Money Mind

Pok Kai Face

2010-04-19T00:30:00.002+08:00

Capitalism at Work

2010-03-25T19:26:00.000+08:00

The numbers behind China

2010-03-24T17:46:00.002+08:00

Via: Online Schools

Don't be overconfident when it comes to investing

2010-03-22T18:08:00.000+08:00

Overconfidence is a very serious problem, but you probably don’t think it affects you. That’s the tricky thing with overconfidence: the people who are most overconfident are the ones least likely to recognize it. We tend to think of it as someone else’s problem.

When it comes to investing, however, we all have a problem.

As we become more and more confident we become willing to take on more and more risk. Why? We start seeing risky behavior as, well, less risky. But the reality is that as the level of overconfidence increases, the cost of our mistakes increase as well.

The classic example is Long Term Capital Management. A hedge fund run by extremely smart people (Nobel Prize winners in fact) ended up losing $3 billion in 1998 and was bailed out by a group led by the New York Fed. The geniuses at Long Term were positive that the most they could ever lose in a single day was $35 million, and then on Aug. 21 they lost $553 million.

Consider more recent events. Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve for 19 years, could do no wrong, and his overconfidence was supported by four presidents. Mr. Greenspan’s faith in his models contributed (some say it caused) the worst market crash since the Great Depression. In October 2008, Mr. Greenspan admitted to Congress that he was “shocked” when the model he had used confidently for over 40 years turned out to be “flawed.”

obviously very sian

Or Temasek Holdings, who reported a lost of S$40 billion, during the quarter ending Mar 09. A building full of scholars could possibly do no wrong right?

This is a big issue. It affects Nobel Prize winners, Fed chairmen, scholars and individual investors as we make allocation decisions in our CPF Investment Schemes.

But we can do something about it. We need to recognize that we’re not as smart as we think we are. In fact, the smartest investors (and frankly the smartest financial advisers) are the ones that acknowledge that they’re vulnerable.

The smartest people in the world aren't those who know the most; but those who know what they don't know.

So the next time you’re about to make an investment decision because you’re sure you’re right, take the time to have what I call the Overconfidence Conversation. Find a friend, spouse, partner or financial planner you trust and walk them through your answers to the following questions:

1) If I make this change and I am right, what impact will it have on my life?

2) What impact will it have if I’m wrong?

Considering the consequences of being wrong might lead you to make more careful decisions and to a greater appreciation of the enormous potential costs.

Singapore University and Polytechnic Costs

2010-03-22T02:51:00.000+08:00

Below shows the chart of tertiary education in Singapore. Looking at the data, I am surprised of some of the difference, mainly SMU and Temasek. SMU's fees are slightly steeper but I guess that's the price of having a campus right in the middle of the CBD. But I have no idea why Temasek Poly is cheaper, considering Republic Poly is the newer, less established poly.

- The costs are projected to increase at the rate of 5% per annum.

- The fees are calculated based on the average fees for the Lab and Non-Lab based courses.

- This document is based on data provided by Jinisis. It is intended for information purpose only and does not constitute financial advice or recommendation.

- Information is accurate at time of production on 18 January 2010.

Everything has a price

2010-03-21T16:04:00.000+08:00

Investing in Gold

2010-03-11T15:47:00.000+08:00

The expression “as good as gold” suggests that gold is something of a sure thing when it comes to investments. But, while gold and other commodities remain a solid investment choice, when it comes to investing there’s no such thing as a sure thing. The trick to investing in gold is knowing the difference between gold and other asset classes; stocks, bonds, real-estate, even cold hard cash.

Putting a Value on Gold

Let’s start with its value or, as with so many things, its perceived value. Valuing gold is a tricky thing. Without earnings or cash flow (which is the most commonly used metric in valuing a company and its stock) it can be tough to identify the appropriate valuation of gold. How many dollars should an ounce of gold be worth? The spot price is simply dependent on the market forces of buyers and sellers; therefore, for the price to increase, you need more buyers than sellers. So rather than speculating, consider the following approach.

