The New York Giants beat the winless Miami Dolphins in London on Sunday in the National Football League’s first regular season game played outside the United States. And based on this Tom Lutz/Guardian Unlimited op-ed on the game, it looks as if the English sports reporters are already catching on to the style of their American brethren:
“Some Dolphins fans have complained that they’ve been deprived of a home game, but judging by their team’s inept performance, the NFL has done them a favour.”
(AP photo by Mark J. Terrill/prior weekly reviews are here)
Chargers 35 Texans 10
No change from last week’s analysis in regard to the Texans (3-5), including continued fawning local mainstream media treatment of Coach Kubiak (well, perhaps a little less fawning). The game was not as close as hte score indicates. By the way, would somebody arrange a reception so that the Texans’ secondary could be introduced to Chargers TE Antonio Gates? The Texans play at Oakland (2-5) next Sunday before a badly-needed bye week. It is becoming increasingly clear with each passing week that Coach Kubiak has some difficult personnel decisions to make, both with regard to the players and assistant coaches. The Texans were a poorly-prepared football team for the second week in a row.
The Coach Fran Death March continues as the Aggies (6-3/3-2) were dominated in this one by Kansas, which managed to keep the score closer than it should have by missing three makeable field goals and having a TD run called back by a penalty. At least Aggie angst over the situation has mellowed to the point where it is producing hugely entertaining YouTube videos. The Aggies are looking forward to next week’s ABC-televised Saturday night game at Oklahoma (7-1/3-1) about as much as hemorrhoid surgery.
Texas Longhorns 28 Nebraska 25
Through three quarters of this game, the Horns (7-2/3-2) were looking to be embarrassed by the undermanned Cornhuskers (4-5/1-4). Then, Longhorn RB Jamaal Charles went Anthony Alridge on Nebraska during the 4th quarter. Charles ended up with 290 yards rushing on 33 carries in the game, including 216 yards and 3 TD runs (25, 86 and 40 yards) in the 4th quarter alone (key tip to Nebraska defense — blitzs can backfire on running plays, too). The Horns travel to Stillwater next Saturday to face the suddnely famous Mike Gundy and the Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-3/3-1) before finishing up the regular season against Texas Tech (6-3/2-3) in Austin and A&M at College Station.
Ho-hum, another game, another double-digit deficit, another 520 yard offensive performance, and another comeback win. The increasingly red-hot Coogs (5-3/3-1) were led by star RB Anthony Alridge (204 yards on a career-high 27 carries) and redshirt freshman QB, Case Keenum (13/20 passing for 116 yds/ 72 yds rushing on 10 carries). The Coogs host SMU (1-7/0-4) next Sunday night in a televised game and then head to Tulsa (5-3/3-2) for the game that will probably determine the C-USA Western Division champion.
Key tip of the week to the Owls (1-7/1-3) — it’s hard to come back from a 24 point deficit, even to previously winless Marshall (1-7/1-3). The Owls host UTEP (4-4/2-2) next Saturday.
I criticized Craig Biggio for the way in which he ended his playing career with the Stros, but I have never questioned that he and Jeff Bagwell are the best players ever to have played for the Stros.
Bidg is also a wonderful ambassador for Houston, his adopted hometown. Over the weekend, Chevrolet named Bidg the 2007 recipient of the prestigious Roberto Clemente Award for his tireless work on behalf of the Sunshine Kids.
It is a well-deserved honor for a very special Houstonian. Congratulations on a job well done.
This post from last week noted how Felix Salmon had become NY Times business columnist Ben Stein’s worst nightmare, sort of how Larry Ribstein had been to Steins’ fellow columnist, Gretchen Morgenson.
Now, Stein’s nightmare is multiplying exponentially. On the heels of Stein’s latest Sunday Times column, Salmon, Yves Smith, and Dean Baker have already pointed out the vacuity of Stein’s analysis.
Do the Times business editors even notice that Stein has become a laughing stock?
Merrill Lynch’s announcement this past week of a third-quarter loss of $2.3 billion and a $8.4 billion charge for failed credit and mortgage-related investments generated a large number of comments from around the blogosphere on the future of Merrill’s CEO, E. Stanley O’Neal, none of which were better than this one from The Epicurean Dealmaker:
I cannot speculate what will happen next at Mother Merrill, but I can guarantee you O’Neal’s days at the helm are numbered. Being a CEO at an investment bank is not unlike crowd surfing at a mosh pit: it’s a pretty cool way to move around quickly, you are supported entirely by other peoples’ efforts, and everyone tries to get a piece of you. Unfortunately, when the crowd loses interest in supporting you, you tend to fall fast, hard, and painfully. In addition, after dropping you lots of your former investment banking subordinatesóboth friend and foeóhave the added charming tendency to skewer you repeatedly with long knives. Et tu, Brute?
Read the entire piece.
In the ongoing saga of Galveston-based U.S. District Judge Sam Kent (previous posts here), the Executive Session of Judges of the Southern District of Texas issued a couple of administrative orders (here and here) transferring the duty station of Judge Kent from Galveston to Houston and delegating the handling of the Galveston docket to other U.S. District Judges of the Southern District. A related Chronicle article is here.
The order transferring Judge Kent’s duty station to Houston does not say when, if ever, Kent would be reassigned to Galveston. David Bradley, chief deputy clerk for the Southern District, told the Chronicle that Judge Kent will remain in Houston until a new order is issued to return him to Galveston. One of the above orders does put Judge Kent back into the case assignment rotation as he will receive 20% of the civil cases filed in the Houston Division. However, Judge Kent will not be assigned any criminal cases through Dec. 31, probably because he remains on leave until January, 8, 2008.
