The Conversation
- Gender Divide Podcast (12)
- Eric: One of the podcast speakers stated that people are “too afraid” of looking for the solution. The...
- Eric: I always had a certain motto that has served me very well — “If you can’t get, then build.” As an Asian man...
- Eric: Im reposting this from the PUA thread, because I feel as though it is pertinent here as well: On the flip side,...
- Summer 2013 book reading/reviews at bigWOWO (2)
- The Post-PUA Era of the Asian American Blogosphere (120)
- NSA leaker (33)
- N: Ignore my post above. Writing on a phone between traffic lights are not a great idea. @king My point is, we should...
- N: @king You’re missing my point completely. Can’t you see it’s tge lack of critique and...
- King: Hey there Mojo: I’m not so much arguing that the government is either monolith or that it is dead set...
- Rupert Murdoch files for divorce (14)
- DAMM: Wendy’s brilliant career; each guy more richer than the last.
- Elagabalus: I guess the term ‘Yellow Cab’ wouldn’t apply here. I think ‘Yellow Limo’...
- N: After Jake Cherry and Murdoch, the next batter up is Tony Blair? It would be hilarious if true.
- Supercapitalist on Hulu (16)
- N: @indieking Indie films sucks in general, the majority are films that suck so badly that it’s not worth the...
- indieking: AA indie scene sucks, indie film from AA who goes back to HK to get support sucks, so how are you going to...
- Dman: Instead watch Byron Bigwowo favorite Asian American playwright David Henry Hwang semi-autobiographical teleplay...
- Where are you from? (11)
- bigWOWO: Here’s Ken Tanaka’s follow up: It’s pretty funny! It reminds me of Smelly Guys Is A Bad...
- K. Wallace: I once asked my lab partner in college where she was from (she happened to be asian american) At first I...
- John Doe: Along with all the where you are from questions, I wonder what would have been the reaction if the leaker...
- China’s lack of branding (or Universalism Pt. 2) (21)
- Bint: Building up a strong economy and branding take a whole lot of time, years and even decades. Among these two,...
- Nottyboy: I don’t think that quality assurance scandals like the ones about the toxic baby formula help. I...
- Ei: Chinese love both European and American cars. They are viewed as high quality and safer. Japanese cars are not...
- Asian Men, Black Men, and the Competition for White Women (872)
- King: Well, it’s an interesting idea… but you do realize that you’re taking an article that is...
- Thak: @2nd Choice, This is true. White women like to comfort/delude themselves with the false belief that Asian men...
- Second Choice: That’s HER opinion on why she believes no man has asked her out. She doesn’t even get hit...
- 29-year-old novelist transcends race and culture (13)
- Pozhal: King, No, most authors do not become face recognizable until they’ve had their movies made into...
- King: I think that most authors do not become face recognizable until they have had several best sellers.
- Chr..: “While I don’t doubt that “Asian Man Invisibility Syndrome” exists, very few people in America would be...
- Interview with Darren Leung about The Grandmaster (6)
- Fast&FuriousDrew: LOL @ kobukson, robocop, and King.
- King: ^ me too http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =z-q29hbEP04
- robocop: @kobukson I’d buy that for a dollar
- The Perversity of Human Biodiversity, a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism (482)
- King: ^ Ha! Yes, using the word “Scientific” in the title means that it can’t be possibly be...
- “Want an ethical career? Become a banker.” (3)
- Teen invents supercapacitor phone charger (16)
- bigWOWO: John, I agree. My hope is that these cars will get better in time. I remember when the pocket calculator...
- John Doe: “but hey if that doesn’t work there’s been an idea of a thorium power plant for a while now:”...
- John Doe: Tommy, If I remember by college science class correctly, that video just describes a basic hydrogen fuel...
- Black man denied entry to Asian club in NYC (269)
- We Sinners by Hanna Pylvainen (Review) (5)
- bigWOWO: BTW, I LOVED the last chapter, even though some people thought it was hard to relate to the rest of the...
- bigWOWO: Auvo T, That’s awesome! I think you’ll like the book. It’s specifically about...
- Auvo T: So we are mislead, Rovaniemi is the name of the family, not the town (in Finland) where they live. The book...
- Osaka mayor defends Japan’s wartime sex crimes (32)
- N: On the other hand, how many of you guys actually remember Hatoyama Yukio, an ex-Prime Minister in Japan that...
- New study says tiger parenting doesn’t work (19)
- White History Month (3)
- The Asian Female Celebrity Club (AFCC) Embargo (280)
- smh: You know…Zhang Ziyi has consistently dated Chinese guys. Vivi Nevo was the only white guy she dated afaik....
- The ethnic media’s war on minority personal responsibility (8)
- Lingyai: Yeah I wanted to comment but ES said pretty much what I would. Thanks for saving me the time
- bigWOWO: Eurasian, I totally agree. To be quite honest, for me, as a person who has been following race since high...
- Eurasian Sensation: Seems like there are a few different issues at play here. I think a lot of people in public...
