Source: http://english.blic.rs/Sports//7963/Wages-and-last-seasons-bonuses-not-paid
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Eagles' 17-14 overtime victory over Glenville kept defending Division I St. Edward atop Top 25. Where is your favorite team ranked?
Source: http://highschoolsports.cleveland.com/news/article/6631727171463313154
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Money talks. It can also have legs. That was the issue that caused Youngstown's Kelly Pavlik to walk away from a payday of $50,000 for a tune-up against Darryl Cunningham of Detroit on Aug. 6 in Youngstown.
Kelly Pavlik, left, backed out of a fight against Darryl Cunningham, costing him a title bout against Lucian Bute.Money talks. It can also have legs.
That was the issue that caused Youngstown's Kelly Pavlik to walk away from a payday of $50,000 for a tune-up against Darryl Cunningham of Detroit on Aug. 6 in Youngstown. The domino effect was that it cost him a $1.35 million guaranteed payday to face IBF super middleweight champion Lucian Bute in Bute's hometown of Montreal on Nov. 5.
While Pavlik felt he was getting short money, especially for the title bout on Bute's home turf, he got a lot of criticism from most in the boxing world for backing out on short notice. Give the fighter credit for sticking to his guns, but everything is negotiable.
It also left a lot of his supporters in limbo.
“It happened and it's over,” said Jack Loew, Pavlik's lone trainer since age 9 out of his South Side Boxing Club. “It was totally Kelly's decision.
“I couldn't give you a yes or a no about what's going to happen. I haven't talked to Kelly since it was canceled. If he wants to fight, we'll move forward.”
Loew has been keeping himself busy with lightweight contender Danny Williams of St. Louis and Cleveland welterweight Willie Nelson. The waiting game with his other fighter will just have to continue.
The real winner in it all is 43-year-old veteran Glen Johnson (51-15-2, 35 KOs), who landed the payday bout against Bute (29-0, 24 KOs).
Open the box: A news conference is scheduled next week in Atlantic City, N.J., to supposedly reveal the real circumstances surrounding the tragic death of much-loved fighter Arturo Gatti. Gatti's manager, Pat Lynch, hired private investigators, and the results of their work will be presented.
Gatti, 37, was found dead in his vacation apartment in Brazil on July 11, 2009. Brazilian police arrested his wife, Amanda Rodrigues, but released her three weeks later and ruled Gatti's death a suicide. That has never seemed right to many, so this investigation is supposed to set the record straight. Obviously, many feel foul play was involved.
Around the ring: Unbeaten Alexander Povetkin (22-0, 15 KOs) won a unanimous decision against former WBA titlist Ruslan Chagaev (27-2-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday in Germany to set himself up for a title shot against WBA champ Wladimir Klitschko. Scores were 117-113 twice and 116-112. The WBA was referring to this match as one to determine a “regular” champion, with one against Klitschko for the “super championship.” As if the game needs to get more ridiculous. . . . On that same card, unbeaten Robert Helenius (16-0, 11 KOs) stopped one-time WBO champion Sergei Liakhovich (25-4, 16 KOs) in the ninth round by breaking his nose in two places. Liakhovich won his title at Cleveland State's Wolstein Center on a decision against Lamon Brewster on April 1, 2006. . . . HBO will be in Wroclaw, Poland, on Sept. 10, when Tomasz Adamek challenges WBC heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko.
Saturday: HBO will be in Biloxi, Miss., as Andre Berto tries to regain a portion of the welterweight title when he takes on IBF 147-pound champion Jan Zaveck (31-1, 18 KOs) of Slovenia. Berto was on the short end of a unanimous decision against Victor Ortiz in April, losing his opportunity to collect a huge payday against Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. It's on at 10:30 p.m. HBO is hyping its pay-per-view telecast of Ortiz's match against Mayweather on Sept. 17 with another version of its “24/7” series. A segment will air after Saturday's bout. Meanwhile, Pacquiao will face Juan Manuel Marquez for a third time Nov. 12.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: jmaxse@plaind.com, 216-999-5168
On Twitter: @JoeMaxse
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/08/whats_next_for_kelly_pavlik_is.html
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Terrelle Pryor receives support from Steelers' quarterback Charlie Batch.
