Why Sachin Tendulkar is consider a God in India?

Everyone who is not in India would wonder why they call Sachin a "God". Many people has adopted cricket and succeeded because of Sachin, the greatest player of all time. He influence many people life. There are some stories and some of them we may not have heard. But the fact is people in India are playing because of him. They think it can be done, just because of him. If you look back he is mentor to many good Indian player from Rahul Dravid, Sehwag, Yuvraj to Virat Kohli; and may be many more who knows. Recently, Yuvraj, man of the world cup series 2011, declared that Sachin is the person why he is what he is.

When India won a world cup; a huge crowd of fans gathered outside the dressing room, waiting, for a brief glimpse of heroes. One man standing there, the self proclaimed mascot of India’s team, Sudhir Gautam, stood like the thousands of others – in his tri color paint – his body covered head to toe in Orange White Green! Sudhir goes to all the games, no matter where you see. And he is unquestionably the biggest fan of cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. Then the greatest cricket player who ever lived steps from the room to call for Sudhir. He invited him to the dressing room – a place most Indians could not even imagine treading. Sachin shook his hand, embraced him and all India as a brother. Not only that, he grab the Trophy and put on his head, just like he felt that way before the world cup.



Wow, now that is greatness. You see, the people of India would still love Tendulkar, their team, even if they stoically stayed inside the locker room. And this is the point. In that moment between “have to” and “not” – this is where true greatness resides. Tendulkar and his teammates do not owe anyone anything – they delivered. But Sachin Tendulkar chose to honor what is best in all of us. What an epic sportsman is this?

Other story, where some other individual was waiting in Taj Hotel, to get picture with the India team, while all the young cricketer refused to take picture with this man, but Sachin Tendulkar accepted the request. A great man but really humble and down to earth person..

I wish I could tell the Americans what an icon he is compared to the quarterbacks in American football.

Parenting - Joy but no fun

This topic inspired on this article:

http://nymag.com/news/features/67024/


One truth about parenting is happiness level decreases after becoming parent. In the beginning you have exciting moment because you are waited so much to become parent. But as days goes that new human being does not really matters, you want to enjoy your life. Don't have a kid just to have a kid. You should really, really want one. And not for a selfish reason like "I don't want to be alone when I'm old.", or "Some of our friends have one" etc.

One reason why parent hate being parent is they cannot enjoy the life they want to. It is inconvenient, messy, noisy and full of work (and sacrifice, such as Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese, or drop of the classes) but it is hardly the only aspect of life that is like that and it is certainly not boring. There is nothing easy about being a parent. You give up a lot of your life. You may give up almost all of your recreational activities for awhile. You will be tired. You will be stressed. You will spend a lot of money.

Parenting isn't about being happier. It is about being a bigger and better person. Children make your life BIGGER. You feel moments of happiness like you've never felt before. You also feel moments of anger like you've never felt before.

It really is indescribable and not for the faint of heart or the selfish. The beautiful thing about parenting is that it shows you who you really are (not who you think you are), and gives you chances every day to grow.

It makes you see what really matters in life, assuming you actually come to this realization. I've seen plenty of people not realize this and fight to keep their identity, their original idea of what they wanted for themselves while also trying to be a parent. That doesn't work.

Part of parenting is a certain amount of ego destruction. You have to go through that if you want to genuinely care for another human being.

This is what makes the experience of parenting so great. It is a kind of Zen experience of making yourself better by destroying your concept of self (and putting another 'self' first more than your own self would like).

I got to say I hate people who become parent and do not embrace themselves as a parent.

Becoming a parent is the best and worst thing that ever happened to me.

One more goal...

One check mark from the list.

