Game Time

Its that time of year again. And this season should shape up to be good one for Oregon.

Oregon comes in to the season ranked #3. Preseason rankings don't mean much but expectations are high. They return most of their high prospect players but have a depleted offensive line. We should get a real good taste of what they are made of when they play #4 LSU on saturday (5 pm PT ABC).

This Oregon vs. LSU game was going to be the biggest game of NCAA Football's season opening weekend. The hype has been depleted because LSU has lost some starters due to a bar room brawl (http://www.nationalfootballauthority.com/2011/08/lsu-tigers-suspend-three-tigers.html). I still view LSU as about 97% of what they were. Their starting QB, Jefferson, kind of sucked anyway and his replacement is a senior who has started games before. LSU's power comes from their defense and their defense is unblemished.

Considering that Oregon will be without it's best talent, CB Cliff Harris, I look at this game with just as much hype as before. The winner should still feel confident that it is the better team. I'm sure though that all of the SEC fans will claim that they weren't at full strength but I wouldn't give one Cliff Harris (definite 1st nfl pick) for ten Jordan Jeffersons.

Lets strap it on and get it on!!!!

EU Update

Bad news out of the EU has been driving global worries over another financial crisis and this has been a contributing factor behind the volatility in the stock market the past couple of weeks. What happens in the EU will affect the U.S. and global economy to a great extent. A note of interest is that the U.S. is already bailing out the EU. It appears as if the great EU political project is falling apart. This is not the case according to a lot of market analyst:

'The default position is more integration, which is why commentary, especially that coming out of the US, is very focused on euro break-up is biased towards thinking about the downside scenario, and is not really thinking about the upside scenario,' he told CNBC.com. 'The upside scenario I think is one that's more consistent with the history of European projects.'[...]

'When people ask us 'is Greece going to leave the euro?' our immediate pushback is that Greece doesn't have the agency. It's not really Greece's choice – it's Germany's choice and it's France's choice,' Rahman said. [...]

However, he too said that stepping forwards towards integration, not backwards, is the far more likely scenario.

'Of course, it didn't happen in an orderly way, and now possibly it's coming in a disorderly way, because now everyone's realizing that you can't have a currency and a single market and communalized trade policy without also having more political cohesion and more fiscal union,' Techau said.
'Maybe, in the end, ironically, Helmut Kohl will be vindicated because the answer to the crisis is either disruption, or another bold step towards integration,'[...]

The most noise seems to be coming from commentators who believe in disintegration, but those who really understand the inner workings of the EU say the opposite: economically it does not make sense, technically it is exceptionally difficult and politically it is nearly unthinkable.

One of the legacy of this global financial crisis will be a more economically united globe. This economic crisis is going to force some politicians and nations to do things that they otherwise would not do: like integrate further into international governing bodies.

European leaders are being pushed into closer fiscal union sooner than they had anticipated by volatile markets concerned over a dearth of ideas on how to solve the sovereign debt crisis in the euro zone, analysts and investors told CNBC.[...]

'If you believe the United States of Europe is stronger than the individual nations, it's simply a step that the politicians have been working towards, but now they're being pushed into it rather than managing the process,' Neil Dwane, chief investment officer for Europe at RCM told CNBC.

Over the weekend, German chancellor Angela Merkel seemed to soften her position on the issuance of so-called euro bonds, but she stressed they were not on the table for now.

'I think [Merkel] is just realizing that politicians are pushed by markets into solutions that politicians don't feel comfortable with yet,' Frank Engels, co-head of European Economics Research and Asset Allocation Strategy at Barclays Capital explained.
His comments reflected those made by Paul Donovan, deputy head of Global Economics to CNBC last week, who warned that markets would push European leaders towards "extreme action" and he called for the appointment of a European statesman to oversee closer fiscal union within the euro zone.[...]

'There is a sense that you have to move eventually towards a common fiscal union, a very coordinated policy approach on economic and fiscal policies, but not now, not yet because you need to lay the foundations in terms of political and legal infrastructure first and then later on move, that is the message [Merkel] wants to provide to markets,' Engels said.

It appears that the EU has lost, to some extent, "its power of decision over the direction that it is going". This economic crisis is the result of a government managed economies. The main instrument that the governments use to manage the economies of the world is through central banking and international governing bodies like the IMF/World Bank (both founded by a Fabian Socialist and a communist). The IMF/World Bank is helping to keep the socialist's dream of global socialism from falling apart in the case of the EU by continuing to bailout the failed nations that should be allowed to default. (A look into the history of central banking and the IMF/World Bank is illuminating.) These government institutions are helping to create an economic crisis that will push the world into a global-socialist-communist-governance. Well that sounds stupid doesn't it? The financial analysts take on the events happening in the EU point to the fact that the EU is being pushed by economic events into a tighter political/fiscal union. What has been the overall effect of the global economic crisis, larger and more united government(s) that are/is taking over economic functions once carried out by the private sector. The direction that the the world is a more in is that of a more united globe, economy and politically. I could state it in a more intelligent manner but that would take a lot more time and room.

Signs of some cuts

It looks like the postal service is finally getting reigned in. USPS has been outdated since mid 20th century. I havent heard much outcry from the public about the fact that over 100k postal service jobs might be lossed. This is a good sign. I think people are realizing that the private sector needs to do the job. Hopefully we start seeing some more cuts. The military? I would accept a pay cut. Shoot, I wouldnt be heartbroken if I was laid off from the Guard.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/17/nonprofits-oppose-measure-wiping-out-their-mail-discounts/