46,423 歐羅可以買什麼?

Roissy: un voyageur chinois achète pour 46.423 euros de vins, un record.

以上的法文的直接翻譯是: 一位中國來的旅客在戴高樂機場花了46,423歐羅買酒，再創紀錄。

這位貴客據報導買了下列的洒:

甲) 兩枝 Burgundy 紅酒
乙) La Tâche 1991
丙) Romanée Conti 2002
丁) 數枝 Bordeaux 紅酒， 包括 Lafite Rothschild 1947, Pétrus 1986, Certan 1982, Château Margaux 1982 and Château Latour 1976

果然毫氣。

我們祖國同胞不是要抵制法國貨嗎? 看來又是喊喊口號的傑作。看來，以『聽其言，觀其行』來評核中國人最適合不過了。

本人也最痛恨此種人。恕本人武斷，能動用500,000港元去買洒而面不改容的中國人不是貪官便是污吏。

本人阮囊羞澀，喝喝德國白洒便已心滿意足了.....

The power of Yes means No to shareholder

Before lending money to a stranger, banks should at least check his/her monthly income, job profile and any related financial assets. But in Washington Mutual, things are a little bit different:

One mortgage four years ago raised eyebrows. The borrower was claiming a six-figure income and an unusual profession: mariachi singer. Mr. Parsons could not verify the singer’s income, so he had him photographed in front of his home dressed in his mariachi outfit. The photo went into a WaMu file. Approved.

How could that be? Mind you, if you worked in Washington Mutual and asked too many questions on the lax standard of lending. You may risk being sent to a "Re-education camp":

Employees in Tampa who fell short were ordered to drive to a WaMu office in Sarasota, an hour away. There, they sat in a phone bank with 20 other people, calling customers to push home equity loans. "The regional manager would be over your shoulder, listening to every word,” Ms. Zweibel recalled. “They treated us like we were in a sweatshop.”

Ladies and gentleman, that is the way how banks operated in the 21st century, according to the then CEO Mr. Kerry K. Killinger. Make no mistakes, this gentleman has received compensation of more than $88 million between 2001 and 2007. Bingo! This gent can keep the money at the expense of the shareholder. But wait, where are the regulators? Apparently and unfortunately, they were all sleeping.

So, welcome to the United States of America where the cheaters profit and the general public suffers. If you want to know more about how Washington Mutual relentlessly pushed loans, please read the blockbuster report by New York Times.

A Must-read for every one.

In the meantime, Russia is consolidating her sphere of influences.

While every body is preoccupied with the escalations of the bickering between the Israels and the Palestinian on the Gaza strip, a far more important geopolitical event has occurred in Ukraine that, if not properly dealt with, may prove catastrophic to the West's interests in containing the resurgence of Russia.

According to Stratfor.com, the Ruthenians, a small ethnic group living in the Carpathian Mountains, asked Russia on Dec. 23 to recognize their independence from Ukraine. To begin with, the Ruthenia is a geographic and culturo-ethnic name applied to the parts of Eastern Europe populated by Eastern Slavic peoples. Essentially, the word is a Latin rendering of the ancient place name Rus. Today, the historical territory of Rus, in the broadest sense, is formed with parts of the lands of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, a small part of northeastern Slovakia and a narrow strip of eastern Poland.

The Ruthenians residing in Ukraine, throughout the past couple of years, have annually petitioned Kiev for greater and better-defined autonomy. Now, the Ruthenians have simply skipped the petition and turned to Ukraine’s large neighbor, Russia, to recognize their independence.

Apparently, it is encouraged by the Russians.

Very similar to the game plan played on Georgia with respect to South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the Kremlin has cherry-picked the friendly Slav people - the Ruthenians - and through their fight for independence destabilized pro-Western Yushchenko government. As a matter of fact, the oppostion coalition the Party of Regions, which is warm to Russia, has already called the shot last month, accusing the President Yushchenko of improper arm sales to Georgia during the small country's brief war with Russia.

Steps by steps, the Russia is consolidating her sphere of influences. And it seems the next target is Ukraine.

Time for United States to take action on India.

Pakistan has sent troops away from Afghan border region, New York Times reported. Big deal? Yes it is. According to sources from Stratfor.com, more than 100,000 troops is currently stationed near the Afghan border to help the U.S. combat the Taliban militant base camps in Pakistan, effectively cutting off their lines of supply. Hence, the withdrawal of troops, no matter how small the number is going to be, pose a direct threat against the US army.

