Follow the Yankees

Despite a solid, early-season winning record, the New York Yankees were selling grandstand and bleacher seats for $5 this week, according to a dispatch on Yahoo. It’s not just because Jeter and A-Rod are on the disabled list and who-knows-who is in the line-up to replace them and some of the other big name stars. Attendance is down, because the average fan just cannot afford the price tags the Yankees envisioned for seating when they formulated plans for their new billion dollar stadium—those $2,500 box seats around home plate, tailored to the Wall Street expense account crowd—have always gone wanting since the new stadium opened in 2009 and now Yankees tickets are always available for online resale at a fraction of face value.  The Yankees, meanwhile, are trying to get out from under the salary cap after paying egregiously outlandish salaries to A-Rod and others before the Era of Less took hold. If Average Joe cannot keep up, eventually the guys at the top of the compensation pyramid will make less too.     

So what a surprise? After sequestration (government layoffs and layoffs related to government funded programs) and payroll tax increases, we’re told the economy hits another “soft patch.” The stock market likes corporate earnings, but those are boosted by low-labor cost offshore operations and financial alchemy enabled by low interest rates, engineered by government bankers trying to shore up a fragile system. In the latest example, Apple—totally flush with cash—takes out low cost debt to lift its fallen stock price.