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Showing posts from November, 2012

No Time Like The Present

Sooner or later the harsh realities have to be faced.  Why not face it now?  Obama thinks Republicans will be blamed.  Maybe....maybe not.  Obama is in the White House and his party controls the Senate.  Why not fight the good fight right now.  Go over the cliff and do not raise the debt ceiling.  Force the country to come to grips with the debt situation while it is still possible to do something about it. By coming to a fictitious agreement that may seem politically advantageous in the short run, such an agreement gives up on the country.  Letting the national debt spiral out of the control, which is the Obama plan, destroys the American economy and potentially it's political fabric.  Why not tackle the issue now while Republicans control the House and can block any further madness by the Obama Administration.  The future isn't very bright either way, but there is no hope for the future if Republicans cave in here. The time is now.

The Geithner Plan Bares All

According to Geithner, the President has no interest in reducing spending at all.  In fact, he proposes major spending increases for infrastructure.  As for taxes, the sky is the limit, apparently, to the President.  So much for the economy.  This is all about "revenge" after all. As noted in a journal op-ed two days ago, the unfunded liability in social security and medicare increases by over $7 Trillion every single year.  This $ 7 Trillion is not in the budget or under discussion.  So, raising $ 1.6 Trillion in taxes over the next ten years does what?  The only purpose of the Obama tax cut is to punish enemies.  That's it.  And if the American economy is condemned to stagnation for a generation or two, who cares?  Certainly not the President. Going over the cliff looks so much better than this.  Let's hope the Republicans think of country first, strap on their seat belts, and take us over the fiscal cliff.  Only in this manner can we ever hope to deal openly with t

Really Cool Songs

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Really cool songs are usually not big commercial successes or chart toppers. There has to be something with the melody and/or lyrics that makes it special. First on my list has to be Lou Reed, his drug laced, brash lyrics and mind numbing bass line and melody make this in a class of its own. Just to prove that punk bands also can come up with gems, The Stranglers shine here. How to be sexy, breathy and lyrics that are suggestive but goes nowhere with soaring vocals. Chris Isaak at his best.  Listen first and see how compact and loud this band is, and there are only 3 of them The highly under rated Rush from Canada with their biggest hit. The brilliant, enigmatic, in your face performer Annie Lennox ... in all her glory and talent, powerful lyrics to boot. For all of Pink Floyd's brilliance, this song somehow stays with us for the longest time. Its the title I guess. So cool. If The Beatles never existed, we'd be talking about The Beach Boys. Not many of us appreciate the m

The Pink Elephant In The Room

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You are in a room in a social setting with a few people and there is a pink elephant in the room as well. How long can you carry on before you start talking about the pink elephant? In local financial markets, the pink elephant is the results of the upcoming elections. What if?  My opinion, for what it is worth, the ruling party mightl win only one state in the Peninsula, I find it very hard to see where the second state is coming from. What about phantom voters and rigged votes? That can only be used in close seats, its pointless to use rigged votes in all seats, and I think there are not enough of such votes to go around town. Whether its Anwar or the leader from PAS as PM, I don't think thats an issue anymore. PKR may lose some votes on that but miniscule. Will there be a hung parliament? I think that is the best the ruling party can hope for, a hung parliament. Then its a jockeying of candidates to move to one side or another. Not a good situation. However, I do think in a hung

Buffett Should Study the Numbers

Warren Buffett opined today that a minimum tax of 30 percent should be placed on incomes north of $ 1 million, jumping to 35 percent for those with incomes above $ 10 million.  In the same interview he seemed to be either (1) unaware of how Berkshire Hathaway pays corporate taxes; or (2) intent on misleading his audience about the taxes that Berkshire actually pays.  You wonder if Warren is really doing his homework these days. Buffett argues that the fiscal cliff is easy to avoid.  Simply move tax revenues up to 21 percent and hold federal spending at 21 percent.  Thanks, Warren, but that won't even come close to getting it done.  The entitlements are on a trajectory to consume 40 percent of GDP within the next two generations (that 40 percent rises to over 100 percent eventually).  What's the plan, then, Warrren -- raise rates to a minimum of 60 percent and 70 percent on the way to 100 percent? Making tax revenues chase entitlement spending is a losers game and ends up with m

