Archive for December 12th, 2011

Xavier, Cincinnati … as ugly as it gets

December 12, 2011

From SI reports …

There has always been bad blood between Xavier and Cincinnati.   The schools are only 4 miles apart and jockey for position in the city.

Saturday night, an ugly brawl erupted with 9.4 seconds left in their basketball game.

Benches cleared, fists flew.

Lots of mayhem.  Lots of blood.

Not your garden variety pushing and shoving.

The post-game explanations were equally as chilling.

Xavier’s senior All-America guard Tu Holloway readily admitted starting the fight by taunting Cincinnati players and coaches … and he defended his actions, and those of his Xavier teammates, for their parts in the fight:

“You gotta understand, we got a whole bunch of gangsters in the locker room …  tough guys.”

When asked why he taunted the Cincinnati bench and incited the fracas, Holloway said that he was disrespected when a Cincinnati player said that he was a better player.

“This is my city … I’m cut from a different cloth.

None of them guys on their team is like me.

We got disrespected.

Maybe it looked bad to you (media), but this is what I’m used to.

This is where I’m from..”

Georgetown connection?

Cincinnati is in the big East … Xavier is “A Jesuit, Catholic University in Cincinnati, Ohio since 1831”.

Yipes.

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What if colleges owned college loans?

December 12, 2011

College degrees are costing more and no longer insure a rich & prosperous life. 

The cost is going up largely due to the availability of of student loan money.

A recommendation from the Washington Examiner …

Student loans, if they are to continue, should be made dischargeable in bankruptcy after five years — but with the school that received the money on the hook for all or part of the unpaid balance.
 
Up until now, the loan guarantees have meant that colleges, like the writers of subprime mortgages a few years ago, got their money up front, with any problems in payment falling on someone else.
 
Make defaults expensive to colleges, and they’ll become much more careful about how much they lend and what kinds of programs they offer.

The article also reps for non-college education.

As the Wall Street Journal has noted, skilled trades are doing quite well. For the past several decades,

America’s enthusiasm for college has led to a lack of enthusiasm for vocational education.

We need people who can make things, and it’s harder to outsource a plumbing or welding job to somebody in Bangalore.
 
Of course, the thing about skilled trades is that they require skill.

Even with training, not everyone makes a good welder or machinist.

Hmmm.

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Forget Millennial .. it’s the Quadrennial Effect that matters.

December 12, 2011

TakeAway: Is spending cyclical? Some forecasters believe so and are predicting higher ad spending in 2012 because of the key events that happen every 4 years. The impact of these events on the economy is known as the Quadrennial Effect.

* * * * *
Excerpt from NYT: “Quadrennial Effect Could Make ’12 a Very Good Year”

The fact that several events that happen every four years will take place next year will stimulate the media and ad industries, leading forecasters said, offsetting the detrimental effects of the European debt crisis.

Events on the 2012 calendar likely to encourage more ad spending than this year include the United States presidential and Congressional elections, the Summer Olympic Games and the European Football (soccer) Championship.

Some analysts are expecting “The strongest-ever quadrennial effect” … adding  $7 billion to global ad spending in 2012.

For all its power, the quadrennial effect can do only so much in a bad economy.

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