Tag: Wall Street

Re-release

Platoon, Thelma and Louise, Star Wars etc.. this time, in Blu-ray.

Translation: making money twice on the same repackaged product.

It’s as if the banquet hall offers to cater for your wedding the second time around. Or your high school decides to hold a prom again (this time, it’s even more difficult to get a date).

I advocate a return to school though, since knowledge advances so quickly, while employers are reluctant to subsidize continued education. Like happiness, one needs to take personal development (i.e. to fill those skill gaps) into one’s own hands.

What’s your take on China? the economy? tech bubble? sustainability and electric vehicles? social network? doomsday prophecy? threat of terrorism? gun law? etc.. It has been said that the financial bubble was caused mostly by ignorance from the part of the public and regulatory agencies. Those CDO‘s and derivatives are too hard to understand  (a leverage of 40:1).

Hence, the need for “re-education”, in a good sense. After popularizing globalization, Friedman tried again with the environment, which is the flip side of globalization . Interestingly enough, China now leads the world in producing solar panels (while in the West, every time gas price dropped, you were told to go and hug a tree).

Malaysia and other Southeast Asian nations now follow suit.

With younger demographics, SEA is poised to be the next group to enter Middle-class kingdom (tickets to paradise): theme parks, experience economy, leisure and trade-up consumption. It’s here where the celluloid culture of Tinsel town can gain some traction: multi-screen/dining, pop corn, tie-in posters and T-shirts, CD‘s and Facebook fan pages.

Vets upon visiting Vietnam will recognize the music (the Doors), the name (Apocalypse Now) and the brand (Hard Rock Cafe). What a surprise! Give it some time. People will always catch on. But not by force. Maybe this time, mom and daughter can both go and see “Thelma and Louise”, and discuss the high price of “ism” be it feminism, chauvinism, or consumerism. Heck, if they can take a beautiful dream, albeit a legitimate one, of owning a house, and turn that into a “financial instrument”, they can certainly turn your dream of a career or re-education (educational bubble) into a re-release of Nightmare on Wall Street, part II. Coming to a bank near you.

Tech rules again

We all saw Google’s numbers surge. I remember the last time I feel this way was a decade ago. Something is in the works. The market responds. New apps, new ways of accomplishing things.

This might be it.

Just like a line in “It Might Be You“, a theme song in Tootsie.

Maybe it didn’t come in the shape or form we were expecting  i.e. green shoots. But it seems right. A surge in productivity, efficiency and confidence. We barely scrap the surface of Web 2.0.

Just as Wall Street and the old guards found more dirt in housing finance, Silicon Valley struck new gold via better apps. Somehow, as a system, we are self-healing, thus ensuring species survival.

We will soon have to do away with yesterday’s vocabulary, such as “the  engine of the economy”, “ramping up” etc.. all belong to the Industrial past.

In their places, let’s talk about “intelligent search”, “smart appliances” etc….

We will come to understand ourselves, with higher IQ, EQ, social intelligence, and cultural intelligence. The deeper the degree of automation, the freer we are to learn and grow.

In short, minimize chores, and optimize passion.

This 90/10 equation was once enjoyed by aristocrats now available to the common man whose hands are holding smart phones i.e. all-in-one information and data sources.

The faster the processing speed, the more available information, the quicker the decision.

The gods must be crazy (remember the coke bottle dropped out of the sky  into a primitive tribe?). Via GPS alone, human now get bird-eye-view, lifting his gaze way above earthen sky.  Advances in medical technology and environment will push life expectancy even more. It used to be 47 back in 1900. Now it is easily in  the low 70’s and counting.

World’s median age is now 28. But in a decade, this median age will change dramatically. Future aging world population.

(Imagine summer concert full of old rockers, wearing golf shirts).

However it turns out, we celebrate the triumph of human imagination, invention and innovation. One day, the machine will finish this blog for me.

It already knows based on a year’s worth of data what I am going to say next.

So I can go fetch my second cup of coffee. Have a great weekend.

 

Get fat, get fit

I was crunching, when the PA system announced “free pizza at Planet Fitness, 1st Monday of the month”.

