THE DALY SHOW

Great Use of Video

I’ve been talking about video as the way to market and communicate.  One travel company is doing it.  Take a look.

Baseball, Cuckoo’s Nest, Casablanca: Explain It All

T.S. Eliot wrote about writing: ”Words strain, Crack and sometimes break, under the burden…”  Trying to explain what is really happening in this economy and changing world is a tough but invigorating battle.  So in this column on JohnDalyLive, I use our national pastime, a classic film from the 1940s and another classic from the 1970s to help you understand what the freak is going on now.  Please fill in any lost thoughts or words.

This Week’s Shows

John Daly’s Sports-News Talk and Futrell & Daly are airing on the Sports By Line Network across the country on 100 different radio stations from 10 pm to 1 am Eastern time and 7 pm to 10 pm Pacific time. Check your local listings at this site. If it doesn’t air in your area, call the station and request it. Or you can also see the video version of the shows on TV4U in a week.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 17, 2009) – Here’s what you will see and hear on the shows that were shot at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

On Futrell & Daly, Ron and I discuss the start of the racing phenomena in Las Vegas back when we were TV newscasters in town. Ron tells the great story of the first race in Las Vegas. We also go over our predictions for the NFL’s League Championship games. And we cover the NHL’s outdoor hockey game which may be coming back to Las Vegas.

In addition, Ron and I remember some of the great times we’ve had with our military guys. For me, it has been my years playing in a celebrity golf event at Camp Lejeune, NC with the U.S. Marines raising money for the Wounded Warriors. The next event is in June and I will fill you in.

Check out Ron’s website — www.localslovevegas.com – where you can get a chance to win six tickets to the 2009 NASCAR Week February 27 to March 1.

On John Daly’s Sports-News Talk, John Demarco of www.lasvegasgolf.com discussed what’s happening with golf courses around Sin City and what deals are available. In addition, John offers our listeners a special deal if they book tee times at this site or on this toll-free number: 1-866-699-1777.

Also on John Daly’s Sports-News Talk, we hear from Michael Geeser of American Automobile Association about planning that road trip to Spring Training or a Major League Baseball excursion of your choice.

US Dissolves. Russian Hope or American Lesson?

This is a posting about a Russian analyst who believes the United States will not exist by 2010 and will be broken up into various parts owned by other countries. Sure, it’s silly stuff. But let’s look at the underlying reasons for such a prediction – while looking at ourselves.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 3, 2009) – According to Igor Panarin, in two years I’ll be living here in Las Vegas under the government of the Peoples Republic of China.

Panarin is a Russian academic who has predicted that the United States would dissolve into four different countries and be run by other countries.

For example, the Northeast and parts of the Midwest would be part of the European Union. (Would that mean easier access to Amsterdam?)

The northern plains would be Canadian. (Think of how much better the NHL would be with fewer teams. And Canada almost certainly wins the gold medal in the winter Olympics.)

The Republic of Texas would be part of Mexico. (And this will bring one of the bloodiest civil wars of all time. Bush and Cheney would be the new el Presidentes, getting what they’ve wanted all along: controlling all oil reserves and declaring war on a group of people who are clearly evil — the drug traffickers.)

And folks like me in the Far West would be under China. (I can see us Las Vegans thinking that the gaming industry will prosper greatly. But I doubt our comrades in Idaho are going to be passive when it comes to the Chinese.)

And, here’s the best: Russia would get Alaska back. (Wouldn’t that be justice for Sarah Palin? If she’s still governor, she would be taking orders from Vlad Putin.)

Surely, this is silly stuff. Panarin is trained by the Kremlin so there is plenty of Russian wishful thinking. It makes me realize that Russian intelligence is as out of whack as ours was before 9/11.

I emailed the article to my friend, John Alexander, a PhD who consults for U.S. Special Forces. He wrote back: “While we have some significant problems, I suspect he (Panarin) is pretty far off base.”

Panarin really doesn’t appear (notice I said “doesn’t appear”) to “get” Americans. And I’d bet he never saw Casablanca. Remember the Nazi, Major Strasser. He asks Rick about German forces marching into New York City. Rick replies, “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.” The same holds true today whether it’s Baltimore, Miami, LA, or Boise.