Oceans ( Earth Day Movie )

I think "Oceans" is a great Earth Day movie that tells the importance of the ocean and what we are doing to destroy it. Fish, turtles, whales, sharks, and other sea animals show the beauty of the ocean that we don't get to see very often because it is rare in the deep, vast ocean. These sea animals don't disturb you if you don't disturb them. You don't need to feed them food or trash or anything else that will harm them because they find the right food for themselves and they wouldn't even try to harm you.
When I came to the part when there was trash in the ocean as well as a shopping cart and there was fish eating the trash and fish who were finding shelter in the cart, I was worried for these fish because people out there are making them die. The ocean shouldn't be a dump just like how your room shouldn't be a place to throw candy wrappers and empty soda bottles, but people seem not to care and realize how animals are living not just in the ocean, but also in rain forests, riverbeds, and every place else.
Just like how we have our own life, the fish have theirs. Just like how we go to the grocery store to buy dinner, the fish fight amongst themselves for theirs. Octopuses come out of their dark home looking for fish to strangle and when there is a predator around, the octopus changes color to camouflage to the surrounding atmosphere to prevent its predator from snacking on it. We don't need to feed any ocean animal our trash just let them kill each other for their own dinner because it is their jobs to do so.
When you look at the ocean, think of the animals there because we are considered to support them rather than killing them for no specific reason, whether it is a single coral reef or whether it is a humpback whale, we shouldn't litter the ocean because one single person that does litter the ocean, kills millions of animals.


Megha Patel
Grade: 6
San Ramon

Soon a good time to buy House?

The brief period of stabilization in housing appears to be over and the next leg-down has begun. Mortgage rates are edging higher, foreclosures are on the rise, and the government programs that supported the sector, are being phased out. The uptick in bank-owned properties (REO) is adding to surplus inventory and pushing down prices. A recently released report from First American CoreLogic shows that "distressed sales accounted for 29 per cent of all sales nationwide." Nearly one-third of all home sales are distressed REOs. Also, according to a report from Clear Capital, "Home prices nationally have dropped 3.9 percent quarter to quarter, the first quarterly drop in nine months. (Thanks to Diana Olick, Realty Check, CNBC) Bottom line: More people are being forced from their homes, the banks are facing bigger losses, and the housing market is on the skids.

"Two major banks are expecting major increases in foreclosures, by the end of 2010. " According to the Irvine Housing blog, Bank of America, which currently forecloses on 7,500 homes every month will see that number rise to 45,000 by December 2010.....

“JPMorgan Chase is forecasting bigger foreclosure numbers in the coming months. According to a presentation at the end of February, JPMorgan expects the amount of real estate owned (REO) properties in its portfolio to reach between 33,000 to 45,000 in Q410. By comparison, in Q409, REO inventories were at 23,100."

Bank of America's 6X increase in projected foreclosures is a real eye-popper. It suggests that housing prices (particularly in California) have quite a bit further to tumble. This will effect everything from private consumption to state revenues. It's a disaster.

8 million homeowners are behind on their payments! And, that's not all; mortgage applications dropped 9.6 per cent last week while the Refinance Index (refis) fell 9 per cent in the same period. So, mortgage apps are down even though the Firsttime Homebuyer Tax Credit is still in effect (it ends in two weeks) and, even though this is the "peak season" for home sales.
Because the banks have been withholding supply to keep prices artificially high. There may have been an understanding between the banks and the Fed (a quid pro quo?) to keep inventory low so it looked like Bernanke's $1.25 trillion Quantitative Easing (QE) program was actually stabilizing the market. But now that the banks are stuffed with reserves, there's no need to continue the charade. So the dumping of backlog homes has begun. That will cause inventories to rise and prices to fall. More homeowners will slip into negative equity which will lead to even more foreclosures. It's a vicious circle. If the coming wave of foreclosures is anything close to Bank of America's projections, there's a world of pain ahead.

Fremont economy may be in trouble

The future of the largest employer of the Alameda County, NUMMI, a join venture from GM and Toyota is in question. By the end of this month they will decide whether to continue this plant or not. Toyota used this plant for 25 years to build Corolla and Tacoma. They are going to shift the production of Corolla to Canada and Tacoma to Texas. So if you have 2010 Corolla that will be last from this plant. All 2011 production will be going to the other site. The main reason could be the fact that this plant never went profitable.

