Daily Mail reports college basketball has been rocked by firestorm of controversy after Oklahoma State guard Marcus Smart was banned for three games for shoving a fan he thought shouted the n-word at him on Saturday night.


Smart, a 20-year-old sophomore, had fallen on the baseline with seconds remainin in Oklahoma's loss to Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas, when he rapidly jumped to his feet and pushed superfan, Jeff Orr in the chest.

The jaws of the surrounding fans dropped as Smart used both his hands and the clearly enraged college player was restrained by his teammates as he pointed back at Orr, who is well known as a Texas Tech season ticket holder.

More here

Capital Gazettereports Anne Arundel County firefighters on Sunday rescued two teenagers from the frozen surface of the Magothy River in Pasadena. 

Just after 2:30 p..m., firefighters received a call for an ice rescue in the 1100 block of Jeronco Way, near the end of Edgewater Road. 

When emergency personnel arrived, they discovered the teens stuck on the ice 20 to 25 feet from a pier. 

The teens had ventured off another nearby pier when the ice sheet on which they were standing broke away, Fire Department spokesman Jack Beall said. A gulf of frigid water, measuring 20 to 25 feet in width, formed quickly and the teens became trapped. 

More here

The disreputable New York Times may think all they want that Michael Sam may become the N.F.L’s first openly Gay player.  But, I’m pretty sure no serious N.FL. team would want to deal with the circus atmosphere he’d bring by being on the team. 

New York Times reports coaches at the University of Missouri divided players into small groups at a preseason football practice last year for a team-building exercise. One by one, players were asked to talk about themselves — where they grew up, why they chose Missouri and what others might not know about them.

As Michael Sam, a defensive lineman, began to speak, he balled up a piece of paper in his hands. “I’m gay,” he said. With that, Mr. Sam set himself on a path to become the first publicly gay player in the National Football League.

“I looked in their eyes, and they just started shaking their heads — like, finally, he came out,” Mr. Sam said Sunday in an interview with The New York Times, the first time he spoke publicly about his sexual orientation.

Mr. Sam, a 6-foot-2, 260-pound senior, went on to a stellar season for Missouri, which finished 12-2 and won the Cotton Bowl. He was named a first-team all-American. He was the defensive player of the year in the Southeastern Conference, widely considered the top league in college football. Teammates voted him Missouri’s most valuable player

More here

Tirso Martínez Sánchez, aka, "El Doctor"

Mediaite reports conservative radio host Laura Ingraham battled the rest of the Fox News Sunday panel over immigration, arguing that immigration reform and current enforcement of immigration laws were weakening the American workforce, even as her fellow panelists countered that reform would bolster the economy.

“I think what we’re seeing here is a split inside the Republican Party between two staunch conservatives,” host Chris Wallace said, going on to ply Ingraham with a Wall Street Journal editorial that called flinching on reform “de facto amnesty.”

“As far as I can tell, the Wall Street Journal is on the side of Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Barack Obama, Pat Leahy and La Raza,” Ingraham said. “I think they should put down their dogeared copy of Fountainhead and live in the real world…Do we care about American workers at all?”

“You’re the one who’s arguing the AFL-CIO argument,” Will said, noting that the

“economic dynamism” aided by immigrants would help sustain the American workforce.

“So why have a border at all?” Ingraham said. “There is no will to enforce the border.

There is no faith in this administration to do it. The Republican elites and the Democratic elites agree, and the people are revolting across this country.”

More here

 

I strongly disagree with George Will assertion that the United States is losing out in the battle for human capital. That’s a bunch of malarkey because the U.S. is the number one place destination immigrants from around the world want to come BECAUSE of our system.

...developing...

...then we are officially @#$%ed.



Credit growth (in red) is slowing.
Savings growth (in blue) is slowing.

Without either of those two, I guess we'll just have to rely on wage growth. Good luck on that one. Sigh.

This is not investment advice.

See Also:
Low CD Rates: Lending Drought and Savings Monsoon

Source Data:
St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart

The PRECIOUS METALS are making news again as the price of the metals have fallen into OVERSOLD TERRITORY and reports are surfacing of a growing demand in PHYSICAL BULLION in Dubai, various Arab nations, Asia, and the Far East.

There is a growing market for NUMISMATIC COINS and collectors are taking advantage of FIRST STRIKE and various GRADED COINS and ROUNDS to get a head start on growing some long term investments.   An unusually large demand of American Silver Eagles is also being noted by the U.S. MINT which is also causing an increased interest in physical precious metals.

There are also various QUASI-NUMISMATIC COLLECTIBLE coins and rounds being produced by various mints that have a becoming very popular with collectors which are resulting in a growing demand carrying higher premium prices and incredibly inflated resale value due to their limited mintage.

When it comes to the discussion of PRECIOUS METALS there are several opinions on the subject among investment enthusiasts including constitutional money, their asset value, their inherent asset protection properties, collectible value, and potential investment return, all of which is now even making the news on CNBC and other news sources nationwide.

There is also an indication in the FUTURES MARKETS that the GOLD and SILVER sector has been heavily shorted and is now in a curious condition of being OVERSOLD.   Investors are watching this sector carefully as a large SHORT SQUEEZE may soon develop not only with the metals themselves but along with various mining stocks and electronic trading funds such as GLD and SLV and directly in the futures market on the COMEX.

This is becoming a HOT SECTOR again and the word out for those who are interested in this type of investment is to "KEEP STACKIN'."