Gold as Insurance

Don’t trade gold. Moving in and out of a gold position, like many do with stocks is not a smart strategy. Gold, historically, is very volatile and has erratic movements in its spot price. Attempting to guess short-term price movements is near impossible.

The right way to view gold is as insurance. The beautiful thing about gold is that it is very tough to manipulate its price, especially over time. Stocks, bonds, and even currencies can be manipulated by political powers through monetary policy and government action. Gold will keep its value through a wide range of economic scenarios which is one reason it is so appealing during an economic downturn such as the one we are currently suffering through. As such, it can be held in order to insure against risks to your other assets. So, what are the risks?

The number one risk that you should be prepared for is the loss of purchasing power of your currency. Typically this happens whenever the government attempts to manipulate the economy in some way. The latest attempt to “fix” the struggling economy has only delayed the inevitable by increasing the national debt. The influx of cash from the economic stimulus package needs to be paid for somehow. And the usual result of this kind of spending spree is a debasement of the currency and/or inflation. When inflation occurs, your dollars are worth less. Put in layman’s terms, it is akin to attempting to dig yourself out of a hole. More debt creation will not result in getting us out of debt. So how can you protect yourself against this risk? You need insurance.

Now, just like you should not put all your eggs in one basket for a specific stock, you should not be betting the farm on an increase in the price of gold either. Liquidating all of your assets and buying gold would be a little extreme. Instead, insure your assets and your purchasing power by allocating a percentage of your assets in precious metals such as gold. Most experts recommend allocating somewhere in the range of 10%-30% of your assets. If you’re new to the gold game, start with 10%.

How to Buy and Own Gold

Ain’t nothing like the real thing baby. Part of your gold allocation should be in real, physical gold that is in your possession. You can purchase gold coins or bullion from precious metal dealers. Obviously, you will need to give good thought to where and how you will store your gold and protect it from theft or loss. Sorry, Fort Knox is not an option.

You can also consider buying ETFs that attempt to track the spot price of gold. You can purchase these ETFs (such as GLD) like any other stock through your brokerage account.

If you’re concerned that the price of gold has already risen considerably over the previous years (which it has), consider dollar cost averaging into the appropriate size position that you wish to hold. Buy a fixed number of gold coins each month or every couple months. This will help prevent buying all of your gold at one time which might be at a relatively high price.

Speculating on the price of gold can be as risky as any other form of investment. Instead, use it as a hedge against inflation and a way to gain additional diversification. But don’t take my word for it. As with any investment be sure to do your own research.

Your high IQ will kill your startup

2010-03-06T13:12:00.000+08:00

from Cube of M

In 2004 I was in Brazil, walking down the hill in Lapa to get some lunch. I was with a friend who I had met in the hostel I was staying - his name was Ofer. We were having a discussion about intelligence, and what role it plays in success.

Then out of the side of the road stepped a man. He was holding a knife in one hand and a bottle in the other hand. He spoke to us in fast portugese, clearly asking us to hand over the things we held. I stood there, not very sure what to do. Ofer started speaking quickly to the man, telling the man not to rob us.

What you have to know about Ofer is that he had been an Israeli soldier. He hated violence of any form, but he knew how to be violent.

The man threw the bottle on the floor and it broke into pieces, he picked up the bottle and lunged at us. I ran a short distance off, and Ofer stood there and dodged the man, all the while talking to him. The man attacked several times, and each time Ofer just moved aside.

Then finally, Ofer kicked the weapons out of the guys hands, punched him, and he fell. He then told me to run, and we ran down the hill to the restaurant.

We sat there and he continued what we had spoken about. He said: That demonstrates what I mean. The man with the knife did not know how to use that knife. If he had been as trained in knife fighting as I was in hand combat, he would have been able to destroy me. But he had a tool that he felt gave him an advantage, but it's nothing compared to a person who has no tool, but has worked to develop what he has.

