Here is a lovely poem by Chaun Ballard, that sums up this week as far as this writer is concerned:
Midway
So now when the ghost askes me
my age, I say, I’m stomach over
the waistband; I’m button up
and neck-tied; I’m shoes no longer
the last squawking on hard wooden
floors; I’m totem pole carved with faces
of the past; I’m apple for lunch,
walnuts,
and pleasant dinners; I’m red cross
bloodletting and good credit; I’m
my father in that faded
taken somewhere in Northern Michigan;
I’m high school reunion almost
checked the box: maybe; I’m electric
slide and pre-79 music, hallelujahs
and morning glory; I’m open
book and lamp light; I’m Achilles
if he lived during the Renaissance;
I’m nearly in danger of not being
a danger; old enough to say,
you were good and died young.
SUMMER COLLEGE CHRONICLES
- MORE BAD NEWS FOR COLLEGES: BUDGETS SUFFER AS INTERNATIONAL ENROLLMENT
SLOWS: Over the past three years, international enrollment at Oregon
plummeted by nearly 1,000 students — a more than $32 million hit to recurring
tuition revenue. It's a nightmare scenario for universities struggling to hold
on to a lucrative market as the flow of foreign students to American colleges
slows — for the first time ever — in the era of President Donald Trump.
Oregon isn't alone. Miami University in Ohio is looking at budget
cuts this year as "interest by international students wanes." A
California State University Northridge official told the student newspaper
there that a decline in international students during the past four years has
equaled a loss of about $6.2 million in revenue. Schools including the
University of Tulsa, Kansas State and Robert Morris University have cut
academic programs, in part because of declining international enrollment.
The number of students enrolling for the first time at American
colleges in fall 2017 dropped nearly 7 percent, according to the 2018 Open
Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, an annual survey taken by
the Institute of International Education. That followed a 3 percent drop the
year before.
Experts warn there is much on the line. American universities have
long been a major source of soft power for the U.S. They've educated world
leaders and attracted the world's best scholars. They say something needs to be
done to stem the decline, or America's global standing could sustain damage — especially
as other nations, such as Canada and Australia, aggressively seek the students
that otherwise would have come to the U.S.
If That Was Not Enough - A
new tax on universities and colleges will fall on a wide range of their
earnings, not just their endowment income. The 1.4 percent excise tax,
established under Republicans' broader 2017 tax overhaul, will not only hit
colleges' and universities' earnings from their investment funds, but all sorts
of other money makers as well.
For example, interest earned on loans a school provides directly
to its students would qualify, as would money they make from renting facilities
outside of room and board provided to students. Profits earned from running a
hospital, booster clubs and alumni organizations could also count. In other
words, it's far broader than the endowment tax label lawmakers commonly use in
describing it. The statute doesn't even use the term endowment, instead
focusing on a category called "net investment income," which includes
money schools earn from things like capital gains, interest, rents, royalties
and dividends. "This tax doesn't care if the asset is in an endowment or
not," a senior Treasury official explained.
Some 40 schools are expected to face it, according to a department
estimate. Lawmakers exempted public schools, targeting wealthy private schools
with the tax if they have at least 500 full-time, tuition-paying students and
assets of at least $500,000 per student. Treasury is taking feedback on the
proposed regulations, meaning they could be revised.
Finally - Ken Burns tries to rally
Hampshire College alumni. The filmmaker is chairing fundraising efforts for his
alma mater after it had to slash staff and plans to enroll just 15 new students
this fall. The liberal arts college is one of many small private colleges under
financial pressure.
PAYROLL 101 - How much does a College
Professor make in the United States? The average College Professor salary in
the United States is $151,554 as of May 31, 2019. The range for our most
popular College Professor positions (listed below) typically falls between
$72,068 and $231,040.
TOP MOVIE
BOX OFFICE – Disney’s “Avengers: Endgame” is now the
highest world wide box office champ:
POTUS, INC. - President Donald Trump's net worth
rose to $3 billion, a 5% gain over the past year, thanks to a jump in the value
of an office-building deal he once sued to prevent.
The
increase in Trump's wealth reverses two years of declines and brings his net
worth back to 2016 levels, according to figures compiled by the Bloomberg
Billionaires Index from lenders, property records, securities filings, market
data and a May 16 financial disclosure. It comes despite setbacks at his family
company, including the cancellation of two new hotel chains and reduced
business at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and seven golf courses.
