The Quote of Stupid of the Day: Rick Perry

At the Iowa debate tonight, Rick Perry said the following:

“There are a lot of folks that said Tim Tebow wasn't going to be a very good NFL quarterback. There are people that stood up and said, 'Well, he doesn't have the right throwing mechanisms, or he's not playing the game right,' " and he won two national championships, and that looked pretty good. We were the national champions in job creation back in Texas. And so, am I ready for the next level? Let me tell you, I hope I am the Tim Tebow of the Iowa caucuses.”

That's good enough to win the first quote of stupid of the day. Congratulations Rick!

Gingrich Is Not The Guy

When I look at a candidate, I look first at electability. Is the candidate electable? That's the first thing I look for. If the candidate isn't electable, then what's the point of supporting him or her? They are a losing dog and there's no point in having a stake in their fate.

This might sound very cynical or depressing, in terms of the state of our politics, but it's true.

I don't know think I mentioned it in my previous posts, but perhaps I did on Twitter; I thought that Newt Gingrich would be a dark horse candidate. Of course, I didn't know that much about him. I just thought he performed well in the debates. My biggest qualm, at the time, was his utter disdain for the media.

A couple months later, it seems like he has leapt to the front of the pack. 

This is mostly due to the fall of Herman Cain. Conservatives have been looking for a candidate that wasn't Mitt Romney. Newt Gingrich is just the latest cup of tea.

On a national level, against Barack Obama, I don't think he can stand tall. There are too many issues with him. There's the "consulting fees." There's the divorces. He's too easy a target for the Democrats. While the conservatives might be clamoring for a more conservative candidate than Romney, they're going to have problems standing up in a general election.

Rich Perry: Strong

If you're my friend on Facebook or even if you've just been on the internet in the last day, you've probably seen this ad. I went on a mini-rant yesterday and I just wanted to follow up on that.

I've made it clear that I don't like Rick Perry. He's pretty much stands for everything I hate and I'm not talking about policies. I have no idea who approved this video, but it was not the best thing to release. He makes Herman Cain's smoking campaign manager ad look good. Here's what I said yesterday:

My favorite part is when he says "faith made America strong, it can make her strong again" with that nod and that smile like he was thinking to himself "this sounds great." I thought conservatives were the ones that think America is great the way it is and the evil Liberals are the ones that want change. That was a lie? Just an all around laugh.

That nod and that smile are what I'd like to talk about. As we've seen more of Rick Perry, we've seen how inarticulate this man is. I don't have a problem with us mobilizing our energy resources or restructuring our tax system. What differentiates politicians for me is how they carry themselves.

What I value are people who are articulate, intelligent and aware. Rick Perry lacks all of these attributes. This is why I don't like him.

The Power of Sports in the College Landscape

In the fall out of the Penn State scandal, a lot of people are asking whether sports have too much power. This is in response, there has been a particularly a backlash against the students, who have marched in support of Joe Paterno. A couple days ago, I defended the students:

As an alum of a big sports school, I'll defend the kids, not for supporting Joe, but wanting to hold onto the football program. Sports are a big part of the experience at any big time football school. A big part of that is winning. These kids are confused and they're in denial because they're losing something that is dear to them. I'm sure many of them have a great fondness for the program and what JoePa has done for the Penn State football program on the field. Many of them grew up rooting for this team, watching teams like the undefeated 1994 team (I guess these kids might have been too young for that, huh?) or the many other strong Penn State squads of the last 15-20 years. JoePa has been very influential in making their school what it is because of the football program's winning tradition. The football program is a huge source of pride at Penn State. JoePa stepping down is a huge loss to the program and the university. These kids are losing a part of what makes them whole.

In time, they'll understand the wrongdoings of Paterno, but they'll need time to digest the reality and magnitude of what went on.

It's still too early for students to understand what happened. What happened was serious. What happened is ongoing. What happened will have consequences. I still understand why the kids acted the way they did. That doesn't mean I agree with them, but I understand. I felt the same way when I heard about "Practicegate," something that seems extremely small compared to what went on at Penn State. I was in denial. I didn't want something bad to happen at my school. Sports at my school meant so much to me.

The question is do sports have too much power?

I think sports are a great vehicle by which school pride can manifest itself. There aren't many way where you can show your school is better than the other school. Sports allows that. It's become a big business at schools and some schools do give it preferential treatment. That's the bigger problem.

What happened at Penn State, and we're still finding out more every day, was a lack of transparency and a lack of clear-minded thinking. Everything was addressed through the chain of command rather than where it should have been, by the law. The problem isn't with sports. The problem is when sports get special treatment to operate above the laws, not only of the NCAA but also of the land. Penn State had a chance to address these allegations immediately and properly. Now, they will have to face the consequences of their inaction.

Perry's Campaign Dies

How do you offer nothing?

New Cain Accuser

I haven't really written anything lately and this isn't going to be a long one. Herman Cain has been accused of sexual harassment by a new accuser. Here are the details:

Sharon Bialek, who worked at the restaurant group's education foundation until shortly before the alleged groping incident, said Cain unexpectedly put his hand beneath her skirt and between her legs "toward my genitals." She also said he pushed her head toward his crotch.

If he wasn't done before, he surely is now. Why wasn't he properly vetted before he started running? Did they really expect this to not get out?

F-1 Comes To Jersey

I'm excited. If I'm in the area, I might have to go to this race.

Amazon Slips

Fresh off the heels of Netflix's earnings report last night, Amazon (AMZN) posted their earnings today. Needless to say, they were very disappointing:

Amazon.com Inc. is still growing at a fast pace, but Wall Street's concerns about the online retailer's margins are likely to grow after the company posted a 73% drop in quarterly profit Tuesday.

Their margins are starting to kill them:

Sales during the third quarter ended in September rose 44% compared to the same period last year, Amazon said. That's roughly in line with expectations and consistent with growth seen in recent periods. But as Amazon has roped in more sales, it has spent heavily on the expansion of shipping centers and data infrastructure, undercutting margins.

Operating margin as a percentage of world-wide sales slipped to 0.7% in the third quarter, from 3.5% in the period last year, Amazon said.

This was one of the main concerns of investors when Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire. The stock tumbled 12.39% in after hours trading. Much of this due to the gloomy fourth quarter outlook:

"They're basically calling for a break-even fourth quarter," said Ken Sena, an analyst who covers Amazon for Evercore Partners, "which is definitely disconcerting for investors."

