Thursday

Happy New Year! Again.

I had great expectations of adding an entry last night, but an early evening gathering of my AAU girls b-ball team of seven years ago took precedence. 4 and this group of now college junior age girls formed the PV Breakers in 5th grade. We played for four years and it was a great learning experience for me. Seven of the nine teammates were able to attend last night's pizza dinner. A good time was had by all.

You can't turn on a national newscast of any ilk today for more than 30 seconds without the term "Iowa caucus" being spoken. Fortunately, the focus will shift to New Hampshire at 12:01AM tomorrow morning. The only segment of the state's population that will rue the day of the departed pol's will be the TV station managers whose future ad revenues will most certainly decline from their December numbers.

I've established Monday as the deadline for any New Year's goals or course-corrections. I have never considered a list of goals as "resolutions", but some goals may have a resolution ring to them. Whatever. Craig Wilson's column this week was about anti-resolutionism. Whatever, again. Mostly, I think that it is useful to periodically put some kind of a road map on the journey that we each call life.

It is interesting to note that on the sporting front, the new year brings many changes for the owners, athletes, and other various participants in three of my favorite spectator sports: golf, cycling, and NASCAR. Today is the opening round of the first PGA event of 2008, the Mercedes Benz tournament in Hawaii. In that sport, golfers change equipment sponsors, change swing coaches, change caddy's, and change virtually anything else in their control that might give them a better chance to win and/or put more jingle in their pocket.

For the riders in the peloton, whole teams can come and go in any year. Sponsors (like Discovery) fade away. Racing schedules for different riders change based on major tour participation. And there's the usual posturing among the elite teams for use of equipment, clothing and doo-dads in the market place. The pro tour kicks off January 22 with the Tour Down Under in Australia.

And shocking as it may seem, there's a real case of musical cars, sponsors, and drivers on the track. The list this year is longer than usual and I remain uninformed at this point. But you have, 1) owners with money to spend who are trying desperately to get to the front, 2) drivers crying for better equipment so that they can compete with Hendrick Motor Sports, and 3) lots of shake-out at the rear of the pack as the have-nots try to hang on to the draft.

In the business of high finance, there's a clear cut off as money managers, investment bankers, and CEO's measure annual performance at 12/31 against index averages to determine bonuses. Star managers field offers from other funds, or find venture capital or other private equity to do "their own thing". And schedule their appearances on CNBC's Squawk Box.

In those sports-related scenarios, the driver, rider or golfer is basically trying to win the race. (Hanger-ons may have to look at the money so that they can pay the bills, but deep down, they value a win more than the cash.) The annual changes made by the owners and other players are more directly connected to the money. In finance, I would argue that it's all about the money.

So anyway, stay tuned for my non-resolutions in the next couple of days.

Have a great evening.

BCOT