Might as well. Indulge.  After all, it says “No judgment zone.”  Get fat, get fit.

Carrot and then Stick.

In a blog I recently subscribed to, I found : ” the extent that we help fulfill other people’s dream,we fulfill ours.”.

We know that life is not without paradox.

Past choices limit future options.

(We did not then have the benefits of hindsight).

Pleasure and pain intersect right there on the exercise mat: one more crunch, reverse crunch etc.. just to build up a better appetite (which gets us right back to the beginning).

Who among us lives without self-conflict, let him cast the first stone.

We want the oil, but also a  clean beach.

We dress up to see Les Miserables, at Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, but hurry up across the street when a homeless guy approaches.

And we can’t wait to tell others ” I told you so” when the chips are all down.

Pundits, politicians and pollsters, were in denial about the “black swan” of the Financial system, which gave us all a “black eye”.

A suicide here, and a robbery there. Not sure how the consequences will play out. Wall Street watches Main Street. Main Street waits on Wall Street. All one-way streets (as of this edit, unemployment in Greece still at 26.9 per cent).

There have been more migration to the dust bowl, where not too long ago, Dorothy couldn’t wait to leave home on a Greyhound bus. These states now seem attractive with tax incentives, and rural broadband connection.

And a story that we all missed: Vietnam was at the top of Emerging Countries chart 3 years in the row (2007-2010) even when they have yet exploited the wheels of industrialization. Just cheap and surplus of labor. But everyone seems to be fit, not by going to the gym, but by default (no “free pizza” every first Monday of the month.)

Here is our last paradox, in the absence of plenty, everything tastes sweeter. You should see how aggressive people were with Moon Cakes during the weeks that lead up to the Festival. It’s not the mix of flour and sugar. It’s flour and sugar that have been denied for years, and only recently made available and affordable to all. Free Moon Cake for every sign-up at Planet Fit.

 

This gotta to stop!

Yesterday, I saw Monique Truong on the Poets-and-Writers cover.

The author of “the Book of Salt” was launching another title : “Bitter in the mouth”.

Meanwhile, I still am awaiting the shipment of “East eats West” by Andrew Lam.

What’s going on here? A Renaissance in publishing by Vietnamese-American authors?

Top of my head, I counted Hung Nguyen, co-author of Software Testing, Vu Pham, Impressive Impressions,

then Nam Le with The Boat, the Unwanted by Kien Nguyen, and Andrew Lam and Monique Truong. Not bad for first-generation immigrants.

Monique Truong & Andrew Lam Book Signing/Reading at VAALA Center, Santa Ana, Tue 9/21. Q&A moderated by Mariam Lam and Ky-Phong Tran. Books will be available for purchase at the event. Come get the autographs! : )

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/main/two-gifted-vietnamese-american/

I admire their tenacity ( I am sure each has to fight within his/her families about this ethnically unpopular career choice).

I look forward to someday reading the equivalent of Marguerite Duras’ L’Amant set in Sa Dec

or  Graham Green’s A Quiet American  set in Cho Lon.

Vietnam as a setting for historical romance should sell. After all, it dominated the news for more than a decade during its hey day,

and three and a half decades of post-war revisionism.

Vietnamese American writers offer unique perspectives i.e. passionate, feisty and observant (euphemism for bench sitting).

In Monique’s words ” I was forced to be different – when I grew up (in Vietnam),  everyone around me looked like me. There, in North Carolina, I was defined by my outward appearance etc….” She went on to Yale and Columbia – flirting  with a career in Law, just to settle down as a writer, and a good one (Nam Le took a similar turn).

When American culture looks back to this period, it will recognize what’s been buried among Wall Street post-mortem publications (Too Big to Fail),

or Terrorist war reportage (The Looming Tower).  Something has germinated in American soil, migrated en mass from overseas and found its footing just in time for e-release and e- commerce.

If I didn’t know better, I would say, “This gotta to stop. Nobody will buy or read your books”. But then, I sneaked up behind the cover in “surprise me” link on Amazon, and surprised I was. The quality was good, intriguing and en par. In other words, it passed muster and was quite palatable.