Apparently Panarin thinks Americans and Russians are alike. A Washington Post article offers some good counter-balance to Panarin. The article quotes Thomas Baerwald, an investigator in a project called “Beyond Borders” and past president of the Association of American Geographers. He compares Americans to the citizens who were living under the former Soviet Union.

“We constantly were corrected when we tried to use the term ‘Soviets’ as a catch-all phrase for residents of the U.S.S.R.,” Baerwald says. “People firmly told us that they were Russians or Lithuanians or Estonians or Ukrainians or other terms that identified a region or subregion that described their own geographical identity. In contrast, if you ask U.S. residents what term describes who they are, an enormous majority will reply ‘I am an American.’ Even in those places where regional loyalties are especially strong, such as Texas, loyalties to the U.S. are far greater than they are to states or regions.

Still, Panarin’s predictions resonate. He hits home in a slightly unsettling way. No one in America would have heard of Panarin if the Wall Street Journal didn’t publish a front-page story on his findings and the Russian media frenzy following him. Ironically, it is still the most read article on the Wall Street Journal online. Don’t negate this.

So, someone is obviously giving Panarin an ounce of “what if?”

And it’s for good reason, too. We are in a financial mess that most of us can’t figure out. We see our leaders – namely the supposedly smarts ones like Paulson and Bernanke – scratching their heads. President Obama has to put together a team that is non-partisan; in other words, they really have to work since going to Washington isn’t a perk anymore but a responsibility as a citizen of this country. He’s really serious and that scares us.

I’ve written about a possible Armageddon here. I still say you need to keep cash on reserve for 2009 and be prepared to protect yourself and your loved ones. Too often, I hear from friends – wealthy friends – who don’t sleep at night wondering if their fortunes are going to be wiped out.

We also hear from pundits, sure they seem extreme, who say we’re printing so much money that we will have devalued the dollar to nothing, leading us to a regional currency called the Amero that will include Mexico and Canada. Others say our debt is owned by China, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai: if we default, then they own us. Hey we trashed the analysts a few years ago who said we are headed for a housing collapse. Who wouldn’t at least listen to these new theories?

However, before you run for the hills with shot-guns and survivalist supplies or you start trying to speak a foreign language to get acquainted with your new oppressors or lawmakers, let me assure you I’m only making a point here. We’re not going to disintegrate.

However, Panarin’s theory is partially right. And this is the lesson we need to take from the theories of this Russian.

We have disintegrated as a country. We have strayed from our ideals. Am I condemning America? No, we suffered through 9/11 and its effects are far deeper than we imagined. As a result, we have, at times, stopped being the America we once were.

When President Bush and VP Cheney point to their enduring achievement, it’s that we were not attacked again on American soil after 9/11. They’re right. But they’re wrong, too. As a result of that goal, which we all clung to, we became a different country. We invaded Iraq. We told the rest of the world, “You’re either with us or against us.” We became a black and white country; we never saw the gray. Our leaders sounded like Fascists. We acted like Fascists, torturing to allegedly stop torture.

Am I condemning this out-going Administration? Not totally. I was not in their shoes. I don’t know what they faced. However in hindsight, they responded like frightened old men. They headed to the bunkers and failed to lead.

There’s a good book. It’s called, The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith With Our Values In A Dangerous World. It’s written by Anne-Marie Slaughter.

She points out that America is currently in a state of trying to seek power as an end in itself and as a result the world looks at us as ignorant, immoral, and incompetent imperialists.

Slaughter also points out that these values are the foundation of our country: liberty, democracy, equality, justice, tolerance, humility and faith. She points out how we have failed to live up to them.

What we show the rest of the world too often is Madison Avenue, rich and loud American entertainers, sports figures, and business executives who are the extremist minority of America. For instance, we never questioned Bernie Madoff because he was exceedingly wealthy, but that was the reason we should have questioned him.

The world sees the lavish Super Bowl half-time show but is never taught the intricacies or beauties of the football game. I don’t know about you, but I have barely seen any Super Bowl half-time show.

One of the consequences of losing our real values is this economic downturn. This is my take, not necessarily Slaughter’s. We offered plenty of liberty to certain interest groups who had money and pull with our elected leaders while failing to create equality – especially in business. Our founding fathers were worried about “human fallacies” so they gave us a system of checks and balances. This Bush Administration and some Democrats in power discarded those values – especially the checks on greed in business.