Furthermore, U.S. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on 20 December 2008 that between 20,000 and 30,000 additional U.S. troops could be sent to Afghanistan to bolster the 31,000 already there. Apparently, the Pentagon would like to copy the Iraq surge model into Afganistan and stabilize the country where NATO troops were also involved. Without the help of the Pakistan's military forces, the Afghanistan surge would fail. The Americans know that and so do the Pakistanis.

The annoucement of a redeployment of troops away from the Afghan border today may therefore be a strong signal from Pakistan to the United States to immediately intervene on their behalf to prevent an Indian attacks. Whether United States can successfully calm India down is still uncertain. But war between the two nuclear rivalry looms large as sources from Stratfor also reported that the Indian troops have deployed to the Barmer district of southwest Rajasthan state along the Indian-Pakistani border. (See Map provided by Stratfor.com below) The state government of Rajasthan has ordered residents of its border villages to be prepared for relocation.



So now, the Indians are building up army near the Indian-Pakistani border to pressure the Pakistan government to deal with the Islamic element inside the Inter-Services Intelligent (ISI). And the Pakistan is moving troops away from the Afghan border to pressure the Americans to control the India's behavior. Now, we need to see the Americans' strategy on India. But time is not on US side as Indians are getting impatient.....

我們的總理温家寶。

二零零八注定是一個不平凡的年頭。而我們的總理更是東奔西跑為百姓做事。姑勿論是否做秀，最低限度溫總身先士卒在環境艱鉅的前綫上親自指揮。這遠勝小城官賈啖其雲吞麵，吞其菠蘿包! 現附一些『感人』照片向溫總個人敬禮!



5月14日，温家寶抵達地震重災區四川北川縣察看災情。這是温家寶在北川中學教學樓廢墟上看望、慰問救援人員。



北京時間5月12日14时28分，四川汶川縣發生7.8级大地震，總理温家寶親趕往地震災區，指揮抗震救災工作。這是温總在專機上研究布置抗震救災工作。



5月13日，總理温家寶在四川都江堰市新建小學察看災情时，看見救援人員正在教學樓廢墟裏搶救一名被困的小學生，流淚了。温家寶蹲坐在廢墟上對着孩子說，我是温家寶爺爺，孩子們一定要挺住，一定會得救！



除夕前一天。2月5日，總理温家寶踏着冰雪登上黔南觀音山，前去看望正在緊張搶修輸電綫路的電力工人。後來在電視新間上，大家都看到當時山頂上的工人衝着總理大喊“總理！危險！不要上來！不要上來！”總理像没有聽到一樣，繼續向山頂上爬。



2月2日,總理温家寶從長沙緊急趕往郴州重災區。在火車上,他望着窗外的冰雪。

You decide.

Just read a provocative piece by Karl Denninger of The Market Ticker. Here is the excerpt:

50 billion [Ed: Madoff Ponzi scheme's estimated losses] is not a small amount of money by anyone's measure. But before one cries too big of a river for those who lost it all in what appears to be the biggest Ponzi Scheme of all time, one should note that a number of people interviewed said they figured Madoff was "cheating" since he was a market maker and had returns they couldn't explain - they just didn't think he was cheating them! A knowing scam? You decide.

The true scam here isn't Madoff though. Its that this sort of attitude - bed, bribe, lie, browbeat and cajole - has become all of what Wall Street is about over the last ten years.

See, we had "investment banks" who "paid to play" with their bond ratings - ratings that were modeled by a computer that was told to assume "house prices will never go down."

Never?

We had other models that "assumed" various ratios (such as debt to income) for no-doc loans, where people didn't even bother stating an income - and others who simply took the "stated" income and believed it - even though HUD [Ed: US Department of Housing and Urban Development.] itself did a study that showed that a plurality of so-called "stated" income loans overstated actual income by as much as 50%! Fraudulent on its face? You decide.

We had our current Treasury Secretary who appeared before the SEC and Congress in 2000 to lobby for the removal of leverage limits, was told (quite literally) to go to hell - that what was he was asking for was unsafe - but he had the audacity to come back four years later with the same request and ramrodded it through. The result? Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG, Fannie and Freddie - all "boomed" with leverage more than double the previous legally-mandated limit. Is Paulson responsible? You decide.

We have sitting Congresspeople who got "preferred rates" on loans from Countrywide Financial with cumulative benefits in the tens of thousands of dollars while they were voting to create (or not) additional regulations on the lending industry. Crooked? You decide.

We have a Federal Reserve who's previous chairman created a speculative bubble in the Internet space and when it popped, he knew this should and must lead to the default of the bad debt taken on. But instead of allowing that, he (along with Congress) intentionally blew an even bigger bubble in housing and the American Consumer. Our current Fed Chairman was a member of the Federal Reserve at the time and saw this happen, but made no comment about it. Congress was repeatedly warned that what was happening was unsustainable and did nothing. Idiotic at best, criminally negligent at worst? You decide.