Intelligence is like a knife. If you are intelligent, you are at a clear advantage against people who are not intelligent. But if you are intelligent, and another person is not as intelligent, but the other person is willing to train harder than you, the other person will very quickly overtake you in ability.

How your intelligence will destroy you
People who are born intelligent start off life with everything easy for them. They don't have to work hard to get good grades, they never really have to do much to get ahead. The major challenge of early life is school - and school is designed for average people. So intelligent people just breeze through.

But there is a point where every intelligent person faces something that requires more than intelligence. It requires hard work, it requires the ability to fail, it requires being able to do tough tasks, boring tasks. For the first time in their life, in spite of their intelligence, these intelligent people are challenged, and they start failing. Like when they first attempt to create a startup.

And that's where most of them retreat. They focus on things they can't fail on, and ignore the other important things. They start to blame other things (like the school system). They procrastinate. They refuse to face new problems because they know they will not be able to handle them, and this does not fit into their worldview that they are invincible.

Let me tell another story. In 2007, I had dinner with the father of my girlfriend in Paris. He is currently a vice president at one of the top 5 consulting companies in the world. He is a jewish french immigrant from Morroco - he came in the 70s to France with no money and no connections, and he made it up to become Vice President, even though he studied to be an engineer.

I asked him: How did you do it? How did you start from being an immigrant to become executive material? He told me: I got this far because I'm intelligent. He continued: But there were many many people as intelligent as I am who graduated together with me. They are still engineers right now. The difference between me and them is that when I arrived, I knew that I did not have family here in france, I did not have connections. And I knew there were a lot of other people as intelligent as I was, and who had all these advantages. The only way to be successful then would be to gain a slight advantage over them - I had to work and train harder than they did, I had to get to know more people than they did, I had to learn more about more things that they did.

We started off equals, but at some point all the effort I put in started to pay off, and where they stopped improving themselves, I continued, and I got better and better. Where they were afraid to try new things because they would fail, I tried and I got better and knew more, till I was good enough for the job I hold now.

How this relates to you
Being intelligent is like having a knife. If you train every day in using the knife, you will be invincible. If you think that just having a knife will make you win any battle you fight, then you will fail. This believe in your own inherent ability is what will kill your startup. Success comes from the work and ability you put in becoming better than the others, and not from some brilliance you feel you may have within you.

So don't believe that the brilliance of your idea is what will make you successful. What will make you successful is when you are out there every day, doing something new, challenging yourself, trying new methods, studying new ways, having a lot of small failures, then getting better every day.

Investing, Dollar Cost Averaging and Value Averaging

2010-03-04T00:01:00.000+08:00

“It does not matter how slowly you go …So long as you do not stop!”
Confucius (551 – 479 BC)

You start investing, and find yourself buying in at the top. Then, prices stumble and you sell …

Precisely at the bottom!

Like the pendulum that keeps on swinging back and forth, investor sentiments tend to alternate between periods of enthusiasm and despair.

Unfortunately, many investors are guided by their emotions and allow the mood of the market to dominate their investment decisions.

No one can consistently predict the tops and bottoms of the stock market.

History has proven that correctly predicting the timing and extent of stock market trends is impossible.

This is because world developments and the psychological reactions of people are completely unpredictable. It’s no surprise that a foolproof winning formula remains elusive.

One effective strategy for overcoming the emotional hazards of investing is the cost averaging approach that imposes a discipline that relieves the investor of grappling with uncertainty and volatility in the securities markets.

Cost averaging is a systematic investment plan involving buying equal amounts of an investment at set intervals — monthly, quarterly, and so on.

Cost averaging is most prevalently used by investors who don’t have lump sums to invest, but would like to accumulate an investment portfolio over time.

Strategically, cost averaging forces investors to be in the market when prices are depressed, but it also forces you to buy when prices are high.

