05.26.08

嘲笑世界最强大国家的近视外交。。。

Posted in International, Philosophy, USA, 哈哈哈哈 at 5:26 am by ryan

今天,美国的确还是世界上最强大的国家。没有其国家或联合能“单方面”(unilaterally)宣战,等等。可惜真的少数美国公民花什么时间在了解美国以外的事。。。这个问题不是新的,也不单是美国的问题,就是美国权利那么大,所以责任也更大。如果美国要继续保持超级大国身份,必须让人民更国际化。

有一些地图嘲笑普遍美国人民的地理概念。同时,这群体的税费睡支持情报局和军部干扰射界各地。

US_World.jpg america.gif americanview.gif world-according-to-regan.gif reaganposter.jpg

05.08.08

American’s and their Real-Estate market…

Posted in Chinese (中文), Economics, USA at 12:14 pm by ryan

Interesting piece in the Economist: American housing - Map of misery. Can’t say I care too much, but it does define the relationships between rents and mortgages in more eloquent economic terms that I have ;-)

A better measure of housing fundamentals is the relationship between house prices and rents. This is a sort of price/earnings ratio for the housing market: the price of a house reflects the discounted value of future ownership, either as rental income or as rent saved by an owner who lives in the house.

—Chinese Version—

衡量关于房地产的基础经济情况:房价和租金的关系。你可以理解这个比例有点像股票的市盈率:一套房子所有权的价格表示贴现值的未来所有权。这个所有权代表房子可以赚的租金或者这个房东可以节约的房租。

当然,你还要考虑:

-利息的比例
-通货膨胀的比例
-其他的因素

但是可以用这个比例来判断这段时间是否适合买房。

And in case you were curious about that map…

Map.gif

UPDATED: 2008/05/15 - Added Chinese Translation and Considerations…

03.31.08

Dialing Int’l Calls from Shanghai ~ 0.4元/分钟

Posted in China, Shanghai, USA, iPhone at 10:31 pm by ryan

no_skype-1.png

Call direct from your mobile phone. No calling card. Only 2x the price of Skype In, but better quality and you can call out!

在上海,申请中国移动的国际长途就发“3211”到10086。这样可以申请国际IP长途服务,每次拨国际电话号码,先拨:12593+00+国际电话号码,比如:

拨美国的“+1-206-555-1212”,变成:
12593-00-1-206-555-1212

Give China Mobile a call and Sign-up for IP Int’l Long Distance. Just send an SMS containing only “3211″ to 10086. Each time you want to dial an Int’l number, just add: 1259-00, then the country code and the number.

如果你忘记你的密码,就发密码查询的拼音到10086,那就是:MMCX

If you forget your password, just send MMCX to 10086

如果要查你的账户还有多少钱,发“余额查询”的拼音到10086,那就是:YECX

If you need you current account balance, send YECX to 10086

03.30.08

Get Out of Commodities - Barron’s

Posted in China, Economics, USA at 2:06 pm by ryan

Quote Seeking Alpha / Barron’s

Commodity bull Jim Rogers notes that there are about 70,000 mutual funds in the world, and only about 50 that invest in commodities. He thinks the speculative bubble has a few years to go. But looking at the ’smart money’ — farmers and others who actually trade in and use the physical commodities — tells a different story. Net commercial shorts are 30% higher than a previous record.

Factors that could burst the bubble:

  • Even the slightest hint of a China slowdown (much of the bullish outlook is due to the perception of an ‘insatiable’ China).
  • A U.S. recession.
  • A stronger dollar (commodities are dollar-denominated).
  • A stronger stock market, leading people to put money back into stocks. (Or, conversely, a weaker market that sees traders liquidating commodity longs to meet margin calls. Barron’s doesn’t mention this, but it got some mileage when gold and oil dived suddenly a couple weeks ago.)
  • The CFTC changing its exemption of position limits on index funds.

Personally, my money’s on Jim Rogers, but we’ll see ;-)

03.24.08

Countdown to Meltdown…

Posted in China, Economics, USA at 9:20 am by ryan

Had coffee last week with a reporter from The Atlantic, James Fallows. Just saw an excellent story he put together called “Countdown to a Meltdown”:

America’s coming economic crisis. A look back from the election of 2016
Countdown to a Meltdown
January 20, 2016, Master Strategy Memo
Subject: The Coming Year—and Beyond

It’s an excellent read. Check it out.
There’s also a great article called “Win the peace” with a speech from Thomas PM Barnett at the TedTalks. Watch it.