Home » The Watercooler for 11/03/09 1:00 AM
The Watercooler for 11/03/09 1:00 AM
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Fans sing 'High Hopes' after the Phillies beat the Yankees 8-6 in Game 5 of the World Series.
Bob Ford: Now Phils need to do it again
By Bob Ford
Now comes the hard part.
Monday night's World Series win over the New York Yankees was hardly a sure thing, but it was the surest card the Phillies had in their hand as they attempt to play their way out of the deep hole they dug in the first four games of the series....
....Having dodged elimination once by the 8-6 score - and saving local fans the sorrow of watching a visitor celebrate on their home turf for the first time since the 1983 World Series - the Phils get back on the train to New York and hope it's not just a quick round trip.
Whatever carryover momentum they hope to take with them will become moot at approximately 8 p.m. tomorrow night when Game 6 begins. After that, it's all up to the starting pitchers to provide the advantages and disadvantages. The Phillies will feel a little better about their chances (having awakened still having some), but everything that follows rides on what they can get from Pedro Martinez in the first game back in Yankee Stadium and whatever mix-and-match special Charlie Manuel dials up for Game 7...
-excerpted-
www.philly.com/philly/sports/20091103_Now_Phils_need_to_do_it_again.html
Sending her love, and light, and all the energy I can spare. . . .
unfortunately the next game will demand throwing every pitcher at the Yankees to keep it going and then game seven will heavily favor NY
good luck Phillies
a former neighbor of mine was in a combine accident yesterday and is fighting for his life, (my brother was a HS classmate) and the community combines will gather to get his beans out even if some get lost to the snow back on their home farms
sports is how a big city gets that same sense of community
it is only a metaphor that Philidelphia is fighting for their lives
someone takes the bait everytime, lol
the Brits have just taken steps to bust up "too big to fail" banks and I think following that leadership would be beneficial here
A litle pepper under the nose goes a long way right? I laways try and kep it in perspective...sometimes many of you are rather funny tho................cheers
get us closer to facts. It obscures them, actually.
Mike's comment had nothing to do with the corrections underway within the British banking system. He said:
London has officially dethroned New York as the world's top financial center, according to an index released this month by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Could it be that second rate x-colonial power so many here like to denigrate? -----
I simply provided the link (which he left out) which placed the headline in proper context. I also corrected his false assertion that "so many here denigrate Great Britain". I've never seen this happen here. However, Mike's constant denigration of the US is a matter of record.
If Mike wishes to toss pepper in the eyes of his fellow bloggers then he shoul expect to get some tossed right back at him.
Americans are conditioned to think of Europe as a giant bureaucracy
dotted with some old churches and nice restaurants. But in reality,
London, as recently as two years ago, was a laissez-faire paradise.
Banks and other financial firms could get by with even thinner capital
cushions than their American counterparts. Rather than dole out
punishments, regulators opted for negotiation—friendly dialogues over
tea.
This made London seem like a threat to New York’s reign as financial
capital of the world. Egged on by the business and Wall Street lobbies,
American politicians worried that New York was losing out, partly
because of the oversight imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Now, however, the British capital is mired in as great a crisis as New
York’s—and things are about to get worse, making a mockery of the
insecurity complex regarding Britain that hit U.S. business leaders
just months ago. Given that both countries are dealing with the same
credit crisis, this should make us wonder why the two regulatory
regimes, so different in structure, have each failed.
British bank stocks have plummeted in the wake of last year’s rescue
attempt and subsequent failure of Northern Rock, a midsize bank whose
customers were seen on the evening news lining up to withdraw their
money. Britain’s surviving banks are scrambling to raise capital, with
some having less success than others. The deflation of the British
housing bubble has only just begun.
Prices, which rose at roughly
double the U.S. rate over the past decade, tumbled about 10 percent
from their peak in August 2007 through the middle of this summer.
Inflation and unemployment are rising, and Britain is in a bear market.
Things might become worse in Britain than in the U.S. Consumers are
more indebted; financial services make up an even greater portion of
the economy; inflation takes a much more significant bite because the
British have to import so much.
What seemed like a prospering and unfettered free market has turned
ugly. The two countries’ respective problems are related to financial
excesses, but Britain seems further down the path of examining the
faults and weaknesses in its financial regulatory structure.
http://www.portfolio.com/views/columns/wall-street/2008/08/13/Problems-in-British-Banking-System/
(^From Portfolio Magazine, August, 2008)
Proponents of downsizing now are pushing the Obama administration to follow Britain's example again.
One of President Obama's top outside economic advisers, former Fed chairman Paul A. Volcker, has proposed a renewed separation between commercial banking and investment banking. The Glass-Steagall Act, which forced banks to choose between those businesses, was imposed during the Great Depression but largely repealed in 1999.
Other prominent financial experts want the government to limit the size of commercial banks -- for example, through penalties that would give smaller banks a competitive advantage. Investors are already offering large banks much better borrowing rates than their smaller rivals because they believe U.S. regulators won't let the big firms fail.
The three largest U.S. banks, Bank of America, J.P. Morgan Chase and Wells Fargo, together control about a third of the nation's deposits and are the dominant providers of financial products including mortgage loans and credit cards. All three companies also play major roles on Wall Street, investing and helping companies raise money. Proponents of downsizing argue that such behemoths can take outsize risks, knowing the government must catch them if they fall.
The Obama administration has pushed the most troubled large bank, Citigroup, to sell operations to improve its financial prospects, but it has declined to place similar pressure on healthier banks, arguing in part that the government is ill-suited to make management decisions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/03/AR2009110300352_2.html
LONDON -- The British government announced Tuesday that it will break up parts of major financial institutions bailed out by taxpayers, highlighting a growing divide across the Atlantic over how to deal with the massive banks that were partially nationalized during the height of the financial crisis.
The British government -- spurred on by European regulators -- is forcing the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group and Northern Rock to sell off parts of their operations. The Europeans are calling for more and smaller banks to increase competition and eliminate the threat posed by banks so large that they must be rescued by taxpayers, no matter how they conducted their business, in order to avoid damaging the global financial system.
Chomsky condemns 'immoral' Afghan war
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8339487.stm
~~~~~~~~~~
the notion of war is immoral, and war creates monsters
still if you follow the trials at the Hague there is a line, which America has not yet crossed (Bush went up to it many places around the world)
however he decides Obama will not appear on that docket
btw my son met Steve Rapp yesterday when he came to their law school to give a lecture
busy day with harvest ahead, see you folks tonight
the media has you the underdog but if your man wins we know where the credit goes
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By Love White Castles on Nov 3, 2009 1:16 AM ESTRight on Philadelphia - make it a real series. YAY!!!
Having a good time up in Napa "bonding" with my coworkers. We have five new people on our team, nice to see new faces.
Great conversations on the blog today. Mostly.
Nighters