Games 161/162: Wrap It Up

In a day/night doubleheader that means absolutely nothing unless you get a commission on hot dog sales at Fenway, New York beat Boston in the "day" part, 6-2, Mike Mussina stepping onto the 20 win plateau, and Dice K taking the loss.



Another brilliant Dan Carlin show this week-another “common sense” insight that makes me wonder why I didn’t think of it. Ever wonder why executives make huge, risky short term bets on derivatives and cheap ploys to pump up the stock price? Ever wonder why politicians won’t think long term about the greater good, and instead focus on worthless, wasteful, pork barrel spending?

www.dancarlin.com

Think about how we incentivize them.

We reward politicians when they bring home the bacon, and we reward businessmen when the stock price goes up.

We incentivize politicians by reelecting them. We incentivize businessmen by not firing them. We reward them when they give us the cookies, and then we’re surprised when they keep showing up with more cookies. Well, what did we expect them to do?

Dan also talked about the CEO pay restrictions being proposed, and how they will find a way around it, even if they do institute it. Similarly, Dan noted, if MLB instituted such a rule, the MLB players would go overseas, or wherever the largest paycheck would come from. First thing I thought was, I’m not sure if there is a Lebron James in the corporate world, either because the job is impossible, or because the people they select from are all clueless MBA robots who haven’t worked a real job in decades. The next thing I thought was, that process may be beginning in the NBA-as stars like Lebron and Kobe are seriously considering playing overseas because they can be paid more, both in real terms and because of the NBA salary cap, over there.

Now reading Ron Susskind’s “The Way Of The World”, another cheery, fun read. Sigh. In the words of Emo Phillips, some days it’s not even worth chewing through the straps.

More brilliant Carliniana…the problem with US foreign policy is not what we believe, it’s what we do. Apparently, a Saudi government judge has opined that it is acceptable for people to kill employees of television companies which broadcast indecent content. And we wonder why they hate us? We can’t criticize the Saudi government, because they hold the economic health of this country, such as it is, in their hands. And they have wack jobs like this in power? There is no war on terror while we put up with crap like this.

“No Agenda” provides the first post debate analysis I have heard on a podcast-what few things I have been able to read indicate an Obama win, though a narrow one, and that is the way Adam and John see it as well.