Cost averaging does not assure a profit or protect against loss in declining markets. Because such a strategy involves periodic investment, you should consider your financial ability and willingness to continue purchases through periods of low price levels.

For investors with lump sums to invest, but who are afraid of entering the market prior to a correction, cost averaging will help to ease them into the market.

Value Averaging

Value averaging also capitalizes on the cost averaging systematic approach. It works in much the same way as cost averaging, but with value averaging, you decide on a target amount to invest, then adjust your monthly contributions to maintain that target.

Like cost averaging, value averaging can help lower your average cost per share. But value averaging goes one step further.

Because you end up investing more money when prices are low and fewer when prices are high, you have the opportunity to reduce your average cost per share even further.

It’s a strategy that doesn’t try to outguess the market’s fluctuation, but rather seeks to make those fluctuations work for you!

This pics sums up the sorry state that Dubai is in

2009-11-28T15:57:00.000+08:00

This is Dubai fantasized. Celebrities and VIPs were supposed to buy the islands representing the country of their own interests.

This is The World now, the project has ceased halfway due to the crisis as Dubai defaults on her debts. This satellite pic sums up the pathetic state that the project is in. Only one island is occupied whilst the rest are besieged by erosion. Zoom out to see the rest of the islands.

View Larger Map

Is Ben Bernanke a Total Idiot?

2009-11-28T14:11:00.000+08:00

my views? I think so cause nothing has been done yet to curb the excessive risky investment styles of the banks. No one was punished and everything will turn sour again.

Dubai: A morally bankrupt dictatorship built by slave labour

2009-11-28T14:10:00.000+08:00

Dubai is finally financially bankrupt – but it has been morally bankrupt all along. The idea that Dubai is an oasis of freedom on the Arabian peninsular is one of the great lies of our time.

Yes, it has Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts and the Gucci styles, but beneath these accoutrements, there is a dictatorship built by slaves.

If you go there with your eyes open – as I did earlier this year – the truth is hidden in plain view. The tour books and the bragging Emiratis will tell you the city was built by Sheikh Mohammed, the country's hereditary ruler.

It is untrue. The people who really built the city can be seen in long chain-gangs by the side of the road, or toiling all day at the top of the tallest buildings in the world, in heat that Westerners are told not to stay in for more than 10 minutes. They were conned into coming, and trapped into staying.

In their home country – Bangladesh or the Philippines or India – these workers are told they can earn a fortune in Dubai if they pay a large upfront fee. When they arrive, their passports are taken from them, and they are told their wages are a tenth of the rate they were promised.

They end up working in extremely dangerous conditions for years, just to pay back their initial debt. They are ringed-off in filthy tent-cities outside Dubai, where they sleep in weeping heat, next to open sewage. They have no way to go home. And if they try to strike for better conditions, they are beaten by the police.

I met so many men in this position I stopped counting, just as the embassies were told to stop counting how many workers die in these conditions every year after they figured it topped more than 1,000 among the Indians alone.

Human Rights Watch calls this system "slavery." Yet the Westerners who have flocked to Dubai brag that they "love" the city, because they don't have to pay any taxes, and they have domestic slaves to do all the hard work. They train themselves not to see the pain.

But Dubai's bankruptcy does not end there: it is ecologically bust. This is a city built in the burning desert, where everything shrivels up and blows away if it is not kept artificially cold all the time. That's why it has the highest per capita carbon emissions on earth – some 250 percent higher even than America's. The city has to ship in desalinated water – which is more costly than oil. When it runs out of cash, it will run out of water.

Today Dubai will be bailed out by the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich country of which it is only one state. But the oil will not last forever. More importantly, there is no Bank of Morality that could provide a bailout for this sinister mirage in the desert.

'Greatest Trade': How You Can Make $20 Billion

2009-11-15T13:21:00.001+08:00

Even as the financial system collapsed last year, and millions of investors lost billions of dollars, one unlikely investor was racking up historic profits: John Paulson, a hedge-fund manager in New York.

