More Money Than Sense - NBA Edition

Like many of the US aristocracy, Steve Ballmer is an rich idiot who have no concept of the value of money. He's buying the LA Clippers for a totally insane $2 billion.

Before Donald Sterling put his foot in his mouth all the way up to the hip, the Clippers were valued at a quarter of that amount, $575 million by Forbes. With operating income of only $15 million, Ballmer's price comes to a rate of return of a microscopic 0.8%. According to Ballmer, the Clippers are worth almost twice their rivals, the LA Lakers, and worth as much as the LA Dodgers.

(Sanity Check: The Dodgers sold 3.7 million tickets in 2013, the Clippers sold just 790,000 tickets.)


What makes sense is that Ballmer is rewarding Sterling for his courageous stand in favor of gross racism. The only other explanation is that while Ballmer has more money than Croesus, he has the rational decision making skills of a kumquat. He is a walking, talking, spending argument for a marginal tax rate of 90%.