The culprit of the margin cut looks like it's the Kindle Fire:

Szkutak danced around the culprit a bit, but the Kindle Fire, priced at $199, is definitely deterring higher earnings estimates. Szkutak also touted the long-term plan for the Kindle Fire, describing it as a “premium device,” and that Amazon takes all of the economics of the Kindle business into account, ranging from the lifetime value to the content available on the tablets and e-readers.

Because the Kindle Fire is sold at a loss, it might be the case that it won't pay off for a while. The real money will be generated in apps, Amazon Prime, and the e-books. For the time being, it's concerning because Amazon is still a strong company. In addition, it compounds the fact that in a week, we've seen Apple, Netflix, and Amazon all miss targets.

The current tech climate is alarming.

Netflix Tumbles

I like this guy, so:

Remember when Netflix raised their subscriber fees and split off their DVD mail-order services, and customers said they would boycott the company? Yeah, it seems they followed through on their words:

Shares in the once-hot but recently troubled subscription video company plummeted 27% in after-hours trading Monday after it reported a loss of 800,000 U.S. customers in the third quarter, more than the 600,000 it told investors to expect.

The stock had found some support after the price hike and the splitting of its streaming and DVD businesses:

For a while, Netflix seemed like the hot name, but it's taken an absolute beating. Reed Hastings, the CEO and graduate of my high school, is still optimistic:

“Pausing is a good thing from an investor standpoint,” Chief Executive Officer Reed Hasting said in an interview. “We are going to pause and restore our global profitability.”

Analysts don't believe it's the end of the world for the company, even though it has lost 2/3rds of its shareholder value:

"If they stop making mistakes, this is fixable," said Dan Rayburn, a principal analyst at consulting firm Frost & Sullivan. "The saving grace is that unlike a lot of other companies that get into this kind of situation, there isn't a competitor eating Netflix's lunch."

I tend to agree. They really don't have much competition and while this is a setback, they will continue to grow their business as they increase their content. They expect to have double the content and as long as it is relevant to subscriber interests, they should be fine. I'm not saying that it's time to buy NFLX. I'm not sure it has felt the entire wrath of the market yet. I do think there is potential for the company to bounce back once it gets back on solid footing.

Earthquake in Turkey

People dying and a country divided. This earthquake came at the wrong time and the people are suffering. A lot of the GOP candidates said we shouldn't give aid to foreign countries. Do you really think we shouldn't help the Turks in this time?

It was a 7.2 earthquake that hit and at least 138 people are dead.

Our thoughts are with them in these tragic circumstance.

Flooding in Thailand

The images are pretty heart breaking.

We Out

Peace out Baghdad! Peace out Fallujah! This occupation is over!

Rick Perry's Flat Tax Hail Mary

Rick Perry finally introduced his tax plan, a couple days after promising to have a plan ready for us in the CNN debate. Perry wants to simplify:

"It starts with scrapping the three million words of the current tax code, and starting over with something much simpler: a flat tax," Perry said.

This isn't the first time that someone has proposed a flat tax; Steve Forbes, Phil Gramm, and Jerry Brown have all run on it in the past. The problem with the flat tax is that it doesn't stick:

The allure of the flat tax is that it promises to wipe clean the complicated tax code. But it does this by throwing out some popular tax deductions, including breaks for mortgage interest payments, charitable giving and employer-paid health care.

We're talking about its popularity, not its viability. The rich would rather pay money to charity and get deductions than give money to the government. There's still the matter of burdening the poor:

The details of each flat tax proposal differ — the overall rate, whether some low-income families will be exempt and which deductions might be spared on the chopping block. But experts say they invariably increase taxes on lower-income households and cut them for the rich, a potentially dicey proposition for voters worried about the country’s decades-long trend of growing income inequality.

There's also the difficulty that goes with passing it:

“At least, in theory, it’s a simple plan, but getting from here to there would be enormously complex,” Bartlett said.

Others believe that the flat tax is a winner:

After all, tax simplification is both needed and polls well, and the flat tax promises a simpler approach to paying taxes. And at a time when President Obama is campaigning against the fact that Warren Buffett and his secretary pay different rates, the flat tax idea might just have met its moment for broader-based appeal.

Given the "class warfare" battles over taxes and spending and everything else, now might actually be a time when the flat tax has its breakthrough on the national stage.

Others believe that it is a joke:

Just because a tax is flat doesn't mean it can't go up. And if Perry's team designs a plan that maintains popular items such as the charitable deduction it's not a flat tax and pretty soon it looks like the same complicated mess we have now.

Th rich will want the ability to deduct no matter what. If he includes that, then the tax isn't exactly flat. In fact, it would skew it the other way.

The tax might help Perry with the Tea Partiers though:

FreedomWorks Chairman Dick Armey thinks this could revive Mr. Perry’s campaign. “The flat tax does more for Perry’s candidacy than anything else he could have done,” the former House majority leader told The Washington Times in an interview. “If Perry really means it, and he gets elected and makes it the top priority of his presidency, it would be the single best thing that could be done to spur economic growth and job creation in public policy today.”

I'm not so high on it because I don't think it will pass. I think it's very gimmicky. There are going to be questions about whether the poor will be exempt from the tax and what that line will be. There will also be other questions like deducations and things like that. Regarding conservatives, I think Perry is going to win over voters with this. The question is will he stand tall in defending it. There are a lot of things about it that raise questions and to really make a stand, he'll have to start doing well in debates, which, if you've seen the other debates, is as tall a task as Perry can face.

At the end of the day, it's a novel attempt to try and get back in the race. This could be his prayer at the buzzer.

Gadhafi: Dead

Another world leader falls. There's not much that needs to be said.

Greece: Austerity as Athens Burns

There was another round of Greek protests as the government met to pass an austerity bill:

Greece definitely needs to make progress in reducing their debt and getting their budget in order. The economy is suffering and people are going nuts over it. There's been an immense brain drain because of this. The whole country is unhappy:

Although the demonstration was organized by leading labor unions, everyone from trash collectors, teachers, retired army officers, lawyers and even judges walked off the job to protest the government-imposed wage cuts and tax increases that they say are squeezing the debt-ridden country into penury.

“There’s no precedent for this,” said Anastasia Dotsi, 70, a retired bank worker who said anger had driven her out to protest. After two years of austerity measures, “we have been crushed as a people,” she said.

