Post-Financial Crisis Vocab
The birth of some new vocabulary as a result of the current financial crisis. Here's one,
" Zombie bank: A half-dead creature that lives off taxpayer handouts."
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" Zombie bank: A half-dead creature that lives off taxpayer handouts."
Global Warming
Is it a problem? Yes I believe it's a problem. Unless you agree with, say - Not a concern, least not in my generation.
There are more than a few proposed ways to ease global warming, or to lower the CO2 levels. Say by simulating a volcanic eruption, using planes to create a dust blanket to block out heat from the sun. Or using one of the latest approach, by fertilizing the ocean bed for algae to bloom and take out CO2 from the atmosphere.
It's all very creative mind you. But I have some reserves,
1) Are we and why do we have to keep playing God?
2) Are we essentially solving the root cause of the problem?
Or merely bandaging our problems. As always.
Ain't we all optimists?
I believe we are all generally optimistic. It surprise me sometime, say for someone who's been in an abusing situation to feel overwhelmed when they receive a little out of the ordinary; yet the tendency to take things for granted for those who has everything.
Things like,
The world economy is crap. The revised unemployment rate is probably 8%. When the result comes out at 8.1% - OMG the financial markets goes for a dive. If it's 7.9% - Yah! It's not so bad afterall.
Are we nuts? Truth betold. Unemployment should be around 4%. Full stop. Who cares if it's over or under forecasted when either way the outcome is just as crap?
I ain't complaining. I just preferred to be rational. Besides.. hope, is what keeps many people going. It's good to be hopeful, I think.
Scary as Hell
Actually let me take that back for I have never experienced Hell - I am however experiencing a financial crisis. Besides being scary and a bit intimidating, it's a mess, such a mess!
I won't go into any details in the much anticipated treasury plan which has been unveiled today, besides it's probably written in every paper/news articles imaginable with more point of views than you can handle to rid us of this mess - U.S. woos investors to buy toxic asset.
And if I must add my two cents worth? MARKETING 101 FAIL, FAIL!!
Using the term Toxic? Fail. The approach? Questionable.
Consider this,
How would you like to partner with Uncle Sam (consider how hard we tried to ban the bonuses from AIG employee, and for those that got away, we have now imposed a 90% tax rate on those bonuses almost overnight, so either way, we're getting the money back - win! er) to buy up TOXIC assets? It's cheap toxic assets?
No, thank you very much.
Afterthought:
I do support the new administration. The only thing I detest lately is the Big Brother approach.
Right Place, Right Time.
Life is, unfortunately unfair. Having all the right attributes is not a guarantee of success; being at the right place, at the right time just might. I say that, because..
1) Being the smartest doesn't mean you'll be the richest and the most successful - nods anyone?
2) The best product isn't necessary the best seller - Note the QWERTY keyboard design which triumph over the sequential A-Z keyboard design. Why? It's the outcome of an attempt to reduce the typebar clash frequency in the old typewriter design at the time, which is probably inapplicable in today's keyboard design.
As for my most recent personal observations:
I have a fishtank with two axolotls and two freshwater mussels in it - The axolotl eats like a pig creating a mess with every munch. The mussel's food source comes from the resulting debris. Win-win.
The mussels will at times migrate across the tank a bit painfully and slowly by limping with their foot muscle, however impressive consider how far they can travel (when they want to).
This however, is not a guarantee that they will be moving closest to the food source which is where the axolotls will be creating the biggest mess no matter how hard they try - they probably did an educated guess of where I normally feed my axolotls. Nice try though, but impossible.
In this case. The livelihoods of my mussels are virtually up to chance no? Likewise of being at the right place at the right time, everytime.
Footnote:
Both my axolotls and freshwater mussels are extinct/endangered to start with - I played god and have been feeding them really well. The above is merely an amusing observation of the life of a mussel.
Future Generation Who?
There's only one planet with a finite amount of resources, while the human population continues to grow; sometimes I wonder if it's possible to conserve sufficient resources to be divided amongst the next generation and beyond. Even if we try hard enough, we know the simple truth - is not. So what happens when we're close to running out of resources?
Is it a matter of..
1) Survival of the fittest? So what will happen to the "weaklings" and the unlucky ones?
2) Meat & vegetables became a luxury item. The poor shall feast on vitamins and starch. If, they're lucky.
3) Let's move to another planet? (I would actually discount this option and focus on NOW to be honest)
4) Continue being in denial. What can't hurt you at the moment can't be real right?
5) Not a consideration - at least for our generation.
6) Maybe, a meteor might hit earth again and it's all over. So let's just continue and enjoy life while we can.
7) Don't ask me.
Footnote:
The recent scenes from the recession worries me. So what if this recession ends up being a depression, and these people won't be able to find jobs for the next 5 - 10 years? What will they do? Where will they live?
For sure, these people who are probably now accustomed to an office job and BigMacs, so they won't be starting from scratch anytime soon and plant rice or potatoes, besides.. land value has appreciated to such a point that it is hardly affordable anymore unlike the old days. Or dare I say, the ex-Depression in the 1920s.
Have we got so caught up in modern life that we have exhausted our options but one? Superman politicians.
The Fisherman
One of my directors gave a speech one day with this closing story about a fisherman. Until today I still do not understand why he told us this story, because it in a way inspired me to quit - that was 10 years ago. I may never understand why, but I have now understood it's meaning.
One day a businessman visited a fishing village. He saw this very talented fisherman and so he approached him and said, "wow, you're so good at it. Why don't you set-up your own fishing business, grow it into a factory, buy more fishing boats so you can enjoy life and fish everyday!", the fisherman, puzzled and said, "but.. that's exactly what am doing now?"
Patience and Consistent
As cheesy as it sound, but one of the most valuable things that experience taught me is - Patience, and being consistent.
Like a jack of all trade takeaway that makes everything from springrolls to hamburgers will never be as successful as say a pizza shop that only makes pizzas.
And do you know that if you patiently save $1 a day with your bank consistently crediting you 5% interest everyday, within a year your savings will reach $1 trillion? Now of course your bank won't be so dumb to credit you interest everyday, but such is the law of compounding, in this case interest.
So goes the saying, do one thing, and do it well.
Oh ya, remember the turtle and the hare story?
Beware of Fat Salaries
Well, it's okay to have a fat salary more than you deserve, but pray to god that you will, never, ever, stuff up; least not with other people's money. Repeat - not with other people's money.
Well it's not the end of the world if you do either, just be prepared - AIG example.
Risks
Yum yum, not. That should absolutely not be the first thought that we conjure up when we think about risk, hell no, and no again.
I was just thinking about risks today. How to go about maximising X while minimising Y.
A balancing act, most of the time conscious, but we tend to do it subconsciously. Like how to maximise pleasure by eating say doughnuts, while trying to minimise trans-fat. Er, can't win, can you.
This balancing act is like demonstrating the law of nature over and over, like,
General - You give what you get.
Science - Matter can neither be created nor destroyed.
Management - Garbage in, Garbage out.
So what am I saying. Although you can't defy the law of nature, but you can alter it's probability/chance? I am tempted to think so.
Well if getting a MBA won't guarantee you a good life, fame, position, money; then, why bother? Don't ask me. Many people are still trying. But if you ask me, I think it merely increases you chance in getting whatever you want, and no, it is absolutely not a guarantee. Likewise with many things in life.
Words are like Guns
" It's not what you say, it's how you say it"
Unfortunately being the more junior person that I am at the time, I do have to send people into mild panics to get things done, thus instead of calling it a challenge, no, I called it a disaster. With all due respect.
I think media enjoys this attention too like no tomorrow. Like this article: Australian refused of insurance because of poor genes. I don't think there's anything wrong with that statement, we do that ALL the time, but somehow it just annoys me enough to click and read it.
Upcoming Beer Festival
The best thing since marmite on toast - a NEW ZEALAND BEER FESTIVAL! All well and good. But it just makes me wonder why the $25 entrance fee, many beer drinkers would probably be happy getting pissed spending that amount at any random bar instead. Unless unless..
The Smart & Arrogant
Well done again Pat Law.
For those who owns a product and wonder why it sucked, get some straight forward advice here:
Toastmaster-Lite
Actually no. But this does seemed like a much lighter version of it - Dear Speakers.
I clearly remembered myself being guilty of the first point - speaking to the screen this one time, partly because my team member wasn't prepared to give his speech, and he kept looking at me hinting, "DO SOMETHING". Like come on, as if I can do any better UNPREPARED.
Extinction what?
Onion post's not-too-serious quick spin on extinction.
As for me, I just enjoyed the picture next to the post.
My 1D Brain
For example, things like this will lost me completely: 9. While pouring syrup on your Eggo waffles, you note that you missed a few voxels. Okay that's not the full story. After an incident in my design class, I realised that I struggled to picture 3-D images while the rest drew away, tragic.
Space Travel
Something on National Geography channel jolted my memory - Richard Branson's Space Program - Virgin Galactic. From memory.. when I first read of it in 2005, it was scheduled to launch this year 2009 isn't? Anyway, as I looked it up today, it says the below. Unlike I care really.. I really hate flying.
" Virgin Galactic expects to be the first company to provide sub-orbital flights to the general public (and certainly the best!) but does not regard itself as being in a race . We have no absolute or forced deadlines for launch, made possible by the fact that we are fully and independently funded by Sir Richard Branson and the Virgin Group"
Domain Names - remind me not
Where was I spending my $10, $20 here and there 10 years ago? I seriously have no idea. But at least I do know someone who has been buying up domain names at the time. He hasn't made $5M no, someone else did, lucky buggers.
The 80/20 Rule
Not sure about you, but I am a believer of the 80/20 rule - Life's not perfect and you can't fix everything. By targeting 20% of the issues (opportunities), is probably enough to fix (gain) 80% of your outcomes.
I once lead a project that requires me to help "brainstorm" and solve the issues which are causing a crap output - trust me, try avoid being a facilitator for such projects. A whopping 140+ reasons came up as to why everything is so crap and not working. But on further analysis, only one, at most three was the "real problem", by targeting those and ignoring the rest, we achieved our objectives. Case Closed.
The Coffee Hit
Some reasons as to why I enjoy coffee, like,
The numbing effect of caffeine, first thing in the morning; it almost ensure that I don't whinge and whine about the next crap thing that dawn in my life, because I am numb, until it gives me a headache..
That first sip, oh-so-BITTER!! It helps remind me that real life is probably not-so-bitter afterall. I stop thinking about escape.
Ged-It
" The best way to pursue happiness is to pursue something else."
Somehow I find this quote funny. It's true I know, but sometimes I fall prey to living the "happily ever after" scenarios in my mind that I am blind to alternatives.. Or I just preferred it that way.
p/s The picture is from Blankanvas. I really liked it. Except I should first ask for permission to use. Sorry!
Once An Engineer
I enjoyed studying being an engineer. Being good at science and at one point home running all the science awards at highschool, I was convinced - until I reached University.
There are many possible reasons and scenarios as to why I didn't end up as a top engineer scientist, for example,
1) my first share market success at age 19 spoilt me, without considering the subsequent failures..
2) my first engineering maths modeling class requires me to model how an egg cooks in a pan - I thought it was a joke.
3) I realised that being where I am and where I am going, I will never be able to afford my dream waterfront apartment, unless I am as smart as Steven Chu.
4) I can never turn up before 8am at work, while my director, manager, and peers would all be there greeting me, "good morning". It's embarrassing.
Tragic? No. Because I've learnt to disagree with "what ifs", and if I do, I do something about it.
Computer Darlings
Imagine waking up in the morning having your computer greeting you with, "good morning dear", except the computer voice technology as the author has described it, "... sounds like a dyslexic robot who spent his formative years in Eastern Europe." Eeeeekkkkksss....
If you're interested in reading the rundown on the development of Computer Voice Technology - read here.
