St. Michael Football

Matt had a nice play in his football game today. Matt (#15) rolls off his block from the tight end position to the right side of the end zone to catch a pass from Mitch for a successful 2-point conversion. Note the jump at the end with another player. Too funny. Here's the link to the video of Matt's catch.

Now if you think that is a nice play for such a young group of athletes, check this out. This is a play that St. Michael ran in Mark's 1st and 2nd grade flag football game last Sunday. Notice how long this pass is and the fact that the QB is rolling out. Not only does he make a great pass but the receiver also makes a great catch. They're in 1st and 2nd grade!

Here is video of one of Mark's plays during the game last week. Mark is #1 in the video and is working as the quarterback in this play. Mark's scramble.

Finally, here is video of Mark's breakaway run from the quarterback position for a touchdown. If you watch the right sideline, you see two boys jump up in celebration. The one on the right in the light shirt and dark baseball hat is his proud big brother, Matt. Here is the link to Mark's run for a touchdown.

The boys are really enjoying football this season and so are we.

"The world revolves around credit and confidence."

I missed President Bush's primetime speech tonight in which he attempted to sell the American public and lawmakers on the "bailout plan". I'm curious to see how it was received by everyone. It has certainly been alarming the past couple days with some of the comments being made by Bush and Paulson. They have been alarmingly candid in my opinion. Such as, "Our entire economy is in danger."

I came across this article on CNBC.com and Jim Cramer's website tonight. Cramer thinks the "bailout/investment in America" must occur and that Paulson needs to sell the idea to the public in a better way.

Warren Buffet invested $5 billion of his money into the struggling Goldman Sachs. That's Billion with a "B".

They're back!!! Well, at least they were last night.

I have been thrilled all day with the thoughts of last night's UofL game versus Kansas St. It seemed our team had returned to the days of old when it was almost a given that we would win at home, that every time we took our offense onto the field we would score and that our defense would play solid.

Hunter Cantwell had a great game and threw many passes that were remarkable. Several passes went into tight coverage but his arm strength and accuracy allowed only the UofL receivers to get their hands on the ball.

Our running game came back last night too. We smacked them in the mouth with runs by Brock Bolen and then dazzled them with the speed and athleticism of Victor Anderson. Victor Anderson. Victor Anderson. Wow, Victor Anderson.

(AP Photo/Garry Jones)

First of all Victor Anderson is an alum of St. X, my alma mater. Second, he is a redshirt Freshman. Third, he brought it last night. The guy can flat out run. He has speed, agility, the ability to make cuts and make defenders miss, the ability to be slick and get away from poeple who actually do touch him, and finally and probably most surprising given his size, he can get extra yardage by moving the pile and scampering for more.

Bolen and Anderson combined for 280 yards rushing with Anderson having 176 yards on 18 carries for an avg. yards per carry of 9.8 and 3 touchdowns. Doug Beaumont, another Louisville native was the leading receiver with 9 receptions for 119 yards.


Hunter passed for 274 yards and went 22/33 and 2 TDs.

Great game Cards!


(AP Photo/Garry Jones)

Interest Rate Cuts Anyone?

First of all . . . has it really been since August 30th that I last posted? Wow. Well, knowing what my past month has been like, I can believe it, I guess.

My last post about the beginning of college football might be enough explanation in itself. Louisville appears to be ready for another lackluster season having started off the season with a loss to a less than stellar University of Kentucky football team (that, by the way, almost lost last night to Middle Tennessee State. This is the same Middle TN that has given UofL a run for their money the past two seasons and appears to be a decent football team this year.) Louisville has to play them soon and I am hopeful they fair as well as UK did.

Matt and Mark are both playing football for St. Michael's and we literally have practice or a game EVERY day of the week. It's been fun though. We are getting to know the kids and their parents as the season progresses so it's been fun for all of us.

Hurricane Ike has moved to shore and gas prices on Friday began jumping as much as $1 at the local pumps. Kentucky's Governor, Steve Beshear, declared a State of Emergency invoking the state's anti-price gouging law.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were "bailed out" last week. This is a good thing for all of us as it helps to ease the worry of what would happen if either of these two collapsed. They are so interwoven in the the overall economy that this had to be done. Speaking of bailouts, I was just reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about talks taking place this weekend to deal with the Lehman Brothers issue. Barclay's and Bank of America appear to be positioning themselves as suitors to buy the troubled investment bank but are seeking U.S. Government assistance should they decide to bailout/buyout the troubled firm.

So what about those interest rate cuts I mentioned above? Well, there's an article posted by Tom Brennan on Jim Kramer's Mad Money saying Kramer wants a 1% rate cut at this Tuesday's fed meeting but at least a minimum of 50 basis points (1/2% for you basis point novices) to try to help banks "get back on their feet" again.

I keep telling people that the really unusual thing going right now is you have these major banks paying 5% on their deposits because the are so desperate for funding and capital right now. This is causing all the banks to pay more they would typically pay on deposits just to prevent run off of their maturing CDs or liquid deposits to these desperate institutions. The average depositor doesn't know what is going on and is not concerned about these desperate institutions so they are moving their money to the banks paying 5% if their bank isn't paying a comparable rate.

On the flipside, the Prime Interest Rate, which is typically used as the index for lending rates on commercial lines of credit and short-term interest rates is also 5%. So banks are paying 5% to depositors and charging 5% to borrowers . . . where is the bank going to make money? Granted we all know banks charge fees, etc. but the banks have typically been able to count on this spread between deposits and loans as income and this margin has been shrinking and is now almost non-existent.

The really interesting thing to watch this week will be if the Fed does cut the Fed Funds Rate being charged to the banks, will the Banks pass along this cut to the Borrowers by lowering the Prime Rates. See, the banks individually choose to set what their published "Prime Rate" will be. Most banks match their Prime Rate to the published Wall Street Journal Prime Rate. However, their are smaler niche banks that will often keep their Prime Rate at a higher rate than that published in the WSJ. Larger banks tend to follow the WSJ Prime Rate in order to be competitive with one another.

With deposit rates being what they are and talks of a Fed Funds Rate cut this week, I could see the banks taking the Fed Funds Rate cut for themselves and pocketing this savings by keeping their published Prime Rates the same. Either that or the deposit rates will have to fall to match the lower Prime Rates. We'll see. Have a great week!