The bill is harsh in that it will include wage cuts and job cuts, but it might be a necessary measure:

The controversial bill includes cuts in wages and pensions as well as thousands of layoffs in the public sector — once a political third rail in Greece’s welfare state. It also changes collective bargaining rules to make it easier to hire and fire workers, a highly unpopular action that economists say is crucial to liberalizing Greece’s economy but that has little popular support.

Some of this is a necessary for Greece's EU position:

“The vote will boost our negotiating position; it will give us strength for the E.U. summit,” Mr. Papandreou said this week. The main goal for Greece, he added, is “to stay in the euro zone.”

The situation is bad. There's no other way to describe it. Any decision that the government makes seems like a poison pill. I have no idea how Greece is going to get through this in the short term, but in the long term, moving towards a strengthen private sector makes sense. The government is stuck between a rock and a hard place though.

Arthur Laffer: Defending the 9-9-9 Plan

Herman Cain came under fire for his 9-9-9 plan at yesterday's debate. Cain did an extremely poor job defending the plan and I think Romney did the best job of dissembling it (at the end):

This morning, Arthur Laffer, one of the architects of the 9-9-9 plan, had an editorial defense in the Wall Street Journal:

By contrast, the three tax bases for Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 plan add up to about $33 trillion. But the plan exempts from any tax people below the poverty line. Using poverty tables, this exemption reduces each tax base by roughly $2.5 trillion. Thus, Mr. Cain's 9-9-9 tax base for his business tax is $9.5 trillion, for his income tax $7.7 trillion, and for his sales tax $8.3 trillion. And there you have it! Three federal taxes at 9% that would raise roughly $2.3 trillion and replace the current income tax, corporate tax, payroll tax (employer and employee), capital gains tax and estate tax.

While this does address the math behind the plan, it doesn't address the concerns that the sales tax will be burdensome on the poor. It's a regressive tax, meaning it's going to have less impact on you the more money you make. It will affect the poor the most because their consume a higher percentage of their income.

Laffer does have the best argument for the plan though:

The whole purpose of a flat tax, à la 9-9-9, is to lower marginal tax rates and simplify the tax code. With lower marginal tax rates (and boy will marginal tax rates be lower with the 9-9-9 plan), both the demand for and the supply of labor and capital will increase. Output will soar, as will jobs. Tax revenues will also increase enormously—not because tax rates have increased, but because marginal tax rates have decreased.

He believes that will stimulate upward mobility:

A static revenue-neutral tax change requires static winners and losers. And this 9-9-9 plan has made certain that even on static terms those below the poverty line will be better off—period. Once the dynamics take hold, many of those below the poverty line will find good jobs and thus will rise above the poverty line and start paying taxes.

I do believe he falls short on the sales tax:

Still, a number of my fellow economists don't like the retail sales component of the 9-9-9 plan. They argue that, once in place, the retail rate could be raised to the moon. They are correct, but what they miss is that any tax could be instituted in the future at a higher rate. If I could figure a way to stop future Congresses from ever raising taxes I'd do it every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Until then, let's not make the perfect the enemy of the good.

He's deflecting the focus of the argument. It's not about raising taxes. It's about creating the tax in the first place. While it may make up for the revenue, it also creates a new tax source which can be raised. Saying other taxes can be raised just as easily isn't a defense of the new tax plan.

After reading Laffer's defense of the 9-9-9, I feel better about the plan as a whole. However, I still have some very strong, lingering doubts. The sales tax is a huge concern because it's a new tax, a regressive tax, and a double tax. People often complain that capital gains are taxed twice by capital gains and by income tax. This is essentially what it's going to feel like when you have both state and federal sales tax when you buy something.

Quite frankly, I think the negatives still outweigh the positives. The sales tax being the most worrisome aspect, why doesn't Cain just ditch it and tax business and income at a higher rate (13.4%, using the numbers provided in the op-ed). It doesn't have the same ring as the 9-9-9 plan, but it certainly doesn't threaten the people's ability to consume. I expect that Cain will be further pushed on this in future debates. He's going to need a stronger defense on his own. Otherwise, he's just dust in the wind.

Quick Hits: Ohio, Greece, Israel-Palestine

This will be a new way for me to quickly introduce things that are going on in the news that I don't feel I can write full entries for. I used to post a lot of videos and it has become less frequent.

We'll start in Ohio, where the owner of an animal reserve released his animals, including lions, and killed himself shortly afterwards:

Police have had to kill some of the animals, which seems necessary to keep the people of that area safe.

In Greece. there are protests as the government tries to pass an austerity bill:

One of the main problems with Greece is that there are too many people with government jobs, which has made it unsustainable for the government to operate. With the debt, there is a need to make cuts. The people are understandably unhappy about losing jobs when ends have become hard to be met. A quote on the need for austerity:

“If Greece can dramatically reduce its debt burden and interest payments, that may well mean that it needs to implement slightly less austerity in the near term,” Ben May, an economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “It certainly won’t solve all of Greece’s problems and it will have to continue to reduce its deficit over time, but it might make that process a bit more manageable and less painful.”

Zero Hedge is reporting that a deal is done. Things are going violent, I'm sure I'll talk about this as it further develops.

Israel and Palestine had a prisoner swap, including an Israeli soldier:

Is this a sign of better relations or just another chapter in the tensions?

Google and Samsung Bring It

As I said yesterday, Google and Samsung introduced the Google Galaxy Nexus phone. It's a technical doozy:

Samsung started the press event by unveiling the Galaxy Nexus, an impressive new smartphone that the consumer electronics company codeveloped with Google to serve as the ICS launch device. Rumors about the device's lofty specs have been circulating for months. The highlight is its 4.65-inch Super AMOLED display with an impressive 1280x720 resolution. The device has a curved form factor that is said to give it a natural feel despite its large size.

The device also has a 1.2GHz dual-core TI OMAP4 CPU, front and rear-facing cameras and 1GB of RAM. Samsung says that there will be separate models with HSPA+ and LTE connectivity available depending on region. Other connectivity features include Bluetooth, WiFi, and NFC. It also has the full array of sensors, including a built-in gyroscope and barometer. The device is scheduled to ship in November with Android 4 on board.

That'll be with the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich software:

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich – taking cues from the Honeycomb tablet OS – uses the entire screen for navigation, with the usual Android buttons appearing on the interface itself as opposed to existing as physical hardware components. ICS introduces a smorgasbord of new features to the platform, including face recognition for unlocking, advanced voice integration, and an improved notification system.

It's a technological beast:
Sleek looking devices with technological advancements should up the cool factor but are people actually going to appreciate these features? How will it compare to the RAZR and the iPhone:

In the multimedia department, you won’t run out of options with either of these phones. The Droid RAZR and the iPhone 4S have 8-megapixel cameras at the back that can record full HD 1080p video. The Galaxy Nexus can also record 1080p video, but, surprisingly, Samsung put only a 5-megapixel shooter on Google’s phone, which is less than what we have seen on other phones from the manufacturer, such as the Galaxy SII. All three phones also have video chat cameras on the front.

I'm personally a multimedia guy and like to take pictures of my surroundings. The Nexus falls short, but not by much. It has tricks though:

If you’re looking for extra tricks from your phone, the Galaxy Nexus might be what you’re looking for. Out of the three phones, the Nexus is the only device with Near Field Communication support, which allows you to make wireless payments (at a small, but growing list of retailers), as well as to beam contacts, websites, apps or maps to other NFC-enabled devices by just bringing the phones together and making them touch.

So the Nexus has a lot of potential as a phone. We now have information as to when these phones come out:

Anyway, without any further adieu, a Verizon Wireless screen capture has surfaced online and is showing the “tentative” launch date for the HTC Rezound as well as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Droid HD (aka Droid RAZR). According to the image, all three of these handsets will be available on November 10th.

I expect these phones to be huge hits amongst the tech geeks of our generation, but I don't know how well it's going to do against the iPhone. The iPhone still is the most popular and "coolest" phone on the market. A lot of people own Androids, but I don't think the technological capabilities of the phone are tapped. It's hard for the general public to get excited about that.

That's not say these phones won't sell. Familiarity with the RAZR name will bring interest. The recommendations for the Galaxy Nexus will help that phone. They will still sell. I'm not sure they'll sell as well as the iPhone.

The Razr's Return

This ain't the flip phone that you had in high school. This is a new phone that has the thin and sleek qualities of the old phone:

Motorola Mobility unveiled Tuesday the Droid Razr, an 7.1-millimeter thin handset that Chief Executive Sanjay Jha said is the world's thinnest smartphone. The Droid Razr is powered by Google's Android operating system and runs on Verizon Wireless' 4G LTE network. It will be available in early November and cost $299.99 with a two-year contract.

It's a technological juggernaut:

The device has as much processing power as a typical PC, allowing for faster Web browsing and multitasking, or running simultaneous applications. It also has a 4.3-inch touchscreen and a splashguard, which Jha described as nanotechnology that protects against water damage.

The problem for the Razr is that the new Samsung phone is supposed to be introduced in a couple hours and it's supposed to be better than this phone. I'm not saying this phone isn't great, it is exactly that. The Samsung is supposedly even better as far as the features are concerned. This looks like a very intriguing gadget though.

Ron Paul: The Cut Man

Ron Paul might not be talked about as a potential candidate for President, but he definitely has an important role as far as the conversation goes. No politician pushes small government and individual liberty like Ron Paul. He was on the forefront of the Tea Party movement, an epiphany that has had GOP candidates trying to find ways to appeal to this new segment of their electorate. Today, Ron Paul has pledged to drop a bomb on spending with $1 trillion in spending cuts:

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Monday unveiled a plan to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget within one year by eliminating a handful of federal departments, including the Energy and Education departments.

He's the only one to propose a balanced budget:

"Ron Paul's plan is the only one that seriously addresses the economic and budgetary problems our nation faces," Jesse Benton, Paul's campaign chairman and a co-author of the plan, said in a statement. "It's the only plan offered by a presidential candidate that actually balances the budget and begins to pay down the debt."

I don't expect any other candidate to propose as drastic a change in government spending. Unfortunately, I don't expect him to get the attention he should get for this, at least in pushing the conversation forward in regards to spending cuts. I have no doubt that Paul would encourage positive discussion to getting the country back on track as far as the budget is concerned:

"The other candidates have not offered this," Paul said of his plan. "I don't believe they think it's very serious. They think they can just tinker around the edges, but the American people are ready for some honest thinking and some honest reforms ...

"Everything that's not explicitly in the Constitution should be up for grabs, and we should be able to cut it," Paul said.

The gauntlet has been thrown down.

As far as the viability of this proposal, I don't believe that he could make such drastic cuts. However, the extent of his cuts should push others to give more stringent proposals to cut spending. One of my main concerns is that he won't get enough airtime to actually make an impact. Clearly though, no one else is taking cutting government spending as seriously as Ron Paul.

Herman Cain: Questionable Character?

I already examined the key message of Herman Cain's campaign with the 9-9-9 plan, finding it to be unsustainable, unreasonable, and unfair. Now, the Pizzaman has come under fire for what seems to be his first blunder:

Cain, at a campaign event in Tennessee on Saturday, defended the idea of building a barbed-wire fence along the border, "electrified, with a sign on the other side that says it can kill you."

While he may claim to have been joking, what makes the incident worse is this follow up comment:

The Republican candidate then dismissed criticism that he's being "insensitive," saying "what's insensitive is when they come to the United States across our border and kill our citizens."

That just comes across as generalizing and ignorant. Hispanics are unhappy with his remarks:

"Whether or not he made his comments in jest, Mr. Cain's words show a lack of understanding of the immigration issues our country is facing and a staggering lack of sensitivity. Surely, Mr. Cain understands the duty that candidates have to offer responsible policy proposals," he said in a statement. "Leave the comic routines to the professional comedians."

I don't know how many Latino voters Cain has alienated, but this is a significant slip up. Whether you're Latino or not, you're going to have questions about Cain's character and ability to have diplomatic relationships with the Latin countries.

It isn't just the Hispanics who are unhappy with Cain. African Americans are not fans, to say the least:

Largely located on the lower rungs of the American socioeconomic ladder, most black Americans appreciate sources of opportunity and power that Cain despises: unions, governmental support for the needy, a robust, government-supported full-employment policy, the public provision of health care. His worry, remarkably, is that America is too egalitarian. His signature policy -- the 9-9-9 tax reform proposal -- would institute a regressive consumption tax nationally and starve Social Security and Medicare. It would redistribute income upward. No wonder blacks overwhelmingly repudiate him and his tea party allies.

And he thinks he can win a third of the black vote. Doesn't this reek of ignorance? You can't just bank on anti-Obama sentiment. His policies and plans are going to be detrimental to that community. As a result, Cain seems out of touch.

