Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Family's Fall from Affluence Is Swift and Hard
Grateful to have found work in this tough economy, Nick Martin teaches grape growing and winemaking each Saturday to a class of seven students in a simple metal building here at a satellite campus of Highland Community College.
More from NYTimes.com:
• For Starbucks and Kraft, a Food Fight Looms
• A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A.
• Marketers Discover Trucks Can Deliver More Than Food
[Click here to check savings products and rates in your area.]
Then he drives 14 miles in an 11-year-old Ford Explorer to a sparsely furnished tract house that he rents for $900 a month on a dead-end street in McFarland, a smaller town. Just across the backyard is a shed that a neighbor uses to make cartridges for shooting the prairie dogs that infest the adjacent fields.
It is a far cry from the life that Mr. Martin and his family enjoyed until recently at their Adirondacks waterfront camp at Tupper Lake, N.Y. Their garage held three stylish cars, including a yellow Aston Martin; they owned three horses, one that cost $173,000; and Mr. Martin treated his wife, Kate, to a birthday weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria, with dinner at the "21" Club and a $7,000 mink coat.
That luxurious world was fueled by a check Mr. Martin received in 1998 for $14 million, his share of the $600 million sale of Martin Media, an outdoor advertising business begun by his father in California in the 1950s. After taxes, he kept about $10 million.
But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins' fingers faster than they ever imagined.
They faced temptations to indulge, with the complexities and pressures of new wealth. And a pounding recession pummeled the value of their real estate and new financial investments, rendering their properties unaffordable.
The fortune evaporated in little more than a decade.
[See Toys of the Ultra Rich: What They Cost]
While many millions of Americans have suffered through this recession with only unemployment benefits to sustain them, Mr. Martin has reason to give thanks — he has landed a job at 59, however far away. He also had assets to sell to help tide his family over.
Still, Mr. Martin, a strapping man with a disarming bluntness, seemed dazed by it all. "We are basically broke," he said.
Though he faulted the conventional wisdom of investing in stocks and real estate for some of his woes, along with poor financial advice, he accepted much of the blame himself.
"We spent too much," he conceded. "I have a fourth grader, an eighth grader and a girl who just finished high school. I should have kept working and put the money in bonds."
Mrs. Martin recalled the summer night in 1998 when the family was having a spaghetti dinner at home in Paso Robles, in central California, and a bank representative called to ask where to wire the money. "It seemed like an unbelievable amount," she said regretfully.
Soon after the money arrived, the family decided to leave Paso Robles, amid some lingering tensions that Mr. Martin felt with his brother and brother-in law, who had run the business. Mr. Martin had never been in management at the billboard company, though he had been on the board and worked at Martin Brothers Winery, another family business.
First, the Martins bought a house in Somerset, England, near the home of Mrs. Martin's parents, and he decided to write a novel. At about the same time, they spent $250,000 on the 3.5-acre camp with four structures on Tupper Lake, deep in the Adirondacks, as a summer home. They began extensive renovations at the lake, adding a stunning three-story boathouse and two other buildings.
Clouds gathered quickly. Life in England turned sour when Mr. Martin's novel, "Anthony: Conniver's Lament," did not sell, and the family's living costs — school fees, taxes and even advice for filing tax returns — swelled. In 2002, fed up with England, the Martins chose a new base, Vermont, and plunked down about $650,000 for a home there, as renovations continued on the Tupper Lake property.
By March 2007, the Martins were determined to move to the lake full time.
They managed their expenses for a while, but the costs mounted and mounted some more as they worked at refurbishing the Adirondack property — eventually totaling a staggering $5.3 million, Mr. Martin said. He poured another $600,000 into the Vermont property, he said.
He vacillates between blaming the builders and blaming himself for letting costs get out of hand. "We should have built something quite modest," he conceded.
[See 10 Things Your Contractor Won't Tell You]
Tensions rose in 2007 as summer came without any offers for the Vermont home.
"I thought that housing was going into a tailspin," he said. "I had the feeling that something bad was happening."
So "we started selling cars, shotguns, antique furniture, whatever," Mr. Martin said. The Aston Martin fetched $395,000. With a big gap in his employment history, he found a job teaching English at Paul Smith's College near his home in Tupper Lake for $14,000 a year. For an additional $7,000, he coached the school's cross-country runners.
Then came the financial crisis. The markets plunged, as did the value of the Martins' trust. By fall 2008, with much of the family's net worth tied up in housing, Mr. Martin faced a series of margin calls. He needed more cash in his brokerage accounts because he had been tapping into a credit line with his investments as collateral. In January 2009, he cashed in a retirement account worth roughly $91,000.
The houses could not be sold quickly. Though if they had been, some of the pressure would have lifted. "To maintain those things, you have to have a pretty good cash flow," Mr. Martin said.
The family ultimately put the Adirondacks property on the market for $4.9 million, then quickly slashed the price by half. Last month, the Martins got an offer for just half of the latest $2.5 million asking price.
They have stopped making payments on their $1.1 million mortgage and their $53,000 in annual property taxes in the Adirondacks as well as the mortgage and taxes on their Vermont home. They cannot afford those obligations on Mr. Martin's current salary of $51,000. Their household income is down from $250,000 four years ago.
At the moment, they are working with a loan modification unit at their bank. The lender proposed a new payment of $3,550 a month, reduced from $7,400. Given his current status, Mr. Martin argued, that it does not make much sense. He predicts that the house will ultimately be sold or taken over by the bank. Meanwhile, for the Christmas holidays and some of next summer, the family has found renters for the main house to help cover some of the costs.
Over lunch recently at Barleycorn's Downtown Bar and Deli in Wamego, Mr. Martin said he believed "the worst is behind us."
Perhaps. But a forced restructuring can be difficult for children and spouses even in longstanding marriages.
Sometimes he and his wife took it out on each other, he said. "She bought a bunch of horses. I blamed her for the horses. I bought cars. She blamed me for the cars — and the house being too big. We had a rough time," he acknowledged. "But I think we have gotten over that."
Until Christmas, when she plans to join him, Mrs. Martin continues to work as a substitute teacher with autistic children at an Adirondacks elementary school: a $12,000-a-year job she loves in a place she says she is hesitant to leave. With their younger daughter, she has moved into a smaller building on their big property.
A lively woman who loves bike riding and horses, she has built a close network of friends. "What is the place in Kansas like?" she asked a reporter with some trepidation before her first visit at Thanksgiving.
Mr. Martin, who moved to Kansas last April, brought the couple's 13-year-old son, Edward, to join him in the fall. He has been counting the days until his wife and Sophia, 9, come permanently. The older daughter, Mrs. Martin's from a previous marriage, has found work in Florida after finishing high school.
In the meantime, Mr. Martin is also overseeing a one-acre vineyard beside the Oregon Trail Road, drawing on his knowledge of the wine industry from his California days.
He does what he can to lessen the family strains.
"I have a temper. I have to control my temper," he said. "I could drink like a fish, but if you have problems in your life, drinking does not help."
And he recites a quotation he holds dear : "The measure of a man is not whether he falls down, but whether he gets up again." Still, Mr. Martin is prone to ruminate over the loss of so much money. He is furious at the banks and the bankers, who he thinks gave him bad advice, and he still sounds angry at his brother and others who decided to sell the company and who he says gave him little voice. Some of them got more than $100 million each, he said, while he got $14 million, as did his father and his sister Ann, because they were all minority shareholders.
His brother-in-law David Weyrich said that if Mr. Martin had objections to the sale, he did not voice them.
Mrs. Martin says she believes the move from California was motivated in part because he resented his brother and brother-in-law's bigger role in the community.
She also speculates that the Adirondacks estate was alluring partly as a way of keeping up. "I think he wanted to show his brother and brother-in-law that he had a big home, too," she said over dinner recently in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Mr. Martin disagreed. "We are Irish Catholics, and we thought it would be a compound for our family over generations," he said. After the cramped rooms at their house in England, he liked the big rooms, he said. "Sometimes, things don't work out."