PLASTICS - Taking a stand against flimsy forks that can’t handle
Montreal poutine, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced yesterday
that his government will ban “harmful” single-use plastic products as early as
2021.
Canadians
throw away about 3 million tons of plastic waste each year and less than 10% of
that is recycled, per the BBC.
Trudeau
introduced “targets” for companies that sell or make plastic products to
address the waste they produce.
Why
now? China said it would stop importing plastic waste at the end of 2017,
leaving many countries scrambling for an alternative destination—or a plan to
stop producing so much waste.
Now,
plastic bans are in vogue. The European Union and New York State have announced
similar measures in recent months. Hawaii and California get virtue points—they
banned plastic bags years ago.
Canada
may be fixing an image problem. Last month, the Philippines sent back about 100
shipping containers of Canadian trash a private company had tried to leave
north of Manila a few years ago.
We
have sipped, packaged and played our way into a global plastics crisis.
Activist
consumer groups are pushing for less use and less production, while industry
aims for increased recycling.
Plastics
demand is projected to only increase — and the footprint of plastic pollution
will grow with it.
Just
9% of plastics were recycled in the U.S. in 2015. (Globally it was estimated to
be about 20%.)
SHOW ME THE MONEY - Forbes just released their world's
highest-paid athletes list, which highlights the top 100 earners over the past
year (June 2018 to June 2019).
NBA
dominance: 62 of the top 100 earners play in a U.S.-based league, and the NBA,
alone, accounts for 35 of them.
No
NHL players in the top 100.
SALARY CAP - 1999–2000 highest-paid
NHL: Jaromir Jagr ($10.4M)
NBA: Shaquille O'Neal ($17.1M)
MLB: Albert Belle ($11.9M)
NFL: Troy Aikman ($10.75M)
2019–2020 highest-paid (by average annual value)
NHL: Connor McDavid ($12.5M)
NBA: James Harden ($42.8M)
MLB: Mike Trout ($35.5M)
NFL: Russell Wilson ($35M)
SIGN OF THE TIMES – The United States lost nearly six
million manufacturing jobs from 2000 to 2010. It has regained just under 1.5
million manufacturing jobs since then.
BIRTHDAYS
THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes and thoughts this week to Bob Dole (96), Tim
Gun (66), Corlan Ortmayer Harrison …famous ULV alumni, Arnold Schwarzenegger (72),
Jordan Spieth (26), Sandro Suffredini ….a famous gamer.
MARKET
WEEK - Equity funds monitored by EPFR posted
their fourth net inflows in the past six weeks, a sign that retail investors
have grown more bullish on stocks as the Fed prepares to ease monetary policy.
Equity funds recorded just five weeks of inflows between December and June,
EPFR said.
The Swiss franc is up nearly 4% against
the euro since late April and now stands at its highest level in two years
against the single currency. Uncertainty over Europe’s economic outlook and
indications that the European Central Bank may cut rates further into negative
territory have boosted demand for the franc, a popular haven.
On this day in 1946, the Bretton Woods
Agreement was signed in Mount Washington, N.H., pegging major foreign
currencies to the U.S. dollar, fixing the gold price at $35 per ounce, and laying
the groundwork for the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Finance
students please note this, re: Case Study #3.
It’s China’s World - For the first time,
China accounts for more companies on the Fortune Global 500, which measures the
world's largest corporations by revenue, than the U.S.
On the list out this morning, China has
129 companies (including 10 in Taiwan), and the U.S. has 121.
As the Chinese Century nears its third
decade, Fortune’s Global 500 shows how profoundly the world’s balance of power
is shifting.
For the first time since the debut of
the Global 500 in 1990, and arguably for the first time since World War II, a
nation other than the U.S. is at the top of the ranks of global big business.
ON THIS DATE - On this day in
1884, Charles Dow, partner in Dow Jones & Co., published the first modern
index of American stocks in his “Customer’s Afternoon Letter,” a two-page
financial bulletin. The 11 stocks included nine railroads (Chicago & North
Western, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, Lake Shore, New York Central, St.
Paul, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific, Missouri Pacific, and Louisville &
Nashville), a steamship company (Pacific Mail) and telegraph giant Western
Union.
On July 22, 1969, Apollo 11 while on the back side of the Moon,
the transearth injection burn is successfully completed. During this day the
spacecraft Columbia passes the point in space; 33,800 miles from the Moon and
174,000 miles from the Earth, where the Earth’s gravity takes over and begins
drawing the Columbia homeward.