If you dig into his past, there are more potential road bumps:

“The problem is not the responsible drinker,” Cain wrote in one letter to the editor.” It is the alcohol-abuser who gets behind the wheel of a car. In fact, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, two-thirds of all alcohol-related fatalities are caused by drivers with a BAC of 0.15 or higher.”

I'm sure there are plenty of families who have lost loved ones that would repudiate that statement.

Herman Cain has done a lot to emerge as a contender, but there are still many things that keep him from being a legitimate candidate for President. I think the number one thing is his electability and his complete alienation of certain segments of the voting public. This is an election that the GOP could easily win, especially with this struggling President. However, you can't take chances in being represented by a controversial candidate. To win this election, you need someone that will appeal to those that are frustrated with Obama. Herman Cain is not that guy.

Reenergizing America

Over the weekend, I described Rick Perry's jobs plan as unattainable. I still feel that that is the case. It will take a long time before the job numbers that he mentioned are actually realized, and he will be long out of office when that is the case. However, I do agree with Perry that the energy industry can create jobs:

We can create hundreds of thousands of jobs and increase our oil output by 25 percent if we fully develop oil and gas shale formations in the Northeast, mountain West and Southwest. I also support drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain (ANWR), offshore expansion in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, and development of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, all of which would maintain the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. This will create more than 185,000 U.S. jobs.

The numbers are ambitious, at least for the immediate future. In fact, some think the plan would take years to materialize jobs:

"It's not going to be overnight," said David Dismukes, associate executive director for the Center for Energy Studies at Louisiana State University. "These are big capital-oriented investments. People don't turn on a dime with these investments."

There's a lot of potential in energy though:

"I don't know any other industry that can bring this quantity of jobs to the market," she said. "We have the potential that's not being realized and it could be."

With the unemployment rate as high as it is, it makes sense to ease some of the restrictions in order to get some of these industries working. It's not just the drilling and mining that will create jobs, there's a trickle down effect:

With millions of Americans clamoring for employment opportunities, there is no excuse to delay. A study released last month by the Woods Mackenzie research firm found that 1.4 million jobs and $800 billion in new government revenue could be created over the next two decades by removing barriers to increased domestic oil and gas production. These are high-paying jobs, available now, and private industry—not the taxpayer—is making the investment.

The two main political talking points are jobs and balancing the budget. This would help both of those things. By enabling these projects, they can spur industry. It will help construction of plants and drilling sites. It will bring management, it will bring financial support. There's a lot of potential in spurring this industry.

Versus digging up and rebuilding perfectly fine roads, this is a much better solution. This actually creates new jobs that will last, rather than creating new work. This expands an industry that will not only provide jobs, but will also provide tax revenue from these new projects. It's really a no-brainer.

Rajaratnam Case: SEC Falls Short

Over the weekend, the cover headline of the Wall Street Journal read, "Trader Draws Record Sentence." If you hadn't heard, Raj Rajaratnam, the founder of the Galleon hedge fund, was charged with insider trading. The case has been going on for a couple years now and he finally was sentenced:

Raj Rajaratnam's remarkable journey from Sri Lanka to the heights of the hedge-fund world to felon ended Thursday when he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest-ever term imposed in an insider-trading case.

Now, as far as the sentence, I don't think he'll come close to doing the entire sentence. We have seen it in the past. The bigger joke to me is the "fine:"

In a defining moment for the government's campaign to stamp out what it describes as rampant illegal trading on Wall Street, U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell in New York said during sentencing that the billionaire investor's crimes "reflect a virus in our business culture that needs to be eradicated." The judge also ordered Mr. Rajaratnam, who was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy in May, to pay a $10 million fine and forfeit $53.8 million. The defense plans an appeal.

To a man that was once worth $1 billion, those are paltry sums. Now, who knows how much money this guy made the company through insider trading? If the rewards of insider trading are greater than the punishment, then why wouldn't more people insider trade? I don't know if it is as rampant as it once was, but it definitely happens. In cases like this, you have to set an example. When Michael Milken was arrested on securities fraud, he was fined $600 million, even that was small by comparison to the money he had made. The SEC had a golden opportunity to lay down the law, but they swung and missed.

There are bargains for and against insider trading, but the bottom line is that it is illegal now. If you want to discourage it in the future, you have to make examples of the people you charge. The SEC has fallen short in doing that.

Mitt Romney: About Faith

When it comes to the presidential election, faith always seems to play a large part in the race. Christianity is the name of the game and outsiders are viewed through a wary eye. We saw this happen last election when Barack Obama's faith was called into question. For Mitt Romney, it's something has had plague him his entire career and something he has been forced to downplay.

While many misguidedly govern by faith, the main appeal of faith seems to be a person's character. I don't think that's exclusive to Christianity. You can tell a lot about a person's character by their devotion to their faith.

This has come to a head because Rick Perry's camp has been on the offensive:

The Daily Beast has obtained a series of e-mails that show an influential evangelical activist with close ties to the Perry campaign stressing the political importance of “juxtaposing traditional Christianity to the false God of Mormonism,” and calling for a “clarion call to Evangelical pastors and pews” that will be “the key to the primary” for Perry.

This would represent a low point in politics, but like I said, it's nothing we haven't seen before. Obama's faith was questioned last election. Romney is actually a mormon and there are a lot of misconceptions of the religion. Fortunately, there are other people, like Joe Lieberman, who have spoken out for him:

Now we have two Mormon candidates running for president, and one of them, Romney, may well be the Republican nominee. Once again the promise of religious freedom enshrined in our Declaration of Independence and in our Constitution will be tested, along with our Founders' dream that America would be a shining city on a hill where religious freedom, diversity and tolerance thrive. And once again, a barrier may be broken.

My experience in 2000 gives me great confidence that the American people will again reject any sectarian religious tests for office and show their strong character, instinctive fairness and steadfast belief in our Constitution. That truly is the American way.

That doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement of the man himself, but it does provide a sentiment that we judge our president by his character and not by his religion. Regardless, it seems like the Mormon Church has helped define Romney as a person:

“He told me that, as human beings, our work isn’t measured by taking the sum of our good deeds and the sum of our bad deeds and seeing how things even out,” recalled Mr. Clark, now 37, sober and working as a filmmaker in Utah. “He said, ‘The only thing you need to think about is: Are you trying to improve, are you trying to do better? And if you are, then you’re a saint.’ ”

Romney has long been a prominent figure in the Mormon Church and the biggest in the Boston community for so long. As a result, he has shown a lot of leadership and responsibility, even having a large part in the building of a church. For better or worse, he's taken it on himself to be a member of his community and support others:

If Mr. Romney, who no longer holds an official church title, seems overly polished or wooden on the campaign trail, his defenders say that is just how he is, reserved yet caring. “He’s always been that way, that’s his demeanor,” Mrs. Oparowski said.