NUMMI is the largest commercial employer in the Alameda County, it has around 1000 supplier in California only. Even though they employed 5000 employee but there are 50,000 jobs related to this plant. This Christmas will not good for many folks living here in the valley.

This tells us how expensive is to do business in California. Closure of this plant will certainly impact the local economy. Let us see what Arnold do about this!

My Son's Three Wishes

Here is the exact words written by my son, when he asked by his teacher to write about his three wishes:

One wish that I have is to get smarter. I will get smart by doing lots of difficult homework. Another way is that I will be nice to everybody, so that God can make me smarter. This way I can be smart every day. When I'm in college, I can get good grades. Also I can then get lots of money to be rich.

My second wish is to be very rich. I want to be the richest person in the world. I want to be rich because I will like to have a blue, three story house. It is very important because if I have an emergency, I can pay for it and I will still be rich. Also I can buy lots of healthy food so that I'll be strong and I won't be fat. I can spend my money on sports so I can be stronger. These sports would be tennis, baseball, and wall ball. I won't have videos like a (Nintendo) DS, Wii, Play Station 1, Play Station 2, Play Station 3.

My third wish is to help poor people. I feel terrible because they sometimes have ripped clothes and no money. It is important that their lives wouldn't be ruined. I will give them money, healthy food, and warm clothes. I will teach them how to do exercises and make things like toys, chalks and rocks with color. Then I might teach poor people how to build Native American houses. I will also give sun block to the poor people because will probably get sun burn outside without it. The poor people will probably thank me for giving them lots of helpful things. The poor people will be so happy. Then I'll be happy too!

Now you know about my three wishes.

Raj Patel, Grade 2
Wiebel Elementry School

Tech industry will go Merger and Acquistion

It is no brainier to say that the corporate have difficulty in profit and revenue.

As we go along with the recession, I think there are lot of merger or acquisition in the tech industry will have to happen. Reason?

1. Company are trying to trim cost of doing business to drive the profit.
2. Company will go into another business line to add the revenue stream or to show growth.

How many company can afford to acquire or merge with other company? Very few.

Let's look at some of them can be candidate for acquisition.

Sun Microsystem - I don't think it can survive by itself in the recession. Company like Cisco may target it to add new product line in their portfolio.

Cerner - They are just for the one verticle market, healthcare, which is struggling. Company is great but need better partner.

Others are Sandisk, Netapp, Informatica, Yahoo, eBay etc to name a few potential candidates. There are lot of solar companies that will be consolidated.

The only reason to invest in tech is to get acquired by others with hefty premium.

I must say I was wrong

I must say that I went wrong, based on what I was thinking, back in 2006-07.

Following is a list where I went wrong.

1. Sub prime Loan: I thought there will be a loss of 500B in the Finance Industry due to sub-prime loan. It is clear that it is way over 4 Trillion and no one know it is done. Read Article.
   
2. Bank Failure: I thought Couple of Bank will fail like Countrywide. Fact: There are 24 banks already failed and that does not include investment bank like Lehman, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stern.
3. Housing: I though that housing will go down 20%. Fact: According to the Shiller it has gone down 24% and expected to go down upto 30%.
4. Unemployment: I thought we unemployment will hit 6%. But its looks like it might go to double digit. The companies in the bay area has not yet announce big lay off yet.
   
5. Stock Market: I thought that Dow and S&P will not go below 9000 and 900 respectively. Fact: both went down significantly below that level.
6. Bankruptcy: I thought that individual bankruptcy will be less due to the fact that congress pass tough bankruptcy law. Fact: Bankruptcy is breaking the records.
7. GM Future: I thought GM will be all right for another 5 years. Fact: If fed does not help they are on the way of Bankruptcy as early as next year.
   
8. International Market: I thought, unlike before, they are not much impacted with the US problem. Fact: International market is still has lot of dependency with United States.
9. Interest/Mortgage Rate: I thought fed has no room to go below 2%. They learn the lesson from the past. Fact: Fed Interest Rate is at 1% and expected to go even below. Also Fed is working to offer around 4.5% Mortgage Rate.
10. Recession: I thought the recession will last 6-9 months, but looks like it will continue for more than 12 months.
    

Most of the above cases are related to each other. I went wrong due to the fact that the result of panic in the market place. No one can judge the magnitude of the human sentiment and the ripple effect of it. This is not the excuses why I went wrong, when you are wrong, you are wrong, no matter what. One thing I learned out of this mess is - you cannot measure the magnitude of the problem and its effect.

Bankruptcy

I was wondering how many company will go bankrupt by 2009.

Here is the few, and no surprise to start with GM

General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, Sun Microsystem, Circuit City, Sirius/XM Satellite, Sprint PCS, Etrade, Pilgrim's pride corp, Twin River, and many more smaller companies.

The company, FYI consulting, who help other companies for bankruptcy are doing good.

Needless to say unemployment number will be in 2 digit.

Myths about Media and Marketing

Both media and marketing has one thing in common - they guide the consumer in wrong direction. And both of them are powerful.

1. Media- It is a myth that whatever comes in news it is true. Any media whether is it TV News, Radio, Newspaper, Magazine, they divert your attention the way they like. This is so powerful that Obama bought TV time to give his speech and vision. It almost like you loose the freedom. Couple of months back every media was talking about inflation, now no one is talking anymore. 30% of Texan believe that Obama is Muslim. No one know the name of the person who was involved in Oklahoma bombing but everyone knows Bin Laden. They drive us in terms of what we need to know. They like to make story of any give event - so they become popular and sell more advertisement. They will tell that Wine is healthy based on some research, but they never tell you who sponsor that research. Be very careful what your watch, read and listen.

2. Advertisement - The myth for this is - everything they ask to buy we need that. We are so much abused with the advertisement and we don't know we are abused. We are like hostage monkey who they control the way they want. They make you buy the stuff that you never need in the first place. And if you want one they will sell you two. Remember buy one get one free. For example, Nike make the advertisement like if you do not buy Nike shoes your leg will worn off. You would go to big and fancy houses and pretend this is how the average American lived. Advertisement bring the revolution in the society. I mean it change the society the way they live. It change the life style. Corporate America spends 15% of their revenue in Marketing and Advertisement.Think before taking any action based on advertisement.

We as a consumer need to be smarter than we are.

Historic Day

Today is the Historic Day for America. 50 Years back African American had a problem in getting the seat on the Bus. Today, Barack Obama, a transformational leader, got the most powerful position in the World. Clearly this event makes America proud of. We once again lead the world. The world will learn the lesson why diversity is important. This election is primarily influenced by the economic down turn and problem in the financial market. I think younger age pepople make the difference in this election. If you look at the people, they have the money in 401k, retirement, loosing the job and they want changes. This election tell us the newew generation is thinking differently. They watch politician closely, they understand, what is right. American proves that who is right person to run the country which badly need great leadership.

America Is A Land Of Opportunity And We Can Now Truly Tell Children You Can Be Anything You Want

That being said, I am proud to be American Citizen.

What changes do we need?

About $30 trillion of market value has been erased from global equities in 2008, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Is that all because we did not regulate the mortgatge industry? In the late 19th century, we had faced problem for the rail road companies, and government stepped up and rescue them, after few years they rescued whole farming industry by grants. If any industry get bigger then open market has a significant factor on the economy and it need some level of regulation. We learn a lot for the short term, learn more for medium term and learn nothing for a long term.

There are few points I want to mention that I think does not work.

1. Rich getting richer: We moved from the economy from "opportunity for everyone" to rich getting richer. In the last few decade, huge amount of wealth is created. Usually, wealth is created by Intelligence and Hard work. It was not the case in past decade. People getting rich by housing, stock option and simply by speculation. As a result, it form a bubble of wealth, which we have seen bursted. In this down turn, the biggest loss was faced by the rich people and not the average Joe.
   
