Relationship

when you make others around you look good, they will love you forever

Is fiscal tightening pro-growth?

The theory goes like this:

Fiscal tightening means a smaller public sector. Smaller public sector means lower tax. Lower tax will induce more private investment and create more jobs. In the end the economy will grow.

But in the experience of Greece and Portugal the fiscal tightening caused loss of job and reduced pay in public sector. Because the public sector was large this means consumers have much less money to spend. The contraction in demand pushes business to withhold investment and reduce inventory, causing a further drop in investment. Economic output drops, and new investment is not in sight because the confidence are so weak.

The conservatives think if you brave the pain, overtime the confidence will return. You should not relapse on the policy tightening and business will eventually believe the new regime is for the long term. But how much longer can people bear with the recession and despair?

台灣人民要享有決定自己命運的權利，那只有民進黨執政才有可能

Taiwan's sovereignty issue:
A historical special case.
1. Can not become an independent country because of China and the US opposition.
2. But has the potential of permanently independent from China's rule, if its people continue to be willing to decide its own fate.

history

commentary

LNG is the future

Earth quake concern in Japan has prompted Japan to import a lot more LNG.

Natural Gas Price has fallen since the adoption of fracking.

Natural Gas emits about half of the CO2 compare to oil. But there are caveats.

Criteria to Test Product Suitability

Income
Net worth
Liquid net worth
Tax status
Investment objective
Age
Rish tolerance
Investment experience
Liquidity need
Investment time horizon

Qatar Purchases Cézanne’s The Card Players for More Than $250 Million, Highest Price Ever for a Work of Art

Pictures

Worry about Taiwan's future

Tax revenue and spending

From Congressional Budget Office:

US Budget at end of 2011

Tax revenue: 2.3 trillion
Spending: 3.6 trillion
Deficit: 1.3 trillion
GDP: 15 trillion
Deficit as a percentage of GDP: 8.7%

Break down of the tab:
Social security: 725B, 4.8%
Defense: 700B, 4.7%
Medicare: 480B, 3.2%
Medicaid: 275B, 1.8%
Other formula based, such as unemployment insurance, civilian government and military retirement, veteran's benefit, earned income tax credit, food stamp, etc: 545B, 3.6%
Interest servicing debt: 227B, 1.5%
Non-defense discretionary: 646B, 4.3%

Time wasters

The challenge is to overcome these time wasters and become more productive and effective.

1. Planning

• over-planning

• lack of written goals and deadlines

• taking on too much

• failure to divide projects into manageable tasks

• lack specific plan of activities to meet goals selected

• lack of daily planning

• shifting priorities constantly

• lack of contingency planning

• not monitoring progress throughout the process

• mis-estimating the amount of work needed

2. Organizing and Managing Yourself

• unorganized and messy work area

• lost time spent search

• procrastination

• lack of self discipline

• unfinished projects

• excessive socializing

• inability to say “no”

• perfectionism

• lack of personal focus

3. Organizing and Managing Your Environment

• email overload

• telephone interruptions

• drop-in visitors

• paperwork overload

• meetings

• lack of authority/ misunderstood authority

• duplication of effort

• lack of training

• inadequate equipment or facilities

• unclear communication

Religion, Science, and Politics

I believe in evolution. That alone makes me enemy of conservative Christian. Even though I count myself as a Christian, for the moral value it represents, I don't think Christian will welcome me as one of their own.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_of_support_for_evolution#US_Religious_denominations_that_dispute_evolution

WSJ reported a story about a young Egyptian Christian being beaten up for refusing to convert to Islam. Another story about an Islamic clergy cutting off a man's ear for the same reason.

Compare to Islam I have much more affinity to Christians. Christians are civil and more tolerant of religious difference.