The Nashville Predators rarely found the back of the net during the first two months of the season. It’s been a much different story in December.

The Predators look to extend their winning streak to five on Tuesday when they face a Vancouver Canucks team trying to get back on track on its season-long, eight-game homestand.

After averaging 2.1 goals during a 6-6-1 October and 2.5 goals while going 9-4-0 in November, Nashville (22-11-3) is scoring 4.3 goals per game this month.

“Early in the year, we tried to play way too perimeter, a little too cute,” coach Barry Trotz said after the Predators improved to 7-1-2 in December with Saturday’s 5-3 victory at Calgary. “We got back to very basic hockey. Now it’s throw some pucks on the net and go to the hard areas and you get rewarded. That’s what most teams do in our league now.”

Most teams in the league, though, haven’t scored 23 goals in its last four games.

Martin Erat, who leads the Predators with 12 goals and 24 points, has provided a huge spike in production this month after totaling four goals and five assists in October and November.

Erat has eight goals and seven assists this month, including his second career hat trick and an assist in a 4-2 win over the visiting Canucks on Dec. 8. Erat also had a goal and an assist in the Predators’ last game in Vancouver – a 5-3 victory Jan. 28.

Patric Hornqvist, who scored his first goal in 12 games on Dec. 8 against Vancouver, was named the NHL’s third star Monday after scoring a league-high seven points last week (four goals, three assists).

He had six goals and five assists in his first 31 games this season.

While the Predators are looking to get at least one point in their eighth straight road game (6-0-1), the Canucks (20-16-0) are trying to rebound from Sunday’s 3-1 loss to St. Louis.

After defeating Southeast Division-leading Washington 3-2 on Friday, Vancouver scored it fewest goals in nine games at GM Place as defenseman Shane O’Brien scored his first goal since Nov. 8, 2007. The Canucks had averaged 3.2 goals in the first five games of their homestand.

“It’s frustrating that we get a big win the other night and we can’t back it up with another great game,” Roberto Luongo said after making 23 saves. “We could talk about it until we’re blue in the face in the locker room before the game, but talking about it and going out on the ice and executing are two different things.”

Luongo has a 3.54 goals-against average in losing his last two starts against Nashville.

Dan Ellis, who is 3-0-0 with a 2.40 GAA in his last three starts, is 0-4-0 with a 4.24 GAA in his last four appearances against Vancouver.

If Pekka Rinne gets the start in net, he will try to win his third straight start versus the Canucks. Rinne made 34 saves in the Dec. 8 win as Nashville snapped a four-game slide at home to Vancouver.

After getting his nine-game point streak snapped Sunday, Canucks leading scorer Henrik Sedin will go for his first goal in 15 games against Nashville. Sedin, though, has nine assists during this stretch.

Ibra won’t play friendliesCanucks add Babych, Hanlon to coaching staff

Alex phoned me this evening while I was getting the offspring out of the bath to tell me it was snowing. Cue very excited naked toddlers attempting to escape out of the bathroom window to go play in the snow.

The cold weather is making me slightly more excited about craft than I have been lately. It’s funny, craft is definitely a lot more fun when you’re not trying to sell what you make.  I’ve been feeling a might slumpy about it of late, starting to feel slightly green around the gills whenever I look at my machine. So I took a couple of days off this week, no sewing at all, just playing with the kids and reading stories and totally immersing myself in that, ignoring the mounds of fabric piling up in corners and taking over the house. (No, really, it is taking over the entire house. It doesn’t matter how many boxes I buy to keep my yarn and fabric in. It spreads everywhere. Although I’ve yet to find any in the fridge.)

Anyway, a couple of non-crafty days have helped a little. I’ve handsewn a couple of zipper purses and pouches this week, and today I got cracking on a few sets of fabric coasters we’ve had sitting around for ages. We bought a bunch of Christmassy fabric a while back and have done nothing with it, so coasters it is. I’ll try and get them polished off tomorrow, ready for the Misty Moon Market on Saturday and Sunday.

The other thing I’ve been cracking on with this week is cataloguing all the fabric bits and pieces I’ve made and uploading lots of stuff to Folksy. All the bibs we have left are now up in the store here.

The zippered purses I’ve been working on are here and some of them are big enough that you could quite easily fit your sock knitting inside. Or use them to store your needles. They’d even make cute pencil cases if you don’t want to keep them for yourself.

And of course there’s the little button pouches which I’ve made a new batch of. They are really sweet and hold a surprising amount of stuff for something so teeny. Each one is totally unique, I try not to do the same fabric and button combos twice. Some of them have cute sheep buttons.

As always, if there’s a particular fabric or theme you’re interested in but you can’t see one ready made, why not email me? I am more than happy to send you photos of stuff from The Stash and I can make you something custom.

The one thing I found when doing the shop update is that the purses and pouches are really hard to photograph well. I am not great at photography to begin with (Alex has a much better eye for what works than me. ) and trying to get a decent photo of the interior of a teeny weeny pouch or purse is surprisingly difficult. I ended up taking some fairly wobbly photos, using my phone and car key as weights to hold the damned things open so I could get a half decent shot of the inside.

I think the answer is just to make them with the feature fabric on the outside. Stuff the sensible fabric, novelty skeletons and food stuffs all the way.

Either that or invent a reversible zipper.

Anyway, go forth and look at my wares, I am done touting them for the evening. I am off to bed to try not to dream about sewing. You may look askance, I genuinely often wake up at 2am and cannot get back to sleep because I’ve been dreaming about designing a new purse and I can’t figure out how to get the zipper in. Sad? Perhaps. I like to think of it as supreme dedication to our arts…

THE market odds have moved firmly against an interest rate rise by the Reserve Bank in February.