2. Deregulation: In late 20th century, governemnt implemented deregulation in various industry such as Telecom, Energy, Finance, Insurance, Airline. Telecom - Because of dereulation it gives huge opportunity to become success. Many companies has been created to take the opportunity. As a result it spurs growth. But at the end, only few big companies left AT&T, Verizon, Sprint. Similarly, in Energy, we have seen how Enron has manupilated the open market and in the same way how the crude oil has gone up. Finally Finance, investment banks has become very innovative in getting new product in the market - which no one understand the consequences. As a result, all the investment banks has gone. They have been converted to regular bank, so that it can be regulated. We know airline industry is also struggling and in merging phase. At the end you will see few companies and fewer competition and we as a consumer will have to take the hit.
   
3. Globalization: I cannot claim that Globalization does not work. But due to globalization, there is significant dependency that nobody knows the consequences of it. We have seen how the problem in Iceland, Argentina, Russia, and many more to come. Few years back when Indian PM, Manmohan Singh, interviewed on PBS. He mentioned that he does not want other country to participate and eventually manipulate in Indian Debt Market. Indian regulation such as Energy, Fianance is working very well. They regulate the Gas Price, Insurance, Banking Industries and it works. Their economy does not give much opportunity to create innormous amout of wealth that sustain longer time.
   
4. Semi-Socialism: We need to stop lobbying. We need to stop governement becoming socialist. Government is not only bailing out the company but they are now taking ownership in the equites of Finance Industry. Governement is writing big fat check to the companies like GM and Ford, who cannot compete with Japanese Car maker. Government has a strong relationship with the main street. Does this sound familer in other countries? Yes. China. When these companies were making big profits nobody bother to take big tax on them. We tend to be semi-social government. This was not capitalism, here tax payer are abused. Also we has a lot of companies has CEO also act as a Chairman of Board. How that company overlook what CEO is doing? I would never invest in company like this.
   

We have very big challenge ahead, and we need to change these policies. Leadership and Adivsors will determine the future of the country.

Healthy Living

For last few decade, when manufacturing jobs move abroad, the obesity level became high for an average American. Now our economy is only 20% manufacturing and 80% service based job. This makes us physical activity less than required. On top of that TV, Games, Internet make you sit in one place for hours and hours. Because of this - Corporate America found very good business Exercise related and Diet Food.

When I went to cruise this summer, I learn few thing in the seminar they gave. There are three things important for the good health. 1. Food, 2. Exercise and 3. Internal Health. While you see many commercials and products related to first two category but no one talk about the Internal Health.

1. Food - Food is important for your body either vegetables, meats, or water. The time, amount and what type of the food we take plays significant role. They were saying we should have more breakfast, less lunch and light dinner. I guess it change with the time. since we do lot less labor work. We should avoid the toxic substances such as Prescription/OTC medications, Alcohol, Caffeine, Tobacco, Preserved sugar, soda, frozen food etc. Preserved sugar is very dangerous and many people does not realize it. It is used in diet coke/pepsi. This toxic substances over the time raise the acid level ( called ph) in the body. When we born we have we have ph level of around 6.7. The diet coke has ph level of 1.7. When we consume this toxic substances the ph level go way below 5. Eventually, this bring lot of problem in our body including cancer. The reduce the acid level in the body, eat more alkaline food. One of the best alakline food is Sea Weed.

2. Exercise: Since we do very few physical activity, they says need to do 30-45 minutes a day for 5 days and other 2 days to recover the body. The time is also important early in the morning compare to during afternoon or late evenings.

3. Internal Health - To improve this you have to control the type of food you eat and air you breath. The liver play important part in this like - filtering the toxic sustances. It detoxifies the poisionesous chemical such as alcohol, drugs etc. It store the tonic substance such as iron reserver, vitamins, mineral, energy and control the sugar. It manufacture the blood. It deferes the germs going into the body. But, if you dring, eat too much of this, it cannot handle. The worst part is it won't warn you like heart or kideny. When you detect the problem in lever, it is too late. So Internal Health i.e. detoxification plays important role to become healthy.

The secret behind the flat tummy is not food or exercise but balanced ph level.