His firm made $20 billion between 2007 and early 2009 by betting against the housing market and big financial companies. Mr. Paulson's personal cut would amount to nearly $4 billion, or more than $10 million a day. That was more than the 2007 earnings of J.K. Rowling, Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods combined.

How did he do it? Believing that a housing-market collapse was coming, Mr. Paulson spent over $1 billion in 2006 to buy insurance on what he then saw as risky mortgage investments. When the housing market cracked and the mortgages tumbled, the value of Mr. Paulson's insurance soared. One of his funds rose more than 500% that year. Then in 2008, he shorted financial shares, or wagered that they would fall in price, profiting again when these companies collapsed.

And are there any investing skills that average investors can learn from his success? Yes. There are no guarantees, of course, but the success of Mr. Paulson and a few other underdog investors lends encouragement to individuals trying to compete with Wall Street's pros.

Here are eight investing lessons of Mr. Paulson's $20 billion gamble, the greatest trade in financial history:

1 Don't Rely on the Experts

Many investors lost big in 2007 and 2008 as housing crumbled and the stock market tumbled. But no one lost more than commercial and investment banks caught with toxic mortgage-related securities. These bankers were the very same ones who created these investments, and Wall Street's top analysts had vouched for their safety, even as Mr. Paulson and others bet against the investments.

Lesson: When Wall Street is wheeling out its latest can't-miss product, be skeptical.

2 Bubble Trouble
Some academics argue that financial markets have become more efficient. But a rash of financial bubbles in recent years -- including housing, energy, technology and Asian currencies -- suggests that markets are becoming harder to navigate, and are more prone to overshooting. Today, investors of all sizes read the same articles, watch the same business-television programs and chase the same hot tips. They invariably head for the exits at the same time.

Lesson: Have an exit strategy -- and cash to cushion any tumble.

3 Focus on Debt Markets
Most investors track the ups and downs of the stock market but have only a vague sense of moves in debt markets. That's a mistake. Early signs of trouble were seen in sophisticated markets that don't get much limelight, like the subprime-mortgage bond market. These problems eventually felled the housing and stock markets, and the overall economy, a set of falling dominos that Mr. Paulson and his team correctly anticipated.

Lesson: Debt markets can do a better job predicting problems than stock markets.

4 Master New Investments
Mr. Paulson scored huge profits by buying credit-default swaps, a derivative investment that serves as insurance on debt. When risky mortgage bonds tumbled in value, Mr. Paulson's insurance soared. But many experts were flummoxed by CDS contracts or shied away from educating themselves about these relatively new investments.

Mr. Paulson and his team had no experience with CDS contracts. But they put the time into learning about them.

Lesson: Educate yourself about the range of exchange-traded funds being introduced, some of which can play a valuable role in a portfolio.

5 Insurance Pays
A number of investors worried about a bursting of the housing market, but few did much about it, even though insurance, such as CDS contracts, at the time were selling at dirt-cheap prices. Out-of-the-money put contracts -- options that pay off only if the market tumbles -- also were trading at reasonable levels. As cheap as this insurance was, many pros ignored it.

Lesson: Don't underestimate the value of a safety net, such as put options.

6 Experience Counts
Some of the biggest winners in the meltdown were middle-aged investors dismissed by some as past their prime. But they had experienced past market downturns, while some of the bankers and analysts caught flat-footed knew only good times.

Lesson: A historical perspective can be a valuable tool.

7 Don't Fall in Love
With an Investment

In early 2009, Mr. Paulson became more bullish about the banks and financial companies that he had wagered against in 2008, after determining that these companies had improved their balance sheets. The moves resulted in profits this year.

Lesson: Even the greatest trade doesn't last forever.

