bills_fan

Funny...the NY Post/Daily News write all about smash mouth football when referring to the SB winning and 9-1 Giants...

Agreed, I think trent got gun shy. I would ask Kelly to speak to him...ints are just a part of football and you can never stop gunning.

Yep.

I think last night showed us we need three big things... 1- Another target for Edwards, preferably at TE. TGonzalez would have been perfect for this team, absolutely perfect. Maybe we can take another run at him this offseason, otherwise we should look at free agents. I think LJ Smith was liked by the staff before Philly franchised him. 2- A real C. This should be our 1st round pick. Preston got blasted backwards so much last night it was terrible. Butler looked OK, I'm content to let him develop, but a real C is what we really need. Alex Mack of Cal seems to grade the highest, any draftniks want to chime in here? 3- Playmaker at OLB. Mitchell has been great, we need to compliment him on the other side. Hopefully, we can get someone who can also rush the passer. Mike Peterson is leaving Jax and has played in this defense before in Indy. I don't know too much about his pass rush abilities but the guy seems like a pretty sure tackler. We may be able to get him here. I believe we are thisclose to really having a GREAT team. We are young and just need to let the players learn to win. Keep fighting and this team will have a real breakthough next year.

I got there at 7, and this was a kick a$$ time last night.

I like him and think he has some very good potential. We may have stolen one here.

Its going to be nuts, I'm thinking of heading over about 7.

I did not know that, thanks for the info.

This is spectacular!! I love my Labatt Blue. http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081114/inbev_anheuser_busch.html

The airlines were able to continue operating while in bankruptcy, get significant restructing of onerous costs (not just labor) and emerge as more viable entities. This is the approach that should be used IMHO. You know there is a problem when GM, F and Chrysler are paying $73 an hour versus Honds, Toyota etc. paying $46. Let alone such thing as job pools (basically paying people not to work) etc. The pension costs will be guaranteed by the gov't anyway, to my knowledge, so its not like the workers who did labor in good faith would lose out.

Thats why it could never happen as a "Trickle Up" bailout. The incentive to live responsibly would be permanently destroyed and within 5 years it would happen again, this time at 4xs the cost.

Exactly.

Not a bad idea, as long as you mandate that the 100k must be applied to the reduction of debt (with enforceable penalties, such as garnishment of future wages). You would immediately add 1.15 tril to the national debt, but its debateable what TARP (and every other program) will add to it.

Cushion the blow. The whole purpose of TARP is to try and buy time for deleveraging of assets to occur. Thats why everything is down...stocks, oil, gold, a different hedge fund goes belly up weekly...this is the great unwind of leverage. This will get far worse before it gets better (to use a football analogy, we're still in the 1st half). Most folks don't understand truly how bad off we really are. The real underlying problem, that started the great unwind, is the declining value of housing, the underlying asset in all of this. That unwind has sparked a whole series of other unwinds. It also shined a big spotlight on areas of the financial system that could be catastrophic...CDS. The only real solution is time, price discovery and deleveraging. Thats why, IMHO, in the near-term we have deflation across all asset classes. The Fed has greased the skids to try and keep the economy moving while the great unwind happens. But, if the Fed missteps, we will have massive inflation, as all their "greasing" is put into the real economy along with regular lending practices. Look at the Fed actions toward the latter half of next year, if they are removing money from the economy (or increasing bank reserves) they are doing the right thing and should be lauded for getting us through this. If not...buckle up. Even with the Fed actions, there is one bubble left...if it goes, we're all f*cked....that bubble is US Treasury securities.

Of course, that bring us to the crux of the problem, if you were to use TARP funds to purchase the non-performing assets that the banks are holding as cash reserves...what price do you pay? Market? If you pay market, you will effectively wipe out the banks, because the market is effectively zero. The bankers themselves can't figure out what the asset is worth and they own it.

In theory, trickle up solves the problem. In practice, there is not nearly enough money to go around to accomplish this (printing enough is not an option), as there is far too much debt. Hence, the reason I suggested eight weeks ago letting people tap their 401(k)s, tax free, to accomplish this. EDIT: Realize that at the end of 2007, US holdhold debt (mortgages, credit cards and auto loans) was almost $15 trillion. The entire US national debt (which has, literally, doubled in the last 8 years under Bush) is $10.2 trillion.

Pete Kendall would be a decent upgrade at RG, leaving the Bills to take C Alex Mack in Round 1.

Bellagio Sports Book, much nicer than the one at Caesars.

Or The Big Tree Inn...thats the place.

That was a great speech.

I think this has some merit with respect to free agents (we have been more successful via the draft). Our free agency evaluators John Guy and Tom Modrak have been around since TD brought them here in 2001. Very few of their guys have really worked out. Sure, you can say TKO worked out until his injury, but that was a no brainer. I had barely heard of Dockery when we signed him (after not going after Hutch and Steinbach) and paid him top money. I was hoping that Dockery would be ready for multiple Pro Bowls...instead it looks like we overpaid for mediocrity. We rarely go after the truly big names and have to hit on the second tier guys. We have more misses than hits.

Too bad we couldn't get Tony G. We would have been terrific with him, Reed and Evans.

I use them to clean up after my dogs.

Yes, because they had guns to their head. Most not-for-profits are required to spend a % (I think, 5%) a year of their funds. Educational institutions are exempt. They were threatened with the loss of their exemptions if they did not do something to reduce the student costs.

Yes. I have heard that is one of the prime reasons education costs have risen so much in the last 20 years, far outpacing any measure of growth...cheap credit and access to student loans/grants. I'm not expert here, but with the pending contraction of credit, schools will have to bring down their costs.