As for my version as to why computer voices still don't sound human? Because it doesn't have a vocal cord! Har har.
"But we're still a long way from a computer being able to understand that when an albino points a pistol at you, you're supposed to scream." (WTH?!)
"But we're still a long way from a computer being able to understand that when an albino points a pistol at you, you're supposed to scream." (WTH?!)
I have Opinions
I am naturally optimistic (or I'd like to believe), sometimes tolerant, like puzzling people around me as to why I didn't honk at that suicidal-very-annoying driver. But it's true, that the older I get, the more I find myself becoming less tolerant, and by that I don't mean I have been using my honk more, but I realised that my opinions have gotten stronger. This is actually depressing in a way, because it reminds me of a Being 20 something article I read ages ago - yes, when I WAS 20 something.
" Your Opinions have gotten stronger. You see what others are doing and find yourself judging more than usual because suddenly you realize that you have certain boundaries in your life and are constantly adding things to your list of what is acceptable and what isn't."
And I certainly detest reading articles as such - that the US will soon collapse while Russia and China should in fact create a new currency and take over. Er, excuse me?
The Predictable Conscious
I use predictable, because it is. The conscious is good at putting things together and then making sense of them, when it doesn't make sense it struggles. 1 + 1 = 2.
Say,
One of the coolest things that my conscious did is having consciously pushed myself off the bungee bridge "I paid $120 for this! MUST JUMP!", and no I didn't get PUSHED off the bridge thank you very much, I jumped.
As I free fall, my conscious couldn't make sense of the fear and the subsequent what to do to save myself, so it ABANDONED me - I blanked out. All I remember seeing was sky blue (water beneath the bridge), until I hit the water and woke up.
Hello Subconscious
I have a theory, a belief about the subconscious. The part of you that you hardly know, except when it comes out to saves your asses when the "knows it all" conscious mind is too slow to react.
The conscious processes and make all your decisions - except maybe impulses, as impulses do lead to outcomes such as "what the hell have I just done/bought???!!!". But my point is, the conscious mind is like the big brother that likes to prevent screw-ups.
The subconscious, is how you "bounce" away against a falling knife, is how you react while drowning, even sometimes an instinct to love/hate someone even when you don't know the person. Like an emergency button that activates and overwrites the conscious brain, when required (is. when the conscious brain is OBVIOUSLY too slow to THINK)
The thing is, we hardly know the subconscious. Maybe it's a part of us that we don't really want to know? It does come out and play, mostly in your dreams while your conscious is asleep, and also when your conscious brain is drunk beyond conscious, duh; so you may end up wallowing in tears, calling your ex at 2am in the morning? Yes, how embarrassing.
However, I believe deep down inside your subconscious, are hidden things that you wouldn't normally show the outside world, things that you felt so deep inside that you can never express, it's your deepest hopes and fears. Who knows, it could be the gateway to really understand the motivation behind, you.
Focus on the Winners
I am no expert on bailouts, like technically who should die and who should live in corporate history. But I do have an opinion, and some common sense.
Work taught me to focus on the winners. Be it your strength, your investments and maybe one day your employees. All too often we focus on what's not working, really.
I was told years ago of some work statistics, that an average of 10% of the employees are the movers and shakers of the company, the other 80% supports the company, as for the rest of the 10%? Practically, it makes no difference whether if they are there or not.
It's cruel yes. So the tendency to focus on the 10% that is getting us nowhere - the "must fix what is not working".
Patient, everyone gets a Bailout
Around 24 hours after AIG announced the largest corporate lost in US history, a $30B bailout is on it's way, how efficient.
But how much is too much though?
Why do taxpayers have to keep paying for someone else's' mistakes?
When do you put your foot down and let your kids fall and try again? And if they can't make it? Tough.
Well, maybe this one is different. But Citibank was bailed-out around 20 years ago, now we are bailing out Citibank again. You be the judge.
Taboo Subjects
Relax, I am merely posting questions. Besides.. the subject of taboo is relative isn't? What's taboo to me, might not be taboo to you.