If Don't Quit, Also Must Cut Down At Least

Why Bruce Lee

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Because he is the triumph of mind over body...  because he is faster than the rest of us .... because he is cocky and cool and he can afford to be .... because he is human and yet superhuman at the same time ... because he is just like us with faults and all and yet he is a higher being ... because he brought us beauty in movements and reflexes ... because he can be the most intense person in the room and his focus can be soul-penetrating ... because he showed us the extent of human potential ... Below is a  FOOTAGE of Bruce Lee playing ping pong with normal humans. My God, the focus, the assuredness, the skill, being one with your instrument, mind blowing ... but is it real ... it even looked real ... Sigh ... and we all wanted it to be true and real .... but Bruce Lee is still Bruce Lee no matter what Bruce Lee Plays Ping Pong With Nunchucks — The Truth Revealed! by: Garr Ovard     Profile      Share:  bruce lee plays ping pong Thursday, December 22, 2011 Visit Link   Watch Video   B

ETP update: 10 Key Achievements (Nov 2012)

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Below is the 10 key achievements highlighted by CEO of Pemandu, that demonstrates the positive inroads of the ETP: Projects will be implemented within the 12 focused National Key Economic Areas (NKEA) and also implement 51 Strategic Reform Initiatives (SRI) to ensure competitiveness will flourish. Whilst Malaysia's GNI per capita was only US$6,700 in 2009, it grew dramatically by 45% in 2011. (Target is US$15,000 by 2020) GDP grew by 5.3% year-to-date. This is significant, considering Singapore's growth of only 1.3% while neighboring countries recorded the following GDP growth: Thailand 3.0% South Korea 1.6% Taiwan 1.0% Hong Kong 1.3% Economy continues to grow to reach new GDP and GNI records in 2011, with Government achieved its highest revenue in history with RM185 billion in 2011, allowing the Government to implement many programmes, including those under GTP such as BRIM1 and BRIM2. Private investment continues to achieve robust growth. As of Sept 2012, private investmen

Determination and Focus

The strength of the human spirit always confounds me. Determination and focus. Its not that we can do all things, but we certainly can do most things we put our minds to. Naturally people will say "well, I really really want to be rich", can I do that? I don't think that will happen to everyone even if you have the best teacher or motivational coaches, but at least you would have gave it your best shot. Isn't that most important ... that you have aimed for the stars, pulled back an arrow the best you can and gave it your best shot ... rather than wishing upon a star and slumping back to your regular humdrum activity. This guy's a champ.  .... Just do it ... you'd be amazed at what you can achieve.

Dog Imitates Baby ... Too Cute

Giving Up on Economic Growth

Growing the economy is no longer an American policy objective.  The Obama Administration rarely mentions the topic.  They talk about the economy but do not seem to think that eononmic growth is really all that important.  Somehow, according to Obama, you can get jobs and full employment with little or no economic growth.  There are no prior historical examples of job creation without economic growth, but maybe Obama knows something that we don't know. The main focus of the administration is to figure out how to put the economy into a straight jacket.  The political rhetoric that garners support for this absurd economic program is to demonize the rich and successful.  The media helps, of course.  When was the last time you watched a television program where a businessman was anything other than a sleazy crook.  The anti-business mentality not only infects the White House, it permeates our entire culture. If business is the enemy and economic growth is irrelevant, then the future is

Significant Upgrades To Murasaki System

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We have had some teething problem early on as we did not expect more than 1,000 trial users would jam our system in the first week. As promised, effective IMMEDIATELY, the load and response time would be cut down from the usual 4-10 seconds per click to less than 2 seconds. How - Instead of loading over 1,000 stocks ... when you use Murasaki ts on your PC/desktop/notebook, by default it will load just the TOP 300 stocks  sorted by M Index (Murasaki Index) and BRH Index, the two most used indicators. We call this the LITE VERSION.   You can switch back to view ALL STOCKS by using the drop down menu on the right of your screen. Further queries, please contact us on:  1800 88 3788 http://www.murasaki.co/tradesensor/welcome.mx We are very excited when we tested the new version on our IPADs, IPhones and other smartphones (including Samsung). The load times were even faster. But bear in mind that owing to the size of the gadgets, we have to trim down the number of stocks that you can view. I

- How To Stop A Nightmare - Too Lovely & Warm For Words

Singapore Water Industry, Thanks To You Know Who

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Saturday, 10 November 2012 06:34 S'pore - thanks to Malaysia's Dr M, our water industry is now worth $ 9 BILLION! Written by  mevotex Fresh water has always been a precious resource to Singapore. Being a tiny island with high urban population constrained by its land size, modern Singapore never have enough water of its own to support its population, but this is about to change.... In 1927, Singapore signed a water agreement with Johor to construct a pipeline transporting raw water from Johor to Singapore. During the Battle of Singapore in 1942, the pipeline was destroyed, which left Singapore with water reserves that could last at most two weeks. According to Lee Kuan Yew, this was one of his motives to envision water self-sufficiency for Singapore later when he became the city-state's Prime Minister. Immediately after the British awarded self-governance in 1959, the Singaporean government under Lee signed 2 water agreements with Malaya in 1961 and 1962. Under these agreeme