- Lingyai: Yeah I wanted to comment but ES said pretty much what I would. Thanks for saving me the time
- The Association of Asian American Studies and the boycott of Israeli institutions (19)
- N: @john doe Anyone who thinks the way that israel is created is acceptable should be happy to give back New Nexico,...
- John Doe: ^Yes Chr, I do know. Given all that doesn’t it make sense that Europe bear the burden of creating the...
- Chr..: Do you guys not realize that the State of Israel was created because of European anti-Semitism, and its...
- Gender Divide Podcast (12)
Tag Archives: Finance
The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis (Review)
The Big Short is a description of the madness in subprime mortgages that led up to the financial meltdown of 2008. Michael Lewis, author of Liars’ Poker, is the best business writer today. There is no one who can tell a story about Wall Street like he can, no one who can break down complex financial dealings into simple language. This book was very good. As someone who was on the sell side during the big subprime explosion, I didn’t find a lot of his jokes funny, but as an outside observer, I can see why it should be funny in a tragic way.
What Chinese Consumers Want
Great article in the Wall Street Journal: What Chinese Consumers Want. It’s a very interesting article about how captalism is changing China but the demand of Chinese consumers isn’t exactly the same as that of Westerners. The three rules of Chinese consumption are, according to the article, that:
1.
“products that are consumed in public, directly or indirectly, command huge price premiums relative to goods used in private.”
2.
Men, Women, and Dual Income Families
The picture above, which was on the cover of Macleans, would be funnier if it were a Black or Asian woman the lifting the White dude. Or if a White woman were lifting an Asian dude or a Black dude. LOL. But it’s still funny as is.
Chinese Professor Ad
Thanks, Azn of Reason, for posting the ad above.
I did a quick look around the blogosphere. Azn of Reason thinks Chinese dominance is the future, Frank Chow thinks the ad is yellow peril, and Angry Asian Man thinks it’s racist. James Fallows from the Atlantic has a blog post about it here that references a politico blog post that talks about how the ad was made. The politico post reveals that the producers cast a native Chinese guy as the professor and DC college students as the extras. The Atlantic post humorously says: “They are DC-area college students. Their skin and teeth are different from what you’d see in a big Chinese college lecture hall.” LOL! Yup, those good ol’ straightened American teeth! And yes, those kids all have perfect smiles when laughing at how China’s taken over America. They must’ve kidnapped our dentists!
Scary Thoughts for Your Weekend on the Chinese Economy
Thanks to Alpha Asian, who posted this article on the topic of whether the Chinese are manipulating their currency. According to the article, people in the U.S. take it for granted that China is manipulating its currency, while the Chinese think that American politicians are twisting and oversimplifying a complex issue just before elections.
I think it’s hard to refute that China is controlling its currency. It’s quite clear that that is why they’re buying all those treasuries. If they let it float, the reminbi would shoot up.
Where the Money Goes in Publishing
I’m literally years away from finding out what happens when you complete a novel and market it, but if you’re wondering exactly where the money goes when you buy a book at Barnes and Noble, click the image above or check out this informative article by Motoko Rich comparing print and E-books.
Most Red Ink Ever
I’m not an economist, but my gut instinct tells me that this isn’t going to work in the long term…
In a chilling forecast, the White House is predicting a 10-year federal deficit of $9 trillion — more than the sum of all previous deficits since America’s founding. And it says by the next decade’s end the national debt will equal three-quarters of the entire U.S. economy.
A Disadvantage of Small, Independent Media
Protesters in Seoul, South Korea
Good article here about Euna Lee and Laura Ling and how Current TV’s status as a small upstart affects their chances for freedom. According to the article, it’s harder for a smaller channel like Current to exert leverage over foreign governments. Roxanna Saberi had the same problems in Iran. The article says:
One of the risks of this kind of improvised, headlong journalism is that reporters lack the backing of large established news organizations that might have the experience and leverage to deal with foreign governments. While Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, full-time employees of Current, have the backing of Al Gore, who is a founder of the network, they lack the support system that their colleagues at CNN and the British Broadcasting Corporation enjoy.
I'm not your enemy, and I'm not your friend
(pic from here)
The NY Times had an interesting article about credit card companies and the debt collectors they hire and train. The article details how these financial companies train debt collectors as amateur psychologists, and how they teach them to squeeze every penny out of delinquent borrowers. It’s a fascinating read.
I once applied for a job as a debt collector. It was exactly as the Times described it. The company hired large numbers of collectors, trained them to act as “counselors,” and reminded them that people want to pay these bills. The phrase that they repeated over and over was “we’re not their enemy, and we’re not their friend. We’re just here to help.”
Um…okay…that makes sense
According to CNN.com, the works of Ayn Rand are experiencing a resurgence in the wake of our financial crisis. Rand was a proponent of free markets, a believer in individualism, and someone who extolled the virtues of selfishness. People have begun to start re-examining her ideas:
“If only ‘Atlas’ were required reading for every member of Congress and political appointee in the Obama administration. I’m confident that we’d get out of the current financial mess a lot faster,” Wall Street Journal columnist Stephen Moore wrote in early January.
