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Cubs Searching For Starter At GM Meetings - RealGM Wiretap
The Cubs are on the lookout for a starting pitcher or two as they prepare for this week's general manager meetings in California.


Chicago nearly landed Dan Haren from Los Angeles last week for Carlos Marmol http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Shareece-Wright-Elite-Jersey/ , but the trade fell through.


The meetings, which will run from Wednesday to Friday, will be attended by president Theo Epstein, general manager Jed Hoyer and senior vice president of scouting and player development Jason McLeod.


"I would probably go in with the expectation that it's groundwork with the possibility that things move a little faster (this year)," Hoyer said. "That would be pretty early. It's a little earlier GM meetings even by GM meetings standards."

Without Team Lohse Getting Antsy - RealGM Wiretap

Kyle Lohse remains without a team as Opening Day approaches and the pitcher is getting "antsy," according to two Major League sources.


The Cardinals made Lohse a one-year, $13.3 million qualifying offer to ensure that they received draft-pick compensation once he signed with another club. He is still not in a Major League camp.


In response to Ken Rosenthal's column, Mark Mulder tweeted: "I think @Ken_Rosenthal got some bad info from a 'close' friend of Lohse. He is anything but 'antsy' right now. #howwouldIknow."

锘? "A weakening housing market, together with other financial currents in the U.S. Economy, represents the potential final impetus to a 'Perfect Storm' brewing over the American Middle Class, and, without luck or prompt legislative action http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Sam-Koch-Elite-Jersey/ , may lead to disaster, especially for homeowners." So says Warren R. Graham, a New York Bankruptcy Attorney. The other prevailing currents threatening to collide over the heads of an unsuspecting public, claims Graham, include rising interest rates, limited recourse to bankruptcy relief and the virtual elimination of usury and other restrictions on credit card issuers.

For many millions of Americans, who live "paycheck to paycheck," the only thing defining their status as Middle Class, and differentiating them from the so-called "Working Class" is their ownership of a home, and the equity accumulated in it. Graham points out that that equity is being eroded by two factors: the first is the threat of declining home values, and the second is the propensity of homeowners, over the last few years http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Ronnie-Stanley-Elite-Jersey/ , to refinance their homes or take out home equity loans at very low adjustable rates to pay off high interest credit card debt. Now, Graham says, the equity is at risk, because of the softening in the market, the fact that the adjustable rates have risen consistently (and are expected to continue to do so), and the reality that much of it has already been borrowed out to pay off credit card debt, and for other purposes, such as home improvement.

Coupled with the risk of declining home equity, Graham argues, is an enormous, and, to date http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Ricky-Wagner-Elite-Jersey/ , largely invisible swinging of the pendulum toward the credit card issuers, and their sponsoring banks. After years of intense lobbying (on both sides of the political aisle) by that constituency, the bankruptcy laws have been extensively rewritten, so as to restrict, severely, access to certain kinds of bankruptcy relief, especially for those who, while certainly not well-off, earn above their respective state's median income. "Credit card holders, of course, had no lobbyists on retainer," says Graham. At the same time http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Ray-Lewis-Elite-Jersey/ , the same financial institutions have found creative ways, by re-domiciling themselves in states hungry for their business, such as South Dakota, to avoid the restrictions of usury laws. So now, observes Graham, it is not unusual for your credit card interest rate, if you are carrying a balance, to rise suddenly from that 5% "teaser rate," to an unprecedented 32%, in the event of a default. "And worse," Graham points out, "a 'default' doesn't have to be non-payment. Your cardholder agreement http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Nick-Boyle-Elite-Jersey/ , which you likely have not read, allows periodic review of debt to income ratios, and problems with other creditors as a justification to change rates on almost no notice." Add to that the changes in banking procedures, by which banks have restructured their "minimum payment" requirements on cardholders carrying balances, "and that monthly $250 minimum payment has now jumped to $600, or more, multiplied by the number of cards the consumer may be carrying." The homeowner who wants to do something about this has a much harder time doing so, according to Graham. "His or her house has less equity, because of a softening market, or because it has already been tapped by the homeowner, and the cost of borrowing against it is higher, by virtue of climbing mortgage rates."

In the meantime http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Morgan-Cox-Elite-Jersey/ , the Middle Class homeowner's income has not even remotely kept pace with these increased costs, Graham points out. "And this does not even take into account the likely substantial effect of rising gasoline and energy costs." "And when the homeowner finally reaches the end of his or her tether," says Graham, " his or her income level may prevent recourse to bankruptcy. Chapter 7 liquidation may be unavailable altogether, and Chapter 13, in which a percentage of creditor obligations are paid over time, while mortgage debt remains intact, may not be feasible, because the income may simply not support the cost of financing a repayment plan." Thus, Graham concludes, bankruptcies may be dismissed, and homeowners may have to dispose of their properties http://www.teamnflravensshop.com/Youth-Mike-Wallace-Elite-Jersey/ , or worse, lose them to creditors in satisfaction of their mounting debts.

According to Graham, "one does not need a crystal ball to see that a potential debacle is looming for the Middle Class homeowner." Unless pure luck prevents these currents in the economy from coming together, or unless the U.S. Congress revisits its ill-conceived bankruptcy reform (especially that part of it geared to consume.