The sharp change in direction, which began on Tuesday after the central bank revealed its December 1 meeting minutes, accelerated yesterday following a speech by RBA deputy governor Ric Battellino.

Mr Battellino signalled that rates could stay on hold when the RBA next meets in February, saying the “overall stance” of monetary policy was “back in the normal range”.

His comments, at the Australian Finance & Banking Conference in Sydney, surprised the markets, triggering a slump in the Australian dollar to below US90.

Last night the dollar was hovering around US89.70.

Financial market betting on a 25-basis point rate hike in February retreated from a 67 per cent chance to 45 per cent.

Mr Battellino said that although the cash rate still seemed “unusually low” at 3.75 per cent, monetary policy was back “in the normal range” because the current level of deposit, housing and business lending rates made the cash rate equivalent to a “before the crisis” level of 4.75 per cent.

“Taking these considerations into account, it would be reasonable to conclude that the overall stance of monetary policy is now back in the normal range, though in the expansionary segment of that range,” he said.

The deputy governor’s remarks were made half an hour after the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed economic growth in the September quarter was weaker than expected.

The national accounts showed GDP edged up just 0.2 per cent in the three months to September, half the pace of growth expected by the market, for an annual rate of 0.5 per cent.

The main drag on growth was a slump in exports which coincided with a jump in imports.

However, demand from households, businesses buying more equipment and government investment was solid.

ANZ acting chief economist Warren Hogan said the GDP figures indicated there was little urgency to get official interest rates back to a neutral setting, adding that Mr Battellino’s comments had “dealt a solid blow” to the prospect of substantial gains in the cash rate over coming months.

“Put another way, the emergency setting for interest rates has now been removed and policy will be adjusted as and when required by economic conditions,” he said.

Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly told reporters after the bank’s annual meeting in Melbourne yesterday that the RBA was likely to raise rates “very carefully” in 2010.

However, she said the official cash rate was not quite yet at a “normal” level.

Mrs Kelly said she remained cautious about the economic outlook while the bank’s chairman Ted Evans said a “V-shaped” recovery for Australia was unlikely.

“It will be a long recovery and that’s what our plans are based on,” he said. 

Source  :  www.news.com.au

Oh no, not again… it’s hump day and you’ve got a case of the mid-week slumps.  We know the feeling… Friday seems so far away yet it feels like it was ages ago that you woke up Monday morning!  We’re here to provide you with a little bump to get through your mid-week slump.  So crank up your stereo on your lunch break and take a moment to breathe.  Why wish your life away and yearn for Friday when you can relax and enjoy this moment? Here’s what’s playing on my iPod.  Enjoy!  :)

Soulshine – The Allman Brothers Band

Bullet and a Target – Citizen Cope

Tiny Vessels – Death Cab for Cutie

If I Ever Leave This World Alive – Flogging Molly

The Queen and I – Gym Class Heroes

Leavin’ - Jag Star

Read My Mind – The Killers

Infatuation - Maroon 5

Swallowed in the Sea - Coldplay

Bring Me Along – Pepper

Champagne High – Sister Hazel

Existentialism on Prom Night - Straylight Run

A Place in this World- Taylor Swift

Moving On – Weekend Excursion

Leave the Pieces – The Wreckers

Ten packs of blackberries for ten buck? What a deal, right? After all, they’re usually four bucks a pop. Yeah, that is until I was eating blackberries for breakfast and dessert for over a week straight! Finally, I was like… Is there any other way I can use the rest of them? Really? Because frankly, I’d like to have something else for breakfast now. Well, I stumbled on a basic slump recipe on Epicurious and thought I’d use that to get rid of blackberry traces in my fridge, once and for all! Oh, and I discovered one more package of walnuts left in the pantry, as well. Hmmm. Everything else, I still have in good quantity… so, off I went to preheat the oven and prep.

Since I’m not that well versed in baking (yet), I opted to stay as close as possible to the original formula lest I end up with burnt rubber. The only thing I did differently was that I added walnuts and replaced the butter with a couple tablespoons of olive oil. Oh, and I also added a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract. That’s more than pushing it, I thought. But, oh well…

Hmmm… not too shabby for a neophyte baker, I tell ya! Though, I thought it would’ve been really fabulous with ice cream. But I don’t have any at the moment. Maybe I’ll stop by the store tomorrow and grab a quart. I said… maybe!

Ingredients:
3 6oz packs of Blackberries
1/2 cup Walnuts
1 cup Unbleached Flour
1 cup Organic Raw Cane Sugar
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Low-Fat Milk
2 Tbs. Olive Oil
1 tbs. Pure Vanilla Extract

Directions: Preheat oven to 375F. Rinse blackberries in tap water, pat dry with paper towel and spread around a 6-cup gratin dish. Sprinkle 3/4 cup sugar evenly and reserve the rest for the batter mixture. In a mixing bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and whisk until evenly distributed. Pour mixture on top of the blackberries and bake in oven for about 40 minutes or until top is golden. Allow to rest and cool for 20 minutes before serving. Garnish with a sprig of mint. Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

whew. i just submitted my last final for the semester and man it feels good. this past semester had some high highs and some very low lows. the best part of last semester (i am only 5 minutes out but it feels amazing to say “last semester”!) was that i got engaged to the most brilliant man on the planet: my best friend, my hero and my soul mate! this was a high high! but then it got low.