More from NYTimes.com:
• For Starbucks and Kraft, a Food Fight Looms
• A Media False Alarm Over the T.S.A.
• Marketers Discover Trucks Can Deliver More Than Food
[Click here to check savings products and rates in your area.]
Then he drives 14 miles in an 11-year-old Ford Explorer to a sparsely furnished tract house that he rents for $900 a month on a dead-end street in McFarland, a smaller town. Just across the backyard is a shed that a neighbor uses to make cartridges for shooting the prairie dogs that infest the adjacent fields.
It is a far cry from the life that Mr. Martin and his family enjoyed until recently at their Adirondacks waterfront camp at Tupper Lake, N.Y. Their garage held three stylish cars, including a yellow Aston Martin; they owned three horses, one that cost $173,000; and Mr. Martin treated his wife, Kate, to a birthday weekend at the Waldorf-Astoria, with dinner at the "21" Club and a $7,000 mink coat.
That luxurious world was fueled by a check Mr. Martin received in 1998 for $14 million, his share of the $600 million sale of Martin Media, an outdoor advertising business begun by his father in California in the 1950s. After taxes, he kept about $10 million.
But as so often happens to those lucky enough to realize the American dream of sudden riches, the money slipped through the Martins' fingers faster than they ever imagined.
They faced temptations to indulge, with the complexities and pressures of new wealth. And a pounding recession pummeled the value of their real estate and new financial investments, rendering their properties unaffordable.
The fortune evaporated in little more than a decade.
[See Toys of the Ultra Rich: What They Cost]
While many millions of Americans have suffered through this recession with only unemployment benefits to sustain them, Mr. Martin has reason to give thanks — he has landed a job at 59, however far away. He also had assets to sell to help tide his family over.
Still, Mr. Martin, a strapping man with a disarming bluntness, seemed dazed by it all. "We are basically broke," he said.
Though he faulted the conventional wisdom of investing in stocks and real estate for some of his woes, along with poor financial advice, he accepted much of the blame himself.
"We spent too much," he conceded. "I have a fourth grader, an eighth grader and a girl who just finished high school. I should have kept working and put the money in bonds."
Mrs. Martin recalled the summer night in 1998 when the family was having a spaghetti dinner at home in Paso Robles, in central California, and a bank representative called to ask where to wire the money. "It seemed like an unbelievable amount," she said regretfully.
Soon after the money arrived, the family decided to leave Paso Robles, amid some lingering tensions that Mr. Martin felt with his brother and brother-in law, who had run the business. Mr. Martin had never been in management at the billboard company, though he had been on the board and worked at Martin Brothers Winery, another family business.
First, the Martins bought a house in Somerset, England, near the home of Mrs. Martin's parents, and he decided to write a novel. At about the same time, they spent $250,000 on the 3.5-acre camp with four structures on Tupper Lake, deep in the Adirondacks, as a summer home. They began extensive renovations at the lake, adding a stunning three-story boathouse and two other buildings.
Clouds gathered quickly. Life in England turned sour when Mr. Martin's novel, "Anthony: Conniver's Lament," did not sell, and the family's living costs — school fees, taxes and even advice for filing tax returns — swelled. In 2002, fed up with England, the Martins chose a new base, Vermont, and plunked down about $650,000 for a home there, as renovations continued on the Tupper Lake property.
By March 2007, the Martins were determined to move to the lake full time.
They managed their expenses for a while, but the costs mounted and mounted some more as they worked at refurbishing the Adirondack property — eventually totaling a staggering $5.3 million, Mr. Martin said. He poured another $600,000 into the Vermont property, he said.
He vacillates between blaming the builders and blaming himself for letting costs get out of hand. "We should have built something quite modest," he conceded.
[See 10 Things Your Contractor Won't Tell You]
Tensions rose in 2007 as summer came without any offers for the Vermont home.
"I thought that housing was going into a tailspin," he said. "I had the feeling that something bad was happening."
So "we started selling cars, shotguns, antique furniture, whatever," Mr. Martin said. The Aston Martin fetched $395,000. With a big gap in his employment history, he found a job teaching English at Paul Smith's College near his home in Tupper Lake for $14,000 a year. For an additional $7,000, he coached the school's cross-country runners.
Then came the financial crisis. The markets plunged, as did the value of the Martins' trust. By fall 2008, with much of the family's net worth tied up in housing, Mr. Martin faced a series of margin calls. He needed more cash in his brokerage accounts because he had been tapping into a credit line with his investments as collateral. In January 2009, he cashed in a retirement account worth roughly $91,000.
The houses could not be sold quickly. Though if they had been, some of the pressure would have lifted. "To maintain those things, you have to have a pretty good cash flow," Mr. Martin said.
The family ultimately put the Adirondacks property on the market for $4.9 million, then quickly slashed the price by half. Last month, the Martins got an offer for just half of the latest $2.5 million asking price.
They have stopped making payments on their $1.1 million mortgage and their $53,000 in annual property taxes in the Adirondacks as well as the mortgage and taxes on their Vermont home. They cannot afford those obligations on Mr. Martin's current salary of $51,000. Their household income is down from $250,000 four years ago.
At the moment, they are working with a loan modification unit at their bank. The lender proposed a new payment of $3,550 a month, reduced from $7,400. Given his current status, Mr. Martin argued, that it does not make much sense. He predicts that the house will ultimately be sold or taken over by the bank. Meanwhile, for the Christmas holidays and some of next summer, the family has found renters for the main house to help cover some of the costs.
Over lunch recently at Barleycorn's Downtown Bar and Deli in Wamego, Mr. Martin said he believed "the worst is behind us."
Perhaps. But a forced restructuring can be difficult for children and spouses even in longstanding marriages.
Sometimes he and his wife took it out on each other, he said. "She bought a bunch of horses. I blamed her for the horses. I bought cars. She blamed me for the cars — and the house being too big. We had a rough time," he acknowledged. "But I think we have gotten over that."
Until Christmas, when she plans to join him, Mrs. Martin continues to work as a substitute teacher with autistic children at an Adirondacks elementary school: a $12,000-a-year job she loves in a place she says she is hesitant to leave. With their younger daughter, she has moved into a smaller building on their big property.
A lively woman who loves bike riding and horses, she has built a close network of friends. "What is the place in Kansas like?" she asked a reporter with some trepidation before her first visit at Thanksgiving.
Mr. Martin, who moved to Kansas last April, brought the couple's 13-year-old son, Edward, to join him in the fall. He has been counting the days until his wife and Sophia, 9, come permanently. The older daughter, Mrs. Martin's from a previous marriage, has found work in Florida after finishing high school.
In the meantime, Mr. Martin is also overseeing a one-acre vineyard beside the Oregon Trail Road, drawing on his knowledge of the wine industry from his California days.
He does what he can to lessen the family strains.
"I have a temper. I have to control my temper," he said. "I could drink like a fish, but if you have problems in your life, drinking does not help."
And he recites a quotation he holds dear : "The measure of a man is not whether he falls down, but whether he gets up again." Still, Mr. Martin is prone to ruminate over the loss of so much money. He is furious at the banks and the bankers, who he thinks gave him bad advice, and he still sounds angry at his brother and others who decided to sell the company and who he says gave him little voice. Some of them got more than $100 million each, he said, while he got $14 million, as did his father and his sister Ann, because they were all minority shareholders.
His brother-in-law David Weyrich said that if Mr. Martin had objections to the sale, he did not voice them.
Mrs. Martin says she believes the move from California was motivated in part because he resented his brother and brother-in-law's bigger role in the community.
She also speculates that the Adirondacks estate was alluring partly as a way of keeping up. "I think he wanted to show his brother and brother-in-law that he had a big home, too," she said over dinner recently in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Mr. Martin disagreed. "We are Irish Catholics, and we thought it would be a compound for our family over generations," he said. After the cramped rooms at their house in England, he liked the big rooms, he said. "Sometimes, things don't work out."
