dinarpmkum

The real meaning of Easter has had to fight the nonsensical infiltration into the true meaning of Easter. So here's the comeuppance for the bunny ....

Rome wasn't built in a day and the Eurozone will not collapse in a day.  But, the Eurozone will collapse.  It's just a matter of time. Consider the stronger countries in the Eurozone -- Germany and France.  Both economies are now contracting.   Meanwhile their debt levels, acknowledged and unacknowledged, have exploded to new levels.   Both countries are now in the situation that faced Greece four years ago.  So, how is their future going to be any different that what is now taking place in Cyprus, Greece, Spain and Italy? The ECB ministers are a group of political hacks who know little or nothing about economics (something they share with the Obama advising team).   Their idea of improving the economic plight of the Eurozone is to increase the level of debt, continue to implicitly guarantee profligate spending and bureaucratic regulations, and plunge the Eurozone into the economic dark ages. GDP is falling, debt is rising, unemploy...

Unfortunately, his speeches are in Cantonese, but he is so hardworking, at least 20 odd ceramahs a month throughout the country. He does not mince his words, its liberal with profanities, much like me. Plus he has a Phd in History and was a senior lecturer at a top HK university. DAP Superman is Hew Kuan Yau. He has the audacity to declare that he will contest for the same seat as Chua Soi Lek - man, will I love it when he crushes CSL. He is cool. He is very funny, cutting, incisive and makes sense... but what is over riding is his passion for a better Malaysia.

It used to be independent advisors can only recommend shareholders to accept or reject a deal. Accept if its fair and reasonable, reject if its not. But somehow, in recent times there is a new category of qualification for them: fair but not reasonable. To me thats a bloody cop out. A shirking of duties from all sides.  Its like all MBA graduate employees insisting that we must do a market survey before launching a product. In reality, its not so much to gain more data on potential market - in the end its more to cover their ass ... if the product failed, they can say, "But, we did the survey before launching ....". The "fair but not reasonable" is a bogus fortune teller kind of opinion ... "Mr. so and so, you will be rich soon, if not you might be poor ... RM500 thank you".  Can we go back to reject or accept ... pay a few hundred thousand just to get a "Yes, but maybe not ..." view sounds like such a waste of resources. If a deal gets that opin...

If you missed it, here's the podcast on speculative stocks and highly speculative stocks .... http://bfm.my/podcast.html

Amid the tension surrounding the elections and the uncertain market conditions owing because of that, let's look at something else to take our minds to something different. For the last 3 months or so, there have not been any worthy English films to talk about, probably because the Oscar race is over and other blockbusters are awaiting the summer release. However, I have found 3 magnificent Canto/Mando films, highly entertaining to boot. Must watch. The first is the sleeper hit from China, Lost In Thailand . Its a kind of Planes, Trains and Automobiles (Steve Martin, John Candy) meet The Hangover. It was so successful, it has grossed more than US$200m in China alone. It has also caused the number of Chinese tourists to Thailand to jump manifold. It tells of two executives from a venture capital firm seeking the signature of their boss who has gone for a sabbatical at one of the monastery in Thailand for a critical deal. Its very funny in any language. The Cold War , brilliant in th...

There are very few cases of road rage in Japan. See how car drivers say thank you in Japan. If you let another car into your lane, the other driver will press the hazard lights and let it blink a couple of times to say thank you. So cool ... yet I think it will go a long way to de-stress those around us and lets make a step to try and change the Malaysian driving culture bit by bit.

The simplest way to attack the Pakatan Manifesto is to say that it will not work, that there is not enough money to fund all that. Tony Pua, a learned person of business and strategist, explains why the Pakatan Manifesto is not a pipe dream. Excellent presentation and convincing too.

One of the most heart wrenching yet empathetic video ever. Life was never meant to be easy no matter how we shout phrases of positivism. While reality is never always pristine and trouble free, we cannot dwell on them. The struggles, pain and loss that happen to us, much of which we may never have total control over ... are there and will be there in our journey. Happiness, joy and contentment are fleeting and temporary. It seems we get a raw deal in every sense of the word. We soldier on because of our human spirit and the love of those around us, and the love for our own selves. We will never get to understand fully or comprehend the whys. Take care of one another, appreciate the little things in life cause the big ones don't come too often, don't dwell on disappointments for too long, heal yourself, live well, be generous where you can ... and my mantra... bloom where you are planted.

So how big is Cyprus?  800,000 people with a GDP of about 18 billion Euros -- less than 10 percent of the size and wealth of the State of Virginia.  So, how can Cyprus rock the Eurozone? Easy.  Let politics substitute for economics and anything can happen. The grand Euro scheme of bailing out country after country is rapidly running up against reality. The sacrifices that the bailers require are politically unacceptable to the bailees. Austerity traded for more debt -- this is the bailout scheme devised by politicians.  This scheme is an effort to change reality and it won't work. The reality is that Cyprus banking is history.  Who, in his right mind, would willingly leave their money in a Cypriot bank after the events of the past week?  It doesn't really matter what solution is imposed, the Cypriot financial community will not recover. Meanwhile, institutions with deposits in Italian and Spanish banks now face a new reality, hitherto not contempl...

