The Pennsylvania State University named Bill O’Brien as the new head football coach. It’s not easy to replace Joe Paterno; anyone they hired wouldn’t have quite the same effect JoePa did. Obviously, whoever the was named the new coach was going to face scrutiny, but Bill O’Brien, really? That was the best you could do Penn State? For those of you who don’t know much about O’Brien, let’s go over his resume.

• Alumni of Brown University
• 1993: Tight ends coach at Brown
• 1994: Linebacker coach at Brown
• 1995-1997: Graduate assistant at Georgia Tech
• 1998-2000: Running backs coach at GT
• 2001-2002: Offensive Coordinator at GT
• 2003-2004: Running backs coach at Maryland
• 2005-2006: Offensive coordinator at Duke
• 2007: Offensive assistant for the New England Patriots
• 2008: Wide receiver coach for the Patriots
• 2009-2010: Quarterback coach for the Patriots
• 2011: Offensive coordinator for the Patriots

Does this resume get you a job as a head coach at an average Division I football team that has no hopes for a BCS bowl bid? Of course, the man coached Tom Brady; arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. On the other hand, this resume is nothing to write home about.

Penn State just went through one of the worst scandals in the history of sports at any level of all-time and they decide that their new football coach, the man who is supposed to replace the most beloved coach at any organization, ever, the man who is supposed to turn this football program around is going to be a guy with absolutely no head coaching experience? I don’t get it. Penn State has taken a terrible situation and has possibly made it worse by showing little effort to return any prestige to the school. I find it hard to believe that this wasn’t one of the most contested coaching positions of all-time, and they don’t take the time to find someone with college football head coaching experience. It’s pathetic. There must have been someone with experience that wanted to be the guy to replace Joe Paterno; the guy that would be forever known as the man who turned the Penn State football program around.

As a Penn State football fan I hope that Bill O’Brien is that man. I just don’t see it happening.

New Hampshire Primary

After yesterday’s closest Iowa Caucus in history it’s time to move on to the “Live Free or Die” state, New Hampshire. The motto should give Ron Paul’s supporters a reason to get excited given that freedom is more or less the basis of his whole campaign. However, early polls have suggested that Mitt Romney has a staggering lead over his opponents with nearly 50% of the vote. With less than a week to go, history shows that the margin should be narrowed considerably, as the majority of those polled know Romney’s views being the governor of neighboring Massachusetts.

Michele Bachmann announced today that she is dropping out of the race, no surprise there, but it is a little surprising that Rick Perry decided to stay in after giving a speech last night that suggested otherwise. Both being heavily supported by the tea party, Perry should see a lot of Bachmann’s supporters come his way, but it won’t be enough to win the state.

The important thing to remember about New Hampshire is that it is only worth 12 delegates at the Republican National Convention (RNC). To put that into perspective, Iowa is worth 28, and one candidate needs about 1,245 total, a little over 50%, to be nominated as the republican candidate for president. The only thing a win does in New Hampshire is give momentum to the winner.

New Hampshire: Predictions

The following is only my prediction about the what the primary results will be after looking at what happened in Iowa and how the state of New Hampshire is set up, but a lot could change after the debates this week.

Winner: Mitt Romney (30-25%)

Some people suggested early on that a win in Iowa and New Hampshire would give Mitt Romney the nomination, no one could have expected such a close race last night. A worse than expected finish in New Hampshire after showing no growth in Iowa from 2008 will keep the race going at least through Super Tuesday on March 6. In fact, I’ll argue that anything less that 30% of the New Hampshire vote will cause Mitt Romney to lose momentum going into a South Carolina state that doesn’t like him the following week. The so called “front runner” will still have at least 70% of the GOP against him, leaving the Romney team flustered and a lot of votes still up for grabs by the remaining candidates.

Runner-Up: Ron Paul (25-20%)

The Paul campaign will finish strong in New Hampshire as long as he dazzles, as he usually does, at the debates this week. His message resonates strongly with the people of the state, and his effective campaigning along with dedicated volunteers help him finish in a very close second, which is essentially a win for the Paul supporters. The battle in South Carolina will be tough for him after only receiving a small percentage of the vote last year, but the following state, Nevada, plays right into his hands.

