Droid is coming

I kinda want to ditch my Iphone after reading about the new android navigation

.

Iphone Killer! Again?

Droid from Moto might be latest potential iphone killer. MG Siegler at TechCrunch thinks otherwise.

Android is trying to kill Windows Mobile, not the iPhone.

I like the analogy between IPhone vs. Android and  Mac vs. PC. It makes sense. I won't be surprised to see an Android boom, and won't be bothered by the failure of windows mobile.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Tried to read the famous book, but reading became skimping in few minutes, and came to a full stop not after long.
How can you "Win Friends and Influence People" by stating the obvious over and over again and throwing out big names and quotes without context?


There are some fair points, summarized nicely in Wikipedia. A little better than common sense.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People

1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want....

Six Ways to Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a man's Name is to him the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in the terms of the other man's interest.
6. Make the other person feel important and do it sincerely.

Twelve Ways to Win People to Your Way of Thinking

1. Avoid arguments.
2. Show respect for the other person's opinions. Never tell someone they are wrong.
3. If you're wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Start with questions the other person will answer yes to.
6. Let the other person do the talking.
7. Let the other person feel the idea is his/hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
9. Sympathize with the other person.
10. Appeal to noble motives.
11. Dramatize your ideas.
12. Throw down a challenge.

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to other people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes first.
4. Ask questions instead of directly giving orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise every improvement.
7. Give them a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Encourage them by making their faults seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing what you suggest.

Prelude to divorce?

From the divorce counselor, Niall Ferguson:

Wake Up Washington! China Is Already Dumping the Dollar, Niall Ferguson Says

Posted Oct 20, 2009 11:52am EDT by Aaron Task in Newsmakers, Commodities

Just as U.S. policymakers are too sanguine about China's military power, Harvard Professor Niall Ferguson says Washington D.C. is too complacent about China's ability to wean itself off the dollar. With about 1.7 trillion of dollar-denominated assets (mainly Treasuries) in its foreign currency reserves, conventional wisdom goes something like this: If China were to diversify away from the dollar or merely allow the renminbi to float, much less dump its greenbacks wholesale, they would be shooting themselves in the proverbial foot. That's both as investors and because further dollar weakness would put a damper on their biggest export market. (A weaker dollar makes foreign goods more expensive for Americans, meaning Chinese imports would become less "cheap.")
This view is "slightly naive," according to Ferguson, author of The Ascent of Money.
"The idea they don't have anywhere else to go or would shoot themselves in the foot if there were a steep decline in the dollar or appreciation of their currency reassures many people in Washington ‘we can relax'," he says. "An appreciation of the renminbi may reduce value of their international reserves but increases the value of every other asset the Chinese own," most notably the commodity assets they have been buying all over the world.
China's "current strategy is to diversify out of dollars and into commodities," Ferguson says. Furthermore, China's recent pact with Brazil to conduct trade in their local currencies is a "sign of the times."
Perhaps most importantly, China's massive stimulus program is helping to generate internal consumption in the People's Republic, meaning local manufacturers are less dependent on exports. Because of the "rapid growth" of Chinese domestic consumption, Ferguson predicts China's international trade surplus could be gone by next year.
"People in Washington rather assume because the U.S. consumer was so dominant there really isn't a substitute," Ferguson says. But China's trade surplus stood at $12.9 billion in September, down about 56% from a year earlier, according to MarketWatch.com.
From 1998-2007, China engaged in a form of vendor financing, lending money to the U.S. so the U.S. would buy Chinese goods, Ferguson explains. "I think that model has basically broken. They know it and have a new one in which we play a much less important role."

TARP is good, but ...

Via Reuters.

US watchdog says TARP helped stabilize system,

Wed Oct 21, 2009 8:57am EDT

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. government's $700 billion financial rescue program has helped to stabilize the system, but may be creating systemic problems by fueling a belief banks will always be bailed out, a watchdog for the program said on Wednesday.

"Compared to where we were last October there is no question that the system if far more stable. We were on the precipice and I think the (Troubled Asset Relief Program) contributed with the other programs to pull us back," Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the program, told CNBC.