ON THIS DATE PART DEUX - 25 years ago today (July 22, 1994), O.J. Simpson pleaded
"absolutely, 100% not guilty" to the murder of ex-wife Nicole Brown
Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
What followed was one of the most infamous trials in U.S. history.
It lasted from Nov. 9, 1994, to Oct. 3, 1995, when Simpson was found not
guilty.
O.J. was, however, found liable for the murders in a civil suit two
years later and ordered to pay the survivors $33.5 million. 25 years later, the
families have collected less than 1% of the $33.5 million.
SCIENCE - "How NASA has kept Apollo moon rocks safe from contamination for 50
years," by Science News' Lisa Grossman: Lunar samples have solved plenty
of mysteries, with more answers to come. Science News
DRIVING THE WEEK – Monday: Earnings (TD Ameritrade,
Whirlpool)
Tuesday: Earnings (Chipotle, United
Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Coca-Cola, Snap, Visa, Hasbro); new U.K. prime
minister announced; WTO General Council meetings begin; existing home sales
Wednesday: Earnings (Boeing, Deutsche Bank,
Facebook, AT&T, Tesla, PayPal, Ford, UPS, Caterpillar); new home sales;
Robert Mueller hearing on Capitol Hill; figure out a way to celebrate
International Self-Care Day and National Tequila Day at the same time
Thursday: Earnings (Alphabet, Amazon, AB
InBev, Intel, Comcast, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines, Astrazeneca);
international trade; National Intern Day; European Central Bank Governing
Council meeting
Friday: Earnings (Twitter, AbbVie,
McDonald’s); Pan American Games begin; early GDP data; “Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood” released (Tarantino, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt, Leo...)
ANOTHER YEAR OF REJECTION BY AUGUSTA - 2019 Masters Tickets Random Selection:
“We have completed the random selection process for 2019 Practice
Rounds and Daily Tournament tickets and regret your application was not
selected for tickets. Be sure and visit masters.com for up to the date Masters
Tournament information."
As a reminder, you will be notified next May when the ticket
application process begins for the 2020 Masters.
Thank you for your continued interest in the Masters.“
Sincerely,
Credentials Committee
Masters Tournament
Twelve straight years (ugh).
TOP FIVE MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAMS AT THE
ALL-STAR BREAK:
1). New York Yankees (64-34)
2). Los Angeles Dodgers (67-35)
3). Houston Astros (64-37)
4). Atlanta Braves (59-41)
5). Minnesota Twins (60-38)
TOP FIVE WORST MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL TEAMS AT
THE ALL-STAR BREAK:
26). Seattle Mariners (40-62)
27). Kansas City Royals (37-64)
28). Miami Marlins (36-61)
29). Baltimore Orioles (31-67)
30). Detroit Tigers (30-65)
MORE PEOPLE
HAVE …Walked on the Moon (12), survived a ULV faculty meeting (13), swam
across Lake Erie (20), attempted to escape Alcatraz (36), signed the original
U.S. Constitution (39), than men who have scored against Mariano Rivera in the
postseason (11).
Congrats to the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame inductee New
York Yankee Mariano Rivera.
SWAMI’S WEEK
TOP PICKS
–
MLB Game of the Week – Saturday 7/27 7:10 PM ET: Chicago Cubs (54-45) vs. Milwaukee Brewers
(53-48). Always fun to listen to Bob Uecker call the radio broadcast of Brewer
games. He is one of the few remaining “old School” baseball broadcasters
(SiriusXM Channel 855). Brewers win a key game in the National League Central
race, 5 - 3. (Season to Date 3-1)
Next Blog: Jackass of the Month, Words of the Month, Preseason College Football
picks
Until
next time, Adios
Claremont,
California
July
22, 2019
#X-4-393
2,352 words, five minute read
CARTOON OF
THE WEEK – RED (Retired
Extremely Dangerous), The New Yorker
RINK RATS
POLL – Do you wear a helmet when you ride your
bike?
____ Never
____ Yes
____ Sometimes
QUOTE OF THE
MONTH
– “The universe took its time on you, crafted you precisely. So you could
offer the world something distinct from everyone else. So when you doubt how
you were created, you doubt an energy greater than us both.”
—Rupi Kaur
Rink Rats is a blog
of weekly observations, predictions and commentary. We welcome your comments
and questions. Also participate in our monthly poll. Rink Rats is now viewed in
Europe, Canada, South America and the United States.
Posted at Rink Rats The Blog: First Published – May 3, 2010
Our Tenth Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment