To Serve People...

"To serve people takes dignity and intelligence. But remember, they are only people with money. And although we serve them, we are not their servants. What we do, Miss Ventura, does not define who we are. What defines us is how well we rise after falling."

Lionel
Character from the Movie - Maid in Manhattan

What is Power?

Power is acknowledging our weaknesses and accepting our limitations as loving reminders to enter into Christ's strength.

"... For the joy of the Lord is your strength."
(Nehemiah 8:10)

"...[God's] strength is made perfect in weakness..."
(2 Cor 12:9)

太美丽 by David 陶喆

To the only woman that I ever know, love and die for...here's my heart :)

歌曲：太美丽
歌手：陶喆
专辑：太美丽

每一滴眼泪
每一次心碎
什么爱能无疚无悔
不灰心等待
痛苦也忍耐
你坚持爱了就不后退
我知道我不是一个轻易就会说爱的人
没有想到这样的你却改变我

太美丽
太美丽
你的爱是多么的甜蜜
太美丽
爱让我也美丽
现在我不再怀疑
不怀疑有多爱你

每一个脚印
每一朵乌云
说着我的飘忽不定
伤你伤好深
别人早就要放弃
为何你还是会给我宽容
我知道我不是一个轻易就会说爱的人
可是你坚强的付出却改变我

太美丽
太美丽
你的爱是多么的甜蜜
太美丽
爱让我也美丽
现在你也不必再去怀疑

当你在风雨的未知里走过
当我在迷失的自我的漩涡
交汇在黑暗中你我发出了新的光芒
现在我已全明白
什么是爱的真义

太美丽
太美丽
你的爱让生命太甜蜜
太美丽
只有对你感激
越过表面我看见你
美丽的心

你最美丽
你太美丽

Character vs Reputation

Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow.
The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Unknown Author

JP Morgan Buy Bear Sterns Cheap!!!

JP Morgan Chase & Co announced they are buying The Bear Sterns Companies. Guess what? They got it cheap, just over US$240 million!!!

The price per share? US$2! From a high of US$171!!!

The end result? The majority of BSC employees will not only be out of a job, their investments in BSC are nearly worthless, a severe blow to their net worth. In fact, any Bear Sterns investors will take a substantial loss. One major BSC shareholders reportedly had a paper loss of about US$800 million!

JPM takes on some seriously risky debt, but the reward could be substantial. Why did I say so? According to sources from my late night CNBC, BSC is currently worth US$7.7 billion, if you break up its individual department and sell it piecemeal to the market.

Did JPM get a good deal, or are they digging themselves into a deeper hole? One thing I am certain, there will be lawsuits and protests from market players and investors. BSC stock activists are already taking a stand against this buyout.

To some, this is purely a company bailout; to the US government and the Fed, it is a system bailout. They need to show that a strong bank is willing to back up a failing branch, and in turn the Government is willing to back up that strong bank.

More later. Tread safely.

Market Overreaction

What is overreaction? Simply, it is a market hypothesis stating that investors and traders react disproportionately to new information about a given security. This will cause the security's price to change dramatically, so that the price will not fully reflect the security's true value immediately following the event.

Now, typically, the price swing from overreaction is not long lasting, as the stock price will tend to return back to its true value over time. The overreaction hypothesis is not consistent with the efficient market hypothesis.

For example, suppose that company XYZ releases its annual operating results, which beat analyst expectations by a mere penny per share, which is generally not a big deal. However,
given the news, traders and investors subsequently bid the stock up to unprecedented highs. After a couple of days of trading, the stock then falls down to a price just above its price before the earnings release, which represents the stock's current intrinsic value.

Hence, don't overreact.

House "Poor": Asset Rich, Cash Poor

What actually is house "poor"? In singapore, I call these people asset rich, cash poor people. Let me explain. House poor is a situation that describes a person who spends a large proportion of his or her total income on home ownership, including mortgage payments, property taxes, maintenance and utilities. House poor individuals are short of cash for discretionary items and tend to have trouble meeting other financial obligations like vehicle payments.

People typically become house poor because they buy more house than they can afford, but there are other ways that people can become house poor as well. For example, some people will become house poor after the birth of a child, when one spouse decides to stay at home with the new addition, rather than going back to work.

I have coined another term called Car "poor". These individuals own expensive and branded cars but stay in a small, public housing unit. Why these people choose to be car poor? The reason is simple: People usually do not follow you home to see where you stay. But they do get to see you on and off the road daily. So, rather than putting your wealth in hard solid ground, they prefer to show off their wealth through...right, their rides.

There is simply a high correlation between the car you drive and the type of house you live in. Hence, if you drive a BMW, you must be rich and possibly staying in a big private house. This assumption is faulty but, well, that's what shallow people think. At the end of the day, you are the best person to access who are the real wealthy ones and who are the fakes.