Sunday, November 28, 2010
100 years in jail for insider trading......
Big New York insider trading probe spawns another
A year after large-scale insider trading probe, prosecutors turn it in a new direction
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EmailPrint..Companies:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. CoGoogle Inc.International Business Machines.
FILE - In this file photo taken Nov. 24, 2010, Don Ching Trang Chu, left, exits Manhattan federal court in New York with his lawyer James DeVita. Chu, a consulting firm executive, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly providing private information about a company's corporate earnings to a hedge fund. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
AMD 7.55 -0.07
GOOG 590.00 -4.97
IBM 143.90 -1.91
{"s" : "amd,goog,ibm","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} Larry Neumeister, Associated Press, On Friday November 26, 2010, 10:46 pm EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- An insider trading case last year that federal authorities said was the biggest ever is providing a recipe for another case that may be even bigger.
The current case is largely an extension of work that led to the arrest of Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam in October 2009. The Galleon investigation marked the first time that federal authorities used wiretaps in an insider trading probe.
Similarly, wiretaps led to the first arrest in the latest case. Don Ching Trang Chu, a consulting firm executive, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly providing private information about a company's corporate earnings to a hedge fund.
The FBI this week searched the offices of three hedge funds and subpoenaed some of Wall Street's most influential firms, including Janus Capital Group and SAC Capital.
The Galleon case has resulted in 23 arrests and 14 guilty pleas. Many of those arrested are cooperating in the latest investigation.
The cases represent an offensive by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara against white collar crime in the securities industry. One aim of the current case: unearthing those who helped match employees at public companies with large-scale traders hoping to profit from information that wasn't available to the public.
Authorities have said little about the current investigation. But a study of Bharara's comments over the past year show how it has progressed.
Bharara said when he announced the arrests in the Galleon case last year that the use of wiretaps marked a turning point in investigations of insider trading. Wall Street insiders, he said, will be forced to wonder if every conversation is recorded.
"When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such," he said.
A month later, as he announced more arrests, he said "the alarm bells have only grown louder."
"How pervasive is insider trading?" he asked. "Is this just the tip of the iceberg? We don't have an answer yet. But we aim to find out."
Two weeks later, in November 2009, he said white-collar fraud had caused a "lack of faith in the economic system; a lack of belief in the markets; and a lack of trust that the playing field is level."
By last month, Preet was holding nothing back, saying that insider trading is "rampant and may even be on the rise."
Now, at least two defendants in the initial probe seem headed for trial. Rajaratnam, a former billionaire and the richest Sri Lankan-born person in the world, and Danielle Chiesi, a former consultant at New Castle Funds, have pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud.
Rajaratnam is a Wall Street analyst who built Galleon into a high-flying hedge fund that specialized in trading stock of technology companies such as IBM Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Google Inc. Authorities say he built a web of contacts throughout the technology industry who provided him with inside information that allowed Galleon to earn millions of dollars in profits.
Rajaratnam has said through his lawyers that his trades were all based on public information. Both face potential penalties of more than 100 years in prison.
Prosecutors have given nearly all the defendants an opportunity to cooperate so that the government can uncover new instances of insider trading. Harlan Protass, a lawyer who represented one of the Galleon defendants, said the number of defendants who pleaded guilty and cooperated was not surprising and there is ample incentive for them to do so.
"The benefit that a defendant stands to gain from cooperating with federal prosecutors is directly linked to the quality and quantity of information he can provide," said Protass, who teaches a class on federal sentencing at Cardozo Law School. "Thus, once a defendant decides to flip, the more wrongful conduct in which he was involved, the better off he ultimately will be when it comes time for sentencing."
His client, Ali Hariri, was a former vice president of Atheros Communications, a chipmaker based in California. He was sentenced earlier this month to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He is not cooperating in the other investigation.
The crackdown on insider trading has been a boost for the pocketbooks of white-collar defense attorneys, said Eric Snyder, a former federal prosecutor. He was at a traditional gathering of about 1,000 white-collar crime defense lawyers the day before Thanksgiving at a midtown Manhattan hotel.
"Everybody was talking about how they're going to get a piece of it," he said of the arrests expected to result from the latest probe. "Every firm in the city is expecting they're going to become involved in that case."
The first arrest turned out to be Chu of Somerset, N.J. It apparently was rushed after investigators who interviewed him on Sunday learned that he was supposed to fly to Taiwan days later, a trip that he makes frequently.
His lawyer, James DeVita, said only: "We will have an opportunity to present a defense, and we'll pursue that."
According to court records, the case against him was built when a cooperator from the Galleon probe engaged him in conversations in which he talked about inside information and how to prevent federal authorities from learning about it electronically.
The wiretaps on a hedge fund phone were cited in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where a judge on Wednesday upheld the government's right to use wiretaps. The judge rejected defense contentions that they were unconstitutional because they were not specifically authorized under rules written by Congress regarding wiretaps.
Marc Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who now represents white-collar defendants, said prosecutors will still need to be selective about when to seek court authorization for wiretaps.
"I would not necessarily assume that further investigations mean that it's wiretaps gone wild," he said.
A year after large-scale insider trading probe, prosecutors turn it in a new direction
Share
retweet
EmailPrint..Companies:Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. CoGoogle Inc.International Business Machines.
FILE - In this file photo taken Nov. 24, 2010, Don Ching Trang Chu, left, exits Manhattan federal court in New York with his lawyer James DeVita. Chu, a consulting firm executive, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly providing private information about a company's corporate earnings to a hedge fund. (AP Photo/ Louis Lanzano, File)
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
AMD 7.55 -0.07
GOOG 590.00 -4.97
IBM 143.90 -1.91
{"s" : "amd,goog,ibm","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} Larry Neumeister, Associated Press, On Friday November 26, 2010, 10:46 pm EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- An insider trading case last year that federal authorities said was the biggest ever is providing a recipe for another case that may be even bigger.
The current case is largely an extension of work that led to the arrest of Galleon Group founder Raj Rajaratnam in October 2009. The Galleon investigation marked the first time that federal authorities used wiretaps in an insider trading probe.
Similarly, wiretaps led to the first arrest in the latest case. Don Ching Trang Chu, a consulting firm executive, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly providing private information about a company's corporate earnings to a hedge fund.
The FBI this week searched the offices of three hedge funds and subpoenaed some of Wall Street's most influential firms, including Janus Capital Group and SAC Capital.
The Galleon case has resulted in 23 arrests and 14 guilty pleas. Many of those arrested are cooperating in the latest investigation.
The cases represent an offensive by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara against white collar crime in the securities industry. One aim of the current case: unearthing those who helped match employees at public companies with large-scale traders hoping to profit from information that wasn't available to the public.
Authorities have said little about the current investigation. But a study of Bharara's comments over the past year show how it has progressed.
Bharara said when he announced the arrests in the Galleon case last year that the use of wiretaps marked a turning point in investigations of insider trading. Wall Street insiders, he said, will be forced to wonder if every conversation is recorded.
"When sophisticated business people begin to adopt the methods of common criminals, we have no choice but to treat them as such," he said.
A month later, as he announced more arrests, he said "the alarm bells have only grown louder."
"How pervasive is insider trading?" he asked. "Is this just the tip of the iceberg? We don't have an answer yet. But we aim to find out."
Two weeks later, in November 2009, he said white-collar fraud had caused a "lack of faith in the economic system; a lack of belief in the markets; and a lack of trust that the playing field is level."
By last month, Preet was holding nothing back, saying that insider trading is "rampant and may even be on the rise."
Now, at least two defendants in the initial probe seem headed for trial. Rajaratnam, a former billionaire and the richest Sri Lankan-born person in the world, and Danielle Chiesi, a former consultant at New Castle Funds, have pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud.
