@victor-matheson
Sports and gambling economist at College of the Holy Cross, former President of North American Association of Sports Economists, current VP of National Association of Forensic Economics, aging soccer referee
Team handball
And in related news, I am now estimating that every World Cup match has an economic impact of $1.9 gagillion dollars.
Truly a great honor!
I mean, you haven’t heard of it because it is illegal - you know, fire safety laws and all.
So there is a reason you didn’t see standing room tickets for Marvel’s Endgame’s $357M opening weekend and why it didn’t happen for Melanie’s $7M opening weekend.
Just got back from a vacation in Tanzania. Completely amazing. Like I think I have seen dairy farms that had lower concentrations of large animals than the Serengeti. (Now if I could only get Toto's "Africa" out of my brain, I could get some work done!)
If only there were only anything we could do with tax policy that would reduce the number of people retiring with 12 homes, but I just can't think of anything that might work!
www.comicsands.com/bessent-reti...
I see that Trump now wants to protect credit users by capping interest rates.
In fact, I think there should be some some of government bureau that protects consumers' finances. But what would we even call such a agency?
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could have a week or two of disagreements in this country about whether a particular band sucked rather than if it’s ok to invade a NATO member or have a secret police force murder citizens in the street.
Headed to Istanbul and Tanzania in the next few weeks.
More than usual I am making sure that none of my clothing clearly identifies me as an American.
I’m just happy I am not trying to visit Denmark any time soon.
Yup, nothing says “merit” like denying visas to the Ethiopians for the World cross-country championships.
On the bright side, at least the US immigration service didn’t shoot these athletes.
www.nytimes.com/athletic/695...
My money’s on you, Dave. Does Kalshi have a prediction market on this?
I have always liked everyone. I’m literally the black lab of humans.
But this MN shit is fucking evil and is making even me start to hate every one of my fellow Americans who has made this possible.
This is absurd. There's no way you can devote $1.8 BILLION in public money to a stadium and not cost Kansas taxpayers "one new cent." If it's true that we can costlessly pay for government projects with tax districts, then why don't we just fund everything that way? www.kctv5.com/2025/12/24/k...
“When you’re a tenant in a stadium, it’s not your true hub. Women deserve that. Just like men.”
"Women deserve the same level of economic malpractice as men" may be the stupidest economic argument ever made for public funding of a stadium.
www.fieldofschemes.com/2025/12/16/2...
So, having overseen dozens of ceremonial coin flips in my day, I will say it is actually strangely hard to do correctly if you haven't done it before. Most people screw it up.
(And that, is probably the nicest post I will ever make regarding Trump.)
This is just so weird. Who tosses a coin like that? Typically presidents practice before doing the first pitch for baseball. Does this mean no one was willing to practice a coin toss with him?
I’ve been holding that in, but I just had to get it out. Like, WTF? Whatever this means, it isn’t good.
Looks like the AEA still wants me as a member. Of course, I don’t know how honored I should really be.
I mean, you would have to be a real jackass to be kicked out of the AEA, right?
How about keeping Stoops and directing $37.9 million more to buying better players.
I bet you get better results than finding a new coach to lead your existing level of talent, and with the $100K you save, you can buy an extra economics professor for a year.
www.cbssports.com/college-foot...
Brandi Alexander is my favorite country music star.
She sings that song about trucks and her mama and her dog in the rain, right?
Look, I realize this this is an easy way to generate content for a company that doesn’t want to hire actual reporters, but this isn’t even newsworthy enough to post Bluesky let alone worthy of a real news organization.
Based on what I am reading here, Denver Mayor Mike Johnson may be in the running for the dumbest mayor of a major US city.
Way to signal an absolute zero intent to negotiate a decent deal for Denver taxpayers.
www.cbsnews.com/colorado/new...
Committee for Corporate Welfare - no oversight at all.
Atlanta Ctee for Progress & MACC never saw a corporate handout they didn't shill for.
Arthur Blank pockets $30M/yr of our hotel-motel tax & has 2 votes!
Invest Atlanta board members rarely look critically at TAD cost-effectiveness.
Just say No!
Well, the Brits do love a queue.
I mean, they invented a whole word about lining up and waiting for something instead of figuring out other ways to allocate scarce resources.
This is both a good idea, and an idea already used in Europe.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
I just found an old midterm of mine from September 29, 1999. On that test I asked, "Should the U.S. Treasury abolish the penny?"
Looks like I was 25 years ahead of my time.
apnews.com/article/us-m...
I am sure this is just a misunderstanding. Who amongst us soccer referees hasn't accidentally placed 18,227 bets on soccer matches?
www.theguardian.com/football/202...
I think 2 things here:
1. The chance that Trump forces FIFA to move games out of Boston or other blue cities is now 0%.
2. The winner of the prize is pre-ordained in order to get the answer in part 1.
Just total corruption (and for once I am not talking about FIFA!)
apnews.com/article/fifa...
I have always thought it would be fun to have definitive measure of the signature item of each stadium - like garlic fries in SF, fish tacos in SD, brats in WI. So, if brats are 16% of sales in WI compared to 2% of sales nationwide - it's measure would be an 8. How does that compare nationwide.
I asked everyone I could at the rally I was at, and no one could tell me where to sign up for my check.
Being a member of the Economics and Accounting Department at my college, I even filled out a W-9 ahead of time!
Somehow I sound much more authoritative when translated into German!
And yeah, the NBA gambling scandal is a big enough deal to get attention across the pond.
open.spotify.com/episode/6qQs...
