Silly TV

I just saw a silly half hour segment on CNBC. Today is NFL Draft day so CNBC had their mock "stock draft." Sounds fun, mixing business with sports, it certainly peaked my interest. However, it was just filler in their 24-hour cycle of business coverage. Just as CNN has become a snooze fest with silly animals in their news segments, CNBC is getting into the gimmick games as well. There's a universe of stocks out there but there's only one round with just seven teams?! My ten team fantasy baseball league ends up picking 300 names in the end to get a good sample of long term growth. Talk about self promotion for CNBC. Does CNBC get paid a flat fee each time they say a mega cap's ticker symbol? Let's pick big market cap names so as not to lose viewers with names that actually might grow. I know the ticker symbols of these companies by heart, most people do if you even casually follow stocks. If you're going to do a fantasy draft with stocks for a business theme, then atleast make it true to life and have the players pick companies out of the total universe of publicly traded stocks. Seven doesn't cut it! When you limit your sample size, the fantasy aspect is taken away and you're stuck with talking about Apple's iPhone and Google's Android and Netflix's losing membership to free online content. Old news, same stories. I'm not running a multi million dollar hedge fund and I can even makes these calls. I guess going online for interesting stories and games is the safe play. Regular TV has lost its way at being creative. Thanks reality TV! You're not must see to me. BTW, I think Facebook will be the best performing stock this year when it comes out, because it'll have so much hype. I wouldn't buy it on hype, but for fantasy game with fake money, it's worth a gamble. If I'm right and these "experts" are wrong I'll be smiling because nobody picked FB. Maybe if the field was eight deep......
Next year make the draft go a few rounds to make it interesting. Show the viewers there's more to valuing stocks than just looking at the ones scrolling at the bottom of the tv screens all day. That takes talent just like playing fantasy baseball or football requires players to bring to the table. CNBC has a lot to learn about the concept of fantasy games and rules. Fun idea, in the end it peaked my interest after-all, and so I watched. I was really disappointed with the end result. Oh I'm in third out of 10 and fourth place out of twelve in my two fantasy baseball leagues after about a month of games played. Not too bad so far. The larger sample size proves you need to go deep to find the gold!

Numbers game

So it's tax season again. This time we also have a presidential election to entertain us a little more, or drive us looney as some would say. Nobody would argue the Romney name isn't more valuable dollar-wise than the name Obama. One's a muti-millionaire, not too shabby Mitt! So why is Mitt Romey's tax rate so much lower if he's that wealthy? 20.5% vs 13.9%. Now both can easily pay their tax bill, but in a bad economy, how is it that the greater burden as a percentage of income is placed on lower income families and individuals than the 1%? Take away the political names and the argument still holds true. It's just easier for everyone to relate to names we all know and can place in our mind. Going to Morton's Steakhouse and getting a small steak is not sacrificing! Even though Romney's tax bill is in the millions, it's small potatoes compared to the union worker making cars in Detroit. We're not talking about redistribution of wealth, but why shouldn't the richest 1% pay a greater percentage of their income on tax day? They can afford it. I guess a clever accountant is just as profitable these days as a lawyer. The good news for president Obama and congressional democrats is that Romney's taxes are now out there and they clearly show the argument the nation already knew, fair's fair and right now the rich aren't required by law to pay their fair share. This isn't about Obama v Romney, that'll get decided soon enough. It's not even left against right, it's non-partisan. But again, these are two people we all know and can find universally accepted opinions on pro and con. In this current economic downturn greed is found running rampant in America. The rich won't pay nor should they pay more than required. Who'd pay more taxes anyway? We need to change the way we tax the rich. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates didn't get rich by being thoughtless and inconsiderate all their lives. They both know fair is fair and are willing to pay more if required. Progressives are sound economists despite what the right wants Americans to believe. So let's do it! Let's kick the nonsensical republican tax rhetoric out with their low approval ratings soon. Productivity and American ingenuity aren't ever going away. That's my two cents, about the last two cents I can find right now:)

Here we go again

So in light of all the craziness with gun violence in America, especially down in Sanford, Fl. the NRA thinks joking about guns is acceptable. Of course there's the first amendment which allows for freedom of expression, in this case to promote voter registration of young people in a commercial, ha! But there should be a higher standard here. When the late Charlton Heston wanted to have an NRA rally in Littleton, Co. shortly after the Columbine High School gun rampage, that was sure lunacy. What the NRA is up to is pure and simple, self promotion for the advancement of laid-back gun control standards, and raise a few dollars in the process. It's difficult to draw a line from honest behavior with wanting to enjoy using a firearm for recreation and sport, against the real need for control and licensing, plus just common sense. The NRA, 99% of the time doesn't distinguish different levels of opinion on gun control. That would be too complicated and intellictual. They are indeed not an organization that promotes gun use through respectful dialouge, instead they create a war based on culture, even though we're more alike as Americans than different from each other in the grand scheme of things. It's the elite intellictuals from the coasts versus the average middle-American drinking their Buds and shootin' squirrels for target practice. (Okay I can sterotype, too.) The rhetoric is always ramped up during a presidential election cycle. Case and point this ad I've posted below. "Get 'em while they're ignorant and keep em that way!" Short sighted and silly. I hope the democrats call out the NRA on this terrible use of advertising. You can't shout your way and make things okay, but the NRA often tries to do this. Take a look for yourself. It would've been a funny clip until the kid with the t-shirt enters and we learn the true meaning of this political ad and that it's from the NRA directly. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJAZyQHh9JU