Comments by Nick Jones

What I do all day is rigorous and proprietary.

Nick Jones

Partner

Poignant articulation - you point to a bifurcated America - where the narrative of incentive, ambition, motivation, drive (aka the wholesome American Dream) have morphed into mutant strains of hyper-selfishness and so little care for broader social cohesion.
Shortsightedness ("Oh, great Quarter") - over longer term planning has had devastating consequences for the US.
Maligned compensation needs to be addressed by the market (I would hope).
Key components of the fix may include: Superior High School and Technical College education - with this sort of stock human capital competence, maybe, just maybe, we may see the value of investing in US productive capacity - and the many positive intangibles that will surely flow through.
A generational fix, at least.

A fair summary of your point of view Sr Dotsilva. As an Australian - who enjoyed immensely Brazilian Selecao in '82 and '86 I retort - that the creativity of those teams, coached by Tele Santana was a delight for the soccer-loving world to watch. Italy one no first pool games yet advanced - how dull! Brazil scored 15 goals - 3 per match - and they were goals of exceptional skill.

Brazil were duller in '94 - a scoreless draw in 120 minutes, settled by spot kicks - the dullest final in memory. Dunga's coaching in 2010 also produced "bureaucratic" / European football (defensive) - there was little joy.

I think we non-Brazilians - we look for the beautiful football - flair, tricks, elan - it is romance yes...an ideal yes..but it gives us such great joy. When Santana entered the press box in '82 after the defeat - every Brazilian journalist to a man - stood up and applauded him. This is special.

On the lighter side: Are we not seeing the wood for the trees - try driving around Indianapolis in 2011 - with the amount of ring-road construction - in preparation for 2012 Super Bowl - its a disaster for out-of-town executives with Hertz NeverLost, as soon as exiting from the airport.

Probably makes Carmel look like a cake walk.

Is there not a populism parallel to be drawn between Argentine football and the country itself?

60 years of populism/mismanangement has squandered a once wealthy country, rich in natural resources (& full of promise) - to its sad condition today. Chile has excelled, and in the last 10 years Brazil has lifted 20M people up into the middle class.

Why? Consistency, good policy/management.

Diego, the iconclast, as manager - no experience, picadillos many (yes) - and has a European tax bill of some 28 M Euro (see the parallels?).

Why leave Argentina's Inter stars at home, why play Messi so far back, why pick Jonas, why the superstitions?

Like '06 Argentina extertained us in the first 4 games, and then lost - in this case due to lack of tactics and form - against (how ironic) a vibrant German side.

Maradona reflected that "in '86 he was selfish and could win the Mundial, single-handedly - but in 2010 teamwork (see Spain) prevailed - over an individual genius".

We hope that Argentina has a better future, but inherently corrupt institutions, a propensity for populism, deceit - just don't hold the country in good stead.

Why claim a European heritage, when you are starkly third world?

The spirit of this piece is fair pricing of a resource (not whether you slow down to throw some quarters into a basket). America's highways are in dire need of repair - we have known that for at least 10 years; simply stated America needs to invest in its infrastructure.

Look at what the Eisenhower Highway program did for US economic growth; and the movement of people, goods, services and so forth in the 60's and 70's. When America stopped constructing houses (2008) it had an ideal opprtunity to shift residential construction jobs to infrastructure jobs.

As it is proving politically hard to fund the next multi-year highway bill with a gas tax, other alternatives are sort.

Tolling makes a lot of sense - the use of resource gets priced fairly, by a market method.

Go for it. The long run benefit of improved infrastucture is necessary and enduring.

This Ashes Series is demonstrating that 5-day tests can be pulsating, riviting affairs. Subtle adjustments have been made to Test Cricket such that the game has been both preserved and enchanced - in so much that over the last 15 years - some teams (Australia) have played cricket with a real intent to attack and win (as their record shows)- thus offering a high entertainment factor.

Kerry Packer started World Series Cricket (1976) to put the sport into a marketable, compressible, televisable form (yes, more entertaining). 20-20 has gone that step further to put it into a format akin to a baseball game (3+ hours) and that has been a great success too.

Life (and long summers) is not just about convenience nor the ESPN highlight reel.

Anyone worth their salt loves Test Cricket - and the form of the game will live long and prosper...

May the next 3 games of this series demonstrate that.