Rajaratnam is a Wall Street analyst who built Galleon into a high-flying hedge fund that specialized in trading stock of technology companies such as IBM Corp., Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Google Inc. Authorities say he built a web of contacts throughout the technology industry who provided him with inside information that allowed Galleon to earn millions of dollars in profits.
Rajaratnam has said through his lawyers that his trades were all based on public information. Both face potential penalties of more than 100 years in prison.
Prosecutors have given nearly all the defendants an opportunity to cooperate so that the government can uncover new instances of insider trading. Harlan Protass, a lawyer who represented one of the Galleon defendants, said the number of defendants who pleaded guilty and cooperated was not surprising and there is ample incentive for them to do so.
"The benefit that a defendant stands to gain from cooperating with federal prosecutors is directly linked to the quality and quantity of information he can provide," said Protass, who teaches a class on federal sentencing at Cardozo Law School. "Thus, once a defendant decides to flip, the more wrongful conduct in which he was involved, the better off he ultimately will be when it comes time for sentencing."
His client, Ali Hariri, was a former vice president of Atheros Communications, a chipmaker based in California. He was sentenced earlier this month to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities fraud. He is not cooperating in the other investigation.
The crackdown on insider trading has been a boost for the pocketbooks of white-collar defense attorneys, said Eric Snyder, a former federal prosecutor. He was at a traditional gathering of about 1,000 white-collar crime defense lawyers the day before Thanksgiving at a midtown Manhattan hotel.
"Everybody was talking about how they're going to get a piece of it," he said of the arrests expected to result from the latest probe. "Every firm in the city is expecting they're going to become involved in that case."
The first arrest turned out to be Chu of Somerset, N.J. It apparently was rushed after investigators who interviewed him on Sunday learned that he was supposed to fly to Taiwan days later, a trip that he makes frequently.
His lawyer, James DeVita, said only: "We will have an opportunity to present a defense, and we'll pursue that."
According to court records, the case against him was built when a cooperator from the Galleon probe engaged him in conversations in which he talked about inside information and how to prevent federal authorities from learning about it electronically.
The wiretaps on a hedge fund phone were cited in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where a judge on Wednesday upheld the government's right to use wiretaps. The judge rejected defense contentions that they were unconstitutional because they were not specifically authorized under rules written by Congress regarding wiretaps.
Marc Mukasey, a former federal prosecutor who now represents white-collar defendants, said prosecutors will still need to be selective about when to seek court authorization for wiretaps.
"I would not necessarily assume that further investigations mean that it's wiretaps gone wild," he said.
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Eyewitnesses of His Majesty
by Max Lucado
Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus.
Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating Him who we see.
To see His Majesty and to imitate Him,that is the sum of Christianity.
FOR FIFTY-ONE YEARS BOB EDENS WAS BLIND. He couldn't see a thing. His world was a black hall of sounds and smells. He felt his way through five decades of darkness.
And then, he could see.
A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, Bob Edens had sight. He found it overwhelming. "I never would have dreamed that yellow is so ... yellow," he exclaimed. "I don't have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favorite color. I just can't believe red.
"I can see the shape of the moon—and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail. And of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. You could never know how wonderful everything is."
He's right. Those of us who have lived a lifetime with vision can't know how wonderful it must be to be given sight.
But Bob Edens isn't the only one who has spent a lifetime near something without seeing it. Few are the people who don't suffer from some form of blindness. Amazing, isn't it? We can live next to something for a lifetime, but unless we take time to focus on it, it doesn't become a part of our life. Unless we somehow have our blindness lifted, our world is but a black cave.
Think about it. Just because one has witnessed a thousand rainbows doesn't mean he's seen the grandeur of one. One can live near a garden and fail to focus on the splendor of the flower. A man can spend a lifetime with a woman and never pause to look into her soul.
And a person can be all that goodness calls him to be and still never see the Author of life.
Being honest or moral or even religious doesn't necessarily mean we will see him. No. We may see what others see in him. Or we may hear what some say he said. But until we see him for ourselves, until our own sight is given, we may think we see him, having in reality seen only a hazy form in the gray semidarkness.
Have you seen him?
Have you caught a glimpse of His Majesty? A word is placed in a receptive crevice of your heart that causes you, ever so briefly, to see his face. You hear a verse read in a tone you'd never heard, or explained in a way you'd never thought and one more piece of the puzzle falls into place. Someone touches your painful spirit as only one sent from him could do and there he is.
Jesus.
The man. The bronzed Galilean who spoke with such thunderous authority and loved with such childlike humility.
The God. The one who claimed to be older than time and greater than death.
Gone is the pomp of religion; dissipated is the fog of theology. Momentarily lifted is the opaque curtain of controversy and opinion. Erased are our own blinding errors and egotism. And there he stands.
Jesus.
Have you seen him?
Those who first did were never the same.
"My Lord and my God!" cried Thomas.
"I have seen the Lord," exclaimed Mary Magdalene.
"We have seen his glory," declared John.
"Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?" rejoiced the two Emmaus-bound disciples.
But Peter said it best. "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty."
His Majesty. The emperor of Judah. The soaring eagle of eternity. The noble admiral of the Kingdom. All the splendor of heaven revealed in a human body. For a period ever so brief, the doors to the throne room were open and God came near. His Majesty was seen. Heaven touched the earth and, as a result, earth can know heaven. In astounding tandem a human body housed divinity. Holiness and earthliness intertwined.
Has it been a while since you have seen him? If your prayers seem stale, it probably has. If your faith seems to be trembling, perhaps your vision of him has blurred. If you can't find power to face your problems, perhaps it is time to face him.
One warning. Something happens to a person who has witnessed His Majesty. He becomes addicted. One glimpse of the King and you are consumed by a desire to see more of him and say more about him. Pew-warming is no longer an option. Junk religion will no longer suffice. Sensation-seeking is needless. Once you have seen his face you will forever long to see it again.
My prayer for this book—without apologies—is that the Divine Surgeon will use it as a delicate surgical tool to restore sight. That blurriness will be focused and darkness dispersed. And, that we will whisper the secret of the universe, "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty."
From the newly released
God Came Near: Deluxe Edition
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1987) Max Lucado
Christianity, in its purest form, is nothing more than seeing Jesus.
Christian service, in its purest form, is nothing more than imitating Him who we see.
To see His Majesty and to imitate Him,that is the sum of Christianity.
FOR FIFTY-ONE YEARS BOB EDENS WAS BLIND. He couldn't see a thing. His world was a black hall of sounds and smells. He felt his way through five decades of darkness.
And then, he could see.
A skilled surgeon performed a complicated operation and, for the first time, Bob Edens had sight. He found it overwhelming. "I never would have dreamed that yellow is so ... yellow," he exclaimed. "I don't have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But red is my favorite color. I just can't believe red.
"I can see the shape of the moon—and I like nothing better than seeing a jet plane flying across the sky leaving a vapor trail. And of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. You could never know how wonderful everything is."
He's right. Those of us who have lived a lifetime with vision can't know how wonderful it must be to be given sight.
But Bob Edens isn't the only one who has spent a lifetime near something without seeing it. Few are the people who don't suffer from some form of blindness. Amazing, isn't it? We can live next to something for a lifetime, but unless we take time to focus on it, it doesn't become a part of our life. Unless we somehow have our blindness lifted, our world is but a black cave.
Think about it. Just because one has witnessed a thousand rainbows doesn't mean he's seen the grandeur of one. One can live near a garden and fail to focus on the splendor of the flower. A man can spend a lifetime with a woman and never pause to look into her soul.
And a person can be all that goodness calls him to be and still never see the Author of life.
Being honest or moral or even religious doesn't necessarily mean we will see him. No. We may see what others see in him. Or we may hear what some say he said. But until we see him for ourselves, until our own sight is given, we may think we see him, having in reality seen only a hazy form in the gray semidarkness.