Third and Fourth: Jon Hunstman (18-15%), Newt Gingrich (15-10%)

Jon Huntsman, while everyone else was in Iowa, has been campaigning in New Hampshire for quite sometime now and should expect a strong finish in third place. Next Gingrich, who is only motivated by revenge at this point, will finish fourth, but if he attacks Romney as expected, he will help all the other candidates out a lot in the coming primaries, especially if he makes it to South Carolina, where Gingrich is a favorite. Unfortunately, Romney’s Super PAC will slam Gingrich will negative advertising leaving him feeling as he did after Iowa.

The Bottom Two: Rick Santorum (<10%), Rick Perry (<10%)

While Rick Santorum had an extraordinary showing in Iowa, it won’t quite help him in New Hampshire. Santorum is a strong pro-life candidate, he is against gay marriage, and he is a ridiculous spender of tax payer’s money, all things that don’t go well in New Hampshire. After Rick Perry contemplated conceding the race, he doesn’t get much support either as the voters don’t want to back someone who could drop out of the race at any moment. Santorum heads on to South Carolina, a much more conservative state, but a poor finish there and a lack of funding will force him to drop out of the race. Perry heads to Texas for good this time.

The Future

If Gingrich doesn’t finish well in South Carolina, look for him to drop out headed into Nevada. Santorum drops out after that, leaving a three-man race between Romney, Paul, and Huntsman until a winner is declared. I expect the race between those three to go on until April 24, when the campaigns hit states like Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut, but what do I know? It is early and anything can happen.

Don’t forget to vote at your state’s primary! If Iowa taught us anything, it’s that every vote counts.

Am I the only person that’s a little confused about what happened last week during the X Factor finale? Granted, it was the only episode I watched all season, but I have to say that it was just awful. In fact, I didn’t realize it was the finale until the 3rd contestant performed, but we’ll get to him later. The best part of the show was the Christmas song theme, until Melanie Amaro took the stage. You can watch the clip here.

Did you listen to that? What was that? How did she make it into the contest at all, let alone the finals? Wait, she won? Did she even hit a note in that entire song? Why would she choose the best originally sung Christmas songs of all-time? How did that even make it on national television? Just a few of the many questions I had going through my mind during her performance.

Next up in the season finale was Chris Rene, and if you didn’t think it could get any worse than Melanie Amaro, it did. Chris Rene performed ‘Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas‘ in a style that made Sinatra turn over in his grave. I tried to turn off the TV, but my admiring mother wouldn’t have any of that.

Luckily, the show got a little more promising with Josh Krajcik’s version of ‘Please Come Home for Christmas.’ This dude can sing. How he didn’t win I have no idea. Just a little more evidence to the conspiracy theories that the show is rigged by producers.

Then, the worst thing I could have imagined happened. Justin Bieber got the spotlight. He officially ruined ‘The Christmas Song’ and ‘Santa Claus is Coming to Town’ for the rest of my life. They put Stevie Wonder in the background for him!? Absolutely a true disgrace to American music. If I have to watch Bieber throw in any more “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah’s” to ‘The Christmas Song’ or see his background dancers ruin Christmas one more time I’m going to lose it.

How does this stuff get on TV?

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Allow me to establish a few basic facts about the U.S. economy. What we know:

1) To be in the top “1%” of Americans that the occupy movement likes to criticize, a household needs to bring in about $380,000 in annual gross income according to the IRS. So, how do you become a member of the top 1%? Easy. Know people and ways to get paid $380,000/year. I think it’s safe to assume that anything over this number gives you enough money to have the nicest version of anything you need (a Mercedes instead of a Toyota, a mansion instead of an average home, can eat at the best restaurants, the best healthcare, etc.).

2) Obviously, if you can make $380,000/year, you can make a lot more than that by investing it properly. If you can save up $1 million and invest it on the majority of stocks in the S&P 500, you will make anywhere between $50,000/year on interest during a bear market and $100,000/year when stocks are bullish. You didn’t do anything to make that money; you just made it by already having money! And it’s (almost) guaranteed. I think we all know this, so I proceed.

3) According to the U.S. Census bureau, the median household income in 2009 was about $50,000.

4) A College Board report found that the average cost of tuition at public universities in the U.S. rose to twice that of the rate of inflation in the U.S. last year (which is rising entirely too fast on its own). Because of this, the country owes $1 trillion (with a T) in student loan debt. If you thought the housing bubble was bad wait to see what happens when the student loan bubble bursts in 2013.

