Like millions of football fans around the globe, stock market observers will once again perform the annual ritual of gluing themselves to the tube Sunday, anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Super Bowl. We've heard how accurately the so-called "Super Bowl Stock Market Predictor", has, ever since Super Bowl I, indicated the direction the market would take ( http://www.forbes.com/2004/01/28/cz_jd_0128inlwatch_print.htm). Theory has it that if the NFC team (this year the Giants) wins, the stock market will rise during the course of the year; if the AFC team (the Patriots) wins, the market will take a downward turn.

I won't bother to rehash the experts' explanations for this phenomenon, but I will go out on a limb and declare that the Super Bowl game itself, no matter which team wins or loses, is a boost for the economy as a whole and particularly for the stocks of all parties involved.

Continue reading "The Economy of the Super Bowl"

For the past few seasons, Hendrick Motorsports has dominated in NASCAR victory lane. And with the addition of Dale Jr. to the Hendrick fold, few expected that pattern would change this year. Initially, things were going as planned--Jr. taking the Bud Shootout and then winning the first Gatorade 150 qualifying race.

 But then came the second Gatorade 150, with Joe Gibbs' Denny Hamlin (in a Toyota, of all things) victorious, while teammate Tony Stewart claimed victory in the season's first Nationwide race in Daytona.

Then came the Daytona 500--Ryan Newman taking the checkered flag in a Dodge, the first since Ward Burton's victory in 2002.

Could all today's stiff competition among the various makes indicate that the Car of Tomorrow has leveled the "playing field" and allowed the historically less dominant teams to catch up with the perennial winners? When first introduced, the idea of the COT must have seemed, to the old school NASCAR fan, virtually a step toward socialism, to say the least, if not downright Marxist in theory. Equal distirubtion? Is there no more room in racing for

Continue reading "Does "COT" Spell the End of the Dominant Team?"

The 2008 season has barely begun, and NASCAR has already apportioned out myriads of penalties. First came the confrontation between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch during practice for the Bud Shootout, for which both drivers were put on probation for the first six Cup races. But true to its promise of returning "back to the basics" (or, in other words, allowing drivers to freely express their emotions as in days of old), NASCAR did not punish Stewart or Busch for their verbal or alleged physical combat while meeting with officials.

However, NASCAR's penalties for violations of equipment rules (meted out in all three of its top series) were not so lax. In the Sprint Cup Series, Robby Gordon, driver of the No. 7, was penalized 100 points and his crew chief fined $100,000, suspended for the next six races, and put on probation until the end of the year, all for using an unapproved Dodge Charger nose. Gordon has since appealed the decision, claiming it was "an innocent mistake" ( http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/02/21/rgordon.p).

Continue reading "Penalties by the Number--NASCAR Takes the High Road"