Have you seen him?
Have you caught a glimpse of His Majesty? A word is placed in a receptive crevice of your heart that causes you, ever so briefly, to see his face. You hear a verse read in a tone you'd never heard, or explained in a way you'd never thought and one more piece of the puzzle falls into place. Someone touches your painful spirit as only one sent from him could do and there he is.
Jesus.
The man. The bronzed Galilean who spoke with such thunderous authority and loved with such childlike humility.
The God. The one who claimed to be older than time and greater than death.
Gone is the pomp of religion; dissipated is the fog of theology. Momentarily lifted is the opaque curtain of controversy and opinion. Erased are our own blinding errors and egotism. And there he stands.
Jesus.
Have you seen him?
Those who first did were never the same.
"My Lord and my God!" cried Thomas.
"I have seen the Lord," exclaimed Mary Magdalene.
"We have seen his glory," declared John.
"Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked?" rejoiced the two Emmaus-bound disciples.
But Peter said it best. "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty."
His Majesty. The emperor of Judah. The soaring eagle of eternity. The noble admiral of the Kingdom. All the splendor of heaven revealed in a human body. For a period ever so brief, the doors to the throne room were open and God came near. His Majesty was seen. Heaven touched the earth and, as a result, earth can know heaven. In astounding tandem a human body housed divinity. Holiness and earthliness intertwined.
Has it been a while since you have seen him? If your prayers seem stale, it probably has. If your faith seems to be trembling, perhaps your vision of him has blurred. If you can't find power to face your problems, perhaps it is time to face him.
One warning. Something happens to a person who has witnessed His Majesty. He becomes addicted. One glimpse of the King and you are consumed by a desire to see more of him and say more about him. Pew-warming is no longer an option. Junk religion will no longer suffice. Sensation-seeking is needless. Once you have seen his face you will forever long to see it again.
My prayer for this book—without apologies—is that the Divine Surgeon will use it as a delicate surgical tool to restore sight. That blurriness will be focused and darkness dispersed. And, that we will whisper the secret of the universe, "We were eyewitnesses of his majesty."
From the newly released
God Came Near: Deluxe Edition
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1987) Max Lucado
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Why Stocks May Have Seen All Their Gains for This Year
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Topics:Stocks.On Tuesday November 23, 2010, 4:55 pm EST
A series of daunting events-from renewed tensions between the two Koreas to a flareup in Europe's debt crisis to a growing insider-trading probe of hedge funds-has investors pulling out of stocks again, leaving some pros to wonder if this year's rally is finally over.
Federal Reserve asset buying helped lead a charge that saw the market gain 17 percent from Aug. 26 to Nov. 5, two days after the central bank announced the second phase of its so-called quantitative easing program.
But the market has clearly cooled off since then. The Standard & Poor's 500 (INDEX: .SPX) has fallen roughly three percent, though it still is up over seven percent for the year.
With praise for QE-2 turning to harsh criticism, Europe's debt problems rearing their head and new hostilities between North and South Korea, investors are reluctantly coming to grips with the fact that there are significant headwinds in the markets.
"Based on momentum and sentiment extremes achieved at the nearby highs, it seems likely that the stock market will be on a declining path, at least through year-end," David Rosenberg, economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto, wrote in his daily analysis.
Rosenberg cited five factors conspiring against the markets: China monetary tightening amid inflation fears; a rescue plan for European debt not working; fiscal austerity in the US with the political change coming when the new Congress takes over in January; gasoline price hikes; and questions over whether a slew of tax breaks will be extended.
An intensification of even a few of those factors likely would further dampen investor enthusiasm for the market.
"Most pundits believe we are in a cyclical bull market but that is not the case-it has been a sideways market now for over a year," Rosenberg said. "Moreover, after testing support in July, the market hit resistance levels in November, so it would seem logical to expect the index to make a run at the low end of the range. The only question is whether support will hold up once again."
Investors had been waiting for the Fed's Nov. 3 decision as well as the national election results for more certainly about the course ahead.
But even though the market got what it wanted with a Republican victory and the prospect of gridlock, along with a $600 billion QE program, other concerns quickly clouded the landscape.
The chief worry among many market pros seems to be the European debt issues in countries such as Ireland, Greece and now Portugal. Along with creating global financial instability, the crisis also has sent investors into the safety of the US dollar, the rise of which has been a negative trigger for the stock market.
"Sovereign debt is the wild card," said Art Hogan, managing director at Jefferies. "If we bounce from Ireland to Portugal to Spain and the dollar firms up at every level, then I think it's going to be very difficult for equities to catch a bid here."
Markets have behaved much like they did in April when sovereign debt worries first surfaced and stocks stumbled through the summer, prior to the rebound. The market is beginning to take more serious notice of the problems in Europe.
"Ireland could weigh on things a lot more than people think. They're still dismissing it," said Kathy Boyle, president of Chapin Hill Advisors in New York. "Unless you have someone close to you in distress, the view is still rose-colored glasses."
Closer to home, investors have to grapple with worries over whether problems with mortgage documents will cause banks to deal with putbacks-or the need to repurchase securities sold under fraudulent circumstances.
"We came into earnings season with the mortgage putbacks as top priority for the banking space," said Justin Wiggs, vice president of trading at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "People are starting to digest the fact that putbacks aren't going away and are going to be a drag on earnings for a couple of years."
To be sure, there are things to like about the market.
Analysts at Nomura Securities pointed out in a note to clients that a surge in stock prices often acts as a leading indicator for holiday shopping-that is, rising stocks make people feel like they have money which they will spend at the stores.
Hogan said clarification on tax issues hasn't been priced into the market and could provide a boost should Congress continue the majority of tax cuts set to expire.
And most of all, the market has only pulled back 3 percent after a 17 percent surge, which Wiggs said shows some strength.
"It's sputtering," he said of the market. "A pause here is probably healthy for the markets."
Topics:Stocks.On Tuesday November 23, 2010, 4:55 pm EST
A series of daunting events-from renewed tensions between the two Koreas to a flareup in Europe's debt crisis to a growing insider-trading probe of hedge funds-has investors pulling out of stocks again, leaving some pros to wonder if this year's rally is finally over.
Federal Reserve asset buying helped lead a charge that saw the market gain 17 percent from Aug. 26 to Nov. 5, two days after the central bank announced the second phase of its so-called quantitative easing program.
But the market has clearly cooled off since then. The Standard & Poor's 500 (INDEX: .SPX) has fallen roughly three percent, though it still is up over seven percent for the year.
With praise for QE-2 turning to harsh criticism, Europe's debt problems rearing their head and new hostilities between North and South Korea, investors are reluctantly coming to grips with the fact that there are significant headwinds in the markets.
"Based on momentum and sentiment extremes achieved at the nearby highs, it seems likely that the stock market will be on a declining path, at least through year-end," David Rosenberg, economist and strategist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto, wrote in his daily analysis.
Rosenberg cited five factors conspiring against the markets: China monetary tightening amid inflation fears; a rescue plan for European debt not working; fiscal austerity in the US with the political change coming when the new Congress takes over in January; gasoline price hikes; and questions over whether a slew of tax breaks will be extended.
An intensification of even a few of those factors likely would further dampen investor enthusiasm for the market.
"Most pundits believe we are in a cyclical bull market but that is not the case-it has been a sideways market now for over a year," Rosenberg said. "Moreover, after testing support in July, the market hit resistance levels in November, so it would seem logical to expect the index to make a run at the low end of the range. The only question is whether support will hold up once again."
Investors had been waiting for the Fed's Nov. 3 decision as well as the national election results for more certainly about the course ahead.
But even though the market got what it wanted with a Republican victory and the prospect of gridlock, along with a $600 billion QE program, other concerns quickly clouded the landscape.
