tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83749856082463319052024-02-20T09:02:24.712-08:00Straight from the sourcean astute take on what goes on in the world ranging from economic issues to football matches (EPL and UCL), and occasionally handegg (NFL)Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-62235787474108115842014-01-26T13:47:00.002-08:002014-01-26T13:47:19.583-08:00World Cup update 1: Radamel Falcao and Theo Walcott injuries, Juan Mata's and Kevin de Bruyne's opportunity, Argentina double-bonus
I previously made predictions about who I think would qualify from the Group Stages here and since I made those predictions in December, it was inevitable that I would have to make changes due to injuries, dips in form, transfers, and perhaps controversy.
There have been a couple of important developments in January as we are about 5 months away from the World Cup:
Radamel Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-48578372540451545902013-12-18T07:08:00.002-08:002013-12-18T07:08:26.771-08:00Things to expect from the FOMC meeting: Why it (should) be time to taper
Breaking the pattern from my usual soccer posts, I decided to put out a couple of interesting thoughts on the Fed's year-end meeting.
There has been a lot of buzz in the market about the Fed's policy to eventually taper its asset purchasing programs (quantitative easing/QE) and unlike what happened in May at the first suggestion of tapering, the Fed is widely expected to outline exactly how it Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-74452969525033224872013-12-06T20:43:00.000-08:002013-12-07T10:29:56.245-08:00World Cup Group Stage Predictions 1
Early to be doing this? Nah, this is my Christmas and I only get this once every four years.
The criteria I'm using for who can qualify is how good the teams are on paper, where they're playing, (since Brazil has several different climates), and recent form for individual players.
Group A
Brazil - 9 points
Croatia -4 points
Mexico -2 points
Cameroon-1 point
Brazil is by far the best team in Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-13734890818382502652013-12-03T09:49:00.004-08:002013-12-03T09:49:54.315-08:00World Cup Scenario Draws #1
All 32 teams have qualified, but the groups have not yet been drawn. I realize what I'm about to do is as useful as pre-Thanksgiving Christmas decorations, but I don't care and I'm making a scenario draw This is my Christmas, don't ruin it since I only get to celebrate every 4 years. Since there's no fun in just going by the FIFA rankings (in which everyone would just want the lowestPranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-18627609162072787392013-08-09T15:01:00.002-07:002013-08-09T15:01:43.298-07:00Premier League preseason rankings 11-20
Here's the bottom half of the table.
Usually this is much harder to predict, and most likely I'll get this wrong. But I've made it with the intention of averaging out where they could finish since one or two unpredictable games throws this out of whack.
11. Norwich City 45 points: Adding Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Gary Hooper gives them more consistent striking options than Grant Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-70841860284454793302013-08-09T11:36:00.003-07:002013-08-09T11:44:37.074-07:00Premier League preseason favorites 1-10
2013-14 Premier League projected rankings and points earned. Based on current squads, subject to change if players come and go.
Expect games between the top 3 to be very cagey, but also very decisive for who wins the title this season.
Chelsea 88 points: I'm not just saying this because Mourinho's come back, although his previous accomplishments in the Premier League and hisPranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-83633143218076614892013-07-14T20:53:00.003-07:002013-07-14T20:53:37.032-07:00Economics and morality of price discrimination in college tuition Part 2
...Continued from the first post
Survive or die. Capitalism wins the day
Seems harsh, but this happens in all markets, and educated labor markets are no different: employers will only look to hire and use however much they need. Similarly, if products fail to adapt with the times, then they must either adapt or be forgotten. In this case, a couple of majors may not survive if Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-27861764994004562442013-07-14T16:07:00.000-07:002013-07-14T16:07:01.695-07:00Economics and morality of price discrimination in college tuition
It seems that every other day, we see a story of recent college graduates being overwhelmed by massive student loans and limited job prospects. As a result we see plenty of critics decrying both the universities and the graduates from them for some of the following reasons. This is not an exhaustive list.
1.) Education itself hasn't changed, but the price has skyrocketed.
2Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-37998072257136575902013-05-24T13:44:00.000-07:002013-05-24T13:44:26.797-07:00Is Borussia Dortmund a 'Moneyball' Success story?
In the past 3 seasons, Borussia Dortmund has won the Bundesliga title twice, and has consistently gotten the better of traditional German and European powerhouse that is Bayern Munich. So to followers of the Bundesliga and die Borussen, it may not come as a surprise that they will be playing in the Champions League final. But to the casual football fan, Borussia Dortmund is like a Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-43605921837240554472013-05-05T18:07:00.001-07:002013-05-05T18:07:31.963-07:00What the new Premier League TV deal means for EPL's future
The English Premier League signed a new deal with Sky Sports which will take into effect for the 2013-14 campaign. The new deal will be worth approximately £3 billion ($4.8 billion), which more than doubles the current deal. There are other elements as to who has broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom (BT can broadcast 38 games, essentially breaking the BSkyB monopoly) but Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-79160444457606412242013-03-11T22:18:00.000-07:002013-03-11T22:18:04.369-07:00Champions League Predictions and Power Rankings
The Champions League Round of 16 is 3/4 of the way through but there are still some important games to be decided.
Borussia Dortmund impressed me the most with their turnaround against Shakhtar Donetsk. Shakhtar looked a bit sluggish and perhaps since it is the Ukrainian league's off-season, they weren't perhaps ready to play one of Europe's most in-form teams. A victory was Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-70094174631514373882013-01-25T14:25:00.003-08:002013-01-25T14:25:53.860-08:00Arsenal FC, Financial Restrictions: Is FFP going to validate their long run strategy?
