Thursday

Stadiums Top Stocks as Colleges Bet Football Is Recession-Proof

In Austin, Texas, the Longhorns renovated their football stadium in stages between 2006 and 2009, adding 13,000 seats priced from $65 to $95 depending on the game; 2,200 club seats starting at a minimum $2,000 annual donation, plus the cost of the ticket; 2,450 chairback seats priced at a minimum $750 annual donation, plus the ticket; 47 suites priced from $62,000 to $75,000 plus the tickets and catering; an $8 million, 55- foot-by-134-foot video scoreboard; and ribbon scoreboards that offer more opportunities for advertisers.

At their baseball field, they added 19 suites priced from $32,000 to $40,000 plus catering; 400 club seats at field level priced at a minimum $750 annual donation, plus the tickets; and a video board.

The bricks-and-mortar investment paid off, according to Texas’s athletic director.

“Had we gone with endowments, we’d be down 30 percent,” Dodds said. “This is a huge success.”

Credit Agricole, Soc Gen Face Greek Risks as Debt Crisis Deepens

Banks have more at risk in Portugal and Spain than Greece. Claims on Portugal by European lenders amount to $240.5 billion, including $47.4 billion by German banks and $44.9 billion by French firms, according to BIS figures from the end of 2009.

European banking claims on Spain stand at $832.3 billion, with German financial institutions accounting for $238 billion and French companies $211.2 billion.

Austerity-Tony Judt

The opposite of austerity is not prosperity but luxe et volupté. We have substituted endless commerce for public purpose, and expect no higher aspirations from our leaders. Sixty years after Churchill could offer only “blood, toil, tears and sweat,” our very own war president—notwithstanding the hyperventilated moralism of his rhetoric—could think of nothing more to ask of us in the wake of September 11, 2001, than to continue shopping. This impoverished view of community—the “togetherness” of consumption—is all we deserve from those who now govern us. If we want better rulers, we must learn to ask more from them and less for ourselves. A little austerity might be in order.

True Tolerance-Robin Hanson

“Tolerance” is a feel-good buzzword in our society, but I fear people have forgotten what it means. Many folks are proud of their “tolerance” for gays, working women, Tibetan monks in cute orange outfits, or blacks sitting at the front of the bus. But what they really mean is that they consider such things to be completely appropriate parts of their society, and are not bothered by them in the slightest. That, however, isn’t “tolerance.”

Oh fuck.

A freak leak of the Spanish unemployment number by the National Statistical Institute (INE), the equivalent to the DOL, was captured by Spanish daily ABC.es, according to which for the first time since 1997, the unemployment rate in the country that was notched by S&P today, will surpass 20%.