Author: stlplace

Categories
China Economy

GM, China giant stimulus package

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My initial thought
China announced a giant $586 billion economy stimulus package a few days ago. My first response was not warm to it: I always think the Chinese goverment should invest in “Education and healthcare”. Infrustructure? Did not China already get really good infrustructures in the coastal areas including Beijing? China’s economy problem is more serious than US (on the surface it’s not), because it solely relied on foreign trade (export) for economy growth in last 30 years.

I can appreciate the goverment intention here is solving the “excess migrant labor workers”, and lack of middle class problems in China. They should act from tax policy, business regulations, etc. But I guess the Chinese goverment is for the business, by the business and of the business, just like the US gov.

My second thought

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Categories
gadgets

Got my first Black Berry

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Today I picked up my first Black Berry: not the new fancy 3G Bold, but the good old 8820 from AT&T. My first impression with Blackberry is it’s decent, note I only played with the browser (Yahoo, Google), Goolge Mobile App, and web browse using Wi-Fi. Because I have tried out the Apple iPhone (at local Apple store) before, I had to admit the experience from BB and iPhone is different: iPhone web browsing is full fledged or desktop-like, while BB is more like WAP (text based, reminds me good old palm). To be fair comparing their web browsing is unfair to BB, because thats like asking Michael Jordan play baseball, not his strong suit.

Blackberry 8820 AT&T pic

Of course the main use of BB, is the email and phone capability, both of which I will have plenty opportunity to use later on.

On a side note, both Apple (Naqdaq: APPL) and Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM) stocks took big hit lately, as the broad market dived in this global financial crisis. Personally I think both AAPL and RIMM should emerge from the downturn stronger, along with Google, the new player in this mobile space with its G1 phone.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

My 401k strategy

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New 401k in Vanguard
Two weeks into working for new employer, today I am able to make my 401k selections from Vanguard. Sweet! It only took me a few minutes to make my choices:

(30%) S&P 500 index fund (VFINX)
(30%) Winsor II (VWNFX)
(40%) International value (VTRIX)

If there is one thing I learned from the recent market drop, that is: DO NOT chase the short term gains, pursue the long term gains instead. Along these lines, I pass over all the sexy names such as Dodge Cox (which lost quite a bit because of Fannie/AIG), Goldman. I am stay with good old Vanguard.

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Categories
Master Series

Former Miss HK talks about market, money & happiness

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The thing I like her talk is not only she properly called the market when HSI was at 31,000; but her attitude on money and happiness. She talked in Cantonese, which is foreign to me, but it has English caption 🙂

Credit goes to trader1688. Don’t go there for trading advice though.

Categories
Master Series

Buffett lost his touch?

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Berkshire Hathaway, a.k.a, Warren Buffett’s diversified holding company, reported a not-so-good quarter Friday after market close. Here are the results.

BRK berkshire 3Q 2008 pic
(full size pic here)

On the surface the result is not good. But I think the loss from derivatives is on the paper and will be temporary.

What do we learn from Buffett
Discipline, discipline, discipline (see the definition at Wesbster Dictionary). There is a new book about Buffett came out lately. Here is the link to Amazon. If you like, you can also help me out buying from my Amazon store. But this is not my point. My point is, among many attributes that contribute to the success of Oracle of Omaha, discicpline is probablly the most important.

Jason Zweig wrote an article about the secret behind Buffett’s success on WSJ. Here is the Chinese translation.

Buffett pretender award

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Categories
Stocks

My election night experience

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Was on the road on election night. I left the training class at 4:25 at North Little Rock and headed to the LIT airport. When I listened to NPR at around 5:30 PM, the poll in east coast was about to close. When I got to Atlanta for transfer, it was 8:30 PM EST, so I watched CNN and got to know PA became Obama land. One more flight later, about 10:45 PM when the MD-88 plane landed at STL, and I turned on the radio immediately. Obama won and was about to give acceptance speech.

Direct flight between STL and LIT
Yesterday I found out Southwest does offer a direct flight between STL and Little Rock (LIT). Oh well, the good thing is I read the CFA stuff during the delta flight. Otherwise I will have more time to waste on TV and Internet.

The market reaction
The stock market already had a big run before the Obama win. The stock market decided to hold two sell off days on Wed and Thurs. In a way, that signifies the challenges lies ahead for Obama administration. The expectation is so high, from health care, to economy/jobs, to Iraq, to his ethnic group (African American, though theoritically Obama is mixed race, half black half white).

It’s hard to do many of these in a tough economy.

The margin call

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Categories
Fun

Visit Little Rock Akansas

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At Little Rock now. One new thing about my new job is more travel. Because I did not have much travel in my past jobs, I am in the mood for more trips.

Little rock downtown pic
(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.

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

American income and spending growth, saving rate

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Happened to see this from CBS evening news today. The story is titled “Credit Crunch Takes New Face”, and it talks about the credit card crunch for average consumer.

“The average American has nine credit cards and owes more than $16,000, not including mortgages…This decade, real wages went up 4 percent while credit card debt jumped more than 75 percent.”

Savings rate
I also saw this from NBR at PBS, regarding the savings rate:
US: 1%
France and Germany: around 12-13%
Japan: 20%
China: 24%

Gas price
Happened to see the regular unlead gas is $2.29 per gallon at Shell station today. Time to get SUV again?

Categories
Business gadgets

GM, China 3G standard

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We all know GM is in trouble financially. Its stock (NYSE:GM) is around $6, a 50 years low. A lot pundits made fun of GM and its stock on TV or the web space. But I have a different feeling for GM. Among many reasons, I think of two:

1) In graduate school I worked in project for an automotive supplier (supplier for the Detroit big three GM, Ford and Chrysler). I went to Detroit and the Renaissance center twice because of the project. I still remember the GM engineer always asks tough technical questions.

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Categories
Saint Louis

Clinton, cheap gas, new job

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Week in review 10/20 to 10/25

Bill Clinton visits Kirkwood
President Bill Clinton visit St. Louis this past Monday (10/20), and we got a peek at the popular former president. I always admired Bill’s speaking skills. He did the job well: he was making the case for Obama. His main talking points are: on key issues like economy, healthcare and international relation, Obama is much better than McCain.

That’s the first time I saw a US president. We did bring the “My Life” book but did not get the signiture.

New job
From tomorrow I will have a new job, a technical consulting job which allows me work from home. Last I checked, the regular unlead gas price is $2.48 at the station near my home. Not much gas money saving from “working from home”.

Cheap gas and economy
Seriously, I think the cheap gas means two things:

1) The US economy is weakening quickly, US consumes 25% of world crude oil, when US reduces demand, the crude oil dropped from $147 to $60s in 3 months;

2) Relief to US consumers, it is reported one cent of gas price decline means $1 billion money saved for consumer. So from $4 a gallon (3 months ago) to $2.50 we already had a $150 billion economy stimulus.