school was kind of boring, pretty difficult and i had serious senioritis. symptoms included: inability to focus in class, inability to stay off facebook in class, inability to go to class, inability to not sleep when supposed to be reading for class and the inability to stay off theknot.com when supposed to be writing papers. i have a feeling too that this disease will only get worse going into next semester, my very last undergrad semester…

the lowest low happened towards the middle of the semester.  i seemed to hit a slump… an emotional, crying, needy and somewhat irrational slump that sometimes left my loved ones wondering what on earth was going on. i felt depressed and upset and hopeless when i should have been feeling anything but that. i was confused and frustrated wondering why i couldn’t get over myself. and to this moment i can’t even see the exact time that i came out of the fog.

and fog is the right word to use today, as anchorage was blanketed in thick fog this morning. in fact, it was scary to drive through it. that is what i felt like. covered and blinded by fog.

so what does this all have to do with God?

everything.

see this semester was tough. ben and i both fought through tough school challenges and as i mentioned above i had to fight through tough brain challenges and ben was right there with me. but i couldn’t, we couldn’t have accomplished that without God. see when i was upset and depressed, i was always crying out to God. at times very frustrated and wounded, upset that he didn’t seem to be coming to my rescue. but he did and as i look back on that now, i see how he was teaching me patience and perserverance.

during the middle of the crisis my mom gave me this verse, psalms 94:17-19, “if God hadn’t been there for me, i never would have made it. the minute i said, ‘i’m slipping, i’m falling,” your love, God took hold and held me fast. when i was upset and beside myself, You calmed me down and cheered me up.”

i am finding God today in my thankfulness. i am thankful that i was able to finish this semester and so thankful that i feel like i am out of my slump. in fact i feel joyful and free. but it is easy now, now that everything is going good. i pray God that next time i am down and depressed that i can remember you Goodness and your Grace and your Mercy. You will always be there for me. i just have to be patient.

my books from the semester are on amazon. i just moved all my school files to the recesses of my computer and i don’t have to go back to campus until january. school is on a standby. but God isn’t. He is my Help forever, rescuing and delivering me from the fog.

I’m going to quote Steve Simon a photojournalist that I admire about being better at photography. He says:

“If you go out and shoot, you’ll be better at taking images even if you don’t want to be better.”

It is true in a way, but I want to go on a different point of view about going out and just using your camera a lot to get better. I really do not mind if I got “better” or not. But I guess the whole point of me starting to take me camera with me to school or wherever, again is to find a “perfect” shot. If there is one thing about this post that will further confuse you is that I’m going to contradict myself in saying that there is no perfect shot. That said, as photographers, painters, dancer or whatever you are, there should always be that unreachable dream you take with you wherever you go. I call it my personal “kick in the butt” constantly pushing oneself. Yes, you will probably never get that perfect shot. But then again, you’ll never know. So keep shooting!

(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) –

By Emma Ross-Thomas

Oct. 26 (Bloomberg) — Spanish

producer prices

slid for a ninth month in September as oil prices fell and the recession dragged on for a sixth quarter.

The Spanish economy probably

contracted

for a sixth quarter from July through September even after Germany and France returned to growth in the previous three-month period. Faced with weak demand and the prospect that Spain may continue to shrink next year, manufacturers have slashed production while a 30 percent decline in oil prices is also pushing down prices.

Spanish consumer prices have been falling in annual terms since March, as inflation slows more sharply than in the

euro region

overall. The Spanish economy may contract 0.7 next year, the International Monetary Fund forecast on Oct. 1, while the euro area, the U.S. and the U.K. post full-year growth.

Industrial production in Spain fell 13 percent from a year earlier in August, declining for a 16th month as companies reduce staff to weather the slump.

Nissan Motor Co

. cut production of cars and light trucks more than 80 percent in August from a year earlier, compared with a global decline of 14 percent, it said on Sept. 28.

To contact the reporter on this story:

Emma Ross-Thomas

in Madrid at

erossthomas@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 26, 2009 04:00 EDT

Source: Spain Producer Prices Fall for Ninth Month as Slump Persists

Canwest Global Communications Corp., which is in the midst of a major restructuring, said Friday it lost $111 million in the three months ended in August.

Falling advertising sales pulled revenue down by 13 per cent to $624 million .

Canwest Global Communications Corp. lost $111 million in the three months ended in August.(John Woods/Canadian Press)

Winnipeg-based Canwest, which owns the Global television network and the National Post newspaper among other media assets, has several of its subsidiaries under court protection from creditors.

The fourth-quarter loss was an improvement over the same period a year ago, when it lost $1.02 billion.

On an operational basis ? before subtracting special charges ? Canwest posted a profit of $25 million in the fourth quarter, off from $60 million a year earlier.

For its entire fiscal 2009, Canwest posted operating earnings of $310 million, down from $551 million one year earlier.

An operating profit essentially means the company makes money from running its usual businesses and is a different measure of financial performance than net profit or loss number.

Ads shrivel

Canwest, like many media organizations, suffered a drop-off in such sales during the recession of late 2008 and early 2009.

In the fourth quarter, the Winnipeg-headquartered company, which received bankruptcy court protection for its broadcast TV holdings in October, saw overall revenue slump to $624.4 million, down from $720.6 million in the last quarter of 2008.

In addition, the company said fourth-quarter revenue fell by seven per cent in its conventional television business and by 20 per cent on the publishing side of the company, which includes a stable of newspapers not included in Canwest’s filing for protection from creditors.

Nevertheless, company executives maintained that Canwest’s various media arms outperformed many of their competitors.

“While the abrupt and unprecedented decline in advertising revenue had a significant impact on Canwest, most business units continued to perform better than the industry average, with online and specialty television reporting growth even in the face of the recession,” said president and chief executive officer Leonard Asper.

Cost-cutting helped Canwest’s financial performance somewhat as the company slashed 1,372 jobs during the year.

As a result, Canwest cut its overall costs by 13 per cent.