The chief worry among many market pros seems to be the European debt issues in countries such as Ireland, Greece and now Portugal. Along with creating global financial instability, the crisis also has sent investors into the safety of the US dollar, the rise of which has been a negative trigger for the stock market.
"Sovereign debt is the wild card," said Art Hogan, managing director at Jefferies. "If we bounce from Ireland to Portugal to Spain and the dollar firms up at every level, then I think it's going to be very difficult for equities to catch a bid here."
Markets have behaved much like they did in April when sovereign debt worries first surfaced and stocks stumbled through the summer, prior to the rebound. The market is beginning to take more serious notice of the problems in Europe.
"Ireland could weigh on things a lot more than people think. They're still dismissing it," said Kathy Boyle, president of Chapin Hill Advisors in New York. "Unless you have someone close to you in distress, the view is still rose-colored glasses."
Closer to home, investors have to grapple with worries over whether problems with mortgage documents will cause banks to deal with putbacks-or the need to repurchase securities sold under fraudulent circumstances.
"We came into earnings season with the mortgage putbacks as top priority for the banking space," said Justin Wiggs, vice president of trading at Stifel Nicolaus in Baltimore. "People are starting to digest the fact that putbacks aren't going away and are going to be a drag on earnings for a couple of years."
To be sure, there are things to like about the market.
Analysts at Nomura Securities pointed out in a note to clients that a surge in stock prices often acts as a leading indicator for holiday shopping-that is, rising stocks make people feel like they have money which they will spend at the stores.
Hogan said clarification on tax issues hasn't been priced into the market and could provide a boost should Congress continue the majority of tax cuts set to expire.
And most of all, the market has only pulled back 3 percent after a 17 percent surge, which Wiggs said shows some strength.
"It's sputtering," he said of the market. "A pause here is probably healthy for the markets."
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Secret of Great Men / TAi ying hoong..: Deliberate Practice
by Brett & Kate McKay on November 7, 2010 · 48 comments
in A Man's Life
What creates great men? What made Ted Williams the greatest hitter in the history of baseball? Why made Shakespeare one of history’s greatest writers? How did Carnegie become one of history’s greatest businessmen?
The typical answer that most people give is that greatness is born. Nature blesses a few great men with some sort of innate gift that allows them to excel at what they do – Shakespeare entered the world with a peerless writing talent, and Williams was born to swing a bat. Under this view, you’re either born with talent and destined for greatness or born without talent and destined for a life of mediocrity.
There’s one small problem with this view of greatness: there isn’t much science to back it up.
In fact, studies show that greatness and excellence aren’t “a consequence of possessing innate gifts [and talents]“. Rather greatness is the result of years and years of enormous amounts of hard, painful work. Ted Williams spent hours hitting baseballs, and Carnegie spent his entire adolescence learning how to network and developing his prodigious memory, skills that would turn him into a mind-boggling wealthy captain of industry.
Studies have demonstrated that young prodigies excel not because of some kind of mystical innate talent but on the merits of pure hustle. Mozart wrote his first masterpiece at 21. That’s pretty young. But people often forget to mention that he had spent the previous 18 years of his life studying music under the tutelage of his father. Mozart had been paying his dues since he was three years old, and it paid off big for him.
In short, great men aren’t born; great men are made, and they’re made through the process of deliberate practice.
What Is Deliberate Practice?
In the book Talent is Overrated, Fortune Magazine editor, Geoff Colvin highlights recent studies that show that greatness can be developed by any man, in any field, through the process of deliberate practice. How does one practice deliberately? Colvin proposes five elements that allow a man to practice deliberately and thus achieve greatness.
1. Deliberate practice is an activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher’s help. Most people practice by mindlessly repeating an activity over and over without any clear goal of what they want to accomplish. For example, let’s say a man wants to improve his golf game. If he’s like most men, he’ll just go to the driving range and hit a couple of buckets of balls without thinking much about specific ways he can improve his swing. 300 balls later, this man hasn’t improved at all. In fact, he may have gotten worse.
Deliberate practice, on the other hand, is designed with clear objectives and goals. When top performers practice, they break down their skill into sharply defined elements. After breaking down a skill into parts, a top performer will work intently on the element they need to improve most. During the entire practice, they focus solely on that one aspect.
Take the golfing example again. Instead of just going to the driving range to mindlessly hit golf balls, break down your golf swing into different elements – body alignment, club-face alignment, grip, back swing, down swing, etc. After breaking down your golf swing into specific parts, go to the range and spend an hour focusing on just one of those elements. Keep working on that one element until you’ve made improvement, then move on to the next one.
Carrying out practice sessions in this deliberate fashion is a skill that takes time to develop. That’s why having a teacher help you design your practice sessions can be invaluable. They have the knowledge and expertise to break your skill down into specific elements. Teachers can also see you in ways you can’t see yourself and can direct you to focus on the elements that you need to work on most.
Unfortunately, many men have the tendency to think they’ve outgrown the need for teachers or coaches. We think it’s a sign of weakness to ask for help. But asking for help will only make you stronger and better. There’s a reason the best golfers in the world continue to have coaches and the most successful businessmen seek the advice of mentors throughout their career. They understand the power of an outside eye and opinion in their personal growth. Don’t let your manly pride get in the way of your success. Stay humble and hungry.
2. The practice activity can be regularly repeated. The world’s top performers spend years of their lives practicing. Ted Williams, the greatest hitter in baseball history, would practice hitting balls until his hands bled. Basketball legend Pistol Pete Maravich would go into the gym on Saturday mornings and practice shooting from a specific spot on the court until the gym closed at night. To be the best, you have to put in the time. In fact, if you want to become an expert in your field, you’ll need to put in at least 10,000 hours or 10 years of practice first.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, Gladwell describes a psychology experiment done in the 1990s to see what created world class musicians. Psychologist Anders Ericsson went to Berlin’s Academy of Music and divided the school into three groups: the stars, the “good” performers, and those who were unlikely to ever play professionally and would probably become music teachers. They were all asked the same question: “Over the course of the years, ever since you picked up a violin, how many hours have you practiced?”
All the violinists had started playing at around age five, and they all played about two or three hours a week during their first few years. However, around the age of eight, an important difference began to emerge in the amount of hours they each practiced. By age 20, the stars in the group had all totaled 10,000 hours of practice over the course of their lives; the “good” students had totaled 8,000 hours, and the future music teachers just over 4,000 hours.
Nobel Prize winning psychologist Herbert Simon and William Chase found similar results in their study of world-class chess players. They found that no one seemed to reach the top ranks of chess without at least 10 years of intensive study and practice. The “ten-year rule” cuts across disciplines, too. Top musicians, athletes, scientists, and authors don’t reach the top until after they’ve put in around ten years of work and practice.
There are no short cuts to success. If you want to be the best man you can be, you’ll have to commit yourself to years of repeated practice.
3. The practice activity provides feedback on a continual basis. Constant feedback is crucial for improvement. You have to see the results of your efforts to evaluate if the way you’re doing things is working or if you need to change things up to improve. Moreover, without feedback during practice you’re more likely to lose the motivation to keep at it. During your practice sessions, constantly stop and look for feedback. With some activities, getting feedback is easy. For example, if you’re practicing your jump shot for basketball, if the ball goes through the net every shot, you know you’re on the right track. If you brick it every shot, that’s feedback that you need to change things up.
You might have a more difficult time getting feedback for activities that require a subjective evaluation. Music, speaking, and job interviewing are examples of this type of activity. For activities like these it’s a good idea to get a third party’s opinion or a mentor’s input.
4. Deliberate practice is highly demanding mentally, whether it’s purely physical or mental. This factor separates deliberate practice from mindless practice. When you’re practicing deliberately, you’re focusing and concentrating so much on your performance that you’re mentally exhausted after your practice session. Deliberate practice is so demanding mentally that studies show that “four or five hours a day is the upper limit of deliberate practice, and this is frequently accomplished in sessions lasting no longer than an hour to ninety minutes.”