Pittsburgh Steelers backup quarterback Charlie Batch.It figures that a member of the Pittsburgh Steelers, backup quarterback Charlie Batch, would support former Ohio State quarterback Terrelle Pryor.
Pryor, now with the Oakland Raiders, has been suspended for five games by the NFL as a condition of Pryor's ability to enter the supplemental draft.
Doug Farrar blogs on Shutdown Corner about how Batch, who has been mentoring Pryor for years, called NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell out about the move.
"He took it to another level when he said he was going to suspend Terrelle Pryor for five games and he wasn't even in the NFL last year," Batch said. "How can you do that? It's not right. It's not right at all."
Batch, who is one of the Steelers' player representatives and was heavily involved in lockout negotiations, also (sort of) brought up the possibility of an appeal of the suspension.
"I told Terrelle what he should do. I am not going to tell you what I told him, but I told him what he should do," Batch said. "Whatever the Raiders want him to do, that is what they will do."
Batch has a valid point, writes Farrar, because Goodell refused to suspend Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Aqib Talib and Tennessee Titans receiver Kenny Britt for violations of the league's personal conduct policy committed during the lockout.
Many questioned just why Goodell felt justified in suspending Pryor, it seemed, as a way of transferring the five-game suspension given to Pryor by the NCAA after he received impermissible benefits while at Ohio State.
League spokesperson Greg Aiello said at the time that Pryor was suspended for essentially violating the spirit of the supplemental draft, which seems like a load of hooey based on one recent precedent.
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2011/08/pittsburgh_steelers_qb_charlie.html
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Source: http://english.blic.rs/Sports//7963/Wages-and-last-seasons-bonuses-not-paid
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Times wires
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Angels 8, Rangers 4
ARLINGTON, Texas — Vernon Wells hit the first of the Angels' five solo home runs and had an RBI triple, and Mike Trout and Bobby Wilson, the last two hitters in the lineup, went deep in the fourth off C.J. Wilson, who gave up a career-worst four homers. The Angels moved within two of the Rangers for the AL West lead.
Source: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/angels-8-rangers-4/1188508
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Kaiser Health News? Chris Weaver has an excellent story in today?s Washington Post on what insurers view as an growing and lucrative market: Medicaid. As he writes, states increasingly rely on private, managed care companies to cover Medicaid patients. With the health reform law expected to expand Medicaid to 16 million more Americans, insurers see a ?potential bonanza.?
Insurers see Medicaid as a place to expand business. It?s worth exploring, too, whether that expansion can accomplish one of the key things states really want it to: reduced Medicaid spending.
Across the board, states are facing incredible budget pressures in Medicaid; managed care is often looked to as an antidote to that. And on the surface, it does feel like it should reduce costs. Insurers, for example, generally have to bid for states? plans, so they have an incentive to keep proposed contract fees low.
An important new study, however, suggests otherwise. The National Bureau of Economic Research published this month the first national report on Medicaid managed care and cost savings. It?s verdict: moving Medicaid recipients into managed care ?did not lead to lower Medicaid spending during the 1991 to 2003 period.?
?Last time I checked, there are a lot of slogans that sound great, like paying for quality,? says University of Pennsylvania?s Mark Duggan, co-author of the NBER study. ?People just take it as a given that it saves money. But that?s not always true.?
Why not? One possible explanation has to do with Medicaid?s provider reimbursement rates, which tend to be low. The NBER study suggests that rates are low enough that private insurers couldn?t negotiate a similar payment. Any decrease in utilization would have to be massive to generate a cost saving.