The two values we need to concentrate on are humility and faith. As powerful and as smart as we Americans are, we don’t have all the answers. We need input from other countries. We also need to say every now and then to the world, “We screwed the pooch.” The War in Iraq and the economic downturn would be two good places to start.

Subconsciously, we Americans know this. That’s why we voted the way we did in November. That’s why some forward thinking people like Newt Gingrich, now in the minority, are telling the GOP to start being a party of ideas, not whining obstructionists.

I think Obama will at least give us a humble face to the rest of the world. We’ll see how long that lasts when he faces the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Surely, we need to stand with Israel, but we also need to make sure that the power of the Israeli military doesn’t create more conflict among the down-trodden Palestinians. It’s in our interest – and Israel’s – to have a prosperous Palestine.

And our faith. We’ve lost a lot of faith – thanks to religion. Slaughter points out that many of our religious institutions divide us rather than including some of the good secular themes such as tolerance. And the secularists are just as much to blame (maybe me too) by automatically dismissing all of the overly religious as stupid or intolerant.

So, don’t read Panarin — and his theories of Russian wishful thinking — with disdain. No, read it with some humility and faith, and then take away something to make America stronger.

MLB TV Spells Trouble In Two Ways

This is a posting after watching the first few days of the new television network dedicated entirely to baseball. I’m scared for myself now and for viewers later. Expect a nasty legal fight in a few years.

LAS VEGAS, NV (January 2, 2009) – I’ve just spent part of the morning watching Don Larsen throw his perfect game in the 1956 World Series.  It’s on the new MLB TV.

My fear: My business will start to fail and I’m going to get fat. (OK, fatter!)

I then caught myself during commercials – the ones for Gillette razors with Birdie Tebbets in the 1950s and the ones today – searching to see when other shows are airing. I have to know when the discussion of off-season trades and free agent signings – otherwise known as the Hot Stove League – will be airing. I’m so screwed.

I live baseball and diligently follow the Red Sox. I have been a baseball nut since I was five. I remember parts of the 1961 Series. I also remember the dramatic end to the 1962 Series: a line-out by the Giants Willie McCovey to the Yankees Bobby Richardson. The pitcher was Ralph Terry with whom I’ve played golf in the past few years and have been able to talk to him about it. Think about it. I talked to him about something that he participated in and I remember from 46 years ago. And now I can relive it all over again.

MLB will be like a sedative for many of us dealing with the economic downturn. Watching the fuzzy black and white of the Yankees and Dodgers in 1956 was very settling. It brought us back to a time that was simpler. As Jackie Robinson strides to the plate, we tell ourselves that even the seeds of removing our racist past were evident back then. For many too, it will help remind us of what our parents and grandparents loved.

Fortunately, MLB TV only comes in on one TV in my house. And apparently you can’t watch it online – only on cable or satellite.

That means there may be Information Age problems in a few years.

Major League Baseball owns the majority (67%) of the network while cable and satellite owners have a minority (33%) stake. This agreement allows the network to get on the air in many homes.

However, what happens in a few years when people start getting their television programming from the Internet? Will the minority ownership allow MLB TV reach more people at a lower cost at their expense? You could see a major fissure in this agreement or you might see cable and satellite companies restricting who can get MLB TV.

Already the seeds of this conflict are appearing. Ion Network (formerly Pax) is battling the cable companies. Ion wants to create an Urban TV Network, but they want to launch it with local TV stations that now have four or five channels to program once the digital age of TV begins next month.

The cable companies won’t air the Urban TV Network on the local television tier without getting paid for it directly even though cable companies are required to carry local TV stations’ programs. Expect a good battle here and to spill over to other media outlets who want more audience with less cost.

The fallout for cable could be this. The cost of cable has risen – despite the fact I can’t get whatever NFL game I want. So, if people can go to their local TV stations or the Internet for programming similar to cable and it’s free, then cable is in trouble.

This shouldn’t bother us baseball addicts too much over the next few years, though. So enjoy it.  Just warn your spouse.

The Changing Media And Golf

This is a posting I wrote for my golf column on LasVegasGolf.com and WorldGolf.com.  Click and read here.