Loblaw profit up on flat salesNBC sale to Comcast is TV sea change

(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) –

By Elizabeth Stanton

Yahoo, the owner of the No. 2 U.S. search engine, rose 4.5 percent after

earnings

were helped by increased spending from some advertisers. Morgan Stanley rallied after reporting its first profit in a year.

SanDisk Corp.

, the biggest maker of flash-memory cards used in digital cameras and mobile phones, jumped 10 percent after its sales forecast topped estimates.

“Companies prepared investors for very mediocre results,” said

Robert Lutts

, president of Cabot Money Management in Boston, which manages $450 million. “They lowered the bar very low and now are jumping over those bars.”

The

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index

added 0.6 percent to 1,097.28 at 11:17 a.m. in New York and earlier climbed above its highest close of the year. The

Dow Jones Industrial Average

increased 39.98 points, or 0.4 percent, to 10,081.46. About three Stocks advanced for each that fell on the New York Stock Exchange.

The

S&P 500

has rallied 62 percent from a 12-year low in March as the government lent, spent or guaranteed $11.6 trillion to combat the worst U.S. recession since the 1930s. The rebound left the benchmark index trading at about 20.6 times the reported Earnings of its companies, the highest since 2004.

Earnings Season

Profit has topped estimates at 76 percent of the S&P 500 companies that have posted third-quarter results, including Google Inc.,

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

and DuPont Co. More than 130 S&P 500 companies are reporting this week.

Yahoo rose 4.5 percent to $17.95. Third-quarter

profit

excluding some expenses was 15 cents a share, beating the average prediction of 13 cents by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales, excluding fees passed on to partner sites, were $1.13 billion, exceeding projections.

SanDisk Corp.

soared 10 percent to $23.63. The biggest maker of flash-memory cards used in digital cameras and mobile phones forecast fourth-quarter sales that beat analysts’ estimates as chip prices rebounded.

Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone mobile phone, iPod music players and MacIntosh computers, rose 3.1 percent to a record $204.91 and contributed most to the S&P 500’s advance.

Morgan Stanley Jumps

Morgan Stanley rallied 6.5 percent to $34.63. The sixth- largest U.S. bank by assets reported its first profit in a year, surpassing analysts’ estimates on higher investment-banking fees. Third-quarter Earnings were $757 million, or 38 cents a share. The average estimate of 21 analysts was for profit of 30 cents a share.

U.S. Bancorp climbed 6.7 percent to $25.38. The Minneapolis-based lender that has expanded during the financial crisis said third-quarter profit rose 4.7 percent on higher net interest margins and fees from mortgage banking and transactions at automated teller machines.

SLM Corp. soared 19 percent to $10.61 for the biggest advance in the S&P 500. The largest U.S. student loan company reported its first profit in more than a year.

Treasury Secretary

Timothy Geithner

said the bank capital- purchase program in the $700 billion bailout will be allowed to expire later this year because parts of the economy and markets are stabilizing, Reuters reported, citing an interview.

“We are now at the point where we can begin to wind down the programs that really defined TARP in its initial stages,” Reuters quoted Geithner as saying in the interview today, referring to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Boeing Slumps

Boeing Co., the second-largest maker of commercial aircraft, fell 1.1 percent to $51.34 after Booking $3.5 billion in charges for the delayed 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 jumbo jet programs. Its largest-ever net loss of $1.56 billion, or $2.23 a share, exceeded the $2.10-a-share average estimate of 18 analysts in a survey.

Per-share Earnings for the 97 companies in the S&P 500 that released third-quarter results since Oct. 7 were down 11 percent from the year-earlier period. Per-share profit fell in each of the past eight quarters, a record streak of declines that analysts expect to end in the current quarter.

The Dollar Index, which gauges the U.S. currency against a basket of six trading partners, Slumped 0.5 percent to a 14- month low. The pound and the New Zealand dollar rose after central bankers signaled interest rates may increase. The U.K. currency climbed 1.4 percent against the dollar and the New Zealand dollar strengthened 0.6 percent.

Bank of England Governor

Mervyn King

started preparing Britons for higher interest rates, writing in the Herald newspaper of Scotland that “it would be wise to take account” of the prospect of rising borrowing costs. Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Alan Bollard said a strengthening currency isn’t an obstacle to raising rates. Australia last week became the first Group of 20 nation to lift its benchmark rate since the start of the global financial crisis.

The Fed will issue its Beige Book report on regional economies, which policy makers will use to gauge the state of the housing market and the overall economy when they meet in the first week of November, at 2 p.m. in Washington today.

To contact the reporters on this story:

Elizabeth Stanton

in New York at

estanton@bloomberg.net

.

Last Updated: October 21, 2009 11:19 EDT

Source: U.S. Stocks Rise on Yahoo, Morgan Stanley Results; Dollar Falls

State-owned investment company Dubai World, which manages much of the city-state’s massive development projects, is asking creditors for a delay in repaying about $60 billion in debt…. From VOA. Full story

This site may contain information about: city financial. The blog is also related to: travel city.

It is bad to start a new blog in a slump? I am a little saddened and frustrated. I had been doing so well. I had been working out 1-2 times a day, training with clients and feeling really good! I was so excited to go into the Thanksgiving holiday feeling fit (because if I have exercised, I tend to eat LESS, helping me not to gorge myself). Anyway, baby J and I visited some fun friends with babies all about the same age and we both caught a cold while we were out. That’s life-you’re bound to catch something, that is true. But I was not prepared to get sick and have it alter a whole week’s worth of training. It’s obvious to me now how important it is to eat well, sleep well and live well. I had to cancel two classes and multiple training seshs this week to rest up.

