businesstrade.jpg

The Record of Olympic Economics

$
Daily Business Report
M A R K E T S
Mercantile
Article Archives
US Economic Forecast for 2012 and the Election Year Cycle
Shop the Local Merchant Economy
Right to Work vs Union State Economies
Rational Tariffs Lower Irrational Trade Deficits
International Business - Davos Style
Banking, Housing and Mortgages
David Stockman's Viewpoint on the Obama Budget Disaster
Regulations Harm Small Business and Protects Corporations
Gas Prices as an Indicator of Energy Costs
Governments Acting as Venture Capitalists
College Education Economics
Industrial Wind and the Production Tax Credit
Medicare and the Ryan Budget
U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Consequences
Corporate Spying and Intellectual Theft
The Foolish Exporting Natural Gas Policy
A Matter of Time for a VAT Tax
Big vs Small Bank Loans
Bankruptcy Trends in the Post Meltdown Era
Money Center Banks and Stricter Financial Oversight
Electric Power Generation under NYS Article X
Growth in the National Debt
Advantages of Chinese Trade Policy
Unemployment as a Lifestyle
Immigration Hurts American Employment
Bank for International Settlements on Big Banks
Small Business Assault from Obamacare
Compound Interest and the Debt Bubble
The Federal Centralization Economy
Parking Offshore Profits Hurt the Domestic Economy
The Record of Olympic Economics
Financial Algorithmic Trading
Goldman Sachs Above the Law
The MF Global Magical Mystery Tour
Destroying Internet Freedom by Taxation
The Permanent Unemployment Economy
Jackals of Jekyll Island - Federal Reserve Audit
QE3 Blowing Up the Debt Bubble
Riots Over Rotten Apple Mania
Gap Between College Costs and Inflation
Counterproductive Minimum Wage Mandates
Derivative Meltdown and Dollar Collapse
Central Banks Game Plan: One World Currency
European Commission Single Supervisory Mechanism
Lunacy of FEMA Hurricane Insurance Subsidy
Taxmageddon Holding Hands while Jumping Off the Cliff
The Direction of Equities in the Obama Economy
Is it FAIR to Tax the Rich out of Business?
California Dreaming: Bankruptcy, Pensions and Taxes
Pay Differential - Private Sector and Federal Government
Long History of HSBC Money Laundering
Swan Dive of 2013 Economy
Federal Reserve May Pause Quantitative Easing
The Economics of Sequestration
The state-owned Bank of North Dakota
Chinese Takeover with Free Trade Zones
Low Interest Rates Impoverish Savers
Bond Bubble Expectations
Currency Wars - Race to the Bottom
Government Subsidizes and Bankrupt Companies
Economics of Gun Control
Refuse to Buy or Sell with the Federal Government
The Cyprus Great Bank Robbery
Keystone Pipeline Blockage
Move Over IMF for the BRICS Development Bank
Obama Budget Proposes Cuts to Social Security and Medicare
The Risk and Reward of Bitcoins
Farm Supports and Social Welfare
Internet and Sale Taxes Dialectic
The Warren Buffett House of Cards
IRS as a Political Hit Squad
Revenue Budget Projections
Google and the NSA Connection
The Roubini - Faber Debate
Hydrofracking Boom or Bust
Goldman Sachs - first learn, then earn and serve
The Federal Reserve after Ben Bernanke
Implications of a Pyrrhic Real Estate Rebound
The New Normal: Part-Time Employmentyment
U.S. & Europe Trade Deal Honeymoon
Detroit City Bankruptcy Blues
J P Morgan and Commodity Manipulation
Strange Business Success Ventures
Business of Evangelism Religion
NFL Marketing Machine
Privacy Gone on Offshore Assets
Chinese Banks Quasi Government Institutions
Forecasts of a Doomed Economy
Financial Meltdown Five Years After
Corporate Profits and Worker Unemployment
Renminbi Soon to Be a Reserve Currency
Rehypothecation of Collateral
IMF Proposal to Tax Bank Deposits
Transfers excluded, JP Morgan Chase is Wired
Insurance Companies Profit from Obamacare
Climate Change by Executive Order
Economics of Non-governmental Organizations
Why Business Franchising is a Bad Deal
The Business of the Christmas Season
China Becomes Largest Trading Nation
Obamacare as a Jobs Killer
Does a 100 Trillion Debt Total Matter?
Underground Commerce is the Real Economy
Technology and the Future of Jobs
The Japanese Debt Economy
Individual Wealth in Perspective
Inevitability of Financial Bubbles
Russian Sanctions Backfire
Is the Dollar and Equities Ready to Crash?
Economic Reality of a Wealth Tax
How stable is the Bond Market?
Are International Stocks Safer than U.S. Equities?
David A. Stockman - The Great Deformation
Chinese and Japanese Deflationary Economies
Euro Crisis Deepens
Russia's SWIFT Settlement Alternative
The Swiss will not have more EU QE
Business of Global Warming Fraud
Economics of NYS Southern Tier Secession
Fear of IRS Tax Audits Diminish
Where is Global Economic Growth?
Government's share of minimum wage increase
Economic Growth Is Impossible
Replace the Business Cycle with Permanent Poverty
Who benefits from the lifting of Iranian sanctions?
Who Wins in a Currency Devaluation War?
Labor Day when there is no work
Municipal Bankruptcies and more on the way
Undeniable Social Security Demographics
Grinch that stole Christmass
Business Mergers Soar in 2015
The Chinese Market Crash
Driverless Vehicles Powered by Artificial Intelligence
U.S. Banks Ready for Negative Interest Rates?
International Trade Sinks with the Baltic Dry Index
SunEdison Green Power Bankruptcy Inevitability
Another Record Collection from Federal Taxes
Absurd Valuations on Unprofitable Tech Stocks
BREAKING ALL THE RULES
BREAKING ALL THE RULES Forum
BATR Index
hub
Corporatocracy
Forbidden History
Reign of Terror
Stuck on Stupid
Totalitarian Collectivism
Global Gulag
Inherent Autonomy
Radical Reactionary
Strappado Wrack
View from the Mount
Solitary Purdah
Dueling Twins
Varying Verity
911 War of Terror
HOPE