Starting with the first random one that came to mind,
1) Being an engineer myself, I can understand how unaccountable things can be taboo and unthinkable. Like not being able to work out why the two space craft Pioneer 10 and 11 launched by NASA are not where they are supposed to be.
"These missions, launched in 1972 and 1973, have covered hundreds of millions of kilometers, heading toward the edge of our solar system. But something is holding them back. Each year, they fall behind in their projected travel by about 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles)."
OMG!
2) And do you know that approx. 2,000 years ago, Pompeii, Italy has brothels that promote both straight and gay sex? Well it just doesn't seem like sex trade and sexual preference is a problem back then, why now?
3) It scares me sometime to think that I behave like me because I am; like a pigeon that dance the dance during mating season, and knowing how to knit a nest without seeing one being done before - it's all hard wired, being another specie on earth, albeit the most dominant specie. Depressing? Read item 11. Free Will - Your Decisions Are Not Your Own.
Why do Whales Beach?
Nearly 200 whales and dolphins stranded themselves yesterday on Tasmania's King Island. It puzzles me as to why whales (or dolphins) would beach themselves, it really doesn't make sense to me.
Like do they not know that the water's getting too shallow for their fat bodies, and that without water they are going to collapse under their own weight? Was it a mass protest? Or do they have a stupid whale leader who's leading them astray, like the dumb leading the dumber?
Unknown.
I suppose there will always be unsolved mysteries - like these. Constantly challenging our intelligence and existence..
Fund Managers & Retirement
While at work, and rather than frequently entertaining my before and after reactions trying to follow the share market,
Before a meeting: "Ooo, looking good, might buy/sell this later"
2 hours later.
After a meeting: "#)*%&@#!*#*!!!"
So, I hired fund managers to manage some of my money. This is in addition to the government driven retirement schemes.
Recently I just received a letter from my fund manager telling me how half my money is gone. I am not kidding you - halved. But seeing that the Dows and subsequent worldwide indexes are mostly halved (no I am not finding reasons to forgive you), makes me think that I might as well buy the whole index myself than to rely on your so call "expertise" to perform in par if not worst than the market, at least that will save me management fees that you OBVIOUSLY don't deserve.
Chances are.. your retirement funds are actually invested with these people - Fund Managers. I am not saying that you should fire your fund managers, I am suggesting that if your fund manager is as crap as mine, yes fire them and find a better one.
Rockfishing
Rockfishing simply mean you fish at the rocks rather than paying a fortune to go on a boat. You know, I start to believe that everyone has their own little reasons to rockfish.
Imagine sitting at the rocks, waiting for 3 - 6 hours either catching one snapper, or one small one where you have to chuck back, or simply catching NOTHING. Anyone would know it's hardly worth the effort. Besides, the bait alone would probably have cost more than the fish itself.
I enjoy fishing. I guess it gives me a reason to sit in front of the waters for sometimes up to 3 hours, starring away without people judging me - like wondering if I just got dumped, declared bankrupt, or got kicked out of home. Having a fishing rod simply communicate to others that I am fishing, even when I am not.
In fact, I gave up fishing 20 years ago. But okay.. I don't mind fresh sashimi either.
Umm AIG, where's the money?
AIG today reported, probably the latest corporate loss in US history - A whooping $61.7B quarterly loss!
Asked about how they managed to loss THAT much money, that's approx. $0.5M a minute!!!
Apparently in their financial statement somewhere you will read, " The complexity of these securities and a slump in trading activity have made them tricky to value". Right.. you have no idea DO YOU?!
Think you'd hit Rockbottom?
Dow Jones has finally hit a new low of lower than 7,000 points today - it broke that 7,000 barrier, ops.
Why's it important? Because 7,000 is a supporting level at it's current state, also representing a whooping 50% discount from it's high of just under 14,000 points.
It's the reverse concept of pricing your goods at $10.99 versus $9.99 versus $8.99. You'll find a huge volume pick up if you drop the price from $10.99 to $9.99, but less and less so as you drop it towards $8.99... and beyond... until people believe it's another rockbottom bargain, yet again.
