The completion backwards principle.

Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Sheldon Brown is the latest in a long string of players who have demanded a renegotiation of a contract. You don't need to understand sports to appreciate the nonsense that goes on.

Athletes don't live in our world. They occupy the same space, but technically, they are of another place. Whenever they start talking about "outperforming their contract" or similar language and demand to renegotiate a contract they signed 2 years ago, it's as clear as day.

Most of you want the biggest, nicest car; most luxurious home and most beautiful spouse - most of you. Minutes after you acquire one of these, someone else gets something nicer because either the technology has advanced or you make younger friends. Buy a cell phone today and see how it looks next year.

Athletes sign lucrative contracts that look good when they're signed, but they don't age well. Suck it up Sheldon. You're living a life outside the rest of the world and we don't understand your problems. We'd trade a testicle to be you for ten minutes. Complaining makes you sound ungracious, which you probably are.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama said Thursday he is determined to get a credit-card law that eliminates the tricky fine print, sudden rate increases and late fees that give millions of consumers headaches.
"I trust that those in the industry who want to act responsibly will engage with us in a constructive fashion, and that we're going to get this done in short order," Obama said, delivering a pointed message to leading executives of credit-card issuing companies after a closed-door White House meeting.

In fact, the credit card companies are quaking in their high-interest rate boots. Here's the deal. Interest rates have seldom been lower - historically low, as they would say. The prime rate is close to zero. I once heard a financial analyst tout bank stocks, proclaiming, "What other industry in the world can pay out 3 percent and charge 15?" That's a sound business model if ever I've heard one.

The president wants to curb at least some of that. It isn't clear whether he's targeting the high interest rates (relatively high based on what they're borrowing the money at) or whether it's just the ridiculous fees and late charges they tack on that make it almost impossible to pay-off the debt. Funny how the government can get involved with steroids in baseball but seems to have difficulty regulating credit card interest rates.

I fear that he isn't getting at the root of the issue which is the interest rate. Even for their best customers, the rate doesn't move much below 9%. I know, because I had two cards at that rate and they're as low as they go. Had. Thankfully, I paid them off, but found that the finance charges live on. After paying an $800 balance (as the result of several acts of prostitution and illegal drug sales) I received a bill for $15.47, which was the finance charge for the previous month. Even though it said, "Balance due," the actual balance included the retroactive finance charge. The resulting phone call to customer service met a stone wall, (hardly service, then) and I was forced to pay it, lest I sound ungracious. After all, they loaned me the money several years ago, and my attempt to pay it off undoubtedly sounded as though I was breaking the terms of my contract, which included their exceedingly high interest rate.

Sorry.