Professor Timmy's Rants and Raves

When you hear quarterback, Peyton Manning bark out "Omaha" at the line of scrimmage, what does it mean? Simple.   It means, “original play called.”   In other words, whatever the original play that was called in the huddle or scripted from the sidelines will be run. Is this an educated guess?   Well, yes, but it is what Economists do a lot of times when we look at data.  Here is why I made my educated guess. Because Peyton Manning is an avid play caller at the line of scrimmage and because he regularly calls audibles and then changes his call depending on how the defense changes their alignment, the offense players listening to Manning need a quick mechanism that redirects them to the original play called. My evidence of this finding is derived from my observation of several Denver Broncos games.    First, when “Omaha” is called it sometimes the play that follows is a running play, sometimes a passing play.   The running play that follows might...

How to Maximize the Value of the Current Roster and Recreate a Winner in 2013 This plan is constructed by Professor Timmy Hamilton who is an Economics Professor at Columbia College and Avila University.  He is a die hard Chiefs fan who watches every minute of every game and has a balding scalp to prove it.   Assumptions:  The teams in the NFL draft function in an Oligopoly Market and Game Theory can help establish Nash Equilibrium. The Cheifs currently have the #1, #34, #63, #96, # 127, # 160, and #191 picks.  The NFL Draft Value Chart  below provides data on player value.  Since this comes from the New England Patriots draft website and because Bill Belichick has a Masters in Economics, this is assumed to be built off of Historic Data and the values are a product of multiple regression analysis.  It shows multiple functions and is linear in some rounds, a parabala in others and a set of logorithmic ...

In my last lecture on the Economics of Healthcare we got into a discussion on the latest plans that are floating around Washington. In order to simplify the concepts from an economic perspective, I created the breakfast analogy and here it is. Suppose that a discovery was made in the U.S. that few Americans were eating breakfast and this was causing malnutrition As a result there was total consensus that every American should have a nutritious breakfast. The media spells out the options: (1) A National Breakfast Program supplied by the Government, (2) A Government Supplied National Breakfast Insurance Program where the Government mandates a morning breakfast for everyone (this might include a Breakfast Voucher for low incomes) and (3) A National Breakfast Bank [Yes this is ol’ Prof Timmy’s invention]. Under Option (1) everyone who has the money for breakfast pays a fee into the government. The government in turn decides that breakfast was too important of a meal to be left to ...

Quinoa is a high protein grain from South America.  Here is my home made cooking  video  that shows how to use home grown tomatoes and basil to make a wonderful dish that supplements any lunch or dinner menu. I am not much in the kitchen, but this healthy dish is super simple and delish!

What is a debt ceiling? A simple enough question. The answer is that it is a self imposed recognition that American politicians typically put in place higher government expenditures than tax revenues can pay for. The ceiling is simply a decision to borrow money to cover the difference. Anyone student who has sat in one of my Macro classes has heard me gripe about our never ending deficit and the need reduce our interest payments on our Federal deficit. In fact, reducing the deficit in the long run is not only a smart idea intuitively, but one that economists overwhelmingly support. The reason why is that each year interest payments on our debt take dollars that could be spent on schools, roads, social programs or military spending and pays interest to bondholders instead. The taxpayer gets nothing for this. No bridges, no new police cars, no wheelchairs, subsidies for innovation, no predator drones…nothing. However, there is a time and a place for everything. There is a huge diff...

Of course, I have to use my Blog as part of my shameless self-promotion to announce that I have completed my book, Good Grades in No Time . Yep, this is a book that cuts through the fluff and provides quick easy solutions for the common problems most college students face.  In fact,    I would like to give you the top 10 reasons you should consider buying this or pushing a friend to buy it on Kindle. 1. This book only costs 8 bucks compared to the others cost three times more. 2. I need the money more that the big book publishers. Their editorial staff fills up an entire office building whereas my editor carries a laptop and hangs out at a coffee shop. 3. At some point in college you will have to take a test and this book guides you to do better no matter what the subject is. 4. This book gives you tips on how to do well in online classes, the others don’t. 5. Secrets, secrets, secrets. The perspective is to give students an inside look at why instructo...

My wife doesn't understand why I am such a die hard Chiefs fan.  I'm a life long Kansas Citian and became a Cheifs fan back in 1969 when Hank Stram was our coach, Len Dawson was our Quarterbck and we went to the Super Bowl and won.   I've been hooked ever since.  I love the game of football and my wife is convinced I need therapy to get over this and maybe she's right. At the time of this posting my favorite football team has a record of 3 wins and 11 losses following last year's dismal season which was an all time low. By contrast the New England Patriots, who are led by a Master’s level Economist named Bill Belichek, has his team poised for their 7th playoff appearance after 3 World Championships and 4 Super bowl appearances in the last 9 years. It is my contention that two fundamental rules of micro-economics are ignored by the Chiefs and employed by the Patriots. The irony for us die hard Chiefs fans is that our current General Manager was sup...