To be sure, some states did show cost savings. And there are indeed ample case studies that can show a particular state or region reducing Medicaid spending by switching to a managed care program.
The NBER study found that those places have at least one thing in common: they tend to already spend more on their Medicaid programs in the first place, reimbursing health providers at a higher rate.
?If...Medicaid?s reimbursement is close to that by private insurers, then there may be some scope to reduce Medicaid spending through reductions in utilization of care,? the study explains.
Duggan?s study results are surprising on their own. But there?s one other thing about the study that makes it stand out: it is the first national look at whether Medicaid managed care has actually does a key thing that states want it to do. This is a trend that has swept through Medicaid since the 1990s as a means of reducing costs within the $450 billion entitlement program. Seventy percent of Medicaid patients now receive coverage through a managed care plan, up from 11 percent in 1991.
That there?s been so little academic work into whether this approach has delivered on its assumed goal startled me, and Duggan too.
?It?s hard to see how formidable the fiscal challenges we face are and how we?re not looking at the hard data,? he says. ?We?re just trying to move things forward one inch here. You?d think we?d want to ask, have we been saving money??
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=e6e2f2f165b898f79aa99ae1ec457ff4
By Marc Topkin, Times Staff Writer
Sunday, August 28, 2011
TORONTO — Given the dominating performance by LHP David Price and the Rays relievers, rookie LF Desmond Jennings said his afternoon in the outfield was, for the most part, pretty boring.
But he created plenty of excitement at the plate, homering in his first two at-bats, including the game's first pitch, and rapping a career-best four hits overall.
"It was a good day," Jennings said.
Having faced Blue Jays starter Brandon Morrow in spring training, Jennings said he was "100 percent" sure the first pitch would be a fastball, and he jumped on it.
"I didn't want to get behind because he's good," Jennings said. "Obviously, I didn't try to hit a home run, but I tried to hit it somewhere hard."
Jennings said he hit a couple of first-pitch homers in the minors and knew the impact the early lead can have.
"I just think it gets everybody up," he said.
When he homered again in the second, giving him eight in 34 games since his call-up, he became just the seventh Rays rookie with a multihomer game. Also, he became the first Rays leadoff batter to hit two homers in a game since Rocco Baldelli on Sept. 14, 2006, in New York.
GO-GO GOMES: Though Price had 14 of the Rays' team-record 18 strikeouts, rookie RHP Brandon Gomes had what manager Joe Maddon said was the biggest.
The Rays' lead was only 6-0 in the eighth when the Jays had two on, one out and major-league home run leader Jose Bautista at the plate. Gomes fell behind 3-and-1 then came back and got Bautista looking at strike two and strike three.
"That one really kept the game in order," Maddon said.
FARNSVILLE: RHP Kyle Farnsworth wasn't needed but was available to pitch Sunday, the right elbow tenderness that sidelined him for a few days satisfactorily resolved.
"Good to go," Farnsworth said.
Maddon said Farnsworth isn't expected to be limited going forward, but the one concession he likely will make is not using him for more than one inning.
Farnsworth has a major-league most five saves of four or more outs and made six such appearances overall. Also, Maddon will try to not have him warm up unless he's definitely going into the game.
"If we take care of him, I think he should be fine the rest of the season," Maddon said. "He's just way too valuable to not play along right now and make sure that he is well."
UPTON UPDATE: The Rays have until 1:30 today to work out a trade with the unknown team that claimed CF B.J. Upton on waivers last week, though a deal is not considered likely.
While the Nationals have been considered a likely candidate as the claiming team, there was media speculation Sunday in Cleveland that it was the Indians, who have lost several outfielders to injury.
