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Will Brain Damage Kill Football?
I find the NFL Players Association's positions on injury, health, and safety issues to be somewhat odd, shortsighted, and irresponsible. The NFLPA has fought against rule changes intended to prevent injury, has argued strongly against the harsh (but wise IMO) penalties against NO Saints players participating in "bountygate", and have tended to oppose uniform changes which may help safety (e.g. upgraded helmets). Most unions tend to favor rules which protect the safety of workers - in contrast the NFLPA seems to oppose rules which protect the safety of the workforce that it represents.— June 18, 2012 8:11 p.m.
Will Wall Street Cool on Bridgepoint?
"Neither a lender nor borrower be" goes the famous line from Hamlet. I wouldn't go that far but I really think the U.S. government really needs to start moving at least a little bit in that direction. Federal aid programs in the form of low-interest loans seem to be getting us in a lot of trouble lately - home buying and student loans being notable recent examples which followed similar patterns. The pattern is short term help in the beginning giving people access to something. This is followed by rising prices, a speculative bubble and bankruptcies at the end. Seems like the low interest loan programs can make all the politicians look good in the short run. Democrats can tell everyone that the government is helping the less fortunate (even though in the long run the loans just drive up prices and don't really help) and the Republicans can tell everyone that they're keeping taxes low (even though they're not becuase all the debt and extra money creates the "hidden tax" of inflation).— May 16, 2012 6:20 a.m.
Will Wall Street Cool on Bridgepoint?
For reputable universities making money isn't the only motivation - I think leaders at reputable universities care quite a bit about things other than making money. However - call me a cynic if you will - in general I think eventually the main goal of all large organizations is to increase their own wealth and power. Harvard didn't amass a $30B+ endowment by not caring about making money.— May 14, 2012 8:16 p.m.
Will Wall Street Cool on Bridgepoint?
Even the "good investment" from a standpoint of lifetime income data is questionable. Usually the lifetime income numbers stated ignore the question of "cause vs correlation". Among other things, students who graduate from college tend to be more intelligent, more capable of achieving long-term goals and come from wealthier socioeconomic backgrounds than those who don't gratuate from college. With or without college, on average college graduates would have higher lifetime income than non-graduates. So coming up with a reasonable estimate of the value of college education in purely monetary terms is more complicated than merely comparing lifetime earnings.— May 13, 2012 7:16 a.m.
Will Wall Street Cool on Bridgepoint?
Not just shareholder capitalism. Day trader capitalism. Decisions are made to appease shareholders who want to make gains in a quarter or less.— May 11, 2012 7:45 p.m.
Will Wall Street Cool on Bridgepoint?
Great reporting as usual Don. Seems Bridgepoint has a pretty basic scam to make tons of money defrauding both students and taxpayers. Great scam if you have absolutely no conscience andt have the political connections to pull it off. Bridgepoint may well turn out to be considered "ground zero" in the student loan crisis. I think that the impending student loan meltdown (like the mortgage meltdown) is in part due to an unholy alliance of the worst of liberalism (throwing massive amounts of loan money at a something hoping to make it more affordable) with the worst of conservatism (complete lapse of regulation and any oversight of large institutions - despite obvious fraud and abuse).— May 10, 2012 8:39 p.m.
Yeah, I Ate the Doritos Taco....
Great idea but a bit of a disappointment.— May 5, 2012 8:17 p.m.
Seau's Restaurant: We Are Not Ready For Some Football
Not cool. Too soon.— May 3, 2012 3:38 p.m.
Build a stadium and Chargers will stay? Nope.
Another thing to consider: Much of the debate in the above threads seems to be about whether Petco Park was good for East Village. Let's just assume for the sake of argument that Petco Park was great for East Village. Well, was it good for Rancho Bernardo? Was it good for Ocean Beach? Was it good for Talmadge? Was it good for La Jolla? Was it good for San Diego as a whole? That is really the important question and is why the complete analysis with all the effects included has to be done - and why the common sense questions have to be asked. Ultimately, do the taxpayers see an return on investment (ROI). If the taxpayers spend $20M/yr, let's say, to subsidize a stadium, does the net result end up generating more than $20M/yr in tax revenue? When all the effects (substitution effect, opportunity costs, etc) are truly accounted for? As Don, myself, and others have said virtually all of the detailed objective economic studies say no.— May 3, 2012 1:08 p.m.
Build a stadium and Chargers will stay? Nope.
Patrick Rishe, who wrote the Forbes article, has HIS OWN SPORTS CONSULTING FIRM. That's exactly the conflict of interest which could potentially lead to biassed results. And usually I hate to point to credentials, as they are not as important as the details of the analysis. But I took a quick comparison of Prof. Rishe vs. Roger Noll (co-author of "Sports, Jobs, and Taxes" which concludes that stadia subsidies essentially shift money from taxpayers to sports owners and players). Let's see: Patirck Rishe (Forbes magazine author) BS UNCC PhD Binghampton Professor at Webster university Roger Noll (Sports, Jobs and Taxes) BS CalTech PhD Harvard Professor at Stanford I'd say Prof. Noll's CV is a bit more impressive.— May 3, 2012 12:48 p.m.