Tiger Woods: Swing Evolution in 2012

Last Sunday, Tiger Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational for his first PGA Tour win since 2009. On the Gotham Golf Blog, Dana Dahlquist does an analysis (above) of how Tiger's swing has been evolving over time. What is interesting about the analysis is the importance of Tiger's standup move which is very similar to the Stack & Tilt standup (see my prior post here).

What was also of interest to me was the Friday round (here) where Tiger and Charlie Wi shared the tournament lead. They both are using left-centered golf swings (more weight on the left foot for right-handed players). Charlie finished T29 with two poor final rounds (76 and 78) after two good initial rounds (66 and 68). Both Tiger and Charlie are worth watching since they are challenging the conventional wisdom of golf instruction and playing quite well right now.

Right-Wing Counterfactual: Could Auto Workers Have Sent Their Children To College Without Unions?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Dorian Warren, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University raised an interesting counterfactual in the video above from the Melissa Harris-Perry shown on MSNBC this morning. Prof. Warren, when commenting on the tendency of the outsourced US economy to generate low-paying service sector jobs, said that it was collective action after WWII that turned low-wage factory jobs into high-paying industrial jobs that built the US middle class. These were the jobs that allowed auto workers to send their children to college.

The right-wing (particularly in Wisconsin) has been arguing that the US would be better off without unions. If this is the case in the 21st Century, it should also have been true in the last half of the 20th Century. Every person in the US middle class whose working-class parents sent them to college should ponder the counterfactual of a union-free US economy and what their personal histories would have looked like if the right-wing had realized their dream after WWII.

Bielema Wins Bimbo Bakery Honorable Mention

University of Wisconsin head football coach Bret Bielema won honorable mention in the Bimbo Bakery "Best Trophy Wife" category. On receiving the award, Bielema commented "Not winning the Rose Bowl this year was disappointing but this is really what every jock wants. Who the Hell is Bimbo Bakery anyway? They aren't handing out the Joe Paterno award, are they?"

Bret and his wife Jen Hielsberg were married today in a contraceptive-free ceremony at St. Maria Goretti Catholic Church in Madison by Rev. Mike who is said to have also counseled UW senior athletic director John Chadima in pre-marital abstinence.

Game Change Wins Bimbo Bakery Award

The makers of Bimbo Bread have awarded Game Change from HBO "Best Documentary Featuring a Republican Woman" for 2012. It was up against a documentary from Citizen United, Fire From the Heartland, about conservative women. Game Change debuts tonight on HBO.

Newt's Plan for $2.50 Gasoline

In the video clip above from the last GOP presidential candidate debate, Newt Gingrich revealed that he has a plan for $2.50 a gallon gasoline. Unfortunately, he did not say what the plan involved and did not release a white paper giving any details. The resulting intellectual vacuum has led to some interesting speculation.

Yesterday, the Atlantic (here) made some assumptions and filled in the blanks for Newt. If we look around the world for countries that have cheaper gas prices, we find that these countries accomplish the miracle through straight-forward subsidies. For example, in Venezuela, gasoline is 12 cents a gallon!

Doing the math for the US, for the last seven years American's used roughly 3.3 billion barrels of oil which at 42 gallons per barrel yields 134 billion gallons of gas per year. Gas is currently averaging about $3.85 a gallon. To get down to $2.50 would require eliminating the gas tax (18 cents per gallon going to roads) leaving $3.68 ($3.85 - 0.18). To get to $2.50 would require another $1.17 ($3.85 - 0.18 - 1.17 = $2.50). Multiplying by 134 billion gallons per year ($1.17 * 134B = $157 B) and adding back in $25B in gas tax you get $187B.

This might seem like a lot of money but the Bush Tax cuts cost $2.5T over their first ten years. Eliminating the Bush tax cuts and using the money for fuel subsidies would leave money left over for other ideas Gingrich might have. So far, this is the only way anyone has been able to figure out that would actually satisfy Newt's plan. The only problem is that Newt is opposed to any tax increases even if used to subsidize $2.50 gasoline so he must have in mind increasing the deficit (was it Gingrich that said deficits don't matter or was that Dick Cheney, I'm getting confused).

Surprise: US Has Cheapest Energy Prices in the World

The video above, from interviews on CNBC this morning, revealed a number of interesting points about energy prices and energy supply: (1) Newt Gingrich has a plan for $2.50-a-gallon gasoline, but no one (including Gingrich) knows what the plan is or considers it vaguely realistic, (2) the US has the lowest energy prices in the world, but they still aren't low enough for the US economy to recover, (3) the US produces surplus natural gas that could be used for transportation, (4) the natural gas infrastructure already exists, but (5) politicians in Washington are fixated on drilling for more oil.

T. Boone Pickens, who is also interviewed in the video above, has been having a debate with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) over natural gas (here). The WSJ thinks that the "Pickens Plan" is a "Boone Doggle". The Pickens Plan "to break US oil addiction" is obviously not in the interests of Big Oil. The debate is another indication that Peak Oil is either very close or has already been reached and that the Age of Austerity will be with us for a long time.