It’s obvious that Baby J and I needed our rest. We needed to let our bodies recover. It was shared in our NASM workshop that if you don’t plan rest days your body will mandate them. I think it was important to note this. I am planning at least one rest day a week, two if I have doing back to back workouts, for the time being. I am also hoping that Baby J will get his rest too, and mama can get some sleep. Here’s to hoping! (He’s been up every 1-3 hours since Monday…)

So I am giving myself the rest of the weekend off. Back to life on Monday and kicking it back into high gear so that I can get out of this slump. My body is taken a really long time to kick this cold, so I am planning to rest up, eat well, take some naps and catch up on school work. And plan some training programs for my clients. And I should be over this by Monday. And I am learning how important it is to rest…rest…rest. How are you doing on resting?

Article here at Townhall.com. (H/T ECM)

Excerpt:

After the cascade of economic disasters that began in the housing markets in 2006 and spread into the financial markets in Wall Street and even overseas, people in the private sector pulled back. Banks stopped making so many risky loans. Home buyers began buying homes they could afford, instead of going out on a limb with “creative”– and risky– financing schemes to buy homes that were beyond their means.

But politicians went directly in the opposite direction. In the name of “rescuing” the housing market, Congress passed laws enabling the Federal Housing Administration to insure more and bigger risky loans– loans where there is less than a 4 percent down payment.

A recent news story told of three young men who chipped in a total of $33,000 to buy a home in San Francisco that cost nearly a million dollars. Why would a bank lend that kind of money to them on such a small down payment? Because the loan was insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

The bank wasn’t taking any risk. If the three guys defaulted, the bank could always collect the money from the Federal Housing Administration. The only risk was to the taxpayers.

Does the Federal Housing Administration have unlimited money to bail out bad loans? Actually there have been so many defaults that the FHA’s own reserves have dropped below where they are supposed to be. But not to worry. There will always be taxpayers, not to mention future generations to pay off the national debt.

Very few people are likely to connect the dots back to those members of Congress who voted for bigger mortgage guarantees and bailouts by the FHA. So the Congressmen’s and the bureaucrats’ jobs are safe, even if millions of other people’s jobs are not.

Congressman Barney Frank is not about to cut back on risky mortgage loan guarantees by the FHA. He recently announced that he plans to introduce legislation to raise the limit on FHA loan guarantees even more.

Congressman Frank will make himself popular with people who get those loans and with banks that make these high-risk loans where they can pocket the profits and pass the risk on to the FHA.

So long as the taxpayers don’t understand that all this political generosity and compassion are at their expense, Barney Frank is an odds-on favorite to get re-elected. The man is not stupid.

Can you guess which political party Barney Frank represents?

Shares in Japan Airlines slump 10% after one of the country’s biggest brokers says it has sold all its shares in the airline…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: japan post. The blog is also related to: tourist japan.

En natt i Stockholm för över ett halv år sedan slutar jag snusa och jag kommer antagligen aldrig behöva göra det igen det men nu sitter jag där på balkongen med en cocktail av föräldralösa känslor i bröstet och röker en cigarett.

blåser rök på orion och tänker att det är inte så dumt för någon som för två år sedan inte såg ut att överleva decenniet.

men vad folk än säger om ensamhet så är den ensam. och det finns säkert både metoder och taktiker för sånt där men hur återhämtar man sig från en dödsstöt?

jag börjar misstänka att jag aldrig kommer att lista ut det.

och nikotinet och universum blåser liv i en känsla som virvlat in i min puls med hösten, som löven i vinden på trottoaren i morse när jag satt på en trappa och väntade på en anledning att gå därifrån, och jag längtar baklänges in i ett hjärta jag aldrig förtjänade igen.

och om du inte var där skulle du få se en kreativ dåre som brann som en fackla i nyårsnatten av efterklokhet på sin balkong och alla Öresundståg på väg hit eller dit, om inte bara jag var här om inte du var där…

panoramavyer i min navel, grön starr i mina ögon.

och störst av allt är kärleken, säger jag till mig själv och låter precis som man ska låta när man tror att man lärt sig av sina misstag och jag kan inte hjälpa att det har sagts förut för det är precis så jag känner.

Jag önskar att inte allt bara vore en oändlig slump.

Cohen Adair lays on the ice after a hard Hurricanes check. He would return to the game later.

A night after a 8-0 loss in Waterloo, the Guelph Hurricanes bounced back and posted a character win by beating  the slumping Stratford Cullitons 6-3.

“They showed a lot of character to come back after a tough loss last night. This club has a lot of heart and I am proud of them.” says Hurricanes Head Coach Jim MacEachern

The win moves Guelph’s record to 8-15-2 for 18pts., while the loss which was the 10th in a row for the Cullitons, moves Stratford’s record to 12-12-0 24pts..

Six Hurricanes players each collected 2 pts. (Luca Penzo, Dan Mohle, Martin Kudla, Mike McFarlane, Ken Rolph and Mike Iacocca) and Chris McDougall returned between the pipes to 28 of 31 shots.

• Although Chris McDougall’s rights were traded earlier this week from the Kitchener Rangers to the Peterborough Petes, he will remain playing with the Hurricanes for the time being.
• Also, I received word from the Hurricanes trainers that injured Kitchener Dutchmen defenceman Brant Nicolson was released from the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery. Last week he crashed into the boards and was carried off on a stretcher.

The Hurricanes next game is this coming Thursday as they seek revenge from the Waterloo Siskins at The Sleeman Centre. Please note the game time is 7:45pm.

Asia is leading the world out of recession, leaders say at the start of an Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: 2004 recession. The blog is also related to: recession article.

Like fish stranded by a fast retreating tide, most mainstream economists, commentators and governments tend to be flapping around frantically and aimlessly, unaware of the real cause of their distress.  The  more cautious among them hope for a slow return of the tide;  most merely hope against hope that somehow, sometime, all will return to what it was.  It almost certainly will not.

