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Facebook IPO

bigWOWO — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:08:09 +0000

David Choe

Man, this Facebook IPO is going to be making some people a lot of bank. Check out this Times article here: From Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches. The guy pictured above is David Choe, a graffiti artist who painted the walls of Facebook’s first headquarters. For Mr. Choe’s artistic services, Sean Parker offered to pay him either thousands of dollars or Facebook stock. Choe took stock instead of money. His stock is expected to be worth upwards of $200 million after the IPO.

Although Mr. Choe initially led a rough life including run-ins with the law, he is wealthy even without the Facebook offering. (It is unclear whether he sold any portion of his Facebook holdings on secondary markets.) Now a very successful artist with gallery shows and pieces exhibited in major museums, Mr. Choe declined requests to be interviewed for this article; he said he wanted to maintain his privacy. He has, however, published an obscenity-strewn book of his art, “David Choe,” which includes images of the multimillion-dollar murals at Facebook.

Mr. Choe’s page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Among the images of his graffiti, there is a trail of images of him partying with scantily clad women and spending large amounts of money on alcohol. In recent weeks, Mr. Choe promoted photos of a $40,000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot, he boasted, costs $888.

And who says art isn’t a lucrative field?

Philipp Rosler, Vice-Chancellor of Germany

bigWOWO — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:06:47 +0000

Philipp Rossler

Thanks to Ben Efsaneyim, who wrote this story: One of Europe’s Most Powerful Men is Vietnamese. Philipp Rösler, according to Ben’s article and Wikipedia, is the Vice-Chancellor of Germany, and is originally from Vietnam. The Wikipedia entry says that he was adopted by German parents at nine months, joined the German army as a medic, and completed a medical degree. He’s every Asian parent’s dream! And now he’s in politics, where he’s moved up and up. Vice-Chancellor of Germany, the most economically powerful country in all of Europe. Wow. And not only is he a doctor, but he married a doctor too:

I don’t speak German, but this sounds pretty eloquent to me:

Anyway, I had two reactions to this:

1. My first reaction was to question: How is it possible for an Asian dude to get so high in the government of (what used to be) a highly racist regime? Hitler was less than 70 years ago. I think the answer is that parliamentary government is more likely to allow women and minorities to get ahead faster than a presidential system.

2. My second reaction was: It’s awesome that he was able to do this! I have no idea what German politics or culture is like, but this has to have a great effect on minority representation.

Clara Shih Joins Starbucks Board of Directors

bigWOWO — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 21:57:35 +0000

I had never heard of Clara Shih before today (thanks, S), but Clara Shih is the most recent addition to the Starbucks Board of Directors. She is only 29 years old, is the CEO and cofounder of a company called Hearsay Social, and has written a book about Facebook called The Facebook Era, which is used as a textbook in business schools. She has an incredible resume. Learn more about her here.

Shek Kin (Shih Kien) dies

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

bigWOWO — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 22:13:21 +0000

Hope everyone is happy, healthy, and taking a long break from work and politics. Hope you’re all enjoying good food. Someone told me that Chinese people prefer duck to turkey on Thanksgiving, but that was never my experience.

Anywhoos, if you’re here, check out the video above for the story of Bruno Serato, who serves pasta to poor kids every night, 7 days a week. He uses Barilla pasta, which proves he knows good food. Happy Thanksgiving!

RIP Steve Jobs

bigWOWO — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 01:33:15 +0000

Steve Jobs passed away today at the age of 56. The CEO of Apple, the company behind the Mac, the iPod, the iPad, and the iPhone, he was a visionary who revolutionized the computing industry. As I’m working right now, I’m using a Mac. I bought if three years ago, and it’s the greatest machine I’ve ever owned.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. Here are some words of wisdom that he shared with the Stanford graduating class in 2005:

Hikaru Nakamura, Japanese American Chess Grandmaster

bigWOWO — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 15:02:11 +0000

Welcome to the Chess thread, inspired by my convo with Nottyboy.

Hikaru Nakamura is currently ranked #2 in the U.S. in chess and is a 23 year old grandmaster. He was born in Japan and started playing chess at age 5. He has been ranked among the top 6 players in the world. He is also well known for his abilities in blitz chess, where the games are super fast. (This information was taken from wiki and can be found here. Hikaru has his own site here.)

Does anyone else here play chess?

I checked out the game above and am wondering why his opponent resigned. I don’t see a forced mate, just the loss of a major piece. Then again, my chess abilities are not even close to these two gentlemen, so it could be that this game just isn’t winnable.

By the way, this Japanese American dude is an International Grandmaster; he got much further than the Searching for Bobby Fischer dude, who stopped at International Master–although I’m not sayin’ nothin’ because the Searching for Bobby Fischer dude could kick my ass while wearing a blindfold (and those who saw the bathtub scene in SFBF know it’s no exaggeration). Actually, the Searching For Bobby Fischer dude transitioned from chess to Brazilian Jujitsu, so it’s possible he could kick my ass even off the chessboard.

Chess is an amazing sport, and Hikaru Nakamura is an amazing competitor. He’s had a remarkable rise in the rankings. Kasparov said that one of his performances even bested Bobby Fischer.