Bill Lent is one of Houston’s finest internists. How do I know this? Well, because I know who trained him (my late father) and he has been my personal physician for the past 15 years or so. Having been blessed with good health, the only medical service that I buy from Dr. Lent in most years is my annual physical, which I generally schedule for about this time each year. I always enjoy catching up with Dr. Lent, who provides me with “on the front line” information regarding the horrific cost of health care regulations, which are literally strangling the market for primary care physicians in the U.S.
It’s been particularly interesting watching the evolution over the years of Dr. Lent’s internal medicine practice, from one in which Dr. Lent provided an unusually high level of personal care to his patients (something my father emphasized in his teaching) to a high volume, impersonal practice that virtually all primary care practices have been required to adopt to remain even marginally profitable under the present U.S. health care finance system. Over the past ten years or so, Dr. Lent has continually confided to me during our annual visits that he was uncomfortable with the direction of his practice.
So, I was pleased to learn when I scheduled my physical a couple of weeks ago that Dr. Lent is doing something about it. Starting next month, Dr. Lent is commencing a concierge health care practice, administered by MDVIP out of Boca Raton, in which he is limiting his practice to about 600 patients who will pay Dr. Lent $1,500 annually for the benefit of receiving his personalized style of service. Coincidentally, this Wall Street Journal ($) article earlier this week described the proliferation of pre-paid health care plans, which is sort of a lower-priced form of what Dr. Lent is doing. The WSJ article essentially describes how many primary care physicians are simply dropping out of insurance plans — both public and private — in favor of prepaid plans that offer unlimited access to basic health care for set monthly fees.
Inasmuch as the employer-based health insurance system typically offers low-copays and deductibles for the vast majority of health care services, a substantial amount of the American health care finance system is basically prepaid health care already. In order to maintain profitability in a highly-regulated market, insurance companies compensate for these low usage fees by charging higher monthly premiums, lowballing doctors’ fees, and challenging claims continually. The result has been the evolution of a primary care system that is incredibly bureaucratic (have you ever tried to figure out how your insurance pays claims?) and literally breaking down.
The MDVIP model treats primary care service similar to a health club membership. The model focuses on the delivery of relatively inexpensive, protocol-driven care than can be offered at a relatively low cost while still providing patients more overall access. MDVIP’s model is relatively expensive, so low-income patients will have a difficult time affording the fee. However, providing a tax deduction for individual health insurance would make such pre-paid plans more affordable for low-income patients, while providing Medicaid patients with vouchers for prepaid health care would have a similar impact.
Who will be threatened from the proliferation of these plans under the current health care finance system? Well, it’s a bit early to speculate, but my sense is that insurance companies with big stakes in employer-based health insurance will not enjoy the competition from MDVIP-type practices. Similarly, speciality providers who depend on state regulatory mandates in comprehensive insurance plans to subsidize their practices will also feel the competitive pressure if these types of plans catch on in a big way.
So, I’m going to enjoy learning about how Dr. Lent’s practice changes over the next year under the MDVIP structure. If it is successful, as I suspect it will be, it makes you wonder — if such entrepreneurial spirit can be generated even in the current highly-regulated health care finance system, then imagine what could happen if we unleashed the power of the marketplace to reform the delivery of health care and the health care finance system?
Dan Ackman provides this cogent WSJ ($) op-ed that calls for the reversal of the convictions of former Tyco International executives Dennis Kozlowski and Mark Swartz:
Kozlowski wasn’t convicted for overspending, nor for defrauding investors — the most common charges leveled against corrupt CEOs. He was convicted instead of grand larceny, that is, of stealing his bonuses, which were certainly oversized. But even if you believe the worst about Kozlowski and his co-defendant former Tyco CFO Mark Swartz, they were paid according to a contract, and that is not stealing. [. . .]
. . . There is no question that Kozlowski was paid according to the incentive compensation plans that were duly approved by the Tyco board in 1994 and again in 1997. The plans rewarded the CEO and CFO with bonuses based on improvements in company earnings, cash flow and earnings per share. Excessive? That’s an understatement. But though the record-keeping was careless, nothing was secret: The contract and the payments were all on the books.
In short, Kozlowski and Swartz were convicted of being greedy, which, the last time I looked, is still not a crime. As Larry Ribstein notes:
Kozlowski and Swartz are headed to Rikerís Island, where theyíll mingle with people who did stuff that seems more obviously bad. And they may get 30-year sentences. I wonder what they would have gotten for a first offense selling heroin to schoolkids. . .
[T]he shareholder suits are still pending. These suits arenít ideal (lots of money to lawyers) but they can sweep in all the people involved, including the directors who approved the wrongful payments. Unless, of course, the shareholders contracted to indemnify them against liability, in which case weíre back to wondering whether this is wrong.
What was done to Kozlowski and Swartz is quite similar to the equally vacuous prosecution of Conrad Black. But this was even worse.
Key tip to Comfort Inn: don’t ever — ever — take Megan McArdle’s room reservation and then don’t provide her with a room.
This NY Times article does a nice job of explaining the special place of Tex-Mex food within Texan culture. But I have one question. How does one write an article about Tex-Mex in Houston and not mention Ninfa’s on Navigation? Alison Cook comments along the same lines.