Not to Worry...There is Always March Madness

Even with the economy in total disarray and more and more people losing confidence with each passing day all will be well by the end of the week because of…….March Madness.

From Washington to Wall Street everyone will be filling out their brackets and entering their office pools.

And for the next week more will be concentrating on their picks than the economy.

It is amazing how sporting events such as this or the Super Bowl seem to just engulf the entire country.

What’s even more amazing is how what goes on in sports often mirrors what goes on in the country.

For the past two decades baseball owners turned a complete blind eye to steroids.

Home runs and higher batting averages meant more fans and better attendance meant more money in the owner’s pockets.

It enabled them to get bigger TV contracts and more advertising revenues.

It enabled them to build bigger stadiums with more corporate boxes while raising prices without a thought for the little guy.

Almost all playoff games became night games and it was hard to find a World Series game that ended before midnight.

And it became even harder for families with young kids to go or watch games at all.

And it didn’t matter that players were pumping themselves full of steroids and putting up phony numbers because as always the end justified the means and the rich got richer……the American success story.

At the same time on Wall Street the story was not that different.

For the last two decades CEO’s and corporate executives pumped the system full of toxic loans and investments.

They inflated numbers and through creative accounting built portfolios that weren't worth the paper they were printed on.

And these financial steroids enabled these executives to make hundreds of millions and as with baseball the little people were given the false impression that all was well and continued to put their hard earned money into these companies.

And just like the baseball commissioner and the owners the SEC and the other governmental watchdogs did absolutely nothing.

And just like the sports writers the business newspapers and financial shows turned a blind eye to what was going on.

And as steroid using baseball players continue to get paid millions Wall Street executives continue to get billions in bonuses at the taxpayers expense,

But just as we are not allowed to require blood tests for ballplayers we seem to have no control over what happens on Wall Street.

And as the owners continue to pay the players tens of millions, the government will continue to bail out these companies with no control over what they do with the billions that they get.

Well it’s the bottom of the ninth for the country with two outs and no balls and two strikes on our government.

You would think that even if baseball doesn’t maybe the government would do something.

And they should start with this.

If these companies are contractually obligated to give bonuses to these execs how about the government taking a stand and requiring that in lieu of cash these bonuses be paid in stock options exercisable in five years.

Sort of like an incentive driven contract. Hell it’s our money to begin with we should have a say in how it’s used.

But unfortunately like baseball this is probably not going to happen.

But not to worry there is always March Madness to keep the masses occupied.