Mayweather’s Controversial KO of Ortiz

bigWOWO — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:46:46 +0000

Did anyone see the Mayweather-Ortiz fight? Ortiz headbutted Mayweather, and ref Joe Cortez broke them up. Ortiz looked like he was apologizing to Mayweather and hugged him, when out of nowhere Mayweather punched him twice in the face. Ortiz was unable to recover, so it was scored a KO. Fans booed over what they perceived as a cheap shot. There was quite a bit of controversy, but most likely it won’t get overruled–it was legal, although Joe Cortez wasn’t looking and probably could’ve done a better job as ref. I rewatched it, and while Cortez clearly says, “Let’s go!” he didn’t command them to “box.” It’s easy to understand how Ortiz may not have understood that the game was back on. Cortez wasn’t even looking at them when Mayweather landed his two shots.

I think Mayweather picked the wrong opponent. Even though he was technically winning by outlanding Ortiz, Ortiz was beginning to land the heavier shots. Mayweather was up in rounds one and three, with Ortiz winning round two and beginning to really punish Mayweather in round four. I thought the headbutt did look intentional, but I also agree with the commentators that a guy who claims to be the best in the world shouldn’t have to resort to such tactics. Mayweather followed his unclassy cheap shot with an equally unclassy shoutdown at Larry Merchant during the post-fight interview.

I’d love to see Mayweather-Pacquiao, but honestly, I think Mayweather and Ortiz have some unfinished business. The tide was turning around–which was clearly something that Mayweather didn’t expect when he agreed to this fight. I’d like to see these two guys fight, rather than seeing one taking advantage of a confusing referee command to force a win.

Pacquiao Stops Cotto in Round 12

Robert Reich’s Labor Day Essay

bigWOWO — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 18:32:34 +0000

click to see image

On Labor Day, we’re supposed to be celebrating labor, but it’s hard to do that given the recent report that there was “no jobs growth” in August. Check out Robert Reich’s great short essay in the NY Times about what happened to the economy and how we got here. It’s a great summary of what our most esteemed financial experts have been saying for some quite time: Increasing inequality will prolong and worsen the financial crisis. Without a middle class, there is less discretionary income for most families, and therefore the economy can’t find enough spenders to spend. Traditional trickle-down economics holds the idea that giving more money to the wealthy will enable them to invest more and create more jobs, but that clearly hasn’t happened in this economy.

Reich is correct. Think about it this way–there isn’t much difference in lifestyle between a person who makes $5 million a year and a person who makes $10 million, even though the latter makes twice as much as the former. They go to the same restaurants, belong to the same country clubs, take the same vacations, send their kids to the same private schools, and consequently send their kids to the same colleges. They give to the same organizations. They shop at the same places and buy more or less the same amount. You can only have so many yachts, cars, and vacation homes before the thrill gets old and maintenance becomes tiresome.

Now if you take a guy who makes $25k and double his income to $50k, it’s going to make a world of difference in his lifestyle. He can now afford a car. He can live in a nicer neighborhood. He can eat healthier food. He can now occasionally go to restaurants, and he can afford an iPad and whatever new products are coming out. His credit is better, and he can afford a house. He can afford health care. He’s going to spend more because he has money to spend. An added benefit is that a guy making $50k is less likely to turn to a life of drug peddling and violent crime, and therefore he is less likely to be a burden on his neighborhood police force. He makes more money, spends more money, and is less of a burden on government.

That’s why it makes more sense to have policies that alleviate income inequality. No one is saying that the business class doesn’t deserve to make more–they do–but there comes a point where extra inequality helps no one.

I’m hoping Obama is taking note. Lately, he’s been bending over backward at every request anyone puts in front of him. We need him to step up and do something, rather than accede to the demands of people who don’t understand the economy.

Jon Huntsman Speaks Chinese and Explains Relationship with China

bigWOWO — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 01:22:22 +0000

Jon Huntsman, former U.S. Ambassador to China and now candidate for the presidency, sounds very reasonable with respect to China, which unfortunately means that he’s got an uphill battle in securing the Republican nomination. Outside of the China issue, I have no idea what his positions are; they aren’t prominent on his blog. He’s probably trying to play it safe by staying out of the limelight and letting Bachmann and Perry clown themselves into parodies. A very Sun-Tzu-like strategy. (Thanks, KC.)

Warren Buffett’s Op-Ed on Coddling the Rich

bigWOWO — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:00:09 +0000

Warren Buffett’s Op-Ed on why we should raise taxes on the rich is making the rounds. Check it out at the NYTimes, and read more about the opinions of other super wealthy people here. According to Buffett, he pays too little in taxes. He writes:

Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.

17.4 percent! That’s certainly a lower percentage than what I paid. Warren Buffett also lays to rest that ridiculous claim that investment would suddenly stop with additional taxes:

I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.

I think it’s time for people to be angry at these politicians who have fought to keep inequality in place. People ought to be angry. The massive support for Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry shows just how much the public has been hoodwinked into believing that lower taxes for the super-wealthy is a necessity for economic growth. Studies and observations have shown that that hasn’t worked in this environment.

Here’s something that has been floating around the web:

“If the US Government was a family, they would be making $58,000 a year, they spend $75,000 a year & have $327,000 in credit card debt. They are currently proposing BIG spending cuts to reduce their spending to $72,000 a year.” – Dave Ramsey

There are two ways to fix this problem, BOTH of which we need to employ. First, we clearly have to cut spending. Entitlements are out of control, and the government bureaucracy is much bigger than it needs to be. But we also need to increase revenue. The only way to do that is to raise taxes, or at least make them equal so that the upper class is paying at least the same percentage as the middle class.