CNBC Maria Bartiromo interviewing Saudi prince Awaleed, the largest shareholder of Citi Group (NYSE: C), after the US gov (aka we the tax payers) bailed out the Citi and the prince. Here are the terms (PDF). Maybe president Bush gave him assurance that his holding won’t get much diluted before the rescue? The video lasts 18 minutes.

Where is the money for Detroit auto makers, by the way? Sorry no Saudi prince owns the big 3 stocks, and nobody can call the President directly.

(source: http://littlerockarkansas.net/)

Little Rock, Akansas is not a big town, but it got famous because of President Clinton was from here, he was the governor of Akansas before the 1992 election. Interestingly, we are at the verge of another historical eleciton, similar economy crisis, a new guy vs. an old guy. Oh well, 2 days later, when I come back, we should all know the results of election.

If I have time (which is very unlikely), I may go downtown and see the Clinton’s presidential library. One thing I am not sure is I am driving a big Buick LaCrosse. The Enterprise guy let me choose between Buick and Kia Sportage, I picked Buick sedan because I don’t want to drive unfamilar SUV.

Here is the list of top 5 and bottom 5. The first percentage number is the percentage change of Year to date. Your truely managed to picked up SPRD from the bottom 5.

Rank Company (Stock Symbol) Year-to-Date Change 10/15/2008 End of 2007
1 VisionChina Media Inc (NASDAQ:VISN) 32.9% 11.30 8.50
2 NetEase.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:NTES) 10.3% 20.91 18.96
3 Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:SOHU) -9.3% 49.43 54.52
4 Asia Time Corporation (AMEX:TYM) -11.4% 3.10 3.50
5 eLong, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:LONG) -12.8% 7.22 8.28
……
129 Spreadtrum Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPRD) -87.8% 1.50 12.26
130 China Southern Airlines Limited (ADR) (NYSE:ZNH) -88.3% 7.63 65.46
131 HSW International, Inc. (NASDAQ:HSWI) -88.8% 0.70 6.23
132 LJ International, Inc. (NASDAQ:JADE) -90.6% 0.54 5.72
133 China GrenTech Corporation Limited (ADR) (NASDAQ:GRRF) -90.9% 0.80 8.84

(Source: Yahoo Tech-ticker)

or may I add Chinese kids, for that matter. One reason the New Oriental (NYSE:EDU), the China based private education company which specialized in TOEFL, GRE, SAT, ACT, College and Graduate entrance exams, has been so successful.

I also noticed the intense emotional discussion on some of the Chinese bbs board. But I was not happy when I saw words like “McSame”, or more insulting ones like “Hussain”, “Osama” (to label Barack). Although I could not vote, I do have my own point of view, but I would not try to disparage someone just because I don’t agree with him/her. Also, I felt either president McCain or Obama will do better than president Bush, because they are centrist in heart, and they have a low bar for comparison.

There are lots of mis-information on the web, to smear the candidates from people with an agenda. I found this factcheck is a refreshing one because it lists the fact, and let voters to decide.

I also have a wild idea about the election. It seems this election will at least cost 1 billion USD. While I know US is the most affluent country in the world, I am sure there are a lot places in need of money in the US (healthcare, education?). To save the money, why not we have a beer drinking, bowling, or basket ball contest to select the president? I know boxing is the best, but it is probablly too brutal in our modern age. I know Barack is probablly better than McCain in basket ball, that’s why I added beer and bowling. Or something Uncle John feel more comfortable.

John McCain event
Attended John McCain road to convention Rally at O’Fallon. Don’t get me wrong. I am not endorsing any candidate in this election, nor can I vote because I am not US citizen. I am interested in the election politics and have my own opinion though.

The reason to attend the rally was mostly for bragging rights: if the slim chance that McCain wins this thing in Nov., I could brag to my friends that I saw a US president at the scene. Previously the only presidential candidate I saw is John Edwards, well now I wish I have not seen him

Last but not least, I did read the CFA material (esp. Sat.), financial statement analysis, but I was a bit slow in terms of my pace.

(Original) I heard about it from web these days, and found NY Daily news has pictures of this iPhone girl. She is a factory worker for Foxconn, the contract manufacturer for Apple iPod and iPhone. I remember a few years ago there were reports on bad working conditions for workers assembling iPod. Hope this time she won’t get fired for this honest and minor mistake. Note she was smiling at the camera, as I understand her month salary is about the retailing price of an iPod. Sometimes happiness is not directly related to how much money we make.

(Picture source: NY daily news, more pictures here)

BTW, it appear the GFW of China is back, as I could not find it using Baidu. So much for the change Olympics brings…

“The McDonnell Douglas DC-9 (initially known as the Douglas DC-9) is a twin-engine, single-aisle jet airliner. It was first manufactured in 1965 with its first flight later that year. The DC-9 was designed for frequent, short flights. The final DC-9 was delivered in October 1982.
……
Northwest Airlines operates a fleet of DC-9 aircraft, most of which are over 30 years old. With severe increases in fuel prices in the summer of 2008, Northwest Airlines finally began retiring its DC-9s, switching to Airbus A319s that are 27% more fuel efficient…”

The flight from Minneapolis/St. Paul to St. Louis was only half full. I guess NWA could use a smaller plane to save some fuel, and noise.

Bush (politicians): for his failed Iraq war which cost American tax payers more than 500 billions so far. He asked American “go shopping” after 911, in addition to buying a car or a house. Democrats are no better in this aspect: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have deep roots in Democrats leadship.

(Video by LATimes: anxious customers on day 2 of IndyMac Fed takeover)

China, Japan, Korea: not only China helped the US inflationary pressure by selling cheap goods to Wal-Mart or Best Buy, China also used the money buying tons of US treasuries and mortgage papers. Combined with Greenspan’s low rate policy, US consumers have access to cheap money until the bust. Same blame goes to Japan and Korea.

US consumers and mortgage bankers: consumer not only “shop until drop”, they bought into this “home ownership” idea, and they were told “house price will only go up” by the media and mortgage bankers. They bought the houses they can not afford, or should not buy at first place.

Wall Street: this is actually where the party started and ended. All the actors mentioned above are sidekicks compared to Wall Street: investment bankers package the mortage loans and make them look like high quality loans; rating agencies put “QC passed” label on those loans; hedge fund traded those hot potatos, made money from it until some people decided to leave the table (April 2007). The music stopped, there are not enough chairs for everyone; the tide receeded, we found many wall street firms were swimming naked.

Henry and Ben are doing whatever they can to have an orderly exit. The show continues…

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