My 2 cents
I was surprised by the amount initially. This amount is almost 3 times of last year winning bid. Perhaps because Buffett is getting older? Also Mr. Zhao must have significant personal wealth to pull off that, no small change for fund managers, because fund managers make money from fees and profit sharing (2-20 rule, I will write more about fund manager fee structure later).

There was other theory says that Mr. Zhao did this merely from marketing point of view. In other words, this is not his own money, he did it for the name of his hedge fund. It’s possible. Because Buffett is widely popular in China, potential clients may think Mr. Zhao is Chinese Buffett now that he is willing to pay that money to dine with Mr. Buffett.

There were also some reservations in the Chinese web space about this, some say Mr. Zhao could donate this money to the recent Sichuan earthquake victims. I think there are charity needs both in China and in the US, although US is a much richer country that China. But it did raise an interesing question (for the rich people): how to give away the money? To his/her favortite cause? To the most in need? The the ones cry loudest?

(source: CNET)

The thing I like about Tim Russert is: he always asks intelligent questions, provide objective information for the audience to consume, not personal views; and at the same time I am impressed by his polite manner and smile, many ordinary people think he is “one of our own”. And indeed his uproots is working class: his book Big Russ and me talked about his father.

(MSNBC Andrea Mitchell talked about Russert)

(CBS Face the Nation moderator Bob Schieffer talked about Russert, note FTN is direct competitor to MTP).

(NBC political director Chuck Todd talked about Russert)

Last but not least, my favorite story told by Russert himself: in 2000 Jack Welch, the CEO of GE, personally called him, reminding him exercise his GE stock options. I guess Russert is too busy on other things (work, care for others), and obviously he was one of the few guys forgott exercising stock options in GE.

Back in STL, I noticed Chinese politicians, led by vice Premier Wang Qi Shan (note he is the son-in-law of former vice Premier Yao Yi Lin), are signing big trade deals with Missouri (news: STLToday; video: v.ifeng.com 凤凰网). Maybe a direct flight from STL to PVG in the near future?

As to stock market, I noticed 600030 (Citic Securities) crashed, which is expected considering the US broker houses lost big lately. The sentiment on brokers won’t be good.

Last but not least, this morning I heard from TV that NBC Meet the Press host Tim Russert died of heart attack, at young age of 58. He is a good guy, and will be missed.

I will post good pictures at Yellowstone and Grand Teton when I have more time to organize my pictures. Stay tuned…

NBA final and European championship soccer
I don’t care too much about the NBA final these days. Although I like Celtics (KG, Allen, Paul) to win. The reason I don’t like NBA is the commericalization, and referees apprearent involvement. On the other hand, I have not watched European championship soccer for a long time, especially after I came to the US. This year ESPN will broadcast the soccer. Here is the TV schedule.

Vanke May 08 sales, Wang Shi apoligize
I have a Google speadsheet to track Vanke monthly sales. May 08 number was down compared to May 07. Also Wang Shi apologized more than 10 times in the annual shareholder meeting for poor choice of words in his blog.

Hillary’s bill

I mean, her campaign bill, not the Bill Clinton. According to AP, Hillary had managed to amass a campaign debt of $30 m, her own loan of $11 m included. Is that one reason she did not quit a few days ago when Obama passed the tipping point of delegation count?

Hmm. The money issue. One thing I noticed is Hillary’s campaign spends money unwisely: such as high salary for campaign senior managers, and fees for consultants. Talk about high cost structure. On the other hand, Hillary can not raise money as fast as Obama.

About Vanke and Wang Shi (quote Baidu Zhidao):
百度知道：万科企业股份有限公司，成立于1984年5月，是目前中国最大的专业住宅开发企业。2007年净利润48.4亿元，纳税53.2亿元。　

　　王石，1951年1月出生于广西省柳州市。万科公司董事长，国家级登山健将， 生于柳州，学在兰州；创业于深圳，是叱咤风云的地产大腕。

Yesterday afternoon when I listened to NPR Melissa Block live report (click on listen: Melissa Block at a shattered school) from Chengdu/China, I was almost in tears. Melissa was in Chengdu for special report on what’s new in China, and was caught by the earquake.

Earthquake
By now you may have heard the 7.8 earthquake happened in China Si’chuan province. The Chinese goverment and its people are doing their best to rescue the people being buried under the rubbles. A few weeks ago we had a 5.2 earthquake happened near St. Louis (the epicenter is about 100 miles away from STL, news in English, in Chinese). But this 7.8 is at the famous Tangshan earthquake level (1976), in which 250,000 lives were lost.

When natural disaster like that happens, we human beings some times felt powerless. We also got opportunity take a deep breath, and ask ourselves, what is the most precious thing in life? I remember people asked this question after Sept. 11 world trader center incidents.

On the positive side, amid the recent China snow storm (before Chinese New Year), I read 13 Tangshan farmers volunteered to help restoring power in Hu’nan. Volunterism is still new in China, but very refreshing.

More later,

Goverment reaponse
Katrina, Mymmar (Burma),

I went to buy rice yesterday and found the price is also up. I heard about the Thailand new policy to control rice export and price hike, so this is not a surprise. I also watched CCTV news that Premier Wen is visting rice producing provinces, to encourage farmers planting more rice.