Products of  American free thinking and free enterprise (wasn’t this what Viet Education Fund and Fulbright scholarship are trying to promote?).

The Alphabet belongs to no one, and everyone.

We pay lip service to diversity and Lady of Liberty.

Now that they came, stayed and published, shouldn’t we celebrate that very thing called Americanism. Ironically, it’s the new comers that seem to discover it anew (5000 newly sworn-in citizens at Fenway Park on Sept 15th). Wait until you see the young filmmakers in action (Norwegian Wood).

This is to show that not all are model minorities i.e. majoring in math and engineering. Can risk takers (see Daring Swim) who risked their lives just to bring up children who play safe? Percentage wise, there will be some “rebels” among the pool. And their delayed version of counter-culture (against their primary cultural norm) fits the American entrepreneurs bill – whether it’s in law or arts. I am sure the publishers did their due diligence before releasing these titles.

Years ago, I browsed Asian-American literature and found only Chinese-American authors. Vietnamese-language magazines were sold along with Chinese cabbage and herbs.  I am proud to say that you now have more choices of AM books for research or pleasure reading. And third-generation Vietnamese American will be proud of their heritage when “googling” their ancestors’ pilgrimage in America, still land of the free the last time I checked.

Don’t dream, it’s over

The Maytag man finally wakes up from a long nap!

Pent-up demand pushes consumers to go out and spend on big-ticket items such as refrigerators, washers and dryers.

Walmart got a law suit for paying men more than women for the same job.

Our calendar is very consumer-friendly i.e. plenty of  shopping events, from Mothers Day to Memorial Day…

Past President(s) signed into law certain holiday, to fall on Mondays hence long shopping weekends by design.

We saw the testimonies of “what is synthetic CDO?” etc…

But by the time the witnesses were sworn in, it’s already yesterday’s news.

People have moved on. Can’t live on Main Street in the ghosting shadow of Wall Street.

Kids need shoes.

Jeans need washer and dryer.

Maytag man, wake up.

As the refrain by Crowded House, ” Hey now, hey now, don’t dream it’s over”.

I am glad it’s only just begun, this time, living in real-time and in reality.

Call it what you’d like, but it ain’t that version of the American Dream we used to know i.e. A Chevy in the drive way,

and a chicken in the pot (with apple pie for deserts).  The America today has apple pie and McNuggets, with ketchup upon request only. For Here or To Go (we prefer you take it “to go”).

Don’t dream, it’s over.

 

Dentist and Disney

Christopher Shaw, winner of the most recent Power Ball lottery, said he would go to the dentist and then Disney World. (this is a retweet, a year later. Not much has changed, except for Chris’ dentistry).

I guess that’s how winning feels: being on top of the world, full of positive forces that lift you up, brushed by a stroke of luck.

He will have plenty of time and money to look his best. Good luck with beginner’s luck, and with investing.

The rest of us can look forward to another work week, another mortgage or rent payment, and another long summer.

The decoupling of stock market (on the uptick since April 09) and unemployment figures (still quite upsetting).

We have stretched productivity and inventory to the max. It’s time to venture out of the cocoon, to bounce back from

the “creative destruction” period.

Texas has been spared. Michigan has not.

Newsweek‘s Daniel Gross argues that America is making a comeback, unlike Japan in the 80’s.

In other words, there won’t be a Lost Decade after this Recession (which if cyclically predictable, will swing back up for a roughly half a decade of prosperity).

Let’s hope he is right. After all, we already lived through a lost decade (2000-2010) since the Y2K scare.

Cannot afford another one. Numbers don’t add up on Wall Street or Main Street if we keep spending away the future.

Harley Davidson is cool. Facebook is cool.  Zappos is cool.

These are examples of companies which can still survive with solid deliverables.

And to put the icing on the cake (or cream on the latte), Starbucks reported strong Q1 earning.

Hello, welcome to Starbucks. What’s your name? (reminds me of Cheers, where everybody knows your name).

And from there, the behind-the-counter man/woman in black starts “pouring his/her heart into it” (Starbuck’s motto).

I am supposed to use this as a canvass for reflection. After all, I have lived here for 35 years.