MISCELLANY: The Rays logged their 13th shutout, their most in a season. … Maddon planned to talk by phone postgame with executive vice president Andrew Friedman about which players will be added when rosters expand Thursday. … The 12-0 score matched their second-largest shutout, trailing only 13-0 over the Red Sox on April 30, 2009. … The Rays clinched their fourth straight season series with the Jays, leading 10-4, including 6-2 in Toronto. … RHP Chris Archer won his Triple-A debut Saturday, allowing one run over six innings and striking out six but walking five. … The finale to this four-game wraparound series is a night game for TV and attendance reasons. … The Rangers shuffled their rotation for the Rays series, skipping LHP Matt Harrison and replacing him Tuesday with long reliever RHP Scott Feldman.
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By Rick Stroud, Times Staff Writer
Saturday, August 27, 2011
TAMPA — Bucs cornerback Aqib Talib will not be suspended by the NFL for the 2011 season, but both the team and the league will monitor his pending legal case, general manager Mark Dominik said Saturday.
Talib met Tuesday with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in New York. Talib is scheduled to stand trial March 26, 2012, in Dallas County on charges of assault with a deadly weapon.
"I'm happy it's over with," said Talib, who received word of the decision before Saturday's 17-13 preseason victory against the Dolphins, adding that it was a "big burden off my shoulders."
He said he gave Goodell the "rundown on what really happened" and his lawyer presented information "he really didn't know about."
Dominik said that while he supported Goodell's decision, he wasn't pleased with Talib's situation.
"I don't want to have to deal with these kinds of things," Dominik said before the game. "And again, I think Aqib and our football team knows that's not the kind of team we want to be here and build here. We want to be a team our community sits around and is really proud of. So I'm not relieved because I don't want to be in these situations anymore.
"But the truth is, this is America and he's getting his opportunity."
Talib was suspended by the league for the first game last season after assaulting a St. Petersburg cab driver in 2009. He has not played this preseason because of a hamstring injury but is expected to return Thursday at Washington. Talib said he will be ready for the Sept. 11 opener against the Lions.
"I got off the phone with the league office and we discussed Aqib's situation, and they informed us he would not be suspended for the 2011 football season," Dominik said. "Certainly we and the National Football League are going to continue to track the case and … will proceed accordingly, however that pans out."
Through his attorney, Frank Perez, Talib has maintained his innocence since his arrest for his role in a shooting March 21 in Garland, Texas. Garland police said Talib, 25, and his mother shot at his sister's boyfriend. After conferring with Talib once the NFL's labor lockout ended, the Bucs allowed him to return to the team.
Goodell had said he would impose discipline on players who violated the league's conduct policy during the lockout, and he retained that power in the 10-year collective bargaining agreement.
Based on his discussions with Talib and his attorney, Dominik said he felt comfortable with Goodell's decision. "Once Aqib came back to this football team and we had a chance to talk to his agent, the limited (information) the attorney could actually share with us and certainly Aqib's recant of what the story was, I do feel like I'm in agreement and wholeheartedly support what Commissioner Goodell has decided," he said.
Also Saturday, the NFL confirmed that Goodell told Titans receiver Kenny Britt, who had two incidents involving police during the lockout, that he will not be punished. "The commissioner restated his expectation that Britt will be responsible for his actions going forward and noted that future incidents will lead to appropriate discipline," NFL spokesman Greg Aiello wrote in an e-mail.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
A seismic shift in the Premier League powerbase as both Manchester clubs inflict humiliating defeats upon two North London giants on Sunday. The Villas-Boas experiment stuttered through another awkward test at Stamford Bridge but the widest smile of a fascinating weekend belonged to the King of Anfield as the good times returned to Liverpool.
WINNERS
Kenny Dalglish
THE LEGEND’S enthusiasm for Liverpool remains as abundant as ever if the broad smile and enthusiastic hand-clapping are anything to go by following Liverpool's 3-1 win at home to Bolton. Dalglish's re-appointment was derided by many as the former Anfield player-manager had been out of the game for so long until the arrivals of Luis Suarez, Stewart Downing and Charlie Adam gave Liverpool back their mojo.