No, not from me, its from Oprah Winfrey. I have to agree almost 90% with what she said. Worth a million dollars if it can get you to rethink your choices in life. Of course it doesn't say anything about those who are already married ... but you should know what you should be doing then. 1. If a man wants you, nothing can keep him away. If he doesn’t want you, nothing can make him stay. 2. Stop making excuses for a man and his behavior. Allow your intuition (or spirit) to save you from heartache. 3. Stop trying to change yourself for a relationship that’s not meant to be. Slower is better. 4. Never live your life for a man before you find what makes you truly happy. 5. If a relationship ends because the man was not treating you as you deserve then heck no, you can’t “be friends”. A friend wouldn’t mistreat a friend. Don’t settle. 6. If you feel like he is stringing you along, then he probably is. 7. Don’t stay because you think “it will get better” You’ll be mad at yourself a year l...

If we had the kind of market we had on Thursday for 3 months, watch the velocity of money rushing through the economy, the multiplier effect would be enormous. Catching everybody off guard. I mean, Muhibbah went very close to being LIMIT UP, my gosh, when did we ever hear of that phrase nowadays, so ancient. OK, the Iskandar linked counters led the way for the last few days. Like I said before, for any kind of bull to appear, there has to be a leader. Remember this theme because after the elections we will have a genuine bull run, probably with the same actors and supporting actors. No one could believe what was happening on Thursday because the election was supposed to be so damn close, to be called any day, and yet you seemingly have the start of the mother of all bull runs appearing. So many retail players were sidelined, but can't help it, the lure of a trend is soooooo  ... intoxicating. Your discipline is called into question and kinda gave way very quickly to the temptations...

Mad Men is a very good series, but the producers are having a hard time with Jon Hamm's little general, as men during those days wear much tighter trousers, so much so that his cowabunga had to be photoshopped out of posters..etc... What a wonderful positive PR problem to have. When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole penis with him. A fleshy appendage, no less primitive than the prehensile tail we lost when we evolved, yet no less important than the heart that keeps us pumping. It makes a man feel whole. It drives a man. It’s the stick that chases the carrot. And when it hangs off of Jon Hamm, it causes problems simply because it stands up for itself. Conflicts between the  Mad Men  crew and Jon Hamm’s increasingly demanding companion, Little Dick Whitman, have apparently become so prevalent, the show’s producers have “politely” asked the notoriously freewheeling star to stifle his penis with a layer of restrictive underwear, after Hamm’s penis became too distracting...

To most of us, we do not even know the locations of Cyprus, maybe even the fact that it was admitted into the European Union as well. How can something so small be so significant? How can it drag markets down so much? In hindsight, the weaker markets gave the lawmakers a big signal. Its not so much that they can whack the depositors in Cypriot banks, they are scared that such tough and unreasonable measures may be employed at other difficult countries such as Spain or Italy. What is likely to happen: the Cypriot lawmakers will vote down the rule. This will anger the ECB and may pave the way for Cyprus exit. I mean, seriously, in the whole scheme of things, its only $7bn. You may actually see a minor bank run at places such as Italy and Spain as well, which may bring back the ECB, IMF and EU finance ministers to the discussion room. Likelihood, the tax will only apply to deposits above 100,000 euros ... paving the way to tax the rich but not the poorer citizens - that may be acceptable,...

I have yet to come across a top tier broker research that truly examines ALL the potential outcomes of the upcoming election and the implications. Yes, we had the research from Bank Islam and see what happened. Nomura Research only presented 3 possible scenarios. THREE, nothing more. Even the dumbest person in the room would know that that is not the entire scenarios available or the available outcomes. Even in my "biased piece below", at least I have the decency to look at all the possibilities. Nomura has painted three potential election scenarios and their impacts on the economy. The first scenario is that the ruling coalition will win a smaller majority of 120-124 seats out of 222. BN currently holds 137 seats.  The second scenario is that the number of seats won by the opposition and the ruling coalition are marginally less than 120 seats, which would likely be an accelerated ousting of the prime minister.  Nomura said within this 20% probability, there is a small chance...

Election is the most talked about subject matter. How should we view Malaysian equity? Will the election result matter in the end? Fact: Retail players and to a lesser extent local funds, have been avoiding or exiting their holdings for the past 3 months despite bouts of uptrend in the local bourse. Fact: Foreign funds have been net buyers for the past 3 months. You wonder if they know something we don't. The confidence exhibited by foreign funds in local shares may be due to the way they view how politics affected Thailand. That country has had more riots, protests rallies and change in government for the past 10 years than all Asian countries combined, I think. Yet the equity market there has shown a strong performance albeit with bouts of minor volatility with each "eventful event". Asian equities are not expensive, but they are no longer outright cheap, except for Malaysia comparatively. How different is Malaysia from Thailand? I think there are more similarities tha...

Are you bored of the recent elections hoo-haa ? It's all coming from either party from different side, some NGOs, and some political related persons. How about foreigners? What are they thinking about our Malaysia General Election? Here you go... In this note, Morgan Stanley outline the 5 things they think investors need to know regarding Malaysia elections: What's upcoming? Setting the context The 13th General Elections are due to be held very soon in Malayia. Parliament needs to be dissolved no later than April 2013, and elections need to be held no later than 60 days from date of its dissolution. Which are the key states to monitor? They are Kedah, Penang, Selangor, Perak, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. Election scenarios and macro implications BN Parliamentary seat share of > 63% would be seen as a positive surprise for investors. BN Parliamentary seat share of < mid 50% would be seen as a negative risk event by investors and could have implications for leadership and gove...