I suppose it’s only logical that profiteers would move to high school basketball, having already compromised professional and collegiate hoops.

That said, the below is a must-read summary for any athletic parent, youth coach, or sports fan:

A jarring look at youth basketball: Part 1 | Part 2

Note: The above story is a review of the eye-opening Play Their Hearts Out by George Dorhrmann.

Via The Atlantic:

If The Federal Government’s household income was $55,000 per year, they’d actually be spending $96,500–$41,500 more than they made! That means they’re spending 175% of their annual income! So, in 2011 they’d add $41,500 of debt to their current credit card debt of $366,000!

Yup, it’s as bad as you thought.

Would be interesting to see what Rome’s debt-to-income ratio looked like before they fell.

Any Smooth Harold readers out there that have tried them? There rates, zero fees, and easy access sound great.

These is an interesting survey of half a million Americans:

People’s emotional well-being — happiness — increases along with their income up to about $75,000, researchers report in Tuesday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

For folks making less than that, said Angus Deaton, an economist at the Center for Health and Wellbeing at Princeton University, “Stuff is so in your face it’s hard to be happy. It interferes with your enjoyment.”

Happiness got better as income rose but the effect leveled out at $75,000, Deaton said. “Giving people more income beyond 75K is not going to do much for their daily mood … but it is going to make them feel they have a better life.”

In a temporal sense, I believe it.

Lindsey and I have a beautiful 70 foot Maple in our backyard (similar to the one pictured). It must have well over a million leaves. One side of its thick trunk can easily hide two grown adults.

It shades much of our home. Keeps our energy costs down. And is a joy to sit under at any time of the day—photosynthesizing leaves not only shading the sun, but cooling the surrounding air.

As for the rest of the property, the Maple gets “mature” back up from 12 surrounding friends: five in the front, three alongside the driveway, and four alongside the west side of the house. Additionally, there are three more adolescence trees working their way skywards.

What’s fascinating about mature trees is that they cannot be bought. Decades of time and fertile nutrients are their only asking price.

I suppose a “Who knows how many tons?” tree has been relocated before. But surly never by common folk. Which makes having such luxuries, even rented ones in my case, a real treat.

What’s more, it’s nice to be reminded of at least 13 “things” money can’t buy.

In addition to being a gun-for-hire, savvy readers know that Smooth Harold is also a part-time proprietor (aka entrepreneur on the side). I’m not a very good one—at least in terms of making money. But I enjoy building things. So I build websites. This is my latest.

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MSNBC published a story yesterday that confirms what many of us already know: The almighty dollar is a lot more elusive these days, as Americans are working harder for less money. That’s been my experience, as I have to scrap a lot more now to make deals happen. Thankfully, there are still deals. For that I’m grateful. But my Mom put it best when she said, “They party’s over!” It sure is, Mom. It sure is. The upside: I got complacent at the party. So the down economy has been just the kick in the pants I’ve needed to double my creative efforts. The paper chase lives on!

… The world financial markets fall more than they would have, because financial markets are based entirely on confidence. And when you have intimidating officials like President Bush and McBama spreading FUD like, “the worst economic crisis since the great depression,” fickle investors will believe them, and global bank markets struggle.

I’m not saying there wasn’t a partial bomb to begin with — there was thanks to a greedy and irresponsible Wall Street — but that still doesn’t mean top officials can frighten the public with said statements just to bail out their Wall Street buddies who donated lots of money for special interest (which they succeeded in getting this time).  Just like yelling “Bomb!” in an airport is illegal, so should it be for individuals in power crying “depression” just to get their way.

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A market economy, that is. Thanks for showing some faith today, boys. You make me a proud citizen of Checks and Balances against a corrupt and colluding executive branch. The Associated Press reports:

The House has defeated the $700 billion bail-out legislation for the financial industry.

More than enough members of the House had cast votes to defeat the Bush administration-pushed bill, but the vote was held open for a while, apparently as efforts were under way to persuade people to change their vote.

On Wall Street, stocks plummeted as investors followed the developments in Congress.

These are troubled days, and they could be for a while. But there’s sunrise on the horizon. Just let the market do her thing.

UPDATE: This is a great quote: “Like the Iraq war and patriot act, this bill is fueled by fear and haste,” said Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas.

I fear for the future value of my hard-earned dollar. I no longer trust the federal government with spending, nor do countries abroad. When that happens en masse, the dollar will crash.

Sadly, that’s the price we pay for electing big-government knuckleheads into office, and for letting the Federal Reserve buy 80 percent of AIG for $95 billion without a vote, even though U.S. taxpayers will have to pick up the tab.

Man, is our federal government broken (I trust state government so much more right now). When will they understand that “this insanity and the problems we face economically will only occur when we allow the economy to find its own equilibrium. We have to allow the market to endure a recession, we have to allow failure.” — Joe M.

For the sake of our country, at the least to make a statement, write in Ron Paul for president this November. It appears McBama will only continue the trend of frivolous spending and federal intervention.

See also:

• Ron Paul Addresses Financial Crisis
• WSJ: Worst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight