iRob
The new name for IHOP? iRob may
be taken by Apple or Well Fargo already.
Notice not using “Wells” as it is
for the bankers only and not for customers. “Well”, they make their bankers
laughing “far” too much bonuses to “go” to the bank.
It reminds me of the name I gave
to the new company of the merging Family Dollar and Dollar Tree: Two Dollars Now.
Genius and idiot
The line between them is very
thin. We have two celebrities committed suicide in a week in June. They are the
genius in their own field. Committing themselves is an idiot act to me.
Money and fame do not mean much
in life but health both physical and mental is. RIP and we will miss you.
My broker statement
When the market falls, I do not want to watch my monthly
statements.
When the market rises, I watch my balance every day.
I'm a hypocrite who knows how to live healthier at least
mentally.
In addition, I do not tell how
much I made to my wife who is an irrational spender.
Singapore where Trump & Kim meet
Hopefully N. Korea will come to their senses to give up
nuclear weapons in exchange of economic aids.
China is a major factor behind.
With no proof, I bet China and possibly Russia has helped N. Korea's missile
and nuclear technologies. In turn China learned a lot of missiles from the US
during US witch hunt of communists. I’m 99% sure that the expelled Chinese
scientist was not a communist but a dedicated scientist. China is the major
trade partner and a lot of aids are from China.
Many comments on Trump-Kim summit on 6/11:
A good start
It is a great starting point in
the Singapore summit. A major victory for Trump besides his controversial tax
cuts while most other bills did not pass. Now we can concentrate on Iran.
Eventually I hope Korea will be
united similar to Germany, but most likely not in my life time. The end of WW2 has
separated many countries and their citizens. Interestingly, most if not all who
side with Russia are not doing well economically.
Credit when credit is due
We have to agree it is a good
first step no matter you're trumpet or basher. A great day for world peace.
It could be as historical as
Reagan's speech. Wait and see. Sun Tsu said something like: The biggest victory
is winning a war without shooting an arrow.
Politics really separate folks
even the smart ones from the arguments of the summit from Republicans and
Democrats. Some still called Trump dumb.
To me it is another example of “Three
shades of dumb”. When we call Trump dumb, we are calling his support voters
dumber and the one who lost to Trump dumbest.
Who benefit
China could benefit a lot. China
will ship the labor-intensive manufacturing jobs to N. Korea to 'reduce' our
huge deficit with China. Less North Koreans would starve and South Koreans
would enjoy a peaceful time. Hopefully the separated relatives and families
will reunite.
The US arms to Japan and S. Korea
would be reduced to lessen the expensive arms race in that part of the world. A
win-win situation.
N. Korea will think of following
the steps of prosperity from China's opening up. It is hard or impossible to
verify how many missiles and nuclear weapons they would still keep.
Interest rate hike
If the rate hike is a total of 1%
for the entire year, it is still low compared to the historic average.
The rate hike could have an
inverse impact on the market due to the record-high margin.
Actions for investors assuming the rate is rising:
·
Check the interest rate in your brokerage
account. Some brokers give virtually zero interest and 1% today is quite good.
·
In this risky market, conservative investors
should have some CDs.
·
Use laddered CD strategy (maturing in different
periods), so you will have cash to buy stocks when the market is not that
risky.
·
Recommend to buy CDs that mature not longer than
a year. For example, a 3% CD for 3 years may give less interest in three years
compared to a 2% CD for a year followed by a 4% and 5% CD in the next two years
(again assuming the rate is rising).
·
Do not buy long-term bonds as it will depreciate
if the rate rises.
Lithium in Virginia
Without mining coal, lithium is a
good choice. If Trump has a 20% tariff on lithium, all the miners will smile.
Deregulations and environment take a back seat to jobs.
Splitting California into three states
SF and LA are quite different
too, one major in tourism and the other major in making movies. Potential we
double the government employees and it would solve the unemployment problem. We
have to triple the number of senate that the other political party will object.
Should California be an
independent country? I'm going to buy it with financial backing from China. It
would solve a lot of problems including our debs to China. No kidding.
Head tax in Seattle
What a stupid idea! Seattle is
telling us we do come here to open business here as they will not be
competitive to other states.
Homeless
Seattle and SF both have nice climate for the homeless. They do not want
to go to New England to freeze these bums' bums even “Taxsachusetts” has
the best welfare.
To fix the homeless problems:
1. Send addicts to the right clinics and enforce it by law.
2. Do not release the mentally challenged too early (need
more budget).
3. Build more subsidized houses and train the homeless to
get jobs.
God blesses America but we have
to help ourselves first.
Illegal Mexicans
I have to agree with Trump in
protecting the border as all other countries do. Surprise to me! My questions:
1. Should
we build a wall in Canada?
2. How
do Mexicans treat the illegals in Mexico? Very harsh I guess.
3. The
children are innocent and I'm with them. However, the parents have broken the
law and many including myself have paid the price to immigrate.
4. We
need folks doing jobs that no one wants (it is easy to collect welfare). We
need a good work visa program and enforce it.
5. Selective
immigration could be one solution. We need high tech H1-B folks and laborers to
work on farms..., but not criminals and welfare recipients.
Indian programmers
Welcome to globalization and "supply and demand".
Most if not all of my white
programmers want to be managers. All my Indian co-workers are happy with their
wages. They are happily and willingly to be ‘cheated’ compared to what they get
back home. As Einstein said, "Everything is relative".
It is a win-win situation and the
only losers are dedicated tech folks who were born here. Many times they are
turned down for jobs as the hiring manager would be threatened by them taking
his/her job eventually.
STEM PhDs.
If you take out foreign students, new immigrants and their
children, our STEM PhDs are far fewer than the actual numbers.
Unbelievable
I do not believe I’m on Trump’s
side today on some issues and I hate folks confronting Trump’s supporters and
his executives. We should NOT confront them in person like asking them to leave
a restaurant. It has the OPPOSITE effect. If you want to express your opinions,
do it during voting. It is a free country, but be civil.
Unions
Surprisingly union is in the
news. Unions worked fine at one time to narrow the gap between the rich
management and the workers. Some unions become corrupt. Over-protection leads
to reduced profits for the company and that leads to bankruptcy for the company
in some cases and / or less competitive to similar products from many foreign
countries such as China.
To some small extend, unions are
communists: Everyone is paid the same in the same type of work. Unless the
union worker does not commit extraordinary errors, s/he does not get fired.
Eskimos and Indians
Yes, they did as the Bering
Strait was frozen at one time. They could escape from wars, disasters, or lost
the way after too many hot liquid. I have my genes to prove Eskimos and Indians
are Asians.
Just my theory with no proof.
Our good generation
Comparatively, we have been
living in good times with less conflicts and less wars.
If I were born 50 miles north of
Hong Kong, I would suffer from Mao's disaster era.
If I were born 10 years earlier, I
would be one of the victims of the WW2.
Our children have to deal with
the record national debts. I had a professional job after college. Cannot say
the same for many college graduates today.
Thank God!
Less workers
Due to baby booms, the one-child
policy and early retirement (many retire at 55), China will run out of workers
sooner than you think. Believe it or not: China is #1 in implementing robots
with a lot of them designed and made in China.
China also outsources their
products to low-wage countries to fight the export quotas and higher wages at
home. If the imported shirt is 99% made in China except the label "Made in
Ethiopia”, most likely it will not be counted as our trade deficit with China.
A recommended movie: Hidden Figures
Your mobile phone is MANY times
more powerful than the IBM 7090 used later in the movie. I used similar
mainframes in late 60s. We submitted the programs via cards and waited for
hours for the computer to run. Then I learned PDP11. I found a job as a PDP11
assembly programmer (more technical than Fortran and COBOL at the time) while
many of my fellow graduates were pumping gas or were sent to Vietnam.
It is inspiring. However, the
black have not learned and the majority is stuck in a lower class of society
even they do not have the same discrimination as in the movie. The Cambodians,
a lower class in South East Asia, got into the main stream here after one
generation. I expressed at the risk of being called racist.
I do not know too many blacks
getting into technical fields. However, once in a while I met a genius. Hope
more black children are inspired by the movie.
If you're bi-racial, I do not
know which rest room they sent you too.
I believe NASA should be a
government agency. It inspired many around the world including a girl next to
my flat. She was into math. She is the only child and hence could not come to
US to study. She became a high official in Hong Kong's education system to help
those who are inspired and can. Now, most of the dreams are broken.
Stealer and stealee
Almost all countries and most
companies steal from each other. Apple, Microsoft... stole PARC's Window
concept.
Many dump their products.
Microsoft did give the word processor, spread sheet program and email almost
free to fight off competitors.
If you believe CIA is a friendly
info gathering agency, you believe in fairy tales.
Best defense
Every country including US and
China should protect their own secrets, prevent product dumping and use his
best weapons for trade wars.
The best defense usually is the
best offense.
My poor English
I bet my English is better than
your Chinese. How many books you have written in Chinese?
World Cup
I have been enjoying World Cup.
Our primary love is football (or American football to the rest of the world).
Soccer is not too popular in the US no matter how hard they have tried. One
reason is lack of commercials (we see a lot of commercials unknowingly) and the
other is lack of scores. We can widen the goal area or shorten the field for
more goals.
----
The above is from my book "On Business News 2018" available from Amazon.com. 415 pages (6*9).
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