8 Luck Helps

In early 2006, Mr. Paulson determined that housing was in trouble and set out to profit from the impending fall. But some housing experts already had determined that real estate was overpriced; others had wagered against housing but could no longer stomach their losses. Just months after Mr. Paulson placed his historic trade, U.S. housing prices began to fall.

Lesson: Don't risk too much in any one trade, even one that seems like a sure thing.

via WSJ by Gregory Zuckerman

Chinese Economics 101

2009-11-14T11:49:00.002+08:00

it's wrong but it's funny.

China's empty city - 10 Nov 09

2009-11-14T10:05:00.000+08:00

Guess it's time to get out of China's stocks.

Ten Lessons From The Financial Crisis That Investors Will Soon Forget (If They Haven't Already!)

2009-11-13T16:59:00.000+08:00

Jim Chanos’ presentation at the Virginia Value Investing Conference:

Chanos Presentation: Ten Lessons From The Financial Crisis That Investors Will Soon Forget (If They Haven't...

Will Smith's Wisdom

2009-11-05T11:28:00.000+08:00

Not only one of my favorite actors, but also one of my biggest inspirations, Will Smith is one of the most successful people on the planet. Check this compilation on his simple wisdom on success, his great wisdom on life and the long, yet simple path to success and happiness.

Of the world's 100 largest economic entities, 51 are now corporations and 49 are countries

2009-10-16T02:06:00.000+08:00

IBM rakes in more sales than Singapore's GDP.

Rank	Country / Corporation	GDP / sales ($mil)
1	United States	8,708,870.00
2	Japan	4,395,083.00
3	Germany	2,081,202.00
4	France	1,410,262.00
5	United Kingdom	1,373,612.00
6	Italy	1,149,958.00
7	China	1,149,814.00
8	Brazil	760,345.00
9	Canada	612,049.00
10	Spain	562,245.00
11	Mexico	474,951.00
12	India	459,765.00
13	Korea, Rep.	406,940.00
14	Australia	389,691.00
15	Netherlands	384,766.00
16	Russian Federation	375,345.00
17	Argentina	281,942.00
18	Switzerland	260,299.00
19	Belgium	245,706.00
20	Sweden	226,388.00
21	Austria	208,949.00
22	Turkey	188,374.00
23	*General Motors*	176,558.00
24	Denmark	174,363.00
25	*Wal-Mart*	166,809.00
26	*Exxon Mobil*	163,881.00
27	*Ford Motor*	162,558.00
28	*DaimlerChrysler*	159,985.70
29	Poland	154,146.00
30	Norway	145,449.00
31	Indonesia	140,964.00
32	South Africa	131,127.00
33	Saudi Arabia	128,892.00
34	Finland	126,130.00
35	Greece	123,934.00
36	Thailand	123,887.00
37	*Mitsui*	118,555.20
38	*Mitsubishi*	117,765.60
39	*Toyota Motor*	115,670.90
40	*General Electric*	111,630.00
41	*Itochu*	109,068.90
42	Portugal	107,716.00
43	*Royal Dutch/Shell*	105,366.00
44	Venezuela	103,918.00
45	Iran, Islamic rep.	101,073.00
46	Israel	99,068.00
47	*Sumitomo*	95,701.60
48	*Nippon Tel & Tel*	93,591.70
49	Egypt, Arab Republic	92,413.00
50	*Marubeni*	91,807.40
51	Colombia	88,596.00
52	*AXA*	87,645.70
53	*IBM*	87,548.00
54	Singapore	84,945.00
55	Ireland	84,861.00
56	*BP Amoco*	83,556.00
57	*Citigroup*	82,005.00
58	*Volkswagen*	80,072.70
59	*Nippon Life Insurance*	78,515.10
60	Philippines	75,350.00
61	*Siemens*	75,337.00
62	Malaysia	74,634.00
63	*Allianz*	74,178.20
64	*Hitachi*	71,858.50
65	Chile	71,092.00
66	*Matsushita Electric Ind.*	65,555.60
67	*Nissho Iwai*	65,393.20
68	*ING Group*	62,492.40
69	*AT&T*	62,391.00
70	*Philip Morris*	61,751.00
71	*Sony*	60,052.70
72	Pakistan	59,880.00
73	*Deutsche Bank*	58,585.10
74	*Boeing*	57,993.00
75	Peru	57,318.00
76	Czech Republic	56,379.00
77	*Dai-Ichi Mutual Life Ins.*	55,104.70
78	*Honda Motor*	54,773.50
79	*Assicurazioni Generali*	53,723.20
80	*Nissan Motor*	53,679.90
81	New Zealand	53,622.00
82	*E.On*	52,227.70
83	*Toshiba*	51,634.90
84	*Bank of America*	51,392.00
85	*Fiat*	51,331.70
86	*Nestle*	49,694.10
87	*SBC Communications*	49,489.00
88	*Credit Suisse*	49,362.00
89	Hungary	48,355.00
90	*Hewlett-Packard*	48,253.00
91	*Fujitsu*	47,195.90
92	Algeria	47,015.00
93	*Metro*	46,663.60
94	*Sumitomo Life Insur.*	46,445.10
95	Bangladesh	45,779.00
96	*Tokyo Electric Power*	45,727.70
97	*Kroger*	45,351.60
98	*Total Fina Elf*	44,990.30
99	*NEC*	44,828.00
100	*State Farm Insurance*	44,637.20