I have seen things come and go (Pinto? Yugo? Datsun?) and things which stay and stick (Post-it, Ben and Jerry, J&J).

One thing I know, I wasn’t happy when first arrived due to the extraordinary circumstance of my evacuation from Saigon.

No expectation, no deliverable. In VC’s term, I wasn’t ready with my business plan. Just float, like on a boat.

Each day is a bonus. Even on those days when I witnessed (on TV) the blow up of the Challenger, the Twin towers, and  Three-Mile-Island nuclear reactors (in person).

And I also found myself out of work, at the exact downturn  87, 93 and 2009.  Tell me how can one stay a bystander, unaffected.

My journey is America’s.  It just happens to be personal, but with tragedy and triumph nevertheless. Like Shaw, it involves both dentist and

Disney, pain and pleasure.  OK, I feel lucky just to: 1) stay alive 2) be here in the US 3) live through the past Recession. I am going to buy a lottery ticket

this week. Need some wind on my back. Maybe I too, can win. And maybe I too, will go to Dentist and Disney (World). Got to show up to win.

Staying alive, as the Bee Gee would sing at the top of their lungs.

Forced realities

“the Network Effect of Nations”.

Brazil, the “B” in BRIC, is on course to be number 5 by 2014 according to the Economist.

http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=14845197&source=most_commented

So, it’s not just the International Olympic Committee which noticed Brazil Rising. Nor is it seen only as the  corn basket of the world (When I hear Brazil, immediately popped to mind is “energy”, long before the Ethanol craze). In fact, Brazil doesn’t rely solely on energy exports as Russia or Venezuela. It also caters to tourism, commercialism and world-class sports (in 2016).

With EU and Emerging economies out of the Recession, we will see Network Effect mesh of G-20 : more multi-lateral trading, traveling and telephoning.

One example. What does Banco De Chile have to do with Vietnam? Yet, it has a presence there, and tries to secure markets for its agricultural products (as if Vietnam were not agrarian enough). Nations crisscross exponentially.

The US Navy Commander is visiting his relatives (see Gatsby in China Beach).  President Carter is coming to build

houses  for the Mekong poor (Habitat for Humanity, an organization I support). And French Prime Minister is touring Hue (probably putting 2 and 2 together: Colonial past and Commercial present). And Meet Vietnam will feature Vietnam Minister of Education in San Francisco. And let’s not forget Obama visiting China, where his half-brother was launching a book, having stayed there and married local for quite some time. The Network Effect of Nations!

Technology and people are always ahead of the political process. Deng was seen wearing a cowboy hat when visiting Texas in the late 70’s ( He just reciprocated Nixon’s trip to China where 3000-course meal had been served) . “To get rich is glorious” . Subsequently, we heard similar echo on Wall Street in the 80’s: “Greed is good” .

Information flow used to go from North to South. Now, the global picture has completely changed.

No longer do we see a bi-polar world. And while changes are taking place on the global stage,  “groundswell” is detected online (kids joined in to play games, but pretty soon, will be glancing at headline news, and shopping for “early Black Friday” deals on peer’s recommendation. No wonder Dell cannot sit still, waiting to take “just-in-time” orders.

After all the shopping at the urging of President Bush right after 9/11, Americans are now penny-pinching.  So, it’s President Obama’s turn to give the same speech, this time, to the Chinese, with a BTW,  try our Made-in-USA stuff (SPAM?).

It’s tough to be a Recommender-In-Chief . Even the Vatican can’t seem to get a handle on the new Social media that seem to grow their flocks much faster than Christendom’s. So the Pope invites in the paupers, out of the dorm to the Dome for a  (face-2-face) chat. Where do you click? You mean one doesn’t have to sit down in front of a monitor? Mobile Apps?

At the Olympic in Rio, with a Smart phone, you won’t miss a single soccer score . Are you game? One will never know where the putt is going to be . And it makes the journey all the more exciting. Stay “eyes wide opened” for forced realities. The future doesn’t sleep: it is on steroid. No wonder Emerging economies, especially Brazil, seem to get out from under much more quickly than the rest. Fareed Zakarai coins this “the rise of the rest” in Post American World. He certainly has Brazil in mind.