Grateful Dead

yeah, i saw those highlights TL!! great to see Barcelona deliver the goods!noticed that Guardiola played a completely different team during the week and won something like 5-0!!! does that mean they can play two matches with two different squads at the same time and still conquer?!!! they're in Japan now at the Club World Cup; Kashiwa Reysol (Japan) are also doing well and are in the semi-finals. they are managed by former Brazilian player Nelsinho Baptista (of Santos, also in the competition). to see them play Barcelona in the final would be fantastic! our faves vs. your faves!!! sangria vs. sake! rice wine to win!!!

Mostly because the British refuse to be bound by new financial rules likely to be dominated by the Germans. In other words: Pride. Britain’s banks are drawing up contingency plans in case there is a disorderly break-up of the eurozone or exit of some countries from the single currency as the sovereign debt crisis rages on, a top UK regulator said yesterday. Andrew Bailey, deputy head of the Prudential Business Unit at the UK’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), said UK banks do not have large exposures to the eurozone, but must plan for the worst. “We cannot be, and are not, complacent on this front,” Bailey said at a conference. “As you would expect, as supervisors we are very keen to see the banks plan for any disorderly consequence of the euro area crisis. “Good risk management means planning for unlikely but severe scenarios and this means that we must not ignore the prospect of a disorderly departure of some countries from the eurozone. “I offer no view on whether it will happen, but it must be within the realm of contingency planning,” he said. Bailey, who was chief cashier at the Bank of England, moved to the FSA as part of preparations for a shake-up of UK financial supervision from 2013. He will be deputy head of the new Prudential Regulation Authority which will be a subsidiary of the Bank. Bailey has already held talks with Britain’s banks, saying lenders needed little prompting, but the lack of a mechanism for a eurozone country to exit the currency made things more complicated. “We have been talking to them already and we will be talking to them again and asking questions,” Bailey added. “There is no roadmap out there that says this is how it happens,” Bailey said, There is already rigorous testing of systems going on, including for a possible eurozone break-up, as part of an ongoing risk management process that has stepped up considerably in recent years, bankers said last week. Banks are constantly testing their capital, liquidity and operations, such as payments systems, for risks and as the eurozone break-up threat has risen, that feeds into the checks. Bank of England monetary policy committee member David Miles, said the eurozone crisis was already having a substantial impact on Britain by pushing up funding costs for banks and companies. He echoed Bailey’s view that UK lenders were in a relatively strong position. “But nonetheless they get sucked into some of the funding difficulties and that’s already happened over the last four or five months,” Miles told the Yorkshire Post newspaper yesterday. Scott Roger, a senior economist at the International Monetary Fund, said there was “phenomenal” scope for contagion risk across financial markets but there are few signs that regulators are coordinating even as the eurozone crisis deepens. “National regulators still have a national champions view approach to banking,” he said. A number of British firms, including budget airline easyJet and the world’s biggest caterer Compass Group have said they have discussed or put in place contingency plans to deal with any collapse in the euro but many are reluctant to give details, perhaps reflecting the fact that there is little many of them can do. Their best insurance policies are natural hedges in the form of the broadest possible customer base and exposure to the biggest possible basket of different currencies – not something a company can change in a hurry. “One of the great strengths of Compass is that we don’t have an over-dependency on just one or two clients, we have 40,000 clients across the world,” chief executive Richard Cousins said earlier this week. James Hickman, managing director at foreign exchange firm Caxton FX, said he strongly believed that countries would start to drop out of the eurozone, with Greece looking like a good first bet. “Over the past few years, we have invested heavily in infrastructure, which enables us to adapt swiftly to any changes. For example, if Greece were to drop out of the euro today, we could very quickly add the drachma to our list of tradeable currencies,” he told Reuters. “No-one can provide a definitive answer about what is going to happen to the euro and that’s why we need to be prepared for any given situation.” Bailey said the resilience of UK banks had improved substantially since the 2007-2009 near meltdown of the global financial system. “Today, UK banks are not front-and-centre of the problem,” Bailey said. The current phase of the crisis has not singled out UK banks as they do not have large direct exposures to the vulnerable eurozone countries. UK banks were also forced to build up liquidity buffers ahead of the new Basel III global bank rules that take effect from 2013. Bailey signalled flexibility on their use in the current stressed times for funding markets as policymakers want banks to continue lending to an already stumbling economy.

