Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Awesome Slow Jam by Barack Obama and Jimmy Fallon!
One of the greatest moment of President Barack Obama. Students should be really happy about the interest rate not going up this July.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Mahatma Gandhi ....
Just recently, watched this amazing documentary biography of Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi (shared by one of my dear friend) on youtube.
Peace and universal brotherhood - how powerful values are these; it's much easier to think (talk?) about these values than personally believing these values, practicing and influencing a whole country or the world practice these values.
I wish "imagine" all the people become like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama, John Lennon...
Here goes one of my all-time favorite song...
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Google (Android) is following the path of Microsoft (Windows)...
There is no doubt in anyone's mind that - handheld mobile devices have brought the same revolution as the desktops (Microsoft & Apple) brought to us in 90's. Google and Apple understood it very well! However, it's amazing to see the power of open source and providing an open powerful OS for all the mobile platform developers... Google Android is an open-source software stack for mobile devices and any mobile developer can develop their apps on this OS, the OS is available for any OEM (unllike Apple iOS). Android has nearly 50% od market share in the mobile OS world. It has already captured the #1 spot in the OS mobile market and will continue to dominate the mobile market. Don't you think Apple is doing a mistake by not making iOS an open source and making it available to beyond apple products?
State of Our Economy... 5 Years After One Of the Biggest Recession of Our Time
This month, we heard the good news that unemployment dropped to 8.6% from 9.1%. Payroll jobs in Nov advanced a relatively strong 120,000 after gaining a revised 100,000 in October (originally 80,000) and increased a revised 210,000 in September (previously 158,000).
Is it good news? Well, we think so, right? Let's look at few other data:
1. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had declined in October, improved in November (increased by 15.1 pts)
2. Existing-home sales improved in October while the number of homes on the market continued to decline and spending on construction projects in the U.S. climbed a third straight time in October, yet remained below compared to year-ago levels
3. Black Friday online sales reached $816 million, making it the heaviest spending day on the Internet so far in 2011 (jumped 26 percent this year)
When we look at all these leading indicators, it seems like we are recovering and on our path to a brighter tomorrow.
Now, let's look at few other data, which concerns me:
1. Even though un-employment rate dropped to 8.6% at the same time, jobless claims climb back over 400,000
2. Labor participation in job market is coming down, low wage jobs are getting created, and women are leaving job market
3. 1 in 5 children now in poverty and 40% of African American are in poverty
4. People who are out of job for more than 6 months are still unemployed
We should be adding 350,000 jobs every month (for another 3 years) to bring unemployment rate to below 6% where as we are barely adding 120,000 per month
After 5 years of recession, American middle class is shrinking, lower class and upper middle class and high class growing. In 1969, middle class constituted 53% of the total American population and in 2009 this percentage has reduced to 43.7% and is shrinking every year. Middle class is the backbone of any nation's economy. What should the Government and Central bank do to stop this hour glass society phenomenon? What should we be doing to stop this?
Sources:
www.mam.econoday.com
www.conference-board.org
www.reuters.com
online.wsj.com
CNN Money
money.usnews.com
Note: This blog was originally written in the last quarter of 2011
Is it good news? Well, we think so, right? Let's look at few other data:
1. The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had declined in October, improved in November (increased by 15.1 pts)
2. Existing-home sales improved in October while the number of homes on the market continued to decline and spending on construction projects in the U.S. climbed a third straight time in October, yet remained below compared to year-ago levels
3. Black Friday online sales reached $816 million, making it the heaviest spending day on the Internet so far in 2011 (jumped 26 percent this year)
When we look at all these leading indicators, it seems like we are recovering and on our path to a brighter tomorrow.
Now, let's look at few other data, which concerns me:
1. Even though un-employment rate dropped to 8.6% at the same time, jobless claims climb back over 400,000
2. Labor participation in job market is coming down, low wage jobs are getting created, and women are leaving job market
3. 1 in 5 children now in poverty and 40% of African American are in poverty
4. People who are out of job for more than 6 months are still unemployed
We should be adding 350,000 jobs every month (for another 3 years) to bring unemployment rate to below 6% where as we are barely adding 120,000 per month
After 5 years of recession, American middle class is shrinking, lower class and upper middle class and high class growing. In 1969, middle class constituted 53% of the total American population and in 2009 this percentage has reduced to 43.7% and is shrinking every year. Middle class is the backbone of any nation's economy. What should the Government and Central bank do to stop this hour glass society phenomenon? What should we be doing to stop this?
Sources:
www.mam.econoday.com
www.conference-board.org
www.reuters.com
online.wsj.com
CNN Money
money.usnews.com
Planning to start actively blog again..
It's been a long time since I last blogged. Been just so busy (may be just an excuse!) lately...
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