Why are all the sportswriters I enjoy reading from Boston??

I am a lot like this guy, which I guess, is why I like this article. I hate everybody that doesn't play for one of my teams. I constantly root for the underdog and pray for the worst for anyone else. Anyway, I more or less agree with this guys picks... except for McNabb. I hate him.

http://www.mensjournal.com/nine-guys-i-dont-hate

Attention Parrotheads:

Jimmy is coming to Dallas on April 18th. This is one of the most fun concerts I have ever been to. People tailgate harder for Buffett concerts than for most football games. Where else can you drink tequila out of a squirt gun, suck some heads, go shot for shot with a 65 year old man, ride a motorized cooler, and hang with landsharks? I'm telling you, if you haven't been, you really need to.

Good Article...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601039&sid=akQHGe4jT8fs&refer=home

Coincidence? I Think Not...

Today Obama announced that it will limit pay to executives of companies that took TARP money to $500k.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7RNlu85M_m4&refer=home

Also, in completely unrelated news (or not, you decide) Goldman has decided they would like to pay back all $10Bn of TARP money they were given (with the Treasury's permission of course).

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3xTcf52kEZM&refer=home

My suspicion is that former Goldman frat boy, Tim Geitner allows this to happen.

Cool Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

To Lend or Not to Lend???

It is common knowledge now what ultimately brought about this current economic crisis. Banks lending standards became too lax, fueled by greed on the part of some and ignorance on the part of others. Loans were made to individuals to purchase houses beyond what they could possibly afford. After this was exposed by the melting down of the sub-prime mortgage market, the same lax standards that were applied in other areas (credit card, auto, and corporate loans) have led to more problems.

This should not be news to anyone anymore. So I am confused when the government says that banks are prolonging this crisis by refusing to lend money. At the beginning of the crisis, the banks were criticized heavily for their lending practices and were told that they should be more stringent. The public shook their collective fingers at them for allowing this to happen. Now, the same people are shaking their fingers once again, but for a different reason: NOT lending. In an evironment when there are becoming increasingly fewer "good" clients to lend to, banks are supposed to continue lending as if nothing is wrong.

So here is the Catch-22: Do the banks continue to lend money to less creditworthy clients, which will in turn lead to more write downs and less consumer confidence, or do banks increase lending standards and face public scrutiny by prolonging the crisis?

I agree that the taxpayer/government should have some say as to what the banks do with the money they have been handed, but is the solution to continue to repeat the same mistake that landed us here in the first place?

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/The-Banks-zacks-14235705.html

Why didn't I think of this???

http://www.roadtripnation.com/

This looks absolutely awesome.

Kinda how I feel today...

Hehe

Bout Damn Time...

What a great article. Finally someone has put a light on how these guys use the government to hand out money to their frat brothers. It's time to stop looking at these guys as financial geniuses and expose them for the crooks they are. Thain got what he deserved, who's next?

http://www.portfolio.com/executives/features/2009/01/07/Goldman-Sachs-Alumni-in-Finance

Big Mac Index

I remember the first time I saw a McDonald's overseas. I was so disgusted. I was studying abroad in Italy and we had made a weekend trip to Rome. We were standing in front of a beautiful fountain in one of Rome's many squares. As I was snapping a photo, I saw the golden arches ini the background. It was a remarkable old building, probably hundreds of years old. It should have been a museum or an art gallery, but instead it was American capitalism at its finest. I vowed to not eat a McDonald's for my entire stay in Europe, and I didn't.

Fortune Top 100 Companies to Work For 2009

That's weird. I didn't see Bank of America on the list!?!?!?!

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/2009/full_list/

What Really Brought Down U.S. Airways Flight 1549