clip_image002_0000.gif

The Record of Olympic Economics

As the world economy plunges and the financial markets debate the future of EU, the London Olympics provide a pretext to take a holiday and party all night. The latest example of excess and self-absorbed haughtiness, promotes an agenda of internationalism. The spirit of the games is less about sportsmanship than promotion of indoctrination. The cost to produce such an extravaganza approaches sums that necessitate a bailout from the IMF. The article, Winner's curse? The economics of hosting the Olympic Games, illustrates a disturbing cost for hosting the Games.

"The complete official budget, initially pegged at $3.8 billion for the Games, has nearly quadrupled, and some estimates from British media have set the total cost at as high as $38 billion.

The 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta cost $2 billion US. Hosting costs grew to $4.8 billion in Sydney four years later. Athens is estimated to have spend between $15 billion and $32 billion on hosting the 2004 Olympics.

And, at $42 billion, the 2008 Beijing Games are widely thought to be the most expensive ever. Chinese authorities have declined to release the official figures needed to confirm that figure."

The notion that global comradeship is built through athletic competition is the message behind the quadrennial event. Seldom if ever does the TV viewing audience question the enormous sums required to conduct the amusing circus. So, what does the financial community say about the effect of these sports events, especially in these trying times? The analysis in the Guardian, Will the Olympics get the economy growing again? Don't bank on it, provides some answers.

"Citi's Michael Saunders is frank in his assessment: "In our view, the Olympics are likely to be very entertaining. But the Games are not an economic policy."

Saunders has examined the data from 10 Olympics held between 1964 and 2008 and found that although growth tends to rise in the runup to the tournament, the effect starts to fall away even before the Games begin – and afterwards, growth tends to be weaker.

The trend is explained by the fact that many of the positives that come from the Olympics (such as jobs created during the construction phase) are out of the way long before the opening ceremony, while negatives (such as lost productivity as Britons stay glued to their TVs) come during and after the Games. The anticipation of extra revenue from foreign visitors, economists say, also fails to take into account visitors who might have come to the UK anyway and just change the timing of their visit."

Yet in an even more in-depth report, Olympic Economics, The Pre-Games Show, the notorious 'Vampire Squid' of international banksters produces a lengthy analysis.
"Goldman Sachs has put out a 39-page report (PDF) on the subject (plus, somewhat incongruously, athlete interviews). The bank's analysts conclude that games in Munich (1972) and Montreal (1976) lost big bucks, while Los Angeles (1984), Barcelona (1992) and Atlanta (1996) "each made a profit."

Breaking even or making a profit certainly goes a long way to justify the immense expense. However, when governments absorb the losses and cost overruns to produce the symbolic script of worldwide "good will", the propaganda budgets get a bump from their countries treasuries.

So who benefits from the Olympic "Passion Play" process and how does it work in the bidding competition? Andrew Zimbalist, write in Atlantic magazine.

"The city (principal) is not properly represented by the local organizing committee (agent). The committee that nominally represents the city really represents itself and bids according to its sense of the private benefit (of its members) versus the private cost, rather than the city's public benefit versus public cost. Since the private cost is diminutive and the private gain extraordinary, the local organizing committees, on behalf of the cities, are bound to overbid, wiping out any modest, potential economic gains."

Therefore, basic business restraint and prudent judgment is often absent from the marathon race to gain the rewarding decision to go crazy by hosting the Games.

The public has a much different attitude towards the Olympics than the financial movers and shakers. The corporatist jet set loves to merge their interest with that of statist bureaucracies. The Guardian continues and makes an insightful assessment.

"David Cameron started the ball rolling on Thursday with what was billed as the biggest investment conference ever hosted in the UK. The event was a who's who of the global financial system: International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde rubbed shoulders with Mario Draghi, governor of the European Central Bank and Angel Gurría, secretary general of the OECD. There was also an impressive roll-call of business leaders, with Google chairman Eric Schmidt sharing a platform with Cisco's John Chambers."

The centralization of the global economy is supercharged through the figurative meaning of the interlocking rings. The five continents Africa, America, Asia, Australia, and Europe wave their flags under the Olympic banner. These rallies, designed to merge communal synergism under an international symbol, feed the transnational economy. Breaking down national pride may not be easy to see through the repetitive media coverage, but the true intent of holding the Games is to forge a unified system of coordinated financial inclusion.

Just as the budget overruns become the rule for most Olympic venues, the world economic model runs on unsustainable debt. The cavalier attitude toward the economic risks and financial obligations incurred, to light the torch, seems more to do with national ego than practical benefits.

Much like other pet projects of the international community, the Olympics are useful as a training exercise for programming the thinking of rabid and crazed sports buffs. The World (soccer to American observers) Cup, routinely herd psycho fans into confined stadiums. The frequent result engenders a martial law response to chaotic conduct.

The Olympics seeks to instill compliant behavior through more docile means. The accurate assessment of the economic consequences of holding the Olympics more closely resembles a contest of the Hunger Games than Chariots of Fire.

James Hall – August 1, 2012

 

Discuss or comment about this essay on the BATR Forum

a free speech forum open to the public
BATRforum.gif

This site  The Web 

marketslogo.gif

tumblr page counter