Nobody saw it coming.  This is an oft repeated mantra about the global economic crisis, which is also — and equally erroneously — referred to frequently as a financial crisis.  But it is certainly true that most mainstream economists and commentators continued to talk up the economy even as the first serious signs of collapse became evident.  And most also tended to refer to it — at least initially — as a purely financial affair.

They did so out of an almost religious belief in the market and, in most cases, an obvious absence of knowledge about economic history.  Clearly blinded by the chimera of Stock Exchanges and the smoke and mirrors of booming futures and derivatives trading, they lost sight — if ever they had it — of the real productive economy.  Their god was profit and their church, the market.

So when the economic bubble began to deflate, punctured by what was an effective pyramid scheme based on sub-prime mortgages in the United States, they did not question church or deity;  the search was for individual sinners, those who had abused the rites and rituals that they believe guarantee profits ever after.  So instead of rational appraisals, there were frequent outpourings of dogmatic incantations and calls for regulatory patches to repair the sub-prime hole that had begun deflating the economic bubble.

And there is the continued insistence by any number of economists and commentators that the crisis could not have been foreseen;  that its precise cause and probable consequences still remain a mystery.  But this is simply untrue.  For 20 years and more, the warning signs have existed — and have been pointed out, although usually from the more radical margins of economic debate.

However, even that standard bearer of free market capitalism, The Economist magazine, warned in 1999 that the spectres of over-capacity and over-production were haunting the world economy.  A survey by the magazine of international demand, supply and capacity resulted in the conclusion that a time of glut leading to stagnation, was on the cards.

This was something that had been pointed out even earlier by the likes of economic historian Robert Brenner in the United States.  He was not alone.  Economic commentator T. N. Vance in the US was raising warnings in the 1950s and the so-called oil price crisis of 1973 led to a veritable flurry of analysis on the margins of economic debate, illustrating what probably lay in store.

However, these commentators and economists not only looked to productive capacity and the related sources of supply and demand in the world economy, they based their analysis on the much earlier work of Karl Marx and his collaborator, Frederick Engels.  In 1848 Marx and Engels wrote that the then relatively new capitalist economic system needed to expand its market globally;  it needed to “nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connections everywhere”.

It was a system, they wrote, that has “conjured up such gigantic means of production [that it] is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells”.  This, they maintained, would lead to crises and to “an epidemic that, in all earlier epochs, would have seemed an absurdity — the epidemic of over-production”.

But the mass of free market praise singers grew as the world recovered from the barbarity and destruction of the second world war and a lengthy economic boom began.  The collective attitude of the praise singers was well summed up by economics Nobel laureate Paul Samuelson.  In 1970 he told a conference of his peers that the days of crises — of boom and bust — were over.  “The National Bureau of Economic Research has worked itself out of one of its first jobs, namely business cycles,” he claimed.

Three years later came the first crisis.  But it failed to dent the psuedo-religious belief in the market and the system as it existed.  Sinners were found:  the oil producers and their “artificial” lifting of the oil price.  What was needed was merely some adjustment;  there had apparently been too much tinkering with the market.

This attitude was summed by British Labour Party prime minister James Callaghan in 1976 when he said:

“We used to think you could just spend your way out of recession by cutting taxes and boosting government borrowing…that option no longer exists…it worked by injecting inflation into the economy.  Each time that has happened…unemployment has risen.”

Callaghan’s statement announced the turn away from what was known broadly as the Keynsian approach to that advocated by Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, an  approach now labelled neo-liberal.  Thirty years later, neo-liberalism has been found wanting and, without apparent irony, history is now repeating itself:  the present British prime minister, Gordon Brown, has increased government borrowing and embarked on a policy of spending as a solution to recession.

But this begs the main question:  is this merely another recession/depression, one of the cyclical slumps inherent in the system, or is it something different?  The answer is probably both yes and no:  yes, it is one of the slumps inherent in the system and no, it’s underlying cause is no different from those preceding it.  However, it is by far the greatest crisis the system has suffered, the cumulative result of decades spent ignoring a growing and fundamental fault.

The economic history of the modern, capitalist, world is peppered with examples of booms and slumps, of struggles for economic supremacy by individuals and exploiting minorities in regions, countries and blocs.  All the while, productive capacity and the ability to manufacture more with less grew as mechanisation and the bloody history of colonial plunder replaced plantation slavery and the dehumanising horror of the workhouse.

Peasants and self-sufficient communities, driven off their lands by force or taxes, swelled the ranks of the sellers of labour who, at one and the same time, became the purchasers of the very products they helped to make, distribute or provide the raw materials for.  Their wages and conditions improved only after desperate and often bloody struggles.

However, there were always some employers who realised the link between the worker as producer and as consumer.  None more so than Henry Ford.  He had little regard for workers, but understood that the survival of the system demanded the ability to sell, at a profit, the products that the sellers of labour create — and buy.  In his 1922 autobiography he noted:

“…Our own sales depend in a measure upon the wages we pay.  If we can distribute high wages then that money…will serve to make storekeepers and distributors and manufacturers and workers in other lines more prosperous and their prosperity will be reflected in our sales”.

But he too did not foresee the looming absurdity of over capacity and over production that now afflicts almost every manufactured item, but is especially obvious in the textile, garment and motor vehicle industries.  Take vehicle maker Toyota, for example.  This year the company estimates that production will be more than 30 per cent below its current, 10 million units a year capacity.  It now contemplates reducing output by another 1 million vehicles.