The Scot is as self-deprecating as ever in after-match interviews but Liverpool's re-emergence as a possible Champions League qualifier is down to the manager purchasing quality players and settling on a balanced side (Arsenal take note).
Tony Fernandes
THE NEW QPR owner and Force India Formula One supremo endeared himself to his new supporters by sanctioning an immediate decrease in ticket prices at Loftus Road. Signing Joey Barton with 48 hours of taking over was another clear demonstration that Fernandes - unlike the previous incumbents - is putting his money where his mouth is in an effort to establish the London club in the Premier League.
Manchester United
UNITED'S substitutes bench in the Sunday massacre of Arsenal included Anders Lindegaard, Rio Ferdinand, Fabio da Silva, Ryan Giggs, Ji-Sung Park, Dimitar Berbatov and Javier Hernandez. Missing through injury were Michael Carrick, Michael Owen and Nemandja Vidic.
Any team with title aspirations look to the strength of their bench as an indicator of potential success. Based on that theory Manchester United are odds on to retain their title.
Juan Mata
RARELY does a scoring debutant fail to make the headlines but that is what happened to Juan Mata at Stamford Bridge. The former Valencia winger's debut for Chelsea in a 3-1 win over Norwich was overshadowed by a Didier Drogba concussion which left the Ivorian in hospital overnight. Mata's cameo which culminated in the diminutive winger scoring a delightful left-footed goal bodes well for a stuttering Chelsea side.
Edin Dzeko
FOUR goals from Edin Dzeko in Manchester City's 5-1 demolition of Tottenham on Sunday solidified the former Wolfsburg striker's place in Roberto Mancini's star-studded first team squad. Seven goals in four appearances marks the Bosnian international down as one of the hottest strikers in the Premier League right now and underlines many pundits view that Manchester City are serious title contenders.
The BBC
WHAT a weekend to get Alex Ferguson to lift his ban on speaking to the BBC as the home of the ageless Match of the Day programme got to hear Ferguson's dulcet tones on Sunday evening following United's historic 8-2 victory. Ferguson looked to be biting on a nettle as he answered the BBC's reporter's inane questions but managed to get in a “the media today is so cut-throat now and hard to understand at times” comment before walking off.
LOSERS
The average football fan
AS Sky Sports celebrate 20 years of broadcasting the Premier League worldwide a word for the average football fan that is being slowly being priced out of attending matches.
Birmingham City were relegated from the top tier last season yet saw fit to charge visiting Manchester United fans £54 to attend an away fixture at St. Andrews. A large amount of money in anyone's eyes but made even more incredulous when you consider Birmingham charged Wigan Athletic supporters a mere £18 the following week for the privilege of sitting in the same away end?
Few if any Premier League clubs offer family or student concessions resulting in a generation of potential fans now being lost to the game. Talks of a 39th fixture on foreign soil look a more likely prospect than clubs bothering to address their local fans needs.
The Arsenal Board of Directors
FORMER Arsenal Director Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith was seemingly forced out of her role by having to sell her 15.9% shareholding to Stan Kroenke last April. “If the role of a board member is to oversee a trophy less period, while making significant personal profits and asking fans to pay inflation-busting ticket price increases then, no, I would not want to be on the board” was Bracewell-Smith's parting shot.
Success that had been previously taken for granted at Highbury and the Emirates Stadium has dried up since Bracewell-Smith and most notably David Dein's decision to vacate the Arsenal boardroom.
Off-field difficulties in attracting top talent to the Emirates Stadium due to a reluctance to splash the cash is now matched by a chronic lack of confidence throughout the club culminating in Sunday's humiliation at Old Trafford.
Arsenal's transfer attempts in the past six months underline the current malaise within the club's boardroom at bringing in much needed talent. Failing to purchase Mark Schwarzer from Fulham, allowing Luis Enrique to move to Liverpool, offering a paltry sum for Phil Jones who leaped into Sir Alex Ferguson's arms and now angering Bolton Wanderers with a derisory offer for Gary Cahill?