While there may be many questions about Romney's religion, I don't think there should be questions about Romney. I do believe the "Mormon issue" will be played out in the coming weeks, but I don't think it will be what defines the election, though it may define Romney's campaign. While at times the man seem distant, Romney does care, and I believe he want dearly to help this country get back on track. Otherwise, why would he run again?

Rick Perry: The Way Out

Rick Perry's wife recently contended that Rick Perry has been brutalized for his faith by the media:

It's been a rough month. We have been brutalized and beaten up and chewed up in the press to where I need this today...We are being brutalized by our opponents, and our own party. So much of that is, I think they look at him, because of his faith. He is the only true conservative – well, there are some true conservatives. And they're there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose.

This seems a bit misguided because, in my opinion, doubts about Perry's campaign have been warranted by his poor turnouts at the debates and his lack of substantiative plans for America. There was also the "niggerhead" fiasco.

Oh, and now there's this:

"My son had to resign his job because of federal regulations that Washington has put on us," Mrs. Perry said while campaigning for her husband in South Carolina, after a voter shared the story of losing his job.

"He resigned his job two weeks ago because he can't go out and campaign with his father because of SEC regulations," she continued, referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission. "He has a wife... he's trying to start a business. So I can empathize."

"My son lost his job because of this administration," she said a few minutes later.

Uh, what? He voluntarily resigned:

According to several reports, Perry’s son, Griffin worked as an investment banker at Deutche Bank before voluntarily resigning his job two weeks ago to work on his father’s presidential campaign. SEC regulations stipulate that it’s illegal to be an investment advisor and work on a campaign.

I don't know how you can blame that on the current administration. Unless it was a product of recent campaign reform, it has nothing to do with the current administration. Obama has been blamed for so many things that have not been true, particularly by the Perry and Bachmann camps (the candidates especially). Anita Perry needs to get a clue.

Anita Perry is speaking out for her husband because he is struggling. He needs something to get him going. He's lost ground and is losing more ground. He has to have some element to pick him up. Anita Perry's speaking out might hurt the Texas Governor though:

Mrs. Perry insists that her husband is authentic and went so far as to suggest that his opponents aren't. She'll have a hard time convincing Herman Cain's fans of that. And while the idea of a religious "elect" or chosen people may be part of some Christian theologies, most voters aren't likely to subscribe to the belief that Mr. Perry has been handpicked by God. Voters tend to like picking the candidates themselves.

To his credit, he's not alienating all voters:

“We are going to participate whenever and wherever they are,” said Robert Black, a Perry campaign spokesman.

Some of the other Republican candidates are boycotting the Nevada caucus because they moved up their primary. While it is disappointing that Nevada moved up their primary, it's important that the people get to hear what the candidates say and have a say themselves in which one represents them. This is a good move by Perry, in a campaign that has been closer to lackluster than spectacular.

I criticized Perry earlier this week for his withholding of a jobs plan. Well, he came out with one:

"Right here in Pennsylvania, and across the state line in West Virginia and Ohio, we will tap the full potential of the Marcellus Shale and create another 250,000 jobs," he said in unveiling a major piece of his overall economic plan.

Does this sound familiar? Sounds like Texas, don't it:

Even in Texas, the industries classified by the US Labor Department as "oil and gas extraction" and "mining support" account for just about 2 of every 100 jobs. But jobs in basic industries like mining or manufacturing typically help sustain many other jobs throughout a local economy. And over the past decade, Texas has seen energy jobs rise as a share of its economy.

Compared with Texas, other states appear to have plenty of room to grow. In the other 49 states collectively, the "oil and gas" and "mining support" industries account for less than 0.3 percent of all jobs. Those totals don't include some other energy-related jobs, such as in coal mining or renewable sources.

We've heard this type of plan before from Bachmann and Gingrich. The problem is the plan might be unattainable. A lot of these aren't promises, they're wishes that would need congress's approval:

“It’d be very difficult for an administration to walk back these regulations by itself,” says Case Western University law professor Jonathan Adler, who’s no fan of the rules. The EPA, after all, is required to regulate carbon by the Supreme Court. Perry’s administration could try to overturn the agency’s “Endangerment Finding,” a scientific document arguing that carbon-dioxide poses a threat to human health and welfare. But given the solidity of climate science — and the fact that the EPA has been warning about global warming for the past 15 years — that’d be a hard sell in the courts. If Perry wanted to junk air-pollution rules, he’d need Congress.

I think overall, this plan falls short because much of it is out of the President's control. Just like the tax code and other initiative. The United States is not Texas and not every state has energy supporting industries. You can't rely on that. To go further, it's not going to make up for what Perry is produced so far. For the most part, I think candidates are judged by their substance. You do have to have the presidential look and composure. Perry has finally brought substance, but I don't think it makes up for everything else. His campaign is misfiring all over the place, and I don't know if he can correct that. He dug a hole for himself and there might not be a way out.

Cadillac's CUE

Cadillac is trying to one up its competitors by introducing it's new Cadillac User Experience. The CUE is driven by technology:

Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Co.’s Cadillac plans to offer an in-car data, navigation and media system next year with a tablet computer-style touch screen and applications that the company hopes will distinguish the brand from luxury rivals.

Cadillac is taking a cue from the trends in mobile technology:

“This is a differentiator moving us above and beyond our competitors,” said Micky Bly, GM’s executive director of global electric systems and infotainment, in an interview in San Diego. “IPhone, iPads, Droids, all those things are out there now, and people are familiar with that style of device navigation.”

CUE offers a lot of great features:

Along with exterior styling, fuel-efficiency and engine advances, automakers are competing for buyers with sophisticated in-car electronics that provide more than route guidance, real- time traffic information and hands-free phone calls. CUE will offer a broad range of data and applications, including Pandora Media Inc.’s music service, and will be easiest to use, Detroit- based GM said.

So is it a game changer? That's what Motor Trend asked, and upon review, concluded:

So how is it? This pre-production example wasn’t 100 percent there yet by the developers’ own admission, but with the kinks worked out, CUE has the potential to be a real game changer. As it should; when Cadillac set about designing CUE two years ago, its goal was to do what the smart phone did to the cell phone, by incorporating iPad-like technology into an intuitive user interface.

