Wednesday, July 27, 2011

The ultimate Republican win-win - destroy Obama AND America

They wouldn't take a deal that would have cut the accumulation of debt by anywhere from 2.7 to 4 trillion, so instead we get this. If they hate taxes so much, why do they want us all to pay higher interest on everything?

Obama could win and lose at the same time, striking a deal to avoid default but failing to pass muster on the substance of that deal with credit agencies, which could go ahead and downgrade the rating anyway.
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Just how bad are the Cubs?

The Mariners have lost 17 games in a row and still have a better record than they do.

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Kill Kenny takes a dump and slides through it

Not to mention Adam Dunn... And the cost for renting Edwin Jackson? Daniel Hudson.

Mark Gonzalez of the Chicago Tribune reports that the Blue Jays will send right-hander Zach Stewart to the White Sox along with Jason Frasor in the trade for Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen (who is AWFUL).
This deal is essentially a salary dump for the White Sox, but Stewart certainly has value. The 24-year-old right-hander made his major league debut last month and has a 4.20 ERA and 74/24 K/BB ratio over 16 starts with Double-A New Hampshire this season. He could be a potential set-up man or closer if he doesn't make it as a starter.

The White Sox have benched struggling center fielder Alex Rios.
The White Sox have finally run out of patience with Rios, who is batting just .208/.255/.300 with six homers and a .555 OPS over 384 plate appearances this season. Alejandro De Aza was called up from the minors on Wednesday and will start in center field for the interim. It's in Chicago's best interest for Rios to figure things out, though, as he is still owed $12 million next season, $12.5 million in 2013 and 2014 and $13.5 million or a $1 million buyout in 2015. (DOH!)

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Can Republicans read newspapers?, Or, I don't think anybody expected that Tea Partiers could do something catastrophically stupid

Crain's: How a federal default would hit Chicago and Illinois

A downgrade of the federal government's AAA credit rating "would likely lead ratings agencies to downgrade every state," an Illinois Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman said in a statement. "This action would add hundreds of millions of dollars in interest costs to bonds we sell in the future. Money we desperately need in our state to educate our students, ensure public safety and protect our seniors would now be used to pay interest costs..."

If there is some kind of default next week, the market reaction would no doubt be furious: Credit markets might quickly grind to a halt, much as they did after the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros. plunged the world into financial crisis three years ago, at least until Congress and the White House finally come to terms...

Bottom line, the market's behavior indicates that investors just don't believe Washington is stupid enough to let the government default and plunge the economy into full-tilt recession. At worst, they assume that an actual default would spur action without further delay.

The economic damage and political fallout "would be too much for even the Tea partiers to let that go on for too long," said Justin Hoogendoorn, fixed-income strategist in the Chicago office of BMO Capital Markets, a Bank of Montreal unit. "I don't think anybody in the bond market expects that to happen." (Based on what, exactly? - Ed.)
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