Oui ou Non?
May 30 at 9:09pm by ObverseView
It’s rare for me in this column to comment on any kind of politics, but the rejection of the new European Treaty last weekend hardly surprised me. I listened to one or two of the politicians who spoke out in support of the Treaty, and their attitude was so far removed from the people’s concerns… They spoke as if it was an all or nothing decision. And that’s what they got - nothing.
Far more erudite stuff can be found at here and by searching on Google.
Well, the French are really mixing up the cabinet and having second thoughts about this constitutional change. The Dutch are likely to do the same thing. Thank God! I guess politicians tried to pull the wool over our eyes. An interesting editorial on this at IHT.
Business Videos Online…
May 27 at 1:01am by ObverseView
I’ve been finding a lot of online sources for Business Videos recently, that I thought you may wish to look at.
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MSN and RSS Feed for MSN Videos.
AOL Videon on Winamp Winamp does need a recent version of the player (version 5.09+). Then click on Media Library.
I’ll add more as I find them. Please let me know by dropping me an email.
Then there’s bloomberg video and the BBC with some of its video and radio news.
Quite a collection, eh…
Kenneth
Getting traffic for your website!
May 27 at 1:01am by ObverseView
I’ve been building websites for ages but still one of the most difficult things I have to do is raise traffic for the website! It’s quite difficult to really get people’s interest. So I found this article quite helpful. You may want to refer to it yourself. Link.
See my posting on 4daily.com and studiotraffic.com for some ways to generate traffic.
Kenneth
personal fabricator
May 26 at 3:03am by ObverseView
The Economist and Business Week magazines have both run fascinating articles on the concepts and practices of the Personal Fabricator. Could this invention revolutionize our post-Industrial societies?
This kind of device would really ruin our product-based societies, as many kinds of manufacturing would just cease overnight. On the other hand, if we still had to pay for the designs of products, much as people pay for the designs of sweaters in knitting magazines, our societies’ values of Intellectual Property would take a huge boost. Theory, applications and knowledge all would become the HOTTEST industries…
Too Many Websites
May 26 at 2:02am by Kenneth
Well, I was wondering why not many of my websites are really successful. Then I began to count the number of websites I regularly administer! I think I in part stumbled on one of the principal reasons: there are just too many.
There’s HKJTEFL and Pleiades and PanopticonAsia. Then there’s my personal site, too. After that I have this blog. Then I have three or four Yahoo! Groups. I have TESOLTeachers, too, and the Forums. I also have to look after Nozkidz website. It’s just too much to manage. Let’s see how many’s that!
Anway, I guess that I am going to have to focus on my priorities here, to be able to achieve anything… 
Smaller vs. Bigger
May 15 at 12:12am by Kenneth
I found a very interesting post on Motley Fool about investing in small companies vs. large companies.
It really makes some excellent arguments why big companies are perpahs better for more mature portfolios but you won’t really much because consequential growth rates are considerably smaller than for smaller and growth related companies. After it’s much easier to grow 100 times when you’re only worth $1Billion than when you’re already worth $100 Billion.
Also, smaller companies arent’ so well covered according to the report. So there are opportunities for pricing in information that may not already be included in the market price. There’s another important advantage that one can’t omit, though the writer of the article doesn’t mention this. Mutual Funds may actually be restricted by their regulations from investing in smaller companies, or at their very last by the size of any potential investment by a mutual fund. In many cases, the investment may buy a substantial holding of the company on the market. Mutual Funds don’t typically do this.
So perhaps we should look for smaller size companies to make more investments rather than relying on the duds of the Dow Jones Index and the S&P500.
Kenneth
Taiwan’s Cash Card Craze
May 15 at 12:12am by ObverseView
A recent report in Taiwan stated: As of the end of March, 3.81 million cash cards were issued in Taiwan, with an outstanding loan figure of about NT$270.5 billion.
A cash card in Taiwan is a form of unsecured loan, in the form of a credit card, and much like the cash advance features of credit cards. However, their prevalence in Taiwan’s society is causing much concern, just as the prevalence of credit cards in Western society does.
I calculate that the average balance is NT$71,000 per card outstanding, which is approximately 2 months salary. Now this of itself wouldn’t necessarily be cause for alarm. However, many people have two or more cards, each with sizable limits.
What’s the interest on this? Each card has interest rates of 20% per annum or more… That would be about more than NT$1185 per month in interest charges alone. Remember that people have 2 0r more cards, and credit cards, too.
This is scandalous esp. when you consider who the banks have been lending to. Principally these are people without a good credit record, low salary employment (because of youth?), students, etc. And the advertisements are just farcical, showing people jumping for joy, because now they are in debt.
Is this crazy or what? Or is it just banks pure desire to generate excess and even perhaps gross profiteering.
And yet, it is not as if the banks were putting a gun to people’s heads and said ‘borrow.’ But surely they must have a fiduciary duty of some sort to encourage sensible lending, as the borrowers are THEIR customers, too.
Kenneth
AMTD: merger mania
May 10 at 9:09am by ObverseView
Update on AMTD for this quarter. Story posted here.
Well, I exited this one pretty quickly, today. It spiked to almost $13.95 yesterday on merger rumors. I exited it at about 13.11. S&P report stated:
We think AMTD would make attractive acquisition candidate and that significant synergies could be achieved. Also, we do not think management control issues will present a problem for an acquirer. We still see FY 05 (Sep.) EPS at $0.80, but are raising our 12-month target price to $14 from $13, or nearly 18X that estimate. Our downgrade reflects our view that a bidding war is not likely, given that we see only a limited number of potential suitors.
I am looking for a re-entry point below this, on the hope that prices will drop again today… on lack of news. I do think this is a very attractive company to invest in, but I don’t know after the merger, though, I’m not keen on mergers because synergies aren’t always to be found, and it takes quite a while for the merger to be completed, viz-a-viz JPM’s recent merger with Chase, and AOL with Time Warner.
Kenneth
How am I doing?
May 6 at 9:09am by ObverseView
Ken’s Portfolio since December 31st, 2004.
Dow Jones Index
-4.32%
NASDAQ Index
-10.40%
Kenneth
Tiny nuclear fusion device!
May 3 at 4:04am by Kenneth
This has got to be an exciting announcement, if it’s true! And it’s not April 1st, either.
Nuclear Fusion has been one of the perennial holy grails of energy research these last twenty years or so, and each time someone has claimed success, others have gone onto prove the research as flawed or worse. Can this be true?
Kenneth