Because I am long out of rice business, I have bought some Syngenta (SYT) to hedge the grain price (seriously, I hope to gain from the global ag boom).

Memphis tiger’s stunning loss
I was stunned to see Memphis lost the NCAA champaignship game last night. They were up about 10 points with 2 minutes left (story from CBSSports). Then they did something pretty stupid, something paper tiger would do: they pass on the balls to kill the time! One thing analysts liked to talk is “with 10 seonds left, Memphis let Kansas shot a 3 point and tied to overtime”.

But I am with Bob Knight, Memphis probably could do one out of 4 or 5 things right, and win the game. They lost the game mainly because they lost it in heart with 2 minutes remaing.

I think this lesson could apply to a broader persective. I can think of:
1) US is losing its edge economically because it’s just try to keep the edge (without taking risks for innovation), it’s becoming complacement.
2) I am losing my touch investing in last Oct. because I lost my alertness, when I saw the CROX went up huge (lots of paper gain).
3) To a lessor extent, I become complacement in my work because I just want to keep the job.
4) Extend this a little, when we are down, like I did in the 1st quarter in my investing, we should not quit, because the game is not over yet…

(Source: Kansas City Star)

Green Card
Incidently (remember March 17 is St. Patrick’s day, the green), yesterday I received an email from USCIS telling me that my permanent residency application has been approved (after almost 6 years). I don’t think too much of this green card thing, at least that’s what I felt when I went to work this morning (see I still got to work).

Seriously (when I think more carefully about it), the longer I stay here, it’s like I invested more and more in the US. I am not only talking about the time being spent there (opportunity cost?), but the 401k (the inflation caused by weakening USD), the social security tax paid (God knows when I retire, whether it will be available or not). We know $4 gas is coming this summer, maybe $4 big mac is coming next year

But the problem is I see more opportunity and growth in China economy then the US. So what’s my point? I am not saying leave the US now, just because the US goverment and the market seemed so dismal now. Remember one can never make money by panic. I do like my job and I do have some control over 401k, in which I invested 50% in foreign stocks (funds). Can not do too much about social security. But I can invest/speculate the left-over money each month, hopefully in foreeable future I can build a portfolio big enough to take care of my family financial needs.

I know it’s going to be a long road, but I know one thing: stay away from craps like Ninetowns, XFML, Heelys, Crocs,…and focus on companies have the real moat (not hype

Many Chinese people (e.g., my friend Wang Jianshuo) know the Nanjing Masasccre happened 70 years ago. Couple days ago I heard a story on NPR which talked about some Japanese and Chinese people got together at Nanjing Normal university theater to commerate. Note the place was an international sanctary which saved lots of Chinese refuge at that time.

And many American people know that the US warships were bombed by Japan in Pearl Harbor.

But for me until this morning did I know that a US navy ship USS Panay was hit by Japan on Dec 1937, in the Yangze River outside of Nanjing. They were doing some rescue for American at the time. The interesting part (for me) in this NPR story is a sailor got 1,200 USD from Japanese goverment and an apology from the emperor. Note at the time $800 can buy a new car.

My point is not how much money paid by the Japanese goverment to the US victims, but I felt so unfair because more than 300,000 Chinese lives have been killed in Nanjing during 2 weeks, and now Japanese text books do not even mention this. I believe most Chinese don’t actually care how much economy aid (mostly loans) they have been given to China in last 30 years, but rather an apology and make it sure similar atrocities don’t happen again. I think one thing we can do is be strong individually, and be strong as a nation or country.

While Huazhong is mostly an engineering school, it also has a decent business (management) school and econ department. One of the rising star in Chinese goverment (fiscal policy advisor) is Ba Shu Song 巴曙松 (blog), he recently gave a Finance lecture to the leaders of CPC political bureau. I vaguely remember him while in college, when he was the head of (students) radio station.

If you want to be happy for a day, buy a lottery ticket; if you want to be happy for a week, buy a new car; if you want to be happy for a year, (don’t remember exactly) buy a new house; if you want to be happy for the life, find your soul mate.

While I do not agree everything been said here, I do think house is a very important part of people’s lives. Recently the slowdown of US housing market, and subsequently the sub-prime loan crisis has burned many home buyers and investors. At the same time, I have seen my family member and good friend moving into brand new houses. It may not the perfect or best time in terms of the housing market, but I think the happiness of “owning the home” is not over rated. This is further validated by my mom’s happy voice when she told me the news of “home buying”.

(an open house I visited a while ago)

So what is my point? I am not saying everyone should go out and buy a home now. I think in the past few years, the rapid appreciation of home price (both US and China) make some people forget the fundamental value of house: that is to let people live and enjoy. In that sense, the new house does not have to be exactly “new”. The key is a sense of “ownership” and “attachment”.

For me I have been a home owner for more than 2 years. I did not realize that sense of attachment until I returned from Shanghai recently. One reason is in the last month we stayed in Shanghai, the apartment we rent changed ownership, and it appeared we needed to move. That reminds me the feeling when I renew the apartment lease in the US, the lease management raised the rent. I know living in my own home means more housing chores, but no more headache like the one I mentioned above

Happy home owner ship, mom, dad, bro, sister, niece and friends