Golf, Sports Reflect Changing World

This is a column I wrote for LasVegasGolf.com about Paddy Harrington’s PGA win and the future moves of American athletes like LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Sports are big business. And big business is changing drastically as the world economy grows into the Information Age. If you’re a sports fan, you need to realize that our games are no longer an escape, but they may be escaping from America. Read it at this link.

Remembering Tim Russert

This is a posting about what we lose with the passing of Tim Russert.

LAS VEGAS, NV (June 14, 2008) – I first heard about Tim Russert’s death from ESPN News. It was a crawl on their ticker at the bottom of the screen.

How ironic that the passing of the consummate journalist was noted on the top sports network. Granted, Tim Russert was a huge sports fan. Although he lived in the media’s ivory tower, he proudly waved his blue-collar credentials. After discussing the economy, foreign trade, or political polls, he might end a show by touting his Buffalo Bills or his son’s Boston College Eagles. It was done in pure fun, too, so most of us, fans of other teams, were never offended.

And that’s what Russert brought to us. He never offended. Sure, he might have annoyed a few politicians. His job was to get under the skin of our elected officials. He did it with dignity – while getting the job done.

I never met Russert. But as my wife said last night, “It feels like a member of the family died.” Meet the Press is a Sunday ritual in our house. Here’s how I wrote about Russert in my book:

Not to take anything away from the other Sunday talk shows, but Meet the Press with Russert was different. It was more probing. At the end of the show, you learned something you hadn’t known before. It could have been an obscure quote from a politician who had to explain him or herself or try to back-track under Russert’s interrogation. I got the feeling Russert was working for us; he and his staff would gladly go over the hundreds of publications and journals that we couldn’t.

You also got the feeling that Russert liked and disliked Republicans and Democrats equally. I would imagine he was a Democrat by nature since he worked for the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Mario Cuomo. However, I never recall him coming across as partisan except to take the opposite side of guest.

I even caught Russert one time allowing an opposing view of his own industry. I also mention this in my book. In the first chapter where I break down the different forms of media bias, I discuss the lobbying efforts by broadcasters that, I think, have put our nation’s security in peril.

Russert was the only broadcast journalist, according to my research, who has raised this issue on the air. Granted, he didn’t do a whole show on this issue. (Like NBC would allow it.) But he made Lee Hamilton discuss it. And he allowed Hamilton to take a shot – I believe he used the term “criminal” — at the broadcast industry; in effect, Russert’s bosses. That takes guts and honesty.

During my broadcast years, I tried to model myself after Peter Jennings. I was fortunate enough to meet Peter in 1990 and spend some time with him. His death, a few years ago, hit me hard, too.

More recently, as I’ve become more critic and new media journalist, I’ve tried to model myself after Tim Russert. His enthusiasm, work ethic, and determination to find the truth are old-style, yet strangely missing. At a time of partisan news – especially on cable – we need someone like Tim Russert more than ever.

The loss of Big Russ’ kid is a big loss.

Psycology of March Madness and Investing

This post tells you about my outrageous picks at Caesars Sports Book this past weekend and how it shows the wrong way that too many of us invest.

LAS VEGAS, NV (March 23, 2008) – 12 wins, 16 losses. That’s how I did on my bets for the first weekend of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

Before you think I’m a gambler, relax. I split the $11 bets with my father in law Dave Williams. So, I spend $5.50 per bet.

This is not about the money. First, it’s tradition. We’ve been doing this for 19 years. A bunch of us spend four days at Caesars, thanks to Sports Book Director Chuck Esposito. We eat, drink, bet, and watch nearly every game on large screens. It’s a sports junkie’s dream. Second, it’s a great way to entertain prospects and clients.

But it also showed me some interesting lessons about betting and investing.

Dave and I – and two other friends – decide who we will bet on together and then we pool our money for the bet. So, our choices are based on collective knowledge. I use the word knowledge cautiously here. None of us, with the exception of Dave, sees more than one game a week during the season. This year I saw four games – most of them involving UNLV. So, we are not any competition to the Elias service.

You now understand our miserable results. This happens every year for the first two rounds. Once we get past the Sweet 16 and we see the teams, we fare better; maybe to recoup our losses.