Arsene Wenger
DIFFICULT as it is to criticise a manager who has revolutionised Arsenal, Arsene Wenger is overseeing the worst run (six Premier League games without a win) of form since taking over. Even ignoring the obvious tactical flaws employed during the 8-2 embarrassment at Old Trafford, Wenger's recent transfer activity has weakened rather than strengthen his club.
The transfer window closes in three days yet amazingly Wenger was still non-committal on the prospect of any new signings after their 8-2 loss. Another trophy-less season may prove too much for the Arsenal board and supporters if their stubborn manager insists on ploughing ahead with his current squad.
*Follow Ger on Twitter: @offcentrecircle
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/5D8dfZc_mhg/post.aspx
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Kaiser Health News? Chris Weaver has an excellent story in today?s Washington Post on what insurers view as an growing and lucrative market: Medicaid. As he writes, states increasingly rely on private, managed care companies to cover Medicaid patients. With the health reform law expected to expand Medicaid to 16 million more Americans, insurers see a ?potential bonanza.?
Insurers see Medicaid as a place to expand business. It?s worth exploring, too, whether that expansion can accomplish one of the key things states really want it to: reduced Medicaid spending.
Across the board, states are facing incredible budget pressures in Medicaid; managed care is often looked to as an antidote to that. And on the surface, it does feel like it should reduce costs. Insurers, for example, generally have to bid for states? plans, so they have an incentive to keep proposed contract fees low.
An important new study, however, suggests otherwise. The National Bureau of Economic Research published this month the first national report on Medicaid managed care and cost savings. It?s verdict: moving Medicaid recipients into managed care ?did not lead to lower Medicaid spending during the 1991 to 2003 period.?
?Last time I checked, there are a lot of slogans that sound great, like paying for quality,? says University of Pennsylvania?s Mark Duggan, co-author of the NBER study. ?People just take it as a given that it saves money. But that?s not always true.?
Why not? One possible explanation has to do with Medicaid?s provider reimbursement rates, which tend to be low. The NBER study suggests that rates are low enough that private insurers couldn?t negotiate a similar payment. Any decrease in utilization would have to be massive to generate a cost saving.
To be sure, some states did show cost savings. And there are indeed ample case studies that can show a particular state or region reducing Medicaid spending by switching to a managed care program.
The NBER study found that those places have at least one thing in common: they tend to already spend more on their Medicaid programs in the first place, reimbursing health providers at a higher rate.
?If...Medicaid?s reimbursement is close to that by private insurers, then there may be some scope to reduce Medicaid spending through reductions in utilization of care,? the study explains.
Duggan?s study results are surprising on their own. But there?s one other thing about the study that makes it stand out: it is the first national look at whether Medicaid managed care has actually does a key thing that states want it to do. This is a trend that has swept through Medicaid since the 1990s as a means of reducing costs within the $450 billion entitlement program. Seventy percent of Medicaid patients now receive coverage through a managed care plan, up from 11 percent in 1991.
That there?s been so little academic work into whether this approach has delivered on its assumed goal startled me, and Duggan too.
?It?s hard to see how formidable the fiscal challenges we face are and how we?re not looking at the hard data,? he says. ?We?re just trying to move things forward one inch here. You?d think we?d want to ask, have we been saving money??
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=e6e2f2f165b898f79aa99ae1ec457ff4
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Times wires
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Giants 2, Astros 1
SAN FRANCISCO — Jeff Keppinger hit a two-run double and Madison Bumgarner won for the second time in six starts for the Giants. San Francisco won for just the ninth time in its past 27 games. It has played six consecutive games (and nine of 11) decided by two or fewer runs and. Keppinger's RBIs gave him five since he joined the Giants in a July 19 trade from Houston for Henry Sosa, who beat the Giants on Thursday.
Source: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/giants-2-astros-1/1188371
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Depending on whom you ask, Ben Bernanke?s speech at Jackson Hole is either a signal that he?ll do nothing in the face of a weakening economy, or a welcome indication that he intends to rally the Fed behind more stimulative measures. We?ll find out who?s right after the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meets next month, but until then it?s worth asking what the Fed can actually do.
There is no shortage of policy moves the Fed could take now. It could lower the interest rate on reserves, initiate another round of quantitative easing or change the composition of its debt holdings. But many economists think the most important thing it could do is signal it will allow higher inflation in the medium term. Higher inflation would eat away at household debt, allowing consumers to spend rather than pay off loans. This increases demand, and thus growth and employment. As Justin Wolfers notes, this could take a number of forms. The Fed could, as Kenneth Rogoff and IMF chief economist Olivier Blanchard have suggested, state openly that it is targeting a higher rate of inflation ? say, 4 percent instead of the current 2 percent target. It could, as Greg Mankiw has proposed, change from a 2 percent inflation target to a 2 percent price level target, which would allow higher near-term inflation. It could even, following Scott Sumner, start targeting nominal GDP, which would allow more inflation (because the target is nominal, not real) and also make Fed policy directly focused on ensuring higher growth. It could even just say it wants higher short-term inflation, as Michael Woodford suggested this morning, without adopting big changes to its targeting approach.
The key to all these proposals is that the Fed?s statements and actions can affect inflation expectations, and thus inflation. By spurring a bit more inflation, it can then drive up growth and speed the recovery along. But though the people proposing this know whereof they speak ? Woodford is arguably the most respected monetary theorist alive today ? there are a number of economists who dispute the idea that the Fed, at the moment, can do much to drive up inflation. Peter Diamond, the Nobel laureate and failed Fed nominee, told Ryan Avent in an interview that although the Fed can set a level of inflation that it?s willing to tolerate, it can?t itself spur inflation. Donald Kohn, who served as vice chairman of the Fed from 2006 to 2010, told me he also doubts the Fed can do much to spur inflation at the moment. The Fed can create inflation, he explained, either by spurring demand so high that there?s upward pressure on prices (obviously, not a problem right now) or by creating credible inflation expectations. ?At this point with the economy operating so far below potential and monetary policy having trouble pushing it higher one might wonder whether either of these would be operative right now,? he said in an e-mail. With demand as low as it is now, convincing the markets that inflation is going up might be impossible, so it could be that the Fed just can?t affect inflation expectations for now.
And then there?s the question of whether higher short-term inflation would spur growth and employment, even if the Fed can produce it. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody?s Analytics, doubts it. He thinks another round of quantitative easing might do some good, and doesn?t doubt that the Fed can increase inflation if it wants to, but argues that driving up inflation expectations would increase interest rates and could cause inflation to spiral out of control. ?I don?t think the Fed can inflate our way out of our economic problems,? he said. ?It?s a very risky sort of game to play. If it does truly affect inflation expectations, that?s a very difficult thing to reign in.? Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomics Advisers, suggests that trying to spur growth by increasing inflation expectations gets what?s causing what reversed. ?Inflation expectations are not certain to move up if current inflation remains subdued because of the weak economy...the Fed might not be able to stimulate the economy enough to convince people inflation is headed higher any time soon no matter what,? he said.
Obviously, it would be great if the Fed had the power to spur growth through higher inflation, and there are a lot of economists who think it does. But it?s not a settled matter by any means.
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=f014055b7b103bdb06ebdb4a54bc2a12
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Brandon Wright, Times Correspondent
Friday, August 26, 2011
BRANDON — Brandon picked up right where it left off last year, hammering visiting Blake 35-6 in the preseason opener Friday night.
Brandon, which finished 9-2 and reached the playoffs for the first time since 2007 last season, dominated both sides of the ball and led at one point 29-0 before a number of starters exited.
