Michael Jackson: This is It

Watched the show. Completely blown away. Love MJ. Totally. So much to learn from him.

- Laser like attention to detail.

- Laser like attention to making sure everything sounds exactly like he wants it to

- Laser like attention to making sure the effects will blow the audience away

- No diva-esque attitude; still completely nice

- Loves the Earth

- Loves people

What a man.

RIP.

Thoughts

It's been a good week. I have been thinking a lot. I have been reading about Bear Stearns and how they got into the mess that they did. Well, it was all a case of detached leaders who took on too much risk and assumed everything is going to be okay until it was too late. When you are CEO of such a ship, it is hard to face your employees when you could have done something about it.

You know, work really is not about perks. Perks are great, but if you choose your job based on the perks rather than the fact that you love the job, it's like marrying for money. Seriously. Enjoy the work. Do something you believe in. Don't suffer through it.

I love my Kembangan house!

Cory A Booker

If anyone wants a role model, look to no other man (besides Jesus) than Cory A Booker. This man is a warrior.

Read his article on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cory_Booker

What impressed me the most: how much he wants transformation. In his first term in office, he, the mayor of Newark, patrolled the dangerous streets of Newark with his police officers to get crime off the street.

That's what I call a leader.

Think clearly. For if we do not think clearly, we fall victim to others.

Be disciplined. For if we are not disciplined, we will serve at the feet of those discipline.

Be excellent. For if not we will be mediocre and blend in with the sea of faces.

Be wise.

Keep your eyes on the long term.

Look at the issue. What is the main idea? What is important? What can we do without?

Getting provoked when you are tired is good - it wakes you up to study for 3 hours. I feel pissed off.

The question, "Can God create a stone so heavy He cannot carry?" shall be answered thus, after much deliberation by 3 philosophers in N209.

Ans: This question is faulty and the questioner's credibility suspect; the fault does not lie with God but with the question. Break the question into 2 parts -

A: Can God create... (legitimate)
B: Stone so heavy God cannot carry (invalid: no such thing; invalid set of items)...

Therefore: question cannot be answered because it is faulty - includes an invalid set of items.

A "can" or "cannot" will be a response that traps the person attempting to answer if he does not understand the fault within the question

Parallel question: "Can John do a shorbidtiadlrk?"

A: Can John do... (legitimate)
B: a shorbidtiadlrk (invalid: no such thing; invalid set of items)

Therefore, do not be unreasonable with God. Therefore, fault lies with question, not with God. Question should not be answered.

Xin Hong is...

... thankful that we don't live in Japan. The future generations there are screwed unless the DPJ can do a miracle. Too much debt, not enough structural reforms, aging population (lesser young to take care of the old), high property prices relative to falling income, its only hope - the export sector - crumbling under the hyper competitiveness of other emerging economies, zero resources for the new government to do something, 200% GDP worth of government debt, 440+% of non-financial sector debt (for comparison, 240% in the US) ... recipe for hardship going forward.

Lessons:
- Policies to prevent bankrupctcies and defending asset prices will fail - it creates an equilibrium that does nothing for efficiency
- Policies cannot allow companies to "earn your way back" to recover from bad investments on tons of leverage --> debt gets transferred from private to government
- Stimulus is not enough --> you need restructuring of bad sectors
- When people start tapping capital markets and focus more on asset price appreciation than operating efficiency, something is wrong
- Shadow banking can take place in any form, and they are great indicators of a massive bubble
- Monetary growth cannot exceed nominal GDP growth or things will go horribly wrong

Surviving the New Normal

- Common Sense
- Superior observation
- Sharp intuition
- Acceptance that we have entered into a new normal

Mindset change is critical. Historical mean-variance of returns have changed.

Top down analysis: secular trends, macro views and cyclical views
Bottoms up analysis: FCF, revenue outlook, debt maturity cycles and relative valuations
Mix of fundamentals and technicals i.e. demand and supply.

What's causing spreads to narrow? There is always a why that would determine your course of action.

Securities with policy support, emerging market themes, inflation plays like energy, commodities and metal produces and deleveraging, limited consumption and investment, lower circulation of credit and potentially higher default risk.

Bonds.