Such reductions in capacity mean more and more unemployment and less and less purchasing power.  It also means tumbling prices as competition intensifies and this, in turn, leads, on a global basis, to a race to the bottom in terms of wages and conditions.

South Africa — and especially the garment centres of Cape Town and Durban — have already borne the loss of tens of thousands of rag trade jobs.  Vehicle makers and component suppliers in the Eastern Cape have also been badly hit and are gearing up for even more job losses.

So far, government and its “social partners”, business and labour, have responded with a policy framework that amounts to financial bailouts and short-term retraining at half wages for retrenched workers.  This is based on the almost certainly forlorn hope that there will be an economic revival in the short to medium term.

The hope is forlorn because the mircrochip revolution is continuing apace.  These slivers of silicon lie at the heart of vehicle assembly lines, televisions, cell phones, the national power grid and the automated machines in factory and home.  They make work faster, easier and cheaper, using less and less labour.

This technological advance could herald a world of plenty for all.  It could liberate humanity from drudgery and poverty and repair the destruction already wrought on the physical environment.  But it could only do so on the basis of collective action for the benefit of the majority.

Our present anarchic system of minority ownership, based competition and the need to accumulate increasing levels of profit in order to compete even more successfully, works against such a development.  There is already evidence of where this may lead:  to fortified islands — whether suburbs, cities, or regions — of affluence in a global sea of desperate poverty and increasing savagery.

So we are faced with a stark choice, not just nationally, but internationally:  start to transform radically the economic system to one based on co-operation, under collective, democratic control — or persist with the existing system of competitive, minority control, whether by individuals, companies or states.  It may amount to a choice between planetary survival or annihilation.

So, first I designed this hat in September:

And just as I finished it, I saw this. I thought “okay, it’s constructed differently; I’ll contact Alex and see if she’s alright with my version” and I did and she was.  I decided I’d offer three sizes too.  Then this.  And, just this morning, this one.  I don’t know how I didn’t come across these patterns earlier!  So I’ll just write it up in one size and offer the pdf for free on Ravelry.  It should be good practice at any rate.

I made Dax a hat and beard and dressed him as a gnome for Halloween.  It was cheap and easy and he liked it much better than the lion costume we tried first!

I tried so hard to get a picture of him straight on, looking at the camera, standing still for just one second, just one picture, please! but it is completely impossible right now! He is always on the move.

And I finished up his Loch Ness Monster too. I am just glad to have finished it.  Hansi wrote a great pattern and the directions aren’t hard to follow, but my goodness does the knitting require some patience!

I do feel like knitting some more toys now; maybe Dax will get an owl or a monster for Christmas.  He loves stuffed animals and squishy pillows.  But next time I am picking fat yarn and needles!

Yesterday I started making some felted slippers–I saw on some Ravelry project pages that people were knitting them up in only a few hours, and I thought it would take me much longer, but no!  These go super fast!  I just have to finish the seaming and they will be ready to felt.  They are also super ugly before felting! So I haven’t taken a picture yet!

Oh geez, I almost forgot–I’ve also been working on an awesome project with one of Derrick’s family members.  It’s kind of a secret at the moment but it involves corn, knitting, and a football team.  I hope it all works out and I will be sure to share pictures when it comes to fruition .

In a slow sales cycle, it’s important to remember that your products or services are still as good as they ever were, or even better.

Your still doing all the right things you always did to obtain business, but maybe you have to do more of it or you have to do it differently.

A famous definition of insanity is describes it as “doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results”

Tough times have a nasty habit of changing the sales landscape, which is to say if you’re still trying to the same people, the same propositions as you did before – well you just might be crazy!!

Before you continue investing more time and energy for an uncertain return, give your sales funnel this 3 step makeover and get your sales moving again!!

1. Qualify (or Disqualify) Your Current Sales Forecast
2. Look at the Purchase Process in Each Target Account
3. Examine Your Value Proposition

Qualify (or Disqualify) Your Current Sales Forecast

Take a hard look at all of the sales opportunities on your current sales forecast. Be ready to be very critical in qualifying their likelihood of becoming real business.

a)      Business that Can Be Won in the Short-to-Medium Term if the Right Things are Done. These are the opportunities where there is still clearly a pressing need for what you have proposed, and the will and means to do business still exists.

b)      Deals that look doubtful given the recent sales slowdown. Some of your opportunities will probably qualify as “ nice to have,” as opposed to “must have,” in the minds of your prospect.  Be prepared to face the reality that they may not close for you until things start to look a little brighter.

c)      Dead Deals – Bury them!  Although it can be hard to walk away, you simply cannot afford a time and energy investment in hopeless cases. Save your time, energy, and resources for less hopeless cases – take them off your forecast.

The Purchase Process in Each Target Account

Now that you know which opportunities deserve your fullest attention, you must now determine what’s going on in those accounts! There are a number of reasons why your prospects are taking longer to make buying decisions but usually its due to a change in the internal decision making process. As things slow down, the decision making process changes dramatically.

If you find that your current account contact can’t tell you where your deal is in the decision making process, it’s likely that your buyer in no longer in real control.

You will need a lot of information on any changes that may have occurred before you can decide to proceed, however, at a minimum you must find out the following:

a)      Who else is now involved in the decision

b)      What, in the eyes of the new these new buyers, are the perceived risks of proceeding with your proposal

c)      How is your proposal currently perceived (nice to have, must have, ho-hum)

d)      What are their particular priorities (cost cutting, revenue improvement, strategic positioning)

Examine Your Value Proposition

Ok, so now you have identified the deals you want to go after, and, you have determined the internal purchasing structure and priorities, don’t go rushing in full steam ahead BEFORE you are sure that what you have to offer is going to appeal. When the buyer or purchase process in one of your key accounts or prospects changes, It’s key to know what you have to offer will stack up to the expectations of the new buyer.