Have a dream before you die
I read about an oldish wine ambassador (years ago) who, instead of totally agreeing with "life's too short to drink bad wine", he believes that life's simply too short to enjoy wine.
So he decided there and then to drink a bottle of wine each day until he dies - which works out to be about 10,000 bottles left. Way you go.
Meet the Wall Street Killer
I can understand how that would work and be so convincing at the same time. We all hate risks and unknowns to certain extents. If there's a formula that answers all your (trading in this case) mysteries, wouldn't you be tempted to try? to rely on it? to believe it? Until it goes horribly wrong of course.
It's an interesting looking formula yes (without studying it in detail), but it's like believing that it's possible to model emotional love by giving an index to each item like dating frequency, wealth, intelligence, pissing-me-off factor and modelling them into a smart looking formula that proves right a few times - you must be nuts.
Consistent (Stick to your plans)
In hindsight, so often we think of "only ifs". Such a dreadful feeling.. only if..
Today and probably the first time I read of Warren Buffett admitting that he did some dumb things in investments - *JAW DROP*. Warren Buffett, one of the world's most successful investor trading shares that you and I can access, and also the world's richest person (or sometimes second, besides the point). It came as a surprise to me that he admitted to a dreadful mistake in one of his investments last year - he invested in this oil company when oil was at it's peak.
So maybe I shouldn't feel so bad afterall, I did the same thing. But no, I condemned myself. I sold most of my shares when it was maybe 10 - 20% from it's peak (prior to the crash) making a nice profit, except then fear and greed got the better of me - I bought back. That 10 - 20% subsequent rise proved enough to stray me from my plans. Stupid immature idiot.
But come on, that's just me. As for Warren Buffett, being a value investor and has ALWAYS been consistent in his approach, I wonder what went wrong..
Drafts only after 6pm
I sometimes work late (or used to), but I have a habit of preferring not to reply work emails after 6pm. I keep the replies as drafts.
Only because my home-time excitement, or after-work exhaustion is likely to get the better of me leading to unrealistic replies such as, "yes of course you genius!" or "no you dumb thing, get a life!"
So I've decided to leave the send button alone.
This, unfortunately doesn't stack well against the rules of office politics unless you're in support. Truth is important, but unfortunately perception is what matters.
Fear and Greed
Besides Relationships and Money, I also believe that one of our other prime motivator is Fear and Greed, an emotional response that enable us to make decisions that hopefully make us better off.
Yes relationships are important, and yes having money is good. But how do you know when enough is enough?
Everyone wants to be loved (greed) and less of a broken heart (fear). So some will give more, some will give less. We're all different.
Money, is the same thing. You certainly wouldn't gamble all your money away at the casino, nor on a lotto ticket. However, if I tell you that this set of numbers is bound to win first prize, you would, so long as you know I am not lying.
Funnily enough. Research also shows that patients with prefrontal brain damage (the area that controls social emotions) are incapable of making decisions, for there will also be no fear, and no greed; there's no motivation. Which is why I believe emotions exist for a reason, use it, and use it well.
Tomato vs Tomato
Do you know that the nutritional value of commercially grown tomatos are much lower than home grown tomatos? I was in shock horror when I first read of it, and in denial of my probably less viable attempt in building a healthier lifestyle without artificial means like Vit Cs, for example.
Batteries, the next big thing?
According to the Energy Info Administration, 70% of the oil is consumed for transport in the States. Being the largest economy in the world.. well let's just leave it at that.
Oil, being an exhaustible PLUS unreliable resource (note the latest crash in price from approx. $140 per barrel to now $30 in less than 1 year - getting cheap is one thing, throwing the economy into disarray is another!!), it makes sense to be able to replace it with something else, like battery cars.
Besides, choice is good, real good. What happened the last time when oil went up to $140 per barrel? Life didn't stop there did it, you probably unwillingly paid the extras at the pumps anyway.
For those who got burnt badly with oil, shall we look to batteries being the next big thing?
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