"But I do think because of the moral hazard, because of some systemic risks that are associated with making these institutions bigger and bigger ... systemically we may be in a more dangerous place even then we were a year ago," he said. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann, Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

Elsewhere at NPR's Marketplace: 

TARP unlikely to bring taxpayer returns

... [Neil Barofsky] said that out of the $700 billion bailout, there's about $317 billion left. He says we will not get all the money back. Mainly because of AIG and the auto companies, which took some of that TARP money. And he said this this morning on CNBC. After saying that the TARP was successful in rescuing the banks, he did have this caveat.

Niall Ferguson on the coming divorce of Chimerica.

Via yahoo

Niall Ferguson: U.S. Empire in Decline, on Collision Course with China

Posted Oct 20, 2009 07:30am EDT by Aaron Task in Newsmakers

Related: FXI, PGJ, ^GSPC, ^dji, SPY, LMT, RTN

The U.S. is an empire in decline, according to Niall Ferguson, Harvard professor and author of The Ascent of Money."People have predicted the end of America in the past and been wrong," Ferguson concedes. "But let's face it: If you're trying to borrow $9 trillion to save your financial system...and already half your public debt held by foreigners, it's not really the conduct of rising empires, is it?"

Given its massive deficits and overseas military adventures, America today is similar to the Spanish Empire in the 17th century and Britain's in the 20th, he says. "Excessive debt is usually a predictor of subsequent trouble."

Putting a finer point on it, Ferguson says America today is comparable to Britain circa 1900: a dominant empire underestimating the rise of a new power. In Britain's case back then it was Germany; in America's case today, it's China.

"When China's economy is equal in size to that of the U.S., which could come as early as 2027...it means China becomes not only a major economic competitor - it's that already, it then becomes a diplomatic competitor and a military competitor," the history professor declares.

The most obvious sign of this is China's major naval construction program, featuring next generation submarines and up to three aircraft carriers, Ferguson says. "There's no other way of interpreting this than as a challenge to the hegemony of the U.S. in the Asia-Pacific region."

As to analysts like Stratfor's George Friedman, who downplay China's naval ambitions, Ferguson notes British experts - including Winston Churchill - were similarly complacent about Germany at the dawn of the 20th century.

"I'm not predicting World War III but we have to recognize...China is becoming more assertive, a rival not a partner," he says, adding that China's navy doesn't have to be as large as America's to pose a problem. "They don't have to have an equally large navy, just big enough to pose a strategic threat [and] cause trouble" for the U.S. Navy.

Divorce? !

Niall Ferguson predicted a divorce of Chimerica.

Paul Krugman interprets the speech of Bernanke as part of the argument between the couples.

Of course, there are no lack of complaints from the Chinese side.

So probably the question is not whether there will be a divorce. It's gonna happen. The question is when, and whether it will be peaceful one.

A look beneath the WASPish veneer

Via NPR

Tad Friend, who wrote a New Yorker column about how his WASP parents lived without the money and prestige they'd once known, has written a book on the history of his family. It's called "Cheerful Money." He discusses it with Kai Ryssdal.

Also New Yorker 

Tad Friend's article about his mother.

Dow at 10,000

Via The Big Picture

With the DJIA approaching 10,000 again, let’s reminisce about 1999, the year it first passed that magic level on March 29th. Millennium by the Backstreet Boys was the best selling album, American Beauty won the Academy Award, the Euro was established, SpongeBob SquarePants aired for the first time, Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela, Karl Malone, Pudge, Chipper Jones, Jagr and Kurt Warner won MVP awards and the average price of a gallon of gasoline at the pump was about $1.20. US nominal GDP ended at $9.6b vs $14.1 as of Q2 ‘09. Also, on March 29th 1999, the DXY was at 100.36 (now 75.60), the CRB was at 192.40 (now 269.15), gold was at $280 (now $1,060), oil was $16.44 (now $74.80), corn was $2.32 (now $3.85), copper was $.62 (now $2.83), the 10 yr yield was 5.19% (now 3.38%), and the fed funds rate was at 4.75% (now 0-.25%). Oh, how time flies.

Morgan Downey wonders whether natural gas is the new oil.

What is certain is that the industry is in a state of flux which could turn the oil and gas industry upside down over the next 10 years.