Three Cheers to Credit Suisse!

My brother was right to point out that the bankers aren't that smart over all as the credit crisis has shown vividly. Leveraged on Other People's Money (OPM), they invest on high-yield risky assets. For a while, well, they made a lot of money and hence huge bonuses. But when the bubble burst and their investment turn into toxic waste, their client lose big - but they will keep the bonuses.

That's why it is lovely to hear Credit Sussie has recently changed their bonus plan. Rewarding the bankers with the same toxic asset they have cooked is just a good start.

Three Cheers to Credit Suisse!

It is final. US benefits the most from the credit crisis!

How so? Let's look at the US Treasuries 30-Year bond yield. Thanks to "flight-to-quality" it yields 2.5605%.



That means investors are willing to lend to the US government for the next 30 years at 2.5605% per annum. Sounds weird? One school of thought argued that the market is pricing in long period of deflation, meaning in real term the 2.5605% yield is relatively high as the deflationary pressure is taking into account. Well, that make sense IF the US dollar is strong against all major currencies.

But that is not the case. It is because we have Helicopter Ben. Ben Bernanke through his last policy statement has indicated that he would do whatever it takes to stimulate the US economy. To me, it means the printing press is going to operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week for the foreseeable future. And the market swiftly reacted. The weighted dollar index (DXY) is now trading below 80, at 79.467.



Anyhow, it is incredible to see people keep financing the US government given the low yield, at the same time the greenback seems to resume its falling trend. I think the writing is already on the wall: US benefits the most from this credit crisis, again!

Should we just fire all the SEC's agents?

Shouldn't we? Under their supervisions, we have experienced one of the largest fraud case ever in the United States. The reverend Bernard Madoff (pronounced MAY-doff) has announced last week that he has ripped off more than US$50 billion from fools as large as banks to lad as small as local charity in Florida. Since Madoff Securities LLC was founded in 1960s, I guess the Ponzi scheme has at least been in business for a decade.

So should I say the SEC was sleeping during the last ten years? Probably. A US$17 billion venture has only three accountants auditing the books, and no one paid attentions? No third party was involved and Madoff Securities LLC claimed the responsibility of the trading, executions and custodian of all the financial instruments on behalf of the clients? Sounds a lot of conflict of interest under the table.

Well, don't blame them some pundits argued. Since Madoff's empire is a hedge fund, and SEC, by law, is not authorized to check. Well, that is a poor excuse as, technically speaking, the vehicle is not a hedge fund. Madoff just generated more than 10% every year and who knows how he made that. Most importantly, investors can cash out instantly, not to mention the nine months advance redemption notices many hedge fund demand their investors.

Let me offer my two cents. Don't blame the SEC, because they are poorly paid. During the boom time, all the smarties has left SEC and looked for more promising jobs in the private sector, read hedge funds and private equity. The SEC has been laden with the not-so-smart guys. So, do you think SEC can out-smart the big gun?

Don't bet on it.

先發制人，中國民主自由寒冬降臨。

筆者曾在早前談過一篇歷史論文，觸及1873年美國華爾街崩盤。其中一個可資今天借鑑的結果便是:

Social unrest in many countries, resulting in regieme changes.

希臘因一宗警察濫權誤殺一名學生而導致全國大亂便是一顯例。而以維護其在中華地區永續執政的中國共產黨機靈個人，他們對此也已作出快速反應。中共深知在金融海嘯衝激下，階級矛盾會更形突出。出租車司機在全國各地風起雲湧的罷駛及抗暴事件便是警訊。所以他們先發制人，回收一切在奧運給予的有限言論及集會自由，重新祭出『穩定壓倒一切』這面紅旗，對異己鐵腕鎮壓。在近多月累計的例子包括:

甲) 楊佳案極速被判死刑;

乙) 敢言的《南方都市報》及《炎黄春秋》遭到整肅;

丙) 維權人士如劉曉波遭到抄家...等等

中共惡形惡相聲討法國總統薩爾科齊接見達賴，其製造事端以轉移國人視綫的目的更彰彰明甚！中共並派船在釣魚台遊戈，挑戰曰本意昧甚濃。此時此刻，連危險的反曰情緒也不惜挑動，亦可側面看出中國經濟其實已陷入了極大的危機.....

Quote of the week

"The Chinese, in some ways the most arrogant of peoples, can elicit a deadly kind of humility in matters of learning."

Spengler of Asia Times Online