Today, we lost nearly every game. My partners in these bets seem to love the favorites. So, we take teams like UCLA while giving up 10 points. UCLA and most of the favorites barely win, thus we lose. Texas did the same; winning their game barely while we lost our bet, Texas minus 7 points.

That’s when I made the dumb counter decision. We need to be the underdogs. So, we picked Arkansas, a 10 point underdog to North Carolina. We also chose Oklahoma, a 7 point dog to Louisville. The result: North Carolina and Louisville won in blow-outs.

I’m beginning to think our policy for betting games should be one of these: take the underdog every time; hire the best college basketball stat guru; or flip a coin.

The stat guru is the right answer. That is, if we were serious about our returns.

But here’s the connection to investing. And it is more evident as I read a recent report from The Economist about fund managers. Primarily, the report said fund managers make too much money in relation to the returns they give clients. The report makes suggestions of how to better help the average investor; in other words, be a better basketball stat guru.

The Economist looked at the privatization of the Swedish Social Security System.

I’ll gladly post our picks for the rest of the tourney. That way you can pick the opposites.

Super Bowl Correlation to World Economy

LAS VEGAS, NV (February 4, 2008) – If anyone can honestly look at the Super Bowl, it’s me. I’m both a Giants and a Patriots fan due to my Connecticut roots.

Although happy for the Giants and Eli, I regretted not witnessing an historic 19-0 season for Brady and Coach Bill Belichick.

The best team won yesterday. The Giants were stronger on the offensive and defensive lines. The Giants defense shut down Tom Brady and his overmatched, over-aged, or season-weary offensive line. The game was really no surprise when you look at the Pats performance – that appeared to decline – as the season ended and the playoffs began.

Still, the Super Bowl, or any athletic championship for that matter, doesn’t necessarily go to the best team for that season. Many times, it goes to the team that is hottest during the playoffs. Yesterday was no different.

However, there are some economic lessons from this game that parallel today’s world outside the NFL.

The first lesson is teamwork. The Giants had a number of heroes. But the main heroes were the defense that stopped the league’s greatest offense.

Sure, offensively Eli came of age – especially in that last drive. But the key play in that final drive came from a second string receiver David Tyree who also caught a touchdown pass earlier. After Eli magically escaped a drive-ending sack, he whirled and threw a prayer that Tyree barely caught with his hands tangled with Pats Safety Rodney Harrison. Somehow Tyree caught the ball against his helmet while Harrison bent him backwards.

Tyree had a lackluster regular season and, frankly, most Giants fans will say he has failed to play to his potential. Yesterday probably ended those feelings. The point is this about Tyree: a team attitude, hard work, and a little magic usually make a winner in sports or business.

The second lesson is the quick change of power and fortunes. The Giants began the season 0-2 and yet won the Super Bowl. This is a testament to the NFL system and its salary cap which allows a fair “business playing field”, giving each team a reasonable chance to make it to the Super Bowl each year.

The economic comparison: look at the many countries that are now on the economic upswing while the American economy seems stagnant right now. That’s a testament to the spread of capitalism or at least some forms of it worldwide and the Information Age. The Economist, in the January 26 issue in an article “The World’s Silver Lining”, piles on further. These emerging market countries are growing and seem to be getting the equivalent of years and years of first round draft picks. These countries have a larger percentage of economically active adults; in America many of our adults are aging.

The Patriots looked old compared to the Giants yesterday — which leads to another lesson: creative destruction. That’s the economic theory espoused by Joseph Schumpeter. I mentioned this in a previous blog about Alan Greenspan’s new book. In short, destroying inefficient and unprofitable businesses and industries leads to the creation of better ones.

You can bet that Pats’ Coach Belichick will blow-up parts of that team. Some defensive names like Bruschi, Vrabel, Seau, and Harrison might be gone. On the offensive side expect some new linemen to protect Brady better. Sure, there may be some mainstay names that exit. Fans might not like it. But Belichick and Brady – not to mention owner Robert Kraft – want to go back and win the Super Bowl.

How the Patriots bounce back next year will determine their legacy. If they return to the Super Bowl, they’ll be the first team to do that in more than 20 years. And lately, the team that loses the Super Bowl has a horrible season following the Super Bowl loss.