Walmart and the Free Market

Walmart has provided low wage jobs for hundreds of thousands of Americans.  None of those employees were promised a living wage, guaranteed health care, and a plethora of fringe benefits.  If an employee did not want the low wage job that was offered, they could look elsewhere.  That is still true.  Nothing has changed. Now the big unions want a new deal.  The new deal is all about the living wage, health care coverage and host of other goodies not normally available to low-skilled, low wage employees.  So, now Walmart is the bad guy, in the eyes of the unions. Walmart should be free to offer whatever jobs they want to offer and if people don't want those jobs, then they can work somewhere else.  This is an economic transaction, not a religious order.   Any Walmart employees, unhappy with existing working arrangements, can leave and work somewhere else.  That's what disgruntled employees of Walmart should do, instead of inconveniencing customers of Walmart with demonstrations. 

Redistribution Economics

Casey Mulligan, an econ prof at the University of Chicago, has provided a fascinating analysis of why so many people have given up looking for work in the Obama economy.  His new book, "The Redistribution Recession," lays out the "high marginal tax rates" that the unemployed and the poor in general face in the Obama economy. Here's an example you might not have thought about.  Under the Obama mortgage loan foregiveness rules, the amount of loan forgiveness depends upon your income.  The higher your income, the less you can receive in loan forgiveness.  This functions like a tax: if you work and receive income you lose the ability to receive loan forgiveness.  So, why work?  The same kind of disincentives are in place with food stamps, unemployment compensation and host of government programs to help the needy and the middle class. The result:  people rationally choose to leave the labor force and live off of the various pecuniary benefits that one can receive if

EPF Flexible Age 55 Withdrawal

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As all of us know, Employees Provident Funds (EPF) is meant for our retirement savings which helps us go through our golden years. However, statistic shows that most of the contributors opted for full withdrawals at age 55 and finished it all within a period of 10 years . In addressing this issue and encouraging contributors to keep their savings longer, EPF has launched a campaign to promote awareness on their " Flexible Age 55 Withdrawal Scheme ". How flexible is it? If you're one of the to-be-retiree, then this post more than relevant to you. Read on and share this with other contributors if you think that this might be useful for them. How does " EPF Flexible Age 55 Withdrawal Scheme " works? By opting the scheme, contributors could withdraw part of their savings at any one time or make monthly withdrawals or a combination of both options. This is how flexible it is where you can vary the frequency and withdrawal amount anytime. In other words, withdraw onl

Murasaki Coming To Ipoh, JB, Seremban and Melaka ...

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Paid and trial subscribers are entitled to register for our complimentary Masterclass in order to better use and be familiarized with our system. Kindly contact us to reserve your seat. Masterclass will also be held from time to time, please revisit our website regularly for any updates. You may also register for a free 7 day trial by going to www.murasaki.co KLANG VALLEY Events Date Day Time Venue Register Now! Master Class 27th November 2012 Tuesday 12:30 pm Starbucks Coffee, Tropicana City Mall Petaling Jaya 1800 88 3788 Master Class 29th November 2012 Thursday 12:00 pm Gloria Jeans Coffees, Kenanga International Building Jalan Sultan Ismail 1800 88 3788 Master Class 29th November 2012 Thursday 1:30 pm Gloria Jeans Coffees, Kenanga International Building Jalan Sultan Ismail 1800 88 3788 JOHOR Events Date Day Time Venue Register Now! Master Class 28th November 2012 Wednesday 12:30 pm Starbucks AEON Tebrau City Shopping Centre 1800 88 3788 Master Class 28th November 2012 Wednesday 2:

Greece Issue Headed For A Solution In 6 Days

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Greece's international lenders failed for the second week running to agree how to get the country's debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go at resolving their most intractable problem in six days' time. After nearly 12 hours of talks through the night during which myriad options were discussed, eurozone finance ministers, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank failed to reach a consensus, without which emergency aid cannot be disbursed to Athens. However the markets should be taking the following comments more closely: "We are close to an agreement but technical verifications have to be undertaken, financial calculations have to be made and it's really for technical reasons that at this hour of the day it was not possible to do it in a proper way and so we are interrupting the meeting and reconvening next Monday," Eurogroup chairman Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters. "There are no major political disagreements,&qu