Talking Recession

Needles to say we are already in the recession. But there are some good part of the recession. First and foremost, it will kill inflation. We (American) spend more than we earn, consume more than required and leave way above our mean. Recession let people to look into this issue and force them to readjust. Recession will bring a best opportunity to invest in the equity market. And this recession will bring once in a life time kind of opportunity to invest. Recession will bring you the best deal that you always wanted to purchase. It bring less traffic on the road.

However, there could be lot of disadvantages - it will bring people out of job, so crime level increases. Companies will fail - every recessions, companies closes the door; especially - start ups (I mention as it is important in the valley), companies with negative cash flow, company with no cash on balance sheet, and company with huge debt. In this recession, you will not only see the bank will fail, but big company like Ford, GM and Chrysler will fail. Small business will hit the hardest in the recession. This recession is like in 90s, so most of the "Blog Reader" has not seen the effect of it. What we saw in 2001 was very tiny recession, and mainly on the corporate side which is 33% of economy. This one will be on both the side; consumer and corporate, so it will be deep and may last longer than 9 months. And this recession is global, which never happened.


Here is the excellent presentation from Venture Capitalist in the valley - Sequoia Capital. Which will tell you the picture of the coming month from the VC perspective.

http://www.slideshare.net/eldon/sequoia-capital-on-startups-and-the-economic-downturn-presentation?type=powerpoint

Recession is good for the economics, it's a normal economic cycle. The only fear with the recession is when it turns out to be the depression.

Capitulation begins

We have a bunch of idiots on the media who people love them and listen them, No.I idiot is Jim Cramer. Today, he comes out and says S-E-L-L everything you have. He told after market already been down. Few years back, I thought he was a smart guy, apparently he is totally worthless; but the tragedy is people listening him. He has a media power.

Anyway, the market is down a way down than anyone expected. And one fact is Market alway over-react whether in up trend or down trend. There is a good news and bad news, but bad news are on win as it is bear market. I am not sure if this is capitulation. The world is not going to end. I am holding tight and keep my finger cross.

TARP Bill Raise the National Debt to 11.3 Trillion

The new 700B (actually 800B) TARP passed bill will make national debt to 11.3 Trillion, this is almost double when President Bush took the office. The US Dollar will have to suffer and that will cause another longer term problem. Anyway, here is the highlight of the bill

1. The Treasury department can purchase troubled asset (CDO, MBS, CDS etc) from the Financial Institution upto 700B. 250 Billion immediately, and 100B as required and rest of them with the President advise. It expires by Dec 31, 2009 and can extend upto one year if Treasurey want to do so. They can define the terms and condition.
   
2. It is treasury responsibility to price the security based on the risk. They have to consider tax payer cost, national debt, stability of the financial market, preserving home ownership, need of financial institution and local communities; expect corruption with this line. There will be lot of regulation to avoid the conflict of interest though.
   
3. There will be Financial Stability Oversight Board to review and make recommendation. The board will have Fed Res. Chairman, Ben B, Sec. Hen P, Chairman of SEC, Director of FHA, Secretary of Housing Development. There will be also a special inspector general to supervise and coordinates audit and investigations. He has to provide the quarterly report to congress as well. There will be also a Congressional Oversight Panel, who will review the financial market, regulatory system and use the authority. They all have to cooperate with the FBI too.
   
4. Within 60 days treasury has to report to Congress what they have purchased, if it is more than 50B they have to provide detailed report. Within six month they have to report the effectiveness of this program. They have to also report the transaction within 2 days to public.
   
5. If any profit they have to pay the national debt. There will be profit for sure if it is managed properly.
   
6. Plan will try to avoid foreclosure by modifying the loan terms for the trouble and other home owners, who might consider foreclosure.
   
7. It prohibit the golden parachute for the executives who sell the trouble assets.
8. They will also study of mark to market accounting and its effect,
9. Raise the FDIC limit from 100k to 250k, until Dec 2009. Also raise the borrowing limit for the insurance.