It's a very intriguing technology that should make the driver experience better, and Motor Trend likes the potential of it:

Perhaps the coolest thing about Cadillac’s CUE is its potential. Taking yet another page out of Apple’s playbook, Cadillac isn’t giving its customers everything yet. Rather, it’s leaving room for improvement and upgrades, and leaving its customers wanting more. While we need to spend a bit more time with a production-ready CUE before passing a final verdict on it, we will say that the potential for a game changer is there. Will CUE be Facebook, or will it be MySpace? Only time will tell.

I don't know if this is something that will be a clear differentiation between Cadillac and its competitors, but it will certainly be something that will draw interest in new buyers. More than anything, Cadillac could benefit from the buzz and getting these people in the showroom. Ultimately, what's going to sell cars is making great cars. This technology certainly can help with that.

Finally Enjoying Boardwalk Empire

In one of my past posts, I published a paper about how the first two episodes of The Sopranos sets up the rest of the series by introducing the main themes that would be developed over the course of the series. I concluded:

The proem of The Sopranos provides us with the lens and the scope through which we will see the rest of the series. Through this, The Sopranos develops aspects of the mafia world that have never been addressed before. Never have we seen the extent by which the depiction of mafia in such an expansive fashion. In the proem we learn that the story is not just about Tony and how changes in his business are stressing him out, but rather about the world he lives in within the context of a mafia tradition. As a story about America experience and assimilation, we are able to see contemporary depictions of events that are able to exist without sacrificing the necessary focus of the narrative to center on the mafia itself.

As I've been watching Boardwalk Empire's second season, I began to think more about this. One of the main problems with the first season of Boardwalk Empire is that there are so many character that the writers want to address. However, as a viewer, it's hard to get to know these characters. There's also no narrative commentary within the series like there is in The Sopranos with Tony and Dr. Melfi. Goodfellas also benefits from having a narration, when new characters are introduced. There's no need to see the characteristics if they are told to you.

In contrast, The Godfather develops its characters by showing their tendencies. In the very first scene, we see the roles that the characters will play in the plot. Vito is cautious and very introspective. Sonny has a hot temper and is not faithful to his wife. Clemenza is a loyal servant as is Luca Brasi. Michael is quiet and independent. Fredo is weak. They're masterfully illustrated through small scenes such as when Sonny slams the camera of the media member or spits on the FBI detective's badge.

Boardwalk Empire is a television show, therefore it has the liberty to be more complex. However, the complexity of the series might interfere with the audience's ability to fully understand what is going on. As I've watched the second season, it is much clearer to me that the little scenes that develop the characters have been much more helpful in understanding and enjoying the second season. In many ways, the first season of Boardwalk Empire serves as an introduction and proem for the series.

I did not enjoy the first season because I felt like nothing happened and we did not see anything happen to the characters. There was a lot of posturing, but there was a overwhelming lack of action. In a series about corruption and violence, there was something missing. Now, in the second season, we are seeing more action. There is more plotting against one another, there is more violence, and there is more hardship.

What I've realized most and why I actually appreciate the first season is that all the posturing gave us little clues to what the characters would become. We saw chinks in Nucky's armor. We saw the ambition of Jimmy Dormady. We saw Eli's frustration with his brother. These are all things that are being played out now.

The second season is much better because of the first. I no longer can complain about the first season. I wish we had more information about the direction this series was going. Prior to this season, I had never been more frustrated with a series. I wanted to like this series for so long. Now, I can.

Explaining Herman Cain's Emergence

Since I made this post, introducing Herman Cain as a potential to Romney and Perry, Cain has skyrocketed up the GOP presidential polls:

The public is doing just that. In recent national polls, following impressive debate performances and straw poll wins that caught the political establishment by surprise, Cain has suddenly risen to the top of the pack, running almost even with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

But as I suggested before:

If he really wants to make a run for this, he will aim for the transparency necessary to be a viable candidate. Until then, Herman Cain will be a bump in the road for the front runners. You cannot ignore potential skeletons in your closet and run for president. You will have people make you reveal that information as you rise a legitimate candidate. You should do your best to be prepared.

In the most recent debate, the pizzaman's 9-9-9 plan came under fire, and the media has started taking a deeper look into it:

But note that we said the “9-9-9” would happen eventually — and then only temporarily. That’s because it is only the second step of a planned three-step process. The first step would cut individual and corporate tax rates to a top 25 percent rate (down from a current high of 35 percent). Then the final step would replace all of the taxes — even the 9s — with a national sales tax, known by proponents as a “Fair Tax.”

(As denizens of Washington, we find this three-step process to be highly dubious. It takes years, even decades, to fundamentally overhaul the tax code. Herman Cain is going to do this three times in his presidency? But we digress.)

Other than the clear difficulties that he would have in trying to overhaul the tax code, there are other issues involved with revenue, but particularly in the tax rate of the people who can afford it the least:

On top of that, Cain would introduce the new sales tax, which would affect lower and moderate-income people who spend most of their income on purchases, not savings and investments. Depending on how you do the math, people now paying zero or negative taxes might be faced with a 27 percent tax on income.

In other words, while on paper Cain is promising a tax cut, in reality tens of millions of lower-income Americans would face tax increases.

His proposal seems unsustainable, unreasonable, and unfair. He's essentially going to cut into pockets that have nothing in them. There's a lot of danger in fiddling with the numbers and it seems as though his numbers are vastly different than those of others who've looked at his plans. On the whole, it looks like a plan that would reduce taxes on many individuals, but the his plan would also negatively affect those that have the least and have been most affected by the financial crisis and the consequential recession.

Then, why he's been so high in the polls? This has been his one draw, his one big plan, and it just doesn't add up. How are people saying that they're going to vote for him?

I'm not going to just write off Cain. He's clearly polling well and there's reason to believe he's a legitimate contender to Romney with those numbers. I just look at the actual facts, what he actually brings to the table, and I just don't see what his supporters see. I just don't see him being able to accomplish effectively what he's promising to bring forth.

Buffett's Challenge

So Warren Buffett has gone public with his income and tax payment of this last year:

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett divulged to a Republican congressman yesterday that he made more than $62 million in 2010 and that just 17.4 percent of his taxable income was taxed.

