GRAPHS: Revenue of European Football Leagues

I found this interesting graph on The Economist. For some reason, it is difficult to find data on salaries and revenues of European soccer leagues, teams and players. On the contrary, similar data is readily available for American professional sports leagues.

As a big Serie A fan, I am disheartened to see the Italian league losing out on the revenue race. Serie A is not only trailing in terms of money, but also talent and level of competition. The English Premier League and Spanish La Liga are clearly the best in Europe with Serie A being third. Despite the large revenue, the German Bundasliga is probably a distant fourth. Why is that? My suspicion is that Germany does not have the appeal of an Italy or Spain. May be the fact that Bayern Munich is leaps and bounds above all the other lubs in Bundasliga has had an adverse effect on the league as a whole. In England, you have four teams( Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal) always closely competing for the top spot. In Spain, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Athletico Madrid and Sevilla all contend for La Liga. In Italy, Juventus, AC Milan, Intermilan and AS Roma always have credible chances of winning the Scudetto. In Bundasliga, Bayern Munich is the undisputed number one. It has won the German League five of the last eight years. The lack of serious competition in Bundasliga has probably hampered its development despite its large revenue.

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Distribution of Wealth in the US

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I heard this statement quite a bit lately particularly in light of the sub-prime mortgage and general housing crisis in the US. The country has enjoyed significant economic prosperity and both Clinton and Bush boasted economic growth under their reign. Unfortunately, the beneficiaries of the economic boom are not people from all economic backgrounds, but rather the top 10%. To make things worse, Bush gave tax cuts mainly targeting the top 10%. Being more of a numbers guy, I always wanted showing the validity of the-rich-get-richer-n-the-poor-get-poorer statement. Thanks to Wikipedia , I have finally found it!! Both the mean and median net worth of families for the bottom 50% of the population has remained absolutely flat while the 75th-90th percentile see a decent growth and the top 10% enjoy the most appreciation on their net worth. So, if you factor in inflation, the-rich-get-richer-n-the-poor-get-poorer probably holds true. The g

An Exercise in Obstinacy, Deception, and Self-Destruction

There is no other way to describe the policies of the current leadership in Eritrea. Please watch this appalling interview of the Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki with Riz Khan of Aljazeera and come up with your own series of adjectives to describe that incredible exchange. The fact that Eritreans are dying under the oppressive and misguided dictatorship of Isaias Afeworki frightens and saddens me very much. The fact that there is no immediate hope is downright depressing.

Victim of Asylum Roulette

Not too many stories resonate with me as much as the plight of legitimate asylum seekers whose desperate plea to find refuge in the US is ultimately decided by the questionable preference, judgment and mood of a single asylum officer (with some oversight from a regional asylum director) on one fateful day. That decision, according to numerous credible and through studies, depends largely on the location of the regional asylum center, the legal representation of the the applicant, the gender of the asylum officer just as much as the merit of the asylum case, while in fact the legitimacy of the asylum case should be the only relevant factor. This phenomenon has become so real that researchers at the Georgetown University law school have dubbed it the Refugee Roulette . Why am I so sensitive about this subject? My most devastating tragedy of late has been the denial of my legitimate and honest application for political asylum at the Chicago Asylum Office. When I applied believing the

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