., runners on). Pitchers perform better with runners on?

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 01:15 PM) Holding on to a large share or not, I fail to see why we don't consider that a debt that must be repaid, regardless of how long it takes. WTF did we just give them 80 billion. It's a LOAN, with the expectation of REPAYMENT. Not all loans are repaid. There's an on-going housing crisis I could point to for that. Additionally, when this loan was made, they never expected it to be paid back in full. You can argue against the wisdom of that, but you can't act surprised that the treasury will lose some money on this. QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 01:20 PM) Don't we still own a ****load of shares in those companies? Chrysler's debts are paid-in-full, apparently. But the US government still holds a 6.6% share.

QUOTE (Jenksismyb**** @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 12:47 PM) anyone know why this is a "loss" and not a "they haven't paid it back yet, but they will, or else we'll sell their assets and close their doors?" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110601/ap_on_...s_obama_autos_2 It was ostensibly to keep the American economy from collapsing in on itself, not to turn a profit or even break even. Losses were expected from the start. The alternative is to keep having the government hold on to a large share.

Rand Paul, who made an effort last week to hold up the Patriot Act passage, calls for arrest and deportation of people who attend radical political rallies. Libertarianism!

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 10:22 AM) Am I incorrect? No, but it seems to me that it's the explosion of those two industries over the past couple of decades that's been a big part of the ongoing economic problems. Finance and health care have been making up ever-larger chunks of our GDP.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 09:57 AM) some (health and financial) still growing pretty well

Gerrymandering!

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 1, 2011 -> 07:52 AM) There's a trick here though...the best Congressional map in the short-term is the one that maximizes the number of seats for the Republicans right now...but if Hispanic Demographic growth continues, then that makes the short term strong map the long-term weak map, because it exposes more districts to growing Hispanic populations over time. Unless of course you stop mid-decade and redo the Redistricting to make sure that never becomes a risk. There was an article yesterday in the Sun Times that pointed to Hispanics being the key to the Republicans' challenges to the Democrats' map in Illinois. They can argue that the new maps underrepresent Hispanics in violation of the voting rights act.

Home prices hit new lows. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/money_co/2...double-dip.html

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 31, 2011 -> 09:07 AM) This one is real simple. The amount of oil produced by humanity as a whole has essentially stayed totally unchanged since 2006. Prior to that, it was constantly increasing, but since 2006 it has plateaued. This has happened despite the price of oil going through the roof multiple times since 2006. Right now, there is almost no oil in the world that can't be extracted at a profit, yet there is no additional oil being processed. Oil discoveries peaked back in the 1970's, and humanity hasn't discovered enough oil to keep up with production since then. Known oil reserves have been declining since the 1970's. This is the most oil that the planet can produce. What happens now is that as economies try to grow, if they try to grow using oil, then the price of oil goes up. The only way the price of oil can stay under control is if the global economy shrinks, as it did in 2008. Oil cannot be pulled out of the ground any faster than this. YEah, but you're just ignoring Jerome Corsi, who knows that oil is produced abiogenically and that the earth is just full of the stuff!

QUOTE (Athomeboy_2000 @ May 27, 2011 -> 11:12 AM) I think the opposite. The NFL is largely fighting over $1 billion.... how is that divided. There wont be a cut in player salaries. they just want more of the pie. The NBA has some serious financial issues and the solutions wont be easy to swallow: Reduced pay, contraction No, the owners want to lessen the players' share of profits.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2011 -> 10:11 AM) Me at work dealing with exactly these regulations ---> I am not a stranger to boring CFR or code book reading.

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 27, 2011 -> 10:04 AM) How were they? Did you use beans as the protein? Actually, they were refried beans, so there was undoubtedly some animal fat in there. Not quite vegan, I guess. Tostada-beans-guacomole-lettuce-tomato. Oh yeah and cheese, lol, not vegan at all! But vegetarian, at least. I'll check that out.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ May 27, 2011 -> 09:50 AM) You should read the SEC/FINRA/SRO rules on the burden of information. Sounds like a page-turner!

QUOTE (BigSqwert @ May 27, 2011 -> 09:50 AM) Good stuff. Thanks for posting. The wife and I are planning to go see the film this weekend if the baby doesn't show up first. BTW, Ebert gave the film glowing reviews. I made a vegan tostada last night and thought of you!

Study finds members of Congress consistently outperform the market Dems outperform Republicans significantly, but some Democrats have been trying to change the rules so there's less possibility of this happening.