Someone get J.P. Morgan to bail me out of my Honors project!

Well I'm back! I am about to graduate in April and I have yet to finish my honors project! Honestly, I've barely started and I have about three weeks to get it done. So that means I'll be coming across a few interesting things that have to do with investing, stocks, economics, credit crunches, credit crisis, subprime messes, and maybe even about life (ooooh!).

Anyways, I just found this on the web. Someone is making Trader of the Year Awards and this is one of them:

The Iron Balls McGinty Award: Angelo’s Ashes

Say what you will about Countrywide Finan­cial CEO Angelo Mozilo. Sure, he’s terrify­ingly tan — and, as the helmsman of Amer­ica’s biggest subprime-mortgage lender, he more or less abetted a situation that might plunge the country into a steep recession or worse. But give him this much: The guy’s got some set of stones. Countrywide got torched in 2007, its shares dropping 80 percent amid massive write-downs. What was Mozilo doing? Selling hundreds of millions’ worth of shares at pre-meltdown prices. With his company going up in smoke, Mozilo’s trading yielded him an ­estimated $200 million profit. Two weeks before the entire mortgage market began to fall apart, the controversial executive dumped $10 million worth of stock at $28 per share. As of press time, it languished at $5. Insider selling at its most brazen.Sleep tight, Angie.

Cuba del futuro

Here's a peak into the upcoming Cuban administration. Slippery slope towards China type markets?

Virginia Tech and a sidenote on the media...

As you all know, Virginia Tech just had the worst shooting in U.S. history. This is horrible and I don't have to remind you that it is. These 33 who have died have also affected pretty much all of America and even the South Korean government.

The reason I would like to post on this is that I want you to think about how horrible you feel about this and think about this. In one day over 100 people died and this wasn't state ordered either. Yet, this had little affect on us. There was not much news coverage, probably because either we've gotten use to it, or frankly we don't care because its not close enough...or maybe we even hate Iraqis.

On the same note, here was MAJOR coverage over this whole Don Imus hoopla. But was anyone talking about this? Which one do you think is worse?

Hmm...

Should I be more concerned?

Battle of the Brands

Interbrand's 2006 Best Global Brands

It's for the birds and silver chopsticks

This is Kim Jong Il, the man who eats from silver chopsticks, in what appears to be a horrifically awkward picture.

Anyways, the South Korea/North Korea issue is at a real turning point. This is going to be one of the biggest stories in the upcoming year. As you may know, South Korea and North Korea have never signed a treaty to conclude the Korean War. They are technically still at war. In the recent month or two, there have been major, major changes. Just recently:


"Let's lead the rest of our life in joy and become reunited after reunification."

BTW, This is a good article of the story that is the basis for many B-movies.

The investor's theory of relativity.

Compare apples to apples? Or compare apples to oranges like Mr. Kiyosaki?

The dollar in your pocket decreased 9% last year in relation to the Euro (i.e. for every dollar in your pocket at the beginning of the year, you now have 9 cents less! You didn't have to do anything!)

Also, this is pretty cool: Terminator 4: Rise of the Mosquitos