I knew it!

Anatomy of the Morgan Stanley Panic - WSJ.com

Two days after Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. sought bankruptcy protection, an explosive rumor spread that another big Wall Street firm, Morgan Stanley, was on the brink of failure. The chatter on trading desks that Sept. 17 was that Deutsche Bank AG had yanked a $25 billion credit line to the firm.

That wasn’t true, but it helped trigger a cascade of bearish bets against Morgan Stanley. Chief Executive Officer John Mack complained bitterly that profit-hungry traders were sowing panic. Yet he lacked a critical piece of information: Who exactly was behind those damaging trades?

I’ll tell you who. Art O’Connor, that’s who! Well, not really … but I think he should share some of the profits from his short positions.

Oh sure, I could blame Merrill and Goldman and UBS and all the other major firms on the street for helping to drive down the value of my stock and retirement plan, but I prefer to blame Art.

And why? Because he’s tall, has a good-lookin’ fiancée, and can ride a bike pretty damned fast. Oh, and because he’s local and a friend … and if you can’t blame your friends for bad shit that happens nationally and internationally, who else can you blame???

Armstrong to return for ‘09 Tour - More Sports - SI.com.

Lance Armstrong will end his retirement and hopes to compete in the 2009 Tour de France, according to a cycling journal report.

The 36-year-old seven-time Tour de France champion will compete in five road races with the Astana team in 2009, the cycling journal VeloNews reported on its Web site Monday, citing anonymous sources.

Armstrong’s manager Mark Higgins did not immediately respond to a voice mail left by The Associated Press.

The move would reunite Armstrong with Johan Bruyneel, now the team director for Astana.

VeloNews reported Armstrong also will compete in the Amgen Tour of California, Paris-Nice, the Tour de Georgia and the Dauphine-Libere.

The Astana team, however, was not allowed to compete in this year’s Tour after Alexandre Vinokourov was kicked out of the 2007 Tour for testing positive and the team quit the race.

VeloNews, which said Vanity Fair will publish an extensive article detailing Armstrong’s comeback, said the cyclist will race for no salary or bonuses and post his internally tested blood work online.

Okay … what the fuck does Armstrong think he’s doing? I’m guessing that he’s stepped up from EPO to crack. Does he really think that he’ll be helping cycling by attempting a comeback?

Even if he does come back and does well at the Tour de France (or any other race he enters), does he think it’s really going to put to rest the question of whether or not he doped throughout his career.

Does he think that Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador will willingly step aside so that he can lead the team again? Does he expect us to believe that he’ll be the super-domestique that Bernard Hinault promised that he’d be to Greg LeMond in 1986?

This is bad news for cycling. It might be good news for those of us who want to watch it on Versus, but bigger picture, this is NOT a good thing.

I can only hope that this is a wicked rumor.

From cyclingnews.com comes word that “Cipollini and Ball’s relationship on the rocks”:

The relationship that was started last fall in a Las Vegas discotheque could come to an end if Mario Cipollini does not get his say in the management of Rock Racing. The Italian, who came out of retirement at the age of 40 to race in the Tour of California last week, and his lawyer met with the owner of the team, Mike Ball, yesterday to discuss the coming season.

“We need to sit at the table and make clear who is in command,” said Mario Cipollini in an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport’s Luigi Perna. The Italian from Lucca and lawyer Giuseppe Napoleone were scheduled to meet with Ball later in the day.

“The boss is Ball, but after him it is me. Therefore I want to manage the squad starting now. I can organise the participation in [Milano-] San Remo. To find men to race is not a problem. … If Ball does well it will continue, otherwise goodbye. I now understand that the name Cipollini still has value, in the United States and elsewhere.”

Cipollini was happy with his return, but not with the fiasco surrounding the team and Ball’s backing of Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero. The riders, all allegedly linked with Operación Puerto, were barred from racing by the organiser, but continued along daily by riding behind the race caravan and signing autographs for fans at the stage villages.

“For a week I had an infinite amount of patience … Maybe it was my great desire to return to racing with an important project. However, we can’t go forward like this. We are not able to continue to pull along this heavy weight that ruins our image, and now Ball also understands this. It is not enough to advertise and show off models.”

So, first Sevilla, Botero, and Hamilton are prevented from riding the Amgen Tour of California … and now, Cipo is threatening to bolt from the team unless he takes a more active role in how the team is run … somehow, I don’t see Michael Ball giving up any control of the team unless/until the team starts to disintegrate, and by that time it will be too late.

I’m still calling for an implosion before the end of the Tour of Georgia.

We’ll see.

It’s a good thing I’m not planning on retiring anytime soon … with the way the markets have been moving the past few weeks, I’m only $195.00 “richer” than I was on January 1st … pretty much every dime I’ve put in, along with my company match is gone; altogether, about a 16% loss.

On the bright side, I’m now buying my company stock at an annual low … although, I’d rather be buying it at the significantly higher price at which it was trading a couple months ago.

The subprime mess is bad. I’m still surprised I managed to not only qualify for, but close a loan … and a prime loan at that. I’m especially glad I didn’t borrow as much as I qualified for so that I don’t have to worry too much about being able to make the payments.

But I’m guessing I won’t be flipping my place to upgrade anytime soon.

Utah Cyclocross state championships this weekend … I think we know who has last place in Masters 35+ B wrapped up; unless someone out there wants to challenge me for the slot.