Category: Life

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Life

Happy Thanksgiving

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from the “Show me state” 😀

Obviously this is not a good year in terms of economy, we are all affected by the recession (and high unemployment rate) in some way. Last I heard, 1 out 4 mortgages in the US are under-water (yours truely got to be in the lucky 25% in this case).

But there are still many things to be thankful for, e.g., about 90% of the people (who want to work) still got jobs; thanks to Bernanke and Geithener, we are not getting Great Depression 2.0 (we are getting Great Recession instead); the stock market actually rebounded significantly (aka most of 401k got back to where it was a year ago, provided we did not jump in and jump out in the wrong time), more importantly credit market got new life (again thanks to B&G).

We still got Macy’s Parade. We still eat Turkey (oh well, although President Obama pardoned one as a symbolic move). We still got black Friday, although with the web we can do that online (pretty much).

Last but not least, we will have a baby.

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Life Life Tips

A tragedy related to iPhone

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(CNET) Chinese authorities probe iPhone worker’s death

(PCWorld) iPhone Suicide Case Spotlights Tech’s Dark Side

Apparently many foreign media can not understand why a guy will jump off the building just because the iPhone he was in charge went missing? Well, it appears to me there are two factors:

1) It’s very very hard to get a good job for new graduates in China these days. Thus they join Foxconn, the “sweater shop” if you will. Not much rights once you join that shop. I suggest my western friends go there once and get some real world experience on sweater shop before express their views.

2) He was tortured. Again remember Foxconn is a “sweater shop” happens making iPhone.

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Life

Is western media biased?

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Well, yes or no. As with many things in life, there are honest (at least try to be honest) western media outlets, such as NPR and PBS; and there are some biased ones, mostly for profit media, such as CNN, and even WSJ which is a business newspaper. Why is that? The simple reason is the media has to please its audience (in the case of CNN, it’s US and western audience), to get viewership and the advertising dollar (which is not an easy thing esp. in this economy).

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Life video

Remembering Michael

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This Is It, the offiical Ad/Promo video of the scheduled London concert (YouTube link)

Beat it (YouTube).

More videos (powered by YouTube, complied by Trader1688).

Pictures: Michael Jackson Life and Times by Life Magazine.

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Economy Life

GM, Jay Leno

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GM is going to file bankrupcy. This was not expected 6 months ago. But it’s a reality now. Many people blame the UAW, the management for the problems at GM, which I think only tells part of the story. GM was doing fine after Sept 11, remember the 0% “Keep America rolling” Ad campaign? (Paula Gardner opinion, Nov 20, 2008 ) The main problem, I think, is GM increasingly dump cars like cabbage, while trying to make money from the finance division (GMAC). This business model is not sustainable because it’s mostly relying on cheap credit (and arguably GM car buyers have worse cosumer credit compared to foreign make buyers). When credit dried up after Lehman bankrupcy last fall, GM’s car sales plummeted.

Keep America Rolling GM Ad Sept 11

Jay Leno

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Life

Thanksgivings and Black Friday thoughts

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The Indian Mumbai incident caught a lot attention these two days (started on Wednsday Nov. 27 10 PM Indian time). Obviously this is extra-ordinary and tragic event (there are no winners). But I would like to share two story I heard yesterday and today, both of which are much closer to our daily lives.

I heard this one from a caller at NPR Talk of Nation, the caller told an old story: about 30 years ago, she was a single mom with two kids, someone leaves a basket of things (from food to toys) every month to her doorstep. Obviously that gift helped her and her kids tremendously during that time. After she finished college and got a better job, she found out the anonymous giver from local grocery store and then she asked the giver to find another needy family: she started to do the same thing for the other family. It’s like a relay of giving.

Another story I heard today. We all know today is Black Friday, and there are many bargain hunters in stores. Yours truely had first hand experience at local Best Buy store (just stop by check out things), and the crowd is big as usual, which make me think are we really in recession? Anyway, this is the story caught my attention: A worker died after being trampled and a woman miscarried when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island Wal-Mart Friday morning, witnesses said. (Source: NY Daily News). This is just insane. What (if anything) is more precious than someone’s life? Another sad thing is: who can the victim family/friends blame for? All the people who step over the victim?

If I had some interest looking for deals today, suddenly I lost all of it…

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Life

Most expensive lunch?

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This is probablly the most expensive lunch: Chinese fund manager Zhao Dan Yang won the Buffett lunch bid for $2.1 million (International Herald Tribune). The proceeds benifit Glide foundation, a San Francisco based charity formerly supported by Warren Buffett former wife Susan Buffett (Susan passed away in 2005?).

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).

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Life

Remembering Tim Russert

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Don’t know exactly when I learned about Tim, most likely the Bush-Gore 2000 election. But I do remember watching Tim at Meet the Press on Sunday mornings after that.

Tim Russert Meet the Press pic
(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.

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Life

At Jackson WY

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Finanlly I got the free Wifi here at Jackson, WY, the foot hill town of Grand Teton National Park. The Anvil hotel has free Internet, which is better than the fees starting from $9.95 at Hilton at SLC.

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.

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Life

Week in review 060108 to 060708

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CFA level I exam
It’s here. I have already sharpened the H2B pencils; prepared the backup battery for calculator. I will check out the test place today. Tomorrow I am going to spend the whole day for the test.

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

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