In addition, he has implored other billionaires to come out with their tax returns:

"What would be useful would be to get more of the ultra rich to publish their returns," Buffett wrote. "If you could get other ultra rich Americans to publish their returns along with mine, that would be very useful to the tax dialogue and intelligent reform. I stand ready and willing -- indeed eager -- to participate in this exercise."

The thing is that other billionaires have little desire to pay higher taxes:

A new poll of the Forbes 400 list by Salon.com finds that only 8 of the Forbes 400members would pay higher taxes, as Warren Buffett suggested in a New York Times op-ed in August. The problem with the Salon.com poll? Most of the Forbes 400 members didn’t respond to it. Salon doesn’t spell it out precisely, but it looks as if only 12 of the 400 billionaires bothered to reply.

Can you really blame them? Nobody willingly wants to pay higher taxes. If they have to pay the taxes, they'll pay the taxes. They can afford to as well. It's all a matter of just closing the loopholes. It's not an Obama thing, even Reagan hated the loopholes:

In the coming weeks, we'll see if Buffett actually releases his tax returns. If he does release them, I would not be surprised if one or two other billionaires followed suit. However, if you want them to pay higher taxes, you just need to close the loopholes. There is an unwillingness to do so because it will deter private giving. The millionaire tax that was proposed doesn't really work either because it opens up a whole new way for government to tax private citizens. It is just a new way to invade a person's personal liberty.

I don't think there is any progress to be made on this issue until Buffett follows through on his own challenge.

Sprint Outlook In An iPhone World

Sprint stock is cheap. It's really cheap. Does that make it a good investment though?

Well, Sprint just got the iPhone. That's huge, but they may have taken a huge gamble in getting it. They overpaid for the iPhone and made the mistake of telling everyone that they made that mistake:

“Friday was tough on the stock, tough on everybody in terms of the way it came across,” Hance said in an interview. “It was a mistake not to disclose the impact of the iPhone -- a mistake we will fix. We will talk about the impact when we talk about the third-quarter earnings."

As a company that has already shown that it has had problems becoming profitable, Sprint took a huge leap to get the iPhone on its network. The cache of having the iPhone on its network might have clouded the judgment of the executive who made this deal. What's worse is that they could not explain the purpose of the deal well to analysts:

Last week the laughter came from analysts at Sprint's investor meeting, where Mr. Hesse and executives laid out an inscrutable and incomplete financial plan that Wall Street's brightest admitted they could not make heads or tails of. Then Sprint dropped the bomb. It may need to go to the capital markets to fund a wireless business that, by now, ought to be spinning off loads of cash. The stock promptly plummeted 26% in an afternoon.

That just screams poor leadership. As an investor, you look at the management of the company and you have to be weary. They've made several poor decisions that has resulted in the continued evaporation of shareholder equity. You shouldn't catch a falling knife.

But is there upside to Sprint? While AT&T and Verizon both have delays on the new iPhone, Sprint has it available:

But Sprint, while it’s sold out of the 16GB model, still has the more expensive versions in stock, and its website says they’ll be delivered on Oct. 14 or 15.

While it suggests that the movement to Sprint for the iPhone has been slower than anticipated, it also means that people will have to go to Sprint if they want the iPhone. Remember, a lot of customers are under contract and don't want to go through the hassle of changing service. Furthermore, Sprint has the benefit of having better service:

The No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier does have its fans – a Consumer Reports survey last year ranked it even with Verizon in terms of overall customer satisfaction. It could be that AT&T and Verizon found more buyers for the expensive versions amid their corporate customer base. Or maybe Sprint’s just off to a slow start.

Sprint, unlike its competitors, offers unlimited data, which might be a huge draw for people who are sick of paying overages. I really think Sprint really needs time with the iPhone. No one should have expected it to have an immediate impact. I think people looked for phones more than service. Now that the playing field is leveling out, we should see a hunt for the best service. Sprint should be able to capitalize on this market shift.

Furthermore, Sprint has announced its plan to implement its 4G LTE network:

At its Oct. 7 meeting, Sprint had indicated its plans to take on additional debt to fund the rollout of their new higher-speed 4G LTE network by mid-2012. It had also earlier announced unlimited data plans for iPhone users.

We believe that if the company is able to lure iPhone users with its uncapped data plans and at the same time increase speeds and reduce costs by using its LTE network, the long-term prospects of the company looks good. However liquidity concerns arising from excessive debt on its balance sheet will continue to be a major deterrent to its business, and should this strategy not pay off, Sprint could be in dire straits.

Liquidity is at a premium in the market, given the ongoing concerns with debt throughout the world. However, Sprint should have some momentum with the iPhone buzz. While analysts are portraying the company negatively at the moment, there is a lot of reason to believe that Sprint will recover. Its services will only get better with the implementation of LTE and it should be able to distance itself from Verizon in that regard. It offers a better package than Verizon and AT&T, and as the consumers begin to realize that, this iPhone gamble will start to pay off for Sprint.

While Sprint may struggle in the short term, there is still plenty of upside as the company navigate to a 4g LTE world.

The Lockout Continues: Does Anyone Miss The NBA?

I don't know how many of you are upset about the NBA lockout, but they decided yesterday to cancel the first two weeks of the season. It's because the players and owners aren't even close to terms:

That happened Monday when league executives and the NBPA failed to make progress — and perhaps took a step back — on reaching a new collective bargaining agreement. The sides are far apart on the split of basketball-related income (BRI) and the system in which that money would be distributed to players, plus issues such as contract length, luxury tax, player raises and the length of the next CBA.

But the bigger question remains whether anyone cares? I love sports, but there are clear problems with the game that has nothing to do with the way the money is distributed. This quibbling over dollars and cents means nothing to me unless the actual product is improved. As far as I know, I don't think anyone has done anything about it.

I will say this, I sympathize with the businesses that rely on the NBA to bring people to their establishments. That lost income is detrimental in an already lean time. It's not chump change:

The San Antonio area gets an estimated $95 million yearly boost from the Spurs' presence, said David Bojanic, a marketing professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio who teaches courses in destination marketing, sport management and event management. But it's difficult to say how the loss of part — or even all — of a season really would impact the community

There's going to be a trickle effect from this. There is less demand for goods and services, so there's going to be less demand for labor and businesses are going to have to make cuts.

That's not good, but is it all bad? It's one less people to go out, spend money on things like booze and other overpriced items. It's less money going to overpriced tickets when that money can go to things like food, new shoes for their kid, new clothes. Some businesses may suffer, but this money that's not being spent has to go somewhere right?