Jonapi! You said that so well!! Had a weekend of doing just that-counting my tiny blessings, and it felt really great. Amonst the weekend blessings was an amazing soccer game on Saturday night! El Classico-Real Madrid vs. my fave Barcelona boys. Real scored in the 1st 20 seconds of the game, which was shockingly awful, BUT Barca picked up their act, especially in the 2nd half, did what they do best; and won 3-1. Historical in that allegedly RM has never drawn nor lost a game that they started out ahead. This game was also crucial cuz it knocked RM out of 1st place in the Spanish league, at least for the moment. Was having such a good time, streaming this game in my living room that I had to go put on my flamenco shoes when it was over, and have a celebratory stomp all over my wooden floor, accompanied by Carmen Amaya on YouTube. Son was rolling his eyes, but was a lovely evening :D

... does sound harsh to put the negotiators on one of the Maldives till they get it right, but once again gonzo you are thinking outside the box! Very funny thought though - would make a good movie. Are ya listening Al Gore?

i would agree with that too, gratefaldean & TL.it's easy to get swept up in the maelstrom, which usually means neglect on a level where you can make a difference. theres certainly nothing wrong with 'the big picture', but as we know all too well, that takes a long long time to rectify. we're not all in the position scientifically to cure cancer; most of our attempts would result in being as effective as sticking a band aid over it and crossing our fingers. but we can make changes on a smaller level; our diet, our health and passing this on to family and friends and colleagues. i'm a firm believer that change on a micro-level with have a much larger effect on the macro-level. changing things in your own community is a lot more beneficial than using those hours, days, months and years, being vocal about world poverty, or corporate greed or injustice. worrying and hurting, however deep felt and sincere will not help anyone unfortunately. which isn't to say these things shouldn't be discussed or that people should stay quiet, certainly not. but we must use our time effectively and influence our immediate surroundings so the positivity can spread. it is easy to get down at this time of year (hey, all year round in these times). but it's important to count our blessings and do the best we can. if we know we're trying our hardest than we reflect that towards other people. being positive becomes contagious. just one small action (donating some food or clothing to a homeless shelter; volunteering for a few days or even one day) is something concrete. you've made a difference, however small. thats a good thing. if it comes from the heart it will make the planet brighter.

The Patriots looked just super-bowl bound with that offense. Brady connecting all over the field to receivers like Welker and The Gronk (Gronkowski) who had three TDs. Running attack is there at a high level also, so they are 10-3. Unfortunately, one-dimensional teams rarely make the 2nd round of the playoffs and with the Patriots practically holding tryouts for the secondary, they are just too injured to compete at play-off level. They could beat the Jets and clinch a bye and home-field advantage and it still wouldn't make a difference. Still, you got a love a winner and they are coming up winners almost every Sunday this regular season. High marks for Brady. He was having a bad day and people were missing some catches, but he doesn't flinch in the pocket or ever give up. 35 points on an off-day? They are monsters!

No agreement was reached at the conference in Durban after 13 days. A lot of work was done to overhaul the Kyoto Protocols. Mainly, the poorer countries will have a different standard than the richer ones. The good news is that China and India will be included when any new treaty is voted on. The bad news is that the goals being laid out must be fully in process by 2020 if the rate of global warming is to be slowed enough to slow the change that is already being felt all over the world. Even that assumption is based on rosier assumptions. Perhaps we should put the negotiators on one of the Maldives Islands that are going under water (due to ocean levels rising) until they get their countries to sign on to tough new regulations, or let them die as the island goes under water. Sounds harsh, but the image would be starkly alarming.

My universe becomes confined to my own little space. Not uncommon at all, not an inappropriate response at all. There's just the danger of becoming so insulated from the world as a whole that the bad things get way worse because we become indifferent to them. An awful lot of people have suffered thoughout history because people like me stopped paying attention, failed to speak or act when it could have made a difference. That's my fear whenever I get like this. Of course, I get like this about every winter, so it could just be a lack of sunshine...

That is totally normal, Dean. When it happens to me, I focus on what is right under my nose for a little while-try to solve problems that I can actually solve (like attacking filthy windows today) until mood is better to look at the big picture again. I think what you are mentioning must be absolutely human.

That's where I am, walking around acting like nothing is wrong while feeling that nothing is right. Makes me hunker down and hope that the storm passes without sweeping us off. When I get to that stage of feeling so incredibly powerless, that nothing I can do will make a bit of difference (and with 7 billion people running around, your "making a difference" odds get incredibly diluted), I tend to stop paying attention to the scary stuff. But it's all such a train wreck, it's hard not to watch, isn't it?