Sources: Sales: Fortune, July 31, 2000. GDP: World Bank, World Development Report 2000.

In Hong Kong, a SGD 79.2 million Apartment.

2009-10-16T01:46:00.000+08:00

Seriously this is absurd.

HONG KONG — One of Hong Kong’s largest developers announced Wednesday that it had sold an apartment for 439 million Hong Kong dollars, setting a record, just hours after the city’s chief executive warned that the city might be facing a real estate bubble.

Actual article

How to delegate task the Lex Luthor Way

2009-10-13T02:39:00.001+08:00

This is how we should priortise...

click to enlarge

Men Vs Women : Financial Planning

2009-10-10T13:42:00.001+08:00

Seriously I think the opposite is true of Singaporeans over here. Guys are really lousy at saving when it comes to leisure. I mean I have yet to receive my free glass of wine or mug of beer but has paid off so much "sex on the beach" to the other direction.

hattip : http://www.billshrink.com/blog/men-vs-women-financial-planning/

Do not be a CEO of a bank in China

2009-09-29T00:32:00.000+08:00

Well, it's not true that of you pay peanuts, you'll get monkeys. According to this chart from reuters, the monkeys get expensive cashew nuts grown from the soil fertilized by the soot of burnt cash.

click to enlarge

The most expensive cities

2009-09-24T12:33:00.000+08:00

I'm glad to not see Singapore anywhere.

click to enlarge

Bernie Madoff's Penthouse Hits The Market

2009-09-15T23:36:00.000+08:00

Bernie Madoff's New York City penthouse has finally gone up. The duplex penthouse with an elliptical staircase, living room with triple exposures and oh-so-much beige is listed at USD$9.9 million. The listing pics are a bit prettier than the other slideshows of the home we've seen recently but it still has a vacant, un-loved feel. The master suite is downstairs and has a huge walk-in closet and a marble bathroom. The small library has custom built-ins and one of Madoff's beloved bull statues slouches in the corner. The home has four wood-burning fireplaces and a total of three bedrooms. Will anyone pony up the cash for Madoff's pad of shame? A little livening up and this place could be beautiful.

Check out the full suite of pics here
http://www.luxist.com/2009/09/12/bernie-madoff-in-new-york-city-estate-of-the-day/

Magnificent Article on National Debt: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Debt

2009-09-10T00:22:00.000+08:00

Magnificent Article on National Debt: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Debt

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/grand-debt-illusion-faqs-about-national-debt