5) In order for one person to have everything, everyone else must have nothing. For example, if there are 5 people in a room with 5 apples on a table, and one person takes all 5 apples, the other four people are appleless.

This is how capitalism works, and I agree with it because it allows me and everyone else the chance to grab enough apples to save for our own future. This means that some people might not get to take their fair share of apples if I get them first. However, I’m too nice of a person to take everyone’s apples, and I definitely don’t want to make the majority angry with me, so I’d prefer to share the apples and not take them all.

The same applies to money and guess what; Corporate America wants to take all of your apples. Is this not evidenced by these companies on Wall Street bringing in record profits every quarter in a post-bailout economy? How about the $90 billion that “too big to fail” companies set aside for Christmas bonuses? Does anyone really deserve a $2 million bonus? It’s ridiculous; especially when that money belongs to the taxpayers who bailed these big companies out. If we refer to fact #2 that I established above, this bonus alone would allow anyone to retire and still have an annual income that is far greater than that of 50% of Americans.

As Citigroup stated in a corporate memo, America is currently changing from a Republic to a Plutonomy: a society in which the majority of the money is in the hands of a small minority (1% is a small minority). Luckily, Plutonomy is only a temporary state of society because the majority has more votes than the minority and can make laws to get money back into the hands of more people. This is what Occupy Wall Street is trying to do, but they are going about it the wrong way. Then again, what choice do they have? With no jobs, or under-paid jobs, it’s not like they have anything better to do. How else do you suggest they grab enough attention of law makers and corporate executives? I understand how they feel. I am one of them, financially speaking, but I refuse to protest. Instead, I am creating my own job from scratch in a field that I believe will be surging in 5-10 years. A lot of people don’t have the opportunity to do this though because there aren’t a lot of businesses to start right now. Big business has successfully overcome small business via Plutonomy. Look at all the manufacturing jobs going overseas for cheaper labor costs. Not only are they not employing Americans to do these jobs, but they’re giving money that should be kept in this economy to economies overseas! Someone tell me how that makes any economic sense! Well, it does make sense, but only for the selfish apple hoarders.

Our government follows this horrid economic train of thinking by giving foreign aid to other countries. If our government would apply this same idea domestically to small businesses the economy could boom. By cutting foreign aid by just $1 billion they could establish a better small business fund. This fund would be strictly for qualified first time owners of a new company. Since this money is staying in the country rather than going overseas (which helps the economy), businesses would be asked to pay none, a portion, or the entire loan back at 0% interest. It is of no cost to the taxpayers and, again, the money stays in the country! This fund would allow over 150,000 start-ups to be created that otherwise might not have the chance. It’s pretty obvious that 150,000 new businesses would create well over 500,000 jobs; potentially a lot more.

As an entrepreneur, I know how difficult it can be to find investors without allowing them to own a portion of your company or expecting to be paid back at extreme interest rates. After all, only 1 of every 100 people really has the money to invest in a small business. Who better to ask than your own government? They have nothing to lose, as the money could only increase the chances of restoring American prosperity. Small business used to be the foundation of this country. With more people working in small business, more people will again realize the importance of shopping at small businesses, and eventually, wealth would be distributed more fairly. OWS: That is how to get back at corporate America; not standing outside their offices yelling at them.

Protesters and corporate executives alike, please, listen up. We live in America. America is awesome because we have so many apples. We have enough apples to go around for nearly everyone in this country to be happy. The problem occurs when people receive an excess amount of apples that they’ll never use, which prevents others from having enough for just one day. Business in America needs money in order to develop new ideas and technology, I get that, but they don’t need an excess amount of it just as much as individuals don’t need to be multimillionaires (athletes and celebrities are inspirational, most work hard for their money, and most of the time they deserve it). It’s a waste of money, it results in Plutonomy, and it leaves a miserable majority that knows they could have their share of the apples if the minority would stop hoarding them. What happened to working in accordance with one’s passions? It’s all about the money now. I’d like to meet the man who still deserves to be in the “1%” after his company had to be bailed out by the government with taxpayers’ money. Failure should never be rewarded just as much as people should never be asked to work for unhealthy wages. If you or a loved one is unemployed or under-paid, I applaud you for fighting through the tough times; for your day will come, and it will be glorious.