Via YouTube.
It seems the card companies are not happy. Today I saw a big drop of stocks of American Express (NYSE: AXP), Capital One (NYSE: COF). Are the golden days of credit card industry over? We shall see.
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Employer review web sites
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Finding a job is hard these days, amid this global economy recession. But I think this does not mean we don’t evaluate our employers before accepting an offer. Here are two useful sites for job seekers: bewww.net (China) and glassdoor.com.
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Wifi hot spots and plan
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Mobile broadband (3G) is getting popular these days, but for most people (esp. consumers) that’s still a bit too expensive. At this time I think the good old Wifi is more suitable for me and many working from home (Starbucks, Panera Bread, Borders, Barnes Noble, or McDonald) type.
I used to use Free Wifi at Panera/St. Louis Bread Co. But “free” usually comes with a price, such as the new policy of “limit to 30 minutes use” between 11 AM to 2 PM. I have used two Wifi plan so far, T-mobile hotspot (Borders) and Boingo (many airports, Starbucks, McDonald). Let me compare those two plans:
Cost: T-mobile $19.99 per month for everyone ($9.99 for T-mobile wireless users, like me); Boingo costs $9.99 per month (US)
Coverage: Boingo wins this one because it is available in most Starbucks, McDonald, and airports. T-mobile hotspot is available in Borders bookstore, and it has a free roaming agreement with Starbucks (using AT&T Wifi), but I got some connection problem in one of my two visits to Starbucks. Of course the downside of Starbucks and McDonald is it’s more noisy than Borders (usually).
BTW, I found the iPhone Wifi Finder to be cool.
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Buffett bets on Wells, US Bancorp
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From Yahoo Tech-ticker.
I don’t know about Wells, but I have US Bancorp shares (NYSE: USB). The stock appears expensive if you look at the price book ratio, which is a common metric to measure bank stocks. But USB is a very different bank compared to others, it’s a conservative lender. Since I opened my checking account with USB a few weeks ago, I had opportunity to visit the branch, it’s clean, and looks much sharp then the Bank of America branches I visited. Maybe, USB could get some deposit base from B of A, amid all the controversies around B of A. The USB stock was obviously knocked down last week due to secondary offering (raise money to repay TARP, or to get out of TRAP to be more precise). Today it got a nice bump from Buffett endorsement.
Reference: gurufocus Buffett buy.
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(Update 2, May 20) Bought it back, looks like it has more room to run 🙂
(Update May 19) Sold out my WX positions. I had a second thought on the stock.
(Original) Formerly Wuxi Pharma Tech, the name change was to reflect the US based Apptec acquisition a year ago.
I have bought and sold WX a few times since its IPO in 2007 (Wuxi Pharma Tech looking good; Got some WX again; Wuxi Pharma continues to drop). I sold out my WX position last Sept. (shortly before Lehman’s fall). I decided to got back some WX again about 10 days ago. A few things have changed since last update:
1) Since Wuxi cancelled the secondary offering last May, the selling shareholder UOB sold shares to private equity firm Warburg Pincus.
2) WX had to wrote down a large portion of good will because buying Apptec at the wrong time (pulled trigger too earlier).
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I knew about Huntsman (the company) because of last year’s private equity back out from announced acquisition. And I knew Jon Huntsman Sr. found Huntsman Cancer Institute, besides founding the Huntsman chemical company. I didn’t know Jon Huntsman Jr. is a moderate (pragmatic) republican, and he and his wife has adopted a baby girl from China.
A good sign for China and US relationship.
Video from AP (via YouTube)
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Simple phone, not smart phone
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I found I just need a simple phone for my own use. Like this T-mobile Nokia 1661.
Yesterday I received my Nokia 1661 (ordered in the weekend, the modern logistics by UPS/Fedex is amazing), and I like its FM radio feature !!!
Blackberry is for people who needs to check email after regular work hour, yours truely is one of those people. I hope I can get away from BB one day.
A lot of times “simple is good”. I know my wife only uses her iPhone as dictionary, in addtion to “email checker”. Guess those iPhone App ads. on CNBC, WSJ and Economist magazine are not effective for her.
Why we need Blackberry and iPhone?
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It’s payback time. Now that “green shoots” are everywhere, many banks, big or small, want to return the TARP money. It seems to me this government effort rescuing the financial system is pretty much like miracle, only 6 months ago, I remember it was like the sky was falling. Now everyone is healthy, at least healthy enough to get government out of the board room. But there are a few twists on returning TARP money.
1) Returning money is not as easy as getting it (AP news). Paulson pretty much forced the big banks to take the money. As to return, the banks have to prove they can stand alone (without the help from government). One example of standalone means they can issue debt without FDIC gurantee.
2) Also, the government faces a choice of how to deal with the money being returned? I have not read the original bill, but I can fully understand the congress, and Paulson & associates did not expect the money being returned that fast, they probably did not expect the money being returned at the time. Now Mr. Geithner is act in ad hoc way again, he is saying the money can go back to community bank (AP news again). But, with the recent stigma attached to the TARP, and pending government intervention on executive compensation, who would want to take money from the Uncle Sam???
PS, the T-mobile Nokia 1661 arrived. I immediately slip my current T-mobile SIM card, and it worked. More interestingly, the FM radio works.
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Is somebody watching Federal Reserve?
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Leaving the Citi
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I mean the Citi Bank checking account. A few years ago I opened Citi Checking account online, mainly to take advantage of a $150 offer (if I do direct deposit) or keep balance at certain level (which is $1,500). A few months ago, I switched job, and in the process did not set up the direct deposit for Citi. Citi did not access the monthly charge initially until May 7, they put up $9.50 monthly service charge. Since I no longer need the account, and there is no Citi bank branch here in St. Louis, I went ahead, called the custmer representative (who is in India), and closed the account.