In fact, top performers who practice deliberately report that they require more sleep than their less talented colleagues. In the Berlin Academy of Music study mentioned above, psychologist Anders Ericsson looked at the three groups of performers- the stars, good performers, and music teacher group- and found that, on average, those in the top two groups slept 8.6 hours a day—nearly an hour longer than those in the music teacher group, who slept an average of 7.8 hours. The top groups slept more at night and took more naps during the day than the bottom group. According to Ericsson, the study suggests that top performers work more intensely than the rest of us but also need more time to mentally recover.
Thus, a good way to gauge if your practice is hitting the deliberate practice zone is to ask yourself how you feel after a practice session. If you feel absolutely bushed after just an hour, chances are you practiced deliberately.
5. Deliberate practice isn’t much fun. Most people don’t enjoy doing activities that they’re not good at. It’s no fun to fail over and over again and receive criticism on how you can improve. No one likes to be humbled like that. We’d rather do stuff at which we excel because succeeding is enjoyable, and it strokes our egos. Yet deliberate practice is specifically designed to focus on things you suck at and requires you to practice those skills over and over again until you’re mentally exhausted. What a buzz kill.
But according to Dr. Ericsson, in order to practice deliberately, practice sessions have to feel like drudgery. The ability and willingness to slog through this “dead work” is what separates great men from the mediocre. My high school football coach used to tell us: “If football was easy, then everybody would play.” The same goes with deliberate practice. If it were fun and easy, then everyone would do it and be great at whatever they tried. But deliberate practice isn’t fun, which is why we live in a world with only a few great men and hundreds of millions of men who simply wish they could be great.
Don’t get the wrong idea. These studies don’t say that just because you spend a lot of time deliberately practicing a skill, you’ll become a master at everything you do. If you’re 4’5″, no amount of practice will allow you to slam dunk like Michael Jordan. What these studies do suggest is that we’re not as limited by our natural talents as we often think we are.
AoM Man-Up Challenge
This week I challenge you to pick an area of your life that needs improvement and apply the principles of deliberate practice to it. I’d love to hear what you’re working on and how you’re progressing. Share what you’re working on in the comments below. I also recommend going out and getting Talent Is Overrated. It’s one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read this year and will inspire you to seek greatness.
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Read more: http://artofmanliness.com/2010/11/07/the-secret-of-great-men-deliberate-practice/#ixzz1655hIQLI
in A Man's Life
What creates great men? What made Ted Williams the greatest hitter in the history of baseball? Why made Shakespeare one of history’s greatest writers? How did Carnegie become one of history’s greatest businessmen?
The typical answer that most people give is that greatness is born. Nature blesses a few great men with some sort of innate gift that allows them to excel at what they do – Shakespeare entered the world with a peerless writing talent, and Williams was born to swing a bat. Under this view, you’re either born with talent and destined for greatness or born without talent and destined for a life of mediocrity.
There’s one small problem with this view of greatness: there isn’t much science to back it up.
In fact, studies show that greatness and excellence aren’t “a consequence of possessing innate gifts [and talents]“. Rather greatness is the result of years and years of enormous amounts of hard, painful work. Ted Williams spent hours hitting baseballs, and Carnegie spent his entire adolescence learning how to network and developing his prodigious memory, skills that would turn him into a mind-boggling wealthy captain of industry.
Studies have demonstrated that young prodigies excel not because of some kind of mystical innate talent but on the merits of pure hustle. Mozart wrote his first masterpiece at 21. That’s pretty young. But people often forget to mention that he had spent the previous 18 years of his life studying music under the tutelage of his father. Mozart had been paying his dues since he was three years old, and it paid off big for him.
In short, great men aren’t born; great men are made, and they’re made through the process of deliberate practice.
What Is Deliberate Practice?
In the book Talent is Overrated, Fortune Magazine editor, Geoff Colvin highlights recent studies that show that greatness can be developed by any man, in any field, through the process of deliberate practice. How does one practice deliberately? Colvin proposes five elements that allow a man to practice deliberately and thus achieve greatness.
1. Deliberate practice is an activity designed specifically to improve performance, often with a teacher’s help. Most people practice by mindlessly repeating an activity over and over without any clear goal of what they want to accomplish. For example, let’s say a man wants to improve his golf game. If he’s like most men, he’ll just go to the driving range and hit a couple of buckets of balls without thinking much about specific ways he can improve his swing. 300 balls later, this man hasn’t improved at all. In fact, he may have gotten worse.
Deliberate practice, on the other hand, is designed with clear objectives and goals. When top performers practice, they break down their skill into sharply defined elements. After breaking down a skill into parts, a top performer will work intently on the element they need to improve most. During the entire practice, they focus solely on that one aspect.
Take the golfing example again. Instead of just going to the driving range to mindlessly hit golf balls, break down your golf swing into different elements – body alignment, club-face alignment, grip, back swing, down swing, etc. After breaking down your golf swing into specific parts, go to the range and spend an hour focusing on just one of those elements. Keep working on that one element until you’ve made improvement, then move on to the next one.
Carrying out practice sessions in this deliberate fashion is a skill that takes time to develop. That’s why having a teacher help you design your practice sessions can be invaluable. They have the knowledge and expertise to break your skill down into specific elements. Teachers can also see you in ways you can’t see yourself and can direct you to focus on the elements that you need to work on most.
Unfortunately, many men have the tendency to think they’ve outgrown the need for teachers or coaches. We think it’s a sign of weakness to ask for help. But asking for help will only make you stronger and better. There’s a reason the best golfers in the world continue to have coaches and the most successful businessmen seek the advice of mentors throughout their career. They understand the power of an outside eye and opinion in their personal growth. Don’t let your manly pride get in the way of your success. Stay humble and hungry.
2. The practice activity can be regularly repeated. The world’s top performers spend years of their lives practicing. Ted Williams, the greatest hitter in baseball history, would practice hitting balls until his hands bled. Basketball legend Pistol Pete Maravich would go into the gym on Saturday mornings and practice shooting from a specific spot on the court until the gym closed at night. To be the best, you have to put in the time. In fact, if you want to become an expert in your field, you’ll need to put in at least 10,000 hours or 10 years of practice first.
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, Gladwell describes a psychology experiment done in the 1990s to see what created world class musicians. Psychologist Anders Ericsson went to Berlin’s Academy of Music and divided the school into three groups: the stars, the “good” performers, and those who were unlikely to ever play professionally and would probably become music teachers. They were all asked the same question: “Over the course of the years, ever since you picked up a violin, how many hours have you practiced?”
All the violinists had started playing at around age five, and they all played about two or three hours a week during their first few years. However, around the age of eight, an important difference began to emerge in the amount of hours they each practiced. By age 20, the stars in the group had all totaled 10,000 hours of practice over the course of their lives; the “good” students had totaled 8,000 hours, and the future music teachers just over 4,000 hours.
Nobel Prize winning psychologist Herbert Simon and William Chase found similar results in their study of world-class chess players. They found that no one seemed to reach the top ranks of chess without at least 10 years of intensive study and practice. The “ten-year rule” cuts across disciplines, too. Top musicians, athletes, scientists, and authors don’t reach the top until after they’ve put in around ten years of work and practice.
There are no short cuts to success. If you want to be the best man you can be, you’ll have to commit yourself to years of repeated practice.
3. The practice activity provides feedback on a continual basis. Constant feedback is crucial for improvement. You have to see the results of your efforts to evaluate if the way you’re doing things is working or if you need to change things up to improve. Moreover, without feedback during practice you’re more likely to lose the motivation to keep at it. During your practice sessions, constantly stop and look for feedback. With some activities, getting feedback is easy. For example, if you’re practicing your jump shot for basketball, if the ball goes through the net every shot, you know you’re on the right track. If you brick it every shot, that’s feedback that you need to change things up.