The Question is: Will this works? If "works" means avoid recession then NO. If "works" means potential failure of other financial firms then YES. This program will be more effective if they did earlier; IMO its too late. Also to the other note it is government intervention in the open market, they are fixing the prices, as Ron Paul said. The company like GE and Goldman (both are AAA grade company) are paying 10% to their investor. How much is the cost to borrow the money for the BBB grade company? Costco is selling $100 Starbuck Giftcard for $80. How creative to raise the money? Will government come and rescue them as well? This is the problem and that will bring the economy into the recession. Furthermore small business; if mom and pop shop cannot borrow at sufficient cost, to do their business, that business is going to fail.

Full detail of House Bill here

Worst Vice-Presidential Candidate Ever

Generally I do not like to talk politics, because I hate all of them. But with the selection of our Vice President Candidate Sarah Palin, I cannot resist. We saw dollar declining, our (USA) status being strong declining, performance in sports declining (e.g. Olympic medals), Financial Power declining, Military power declining, and now leadership. I cannot stand the declining of our Leadership. Leadership is very important for the success of our country.

Looking at Sarah Palin, I would rate George W Bush better. It seems like she does not know anything except raising the kids; even their she did not do a good job, as her 17-year old daughter is pregnant. The only good part about her is her "Glasses". She is a total joke, she doesn’t answer questions. Simply because she doesn’t know the answers. Totally out of her league, she has no idea about anything at all. A disgrace to America, a disgrace to the world. The only thing she knows about the foreign policy is she can see Russia from her window. She read all the newspaper but she cannot name them. We cannot let her to be our vice president. And being Mccain very old and can get heart attack any time; she is going to be our President! I don't want to see that day. I think she is not qualified for this position. If Republican are smart enough they should pull her out as soon as possible. I think she knows it and she should step down. Being Governor of State with less than half million population does not qualify for the president.

The worst day is when McCain elected and by any chance Sarah Palin become President. I mean there is nothing worst can happen to USA than her being President.

God Bless America.

Here is the next problem

Is Money Market Fund safe? That is the big question. And no one has right answer. Login to your brokerage account and check the 7-day yield of swaping money market account . Do not surprise if it is over 4%. I am talking about CA Tax Free money market account, so taxable yield is over 6%. Any point over 3.5% is consider risky this days.

So what is going on? The bank are looking for your money - to raise the capital. So this is the way they are attracting investor. The money market fund usually buy Commerical short term papers and other short term securities. This securities are too many in the market and fewer buyer, hence its prices has gone down and yield going up. So your brokerage is passing this high yield to you. Very unusal, I have never imaging this could happen. This does not mean underlying security is very risky. If this underlying securities are risky then you will see the value of your $1 money market fund will be $0.97 or even lower after some time. People says that it never happend, but it happend last week. Since August, Wamu was offering 5% FDIC insured CD for 1 year and 4% in saving account. (It is still available Sep 24, 2008) Fed overnight rate is 2% and treasury yield is less than 1%, however they are offering 4.5%, something is cooking which is beyond our imaginations. I think they want to raise the capital. I just found the news that Wamu is taken control by FDIC through JPM or in other word 12th bank failed this year. Here is the list of all failed banks since 2000.

This high yield investmet securities will be available at lower price until the market stabilizes and find the buyer for this securities. At this point, international buyer are going away from US, we have record outflow of investment dollor in July. So here is the question again, where to put the money?

My mother used to tell me if you have money, do not put in the bank - Buy Gold.

Armageddon Has Arrived ...

Finally, Lehman will file bankruptcy, or at least it looks like this way.

Greenspan said more firms will fails, the crisis is once in a century. He should get some credit for this crisis.

AIG, the biggest insurer is in trouble, that means most of the retiree, who has annuity they are in trouble.

The rating agency in trouble, so no one know what is the value of Bond.

Merill Lynch cannot survived by its own, they are in talk to merge with Bank of America.

Wamu is next one, if need bailout it need 24B tax payer money.


So what will happen tomorrow ? a) Market will down 5%, black monday, b) Fed will reduce 1 point, c) Market will close in memory of Lehman :-


....will know more later.