Brandon's suffocating defense set the tone for the evening, registering a safety on Blake's first possession. On the night, the Eagles' defense recorded six sacks and picked off a pair off passes.
The Eagles' ground game punished the Blake front seven.
Tyrell Garner rushed for a pair of scores and D'andre Franklin added another from 26 yards out. The Eagles only threw a handful of times, but were efficient when they did.
Quarterback Alan Knippel tossed a pair of TDs, including a juggling catch in the back corner of the end zone to Jalen Stringfellow from 25 yards out. The senior signal caller also hooked up with Will Plachta for a 26-yard TD.
Brandon Wright, Times correspondent
Source: http://www.tampabay.com/sports/footballpreps/preseason-football-brandon-35-blake-6/1188326
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This week?s natural gas headlines are awfully gloomy: ?U.S. to Slash Marcellus Shale Gas Estimate 80%,? writes Bloomberg. ?Geologists Sharply Cut Estimate of Shale Gas,? declares the New York Times. The stories, based on a new report from the U.S. Geological Survey, all suggest that the United States might have far, far less natural gas ? which is expected to provide a cheap, abundant energy source in the decades to come ? than previously thought. Terrible news, right?
Well, hold up. As it turns out, some of those stories may have been somewhat premature ? and appear to be based on a slight misunderstanding of the USGS survey.
Now along comes Tuesday?s USGS survey with a new topline number: 84 trillion cubic feet. That?s a lot of gas, by any measure. But it?s also far less than 410 trillion or 489 trillion. So doesn?t this vindicate earlier (and oft-criticized) reporting by Ian Urbina of the New York Times that both the government and the gas industry have been exaggerating shale gas resources?
A few caveats. As Brenda Pierce, program coordinator for the USGS energy resources program told me, it?s important to do an apples-to-apples comparison here. The USGS and EIA aren?t measuring the same thing, exactly: The USGS offered an estimate of undiscovered resources that can be recovered with current technology, whereas the EIA report looked at both ?active? and ?undeveloped? reserves together. ?Ours is additive to what?s already in production,? explains Pierce.
So the USGS only surveyed a subset of what the EIA had been measuring. Although the comparison isn?t perfect, USGS?s figure of 84 trillion cubic feet can be lined up against the EIA?s 232 trillion cubic feet of ?undeveloped? reserves. What?s more, Pierce notes, the 84 trillion cubic feet is a mean estimate?the USGS survey?s estimates ranged from 43 trillion to 144 trillion cubic feet. So the downward revision could end up being less stark than early media reports implied. Currently, USGS and EIA are working to reconcile the two studies, which will take a few weeks, and we?ll have to await the end result.
Meanwhile, Penn State?s Terry Engelder says that the new USGS report wasn?t necessarily incompatible with his own research. ?They have only included part of the sum, so of course it?s going to be smaller,? he says. He also pointed to differences in modeling for how production at gas wells decline over time: Engelder?s study uses a more optimistic curve than the USGS?s conservative model. ?It?s important to note that gas yield production is still very immature. We don?t know for sure what the truth is here,? Engelder explains. ?It?s possibly between the optimistic and conservative projections.?
In any case, there?s a lot more work to be done in figuring out just how much gas is out there ? and how much can be drilled at a profit (the USGS focused on how much gas could technically be extracted, not how much gas could be profitably extracted, an important distinction). Estimating reserves is a rough art, and the New York Times has raised sharp questions about how the government calculates its numbers. And it?s crucial that those numbers are as firm as possible, given the giant role shale gas is likely to play in energy policy for years to come.
(Meanwhile, there?s the separate ? but no less controversial ? question of whether hydraulic fracturing can be pursued in a safe and ecologically sound manner. Bryan Walsh recently wrote a nice piece on that topic in Time.)
Source: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=ca580586598bb63d7d0d5a8cd7af4de2
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