Previous arguments and justifications for your proposal may have become redundant if they were not formulated to appeal to particular motivations of a new set of buyers.

It’s key that you position your offerings specifically to appeal to the new motivations

Even if your newly constituted value proposition is well positioned and financially justifiable, you could still be exposed if it suffers any element of ‘me, to”.  If it is not sufficiently differentiated from the propositions of other competitors who may be vying for the same business.  Don’t forget your basic marketing. Be sure that your proposition includes strong Unique Selling Propositions to put you head-and-shoulders above any potential competitors. Completely remodel your value proposition until you are satisfied that your “new” proposal will fly in the new decision making environment.

James Lawson

The Capital Coaching Group Inc

Sales Training and Consultancy,

703-745-8197

So I’m feeling verrry down right now based on a few things. Hopefully I’ll be feeling normal tomorrow but I know others won’t. First I’ll start with the more trivial thing that’s making me feel down. Stupid men! Argh, my mood does not make for good titles. Not that I have good titles anyway.

I wrote that post about SAB (String-along-boy) and I did send him a message in the end after all. I said sorry for being rude, didn’t expect to see him yadda yadda yadda. Not much else since we haven’t spoken in aeons, which was my choice but he could have tried!! Yes I’m still bitter about that. I didn’t know what I was expecting but I was expecting a reply at least! I mean, he did grab my attention and smile and wave at me and so it’s not like he ignored me and I sent him a message after just going away from him the night before.

I know he’s been online and seen the message but he just hasn’t replied to it. So I’m not even worth answering. Okay so it’s only been a day, but he has been on and seen it and not replied and yes, I feel entitled to be melodramatic about it. Did I mean NOTHING to that guy? Seriously??? To channel my inner Greys Anatomy. Not like anyone’s reading this crap anyway so I can vent and rant it out of my system hopefully! Who likes going to bed worrying over stupid things you can’t change anyway right? Not that I’m going to sleep yet so who knows might feel better soon or not.

Then! I’ve been talking to my mum tonight, or rather she to me, about how depressed she’s been feeling lately, and I feel like I can’t do anything to make her feel better. I listened to her for as long as she wanted and she said it made her feel better, but she’s still not happy. One of the reasons she’s upset is because of my dad, or I guess it’d be easier to call him my step dad, or rather my ex step dad. They never married, and aren’t together any more, but he raised me so he’s my dad. But it’ll be easier to call him step dad here.

There’s a few reasons as to why he’s upsetting her, but I’ll write about the reason that upsets me. He’s had this new girlfriend for about 6 months and I still haven’t met her. My mum has (she said she’s lovely) and two of my brothers have but I haven’t yet. Turns out my dad’s spending Christmas with her and her daughter who’s my age. It sounds as if he talks about her, as if she is his daughter, and its like, okay so I’m being replaced? Yes I’m being childish but since he’s been with her he’s barely seen us and contacted us and now he’s not spending Christmas with us but with them?

I guess I have issues with rejection since Daddy #1 decided he wanted a different family that wasn’t his. Maybe I’m just being very angry and biased against him which makes me feel bad because he’s dead. Yeah, I have issues and I’m angry and this all probably will sound stupid tomorrow. Hmm where was I? Yes, I just feel lately he doesn’t care about us and he can replace us and I’m not his “real” daughter, but he’s still my dad, and now it’s feeling like… he’s turning less and less into a father now for us. My brother said when people ask if he has a dad, he just say’s no now. That really shocked me but I can understand, which is sucks. I don’t even know where all my thoughts are going.

Then there’s my best friend and her dad died just over a year ago so I feel guilty complaining about my own problems, not that I have about my dad to her, but that it could be worse. She’s still grieving, and now she’s having problems with her boyfriend and she doesn’t know what to do and she’s far away and I can’t help. She sent me a message and I replied, but its not the same, and talking on the phone isn’t the same as seeing her in person.

And I’m just feeling angry, rejected, upset, useless and childish at the moment.

This week’s news from the Commerce Department is that real GDP grew at a 3.5% annualized rate in the 3rd quarter of 2009, which is the best quarterly growth rate in two years.  And some economists, including the National Bureau of Economic Research’s (NBER’s) Jeffrey Frankel, are saying the recession probably ended sometime this summer.  Meanwhile, a poll of MSNBC readers finds that 82% think the recession is still raging, 9% think the economists are right, and 9% don’t know.  (Yes, online polls are unscientific, but earlier, professional surveys I’ve seen of the public also found them to be more pessimistic about the economy than the experts.)

Are the economists that obtuse, or is the public that dumb?  Even if one’s preferred is answer is “Both,” I think the split is due to two different definitions of “recession.”  The NBER and the economics profession define a recession as a general period of economic decline, whereas I bet most people define it as a weaker-than-usual economy.  I would argue for throwing the word out altogether when discussing the economy.

• Use “contraction” to denote a period of actual decline, just as the 1929-33 collapse was called the Great Contraction.
• Use “depression” to denote a period of economic weakness, just as 1929-early 1941 was the Great Depression.  I argued in March that we were in a depression, but if “depression” sounds too harsh because people associate it with the Great Depression, then say “slump.”

Right now, the different professional and public definitions of “recession” (just as with “money” and “investment”) just makes economists seem that much more out of touch.

A Shell petrol station (AFP file)

LONDON (AFP) – Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that third-quarter net profit slumped 62 percent from a year earlier to 1.97 billion pounds.

“Out third quarter results were affected by the weak global economy,” said Shell Chief Executive Peter Voser in a results statement, adding that 5,000 jobs will be axed by the end of 2009 in a cost-cutting programme announced earlier this year.

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