You might have a more difficult time getting feedback for activities that require a subjective evaluation. Music, speaking, and job interviewing are examples of this type of activity. For activities like these it’s a good idea to get a third party’s opinion or a mentor’s input.
4. Deliberate practice is highly demanding mentally, whether it’s purely physical or mental. This factor separates deliberate practice from mindless practice. When you’re practicing deliberately, you’re focusing and concentrating so much on your performance that you’re mentally exhausted after your practice session. Deliberate practice is so demanding mentally that studies show that “four or five hours a day is the upper limit of deliberate practice, and this is frequently accomplished in sessions lasting no longer than an hour to ninety minutes.”
In fact, top performers who practice deliberately report that they require more sleep than their less talented colleagues. In the Berlin Academy of Music study mentioned above, psychologist Anders Ericsson looked at the three groups of performers- the stars, good performers, and music teacher group- and found that, on average, those in the top two groups slept 8.6 hours a day—nearly an hour longer than those in the music teacher group, who slept an average of 7.8 hours. The top groups slept more at night and took more naps during the day than the bottom group. According to Ericsson, the study suggests that top performers work more intensely than the rest of us but also need more time to mentally recover.
Thus, a good way to gauge if your practice is hitting the deliberate practice zone is to ask yourself how you feel after a practice session. If you feel absolutely bushed after just an hour, chances are you practiced deliberately.
5. Deliberate practice isn’t much fun. Most people don’t enjoy doing activities that they’re not good at. It’s no fun to fail over and over again and receive criticism on how you can improve. No one likes to be humbled like that. We’d rather do stuff at which we excel because succeeding is enjoyable, and it strokes our egos. Yet deliberate practice is specifically designed to focus on things you suck at and requires you to practice those skills over and over again until you’re mentally exhausted. What a buzz kill.
But according to Dr. Ericsson, in order to practice deliberately, practice sessions have to feel like drudgery. The ability and willingness to slog through this “dead work” is what separates great men from the mediocre. My high school football coach used to tell us: “If football was easy, then everybody would play.” The same goes with deliberate practice. If it were fun and easy, then everyone would do it and be great at whatever they tried. But deliberate practice isn’t fun, which is why we live in a world with only a few great men and hundreds of millions of men who simply wish they could be great.
Don’t get the wrong idea. These studies don’t say that just because you spend a lot of time deliberately practicing a skill, you’ll become a master at everything you do. If you’re 4’5″, no amount of practice will allow you to slam dunk like Michael Jordan. What these studies do suggest is that we’re not as limited by our natural talents as we often think we are.
AoM Man-Up Challenge
This week I challenge you to pick an area of your life that needs improvement and apply the principles of deliberate practice to it. I’d love to hear what you’re working on and how you’re progressing. Share what you’re working on in the comments below. I also recommend going out and getting Talent Is Overrated. It’s one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read this year and will inspire you to seek greatness.
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Read more: http://artofmanliness.com/2010/11/07/the-secret-of-great-men-deliberate-practice/#ixzz1655hIQLI
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
General Motors stock rises on second day of trade
General Motors stock rises on second day following IPO; price recovers from early drop
.
Companies:Morgan Stanley.
FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, General Motors headquarters are shown in Detroit. General Motors' stock rose the second day it traded as it rebounded from an early swoon. The automaker's stock closed at $34.26, up 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, on Friday. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
MS 25.62 +0.05
{"s" : "ms","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer, On Friday November 19, 2010, 6:25 pm EST
DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors' stock rose the second day it traded as it rebounded from an early swoon.
The automaker's stock climbed 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, to close at $34.26 on Friday, one day after it began trading on Wall Street again, signaling the rebirth of an American corporate icon that collapsed into bankruptcy and was rescued with a $50 billion infusion from taxpayers.
As trading began Friday, GM's stock dropped $1.08 to $33.11 as investors sold it to lock in profits. But buying returned and gradually lifted the stock until it passed Thursday's closing price of $34.19 near the end of the day.
GM stock was traded more than 107 million times, less than one-quarter of the volume traded on Thursday.
As the stock fell, bankers who managed GM's initial public offering probably asked their larger investors to start buying so it wouldn't fall below Thursday's IPO price of $33 per share, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and former attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A drop below $33 could anger customers who were persuaded to buy the stock in the IPO. It's also possible, Henning said, that investors who saw the price drop decided to buy, either for the first time or to increase their stakes.
SEC regulations stop the banks from buying shares on their own, Henning said.
Analysts said the initial sell-off likely was a combination of investors taking profits and people selling on fear that the price would drop even further.
Spokeswomen for GM and Morgan Stanley, one of the lead banks in the deal, would not comment on the day's trading. A message was left for a spokeswoman from J.P. Morgan, the other lead bank.
There's a lot riding on GM's stock price in the coming months, especially for the U.S. government, which loaned the automaker $50 billion to save it from financial ruin last year. In exchange, the government got a 61 percent stake in GM, and it hopes to get the bailout money back from the IPO and several follow-up sales that could take years.
GM, just 16 months out of bankruptcy protection, has made an impressive turnaround from losing billions before its restructuring to making $4.2 billion in profits in the first nine months of the year.
GM made a successful return to the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, at least by some measures. After being priced at $33 a share in the IPO, it opened at $35. It ended the day up 3.6 percent, after trading as high as $35.99 in the first few minutes of trading. Almost 457 million GM shares traded, about one tenth of all shares trading on the exchange.
The government and GM's other owners sold 478 million common shares in the IPO, bringing in a total of $15.8 billion.
The federal treasury made $11.8 billion in the IPO by selling 358 million shares. It stands to make $13.6 billion -- and lower its stake to 33 percent -- if bankers exercise options for 54 million more shares. If the options are taken, the government will have 500 million shares left, and they must sell them for $53 each in order to recoup all the bailout money.
Ron Bloom, the Obama administration's point person on the auto industry restructuring, said bankers have 30 days to decide on the options, and it's "completely their decision. We've asked that we be informed when they've made it, but we have not asked to weigh in and we do not intend to weigh in."
The Treasury Department cannot sell additional shares for another six months, and Bloom said no decisions have been made on a timetable for selling the remaining stake. He would not say if he expects the government to get all $50 billion back.
Ken Thomas contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
.
Companies:Morgan Stanley.
FILE - In this file photo taken Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, General Motors headquarters are shown in Detroit. General Motors' stock rose the second day it traded as it rebounded from an early swoon. The automaker's stock closed at $34.26, up 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, on Friday. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Related Quotes
Symbol Price Change
MS 25.62 +0.05
{"s" : "ms","k" : "a00,a50,b00,b60,c10,g00,h00,l10,p20,t10,v00","o" : "","j" : ""} Tom Krisher, AP Auto Writer, On Friday November 19, 2010, 6:25 pm EST
DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors' stock rose the second day it traded as it rebounded from an early swoon.
The automaker's stock climbed 7 cents, or 0.2 percent, to close at $34.26 on Friday, one day after it began trading on Wall Street again, signaling the rebirth of an American corporate icon that collapsed into bankruptcy and was rescued with a $50 billion infusion from taxpayers.
As trading began Friday, GM's stock dropped $1.08 to $33.11 as investors sold it to lock in profits. But buying returned and gradually lifted the stock until it passed Thursday's closing price of $34.19 near the end of the day.
GM stock was traded more than 107 million times, less than one-quarter of the volume traded on Thursday.
As the stock fell, bankers who managed GM's initial public offering probably asked their larger investors to start buying so it wouldn't fall below Thursday's IPO price of $33 per share, said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and former attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
A drop below $33 could anger customers who were persuaded to buy the stock in the IPO. It's also possible, Henning said, that investors who saw the price drop decided to buy, either for the first time or to increase their stakes.
SEC regulations stop the banks from buying shares on their own, Henning said.
Analysts said the initial sell-off likely was a combination of investors taking profits and people selling on fear that the price would drop even further.
Spokeswomen