Arsene Wenger has acquired the title Le Prof, for his overall knowledge and understanding of the game of football. He is also one of the few football managers who has an economics degree.
Arsenal's early successes (1996-2004) under Wenger largely came due to the fact he was a master at finding arbitrage opportunities. In addition to preparing tactically for matches, Wenger keyed inPranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-40500057170345887442012-06-12T20:19:00.002-07:002012-06-12T20:19:50.987-07:00The end of BRIC?
Back in 2001, Jim O Neill of Goldman Sachs predicted that Brazil, Russia, India, and China would eventually form a bloc of developing nations that would reach an advanced economic state at the same time. BRIC as it was called was supposed to become a new global super power agglomerate. In fact, BRIC became so internationally recognized (partly because people take Goldman Sachs seriously), Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-89429347286274220342012-02-20T20:14:00.000-08:002012-02-20T20:58:17.278-08:00I'm going to go out on a limb and make one of the most insightful statements ever:Social media and broadcasting through the internet has helped musicians, actors, athletes, and media franchises expand their horizons unlike any other period in history.Well I'm sure you don't need me telling you that but this recently came up to my attention because I'm an avid soccer/football/joga bonito (call it Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-17583094535232714172012-01-06T12:53:00.000-08:002012-01-06T13:45:08.811-08:00Happy New YearPeople are saying this is the year that the US economy will make the most progress. Many analysts from Bloomberg news are predicting that financial markets will have their best year in 5 years and that the unemployment rate will drop pretty dramatically Almost akin to the 1982 economic recovery after a near decade of stagflation. However, the US still has spending issues and Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-38494585548726245222011-10-06T09:52:00.002-07:002011-10-06T10:59:31.969-07:00This year it seems as though revolution after revolution keeps on taking place somewhere in the world. First it started in North Africa and spread rapidly across the Middle East. For the most part, the movements in the Middle East were for democracy and heightened due to economic woes and social inequality, so I could see where the protesters were coming from.However, the latest protest in New Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-47363394067514512392011-07-18T11:39:00.000-07:002011-07-18T12:24:15.448-07:00Federal spending has gone through the roof in the past decade given the extended conflicts in the middle east and the prolonged global recession. In fact, spending has gone so high that we are in danger of not being able to pay back our debts. We have about 15 days before the United States Federal government will default on its debt. That is, unless Congress agrees to raise the debt ceiling Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-71560734341455673822011-05-20T15:45:00.000-07:002011-05-20T16:16:12.225-07:00It is no secret.Me and several of my friends are attending private colleges because they have programs that are highly ranked in newspapers, world class professors who have won Nobel Prizes, well established connections in the job markets, and the respect that comes along with attending these schools. There is only one drawback thoughCost. Virtually all of the top schools in the country have Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-81408966620892142502011-03-18T19:36:00.000-07:002011-03-18T19:57:06.226-07:00The story from Japan is truly tragic. The Fukushima nuclear power plant is on nuclear meltdown as all 4 reactors have essentially malfunctioned and there are reports saying that there might be damage to the core.While this nuclear disaster is probably one of the worst since Chernobyl, that does not mean that we should abandon nuclear power as a viable alternate energy source. Nations like Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-91534846758726280752011-03-18T18:36:00.001-07:002011-03-18T19:32:30.324-07:002011: The people of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain,and (to some degree) Cote D'Ivoire have all risen up within the past month to support economic and political reform.1989: China, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Soviet Bloc countries rise up in protest of Communism. Resulting in the dissolution of the Soviet Union. 1968-69: Robert F Kennedy, Martin Luther King are key figures whoPranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-11744605960628501032011-02-01T20:02:00.001-08:002011-02-01T20:39:17.634-08:00For the past week the Egyptian riots have rocked the Middle Eastern nation that many investors have recognized as a nation with true economic potential but a lot of lingering doubts about security and stability. As with any nation that undergoes a political upheaval, investment tends to rapidly leave a country in a process known as capital flight due to uncertainty in the future (i.e. A Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-72883373117594993982010-12-17T21:33:00.000-08:002010-12-17T21:53:49.723-08:00This has been talked about way too often about how the world's population is bulging in the wrong spot but any avid blogger about world events should have at least one post pertaining to it.Within the next 20-30 years Asia's population will become much too large for the job shift. In India for instance by the year 2025 there will be nearly 400 million people entering the labor force but there Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-51563900298087781892010-11-26T17:30:00.000-08:002010-11-26T18:05:52.421-08:00I don't quite understand why FIFA is choosing to nominate the 2022 World Cup at the same time as they are choosing to nominate the 2018 World Cup. Usually a nation should be given about 6-8 years to prepare for a world cup. 12 is a little excessive.Some of the bidding nations are plausible picks and others are just ludicrous.Plausible nations for 2018: England, Netherlands/BelgiumRisky nations Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-18433740869187474632010-11-26T17:15:00.000-08:002010-11-26T17:30:22.893-08:00In the past few months, North Korea's hostility seemed to be waning a bit. There was hope that perhaps Kim Jong-Il was becoming too senile and had nominated a youthful, western educated Kim Jong-Un. There was a proposal of reunification and of course North Korea's willingness to participate in the 2010 World Cup.Well a few days after a devastating attack on a South Korean island should restore Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8374985608246331905.post-38734454068359627872010-11-08T15:57:00.000-08:002010-11-08T16:40:15.749-08:00I must say I was rather pessimistic about the result of this election on November 2nd. Although I am happy that some balance was restored to Congress in the sense that we're less likely to see all Democratic ideals passed.At the same time however, I was not happy by the impact that was created and the Republicans response to victory.The Republicans in an opportunistic move chose to credit the Pranavhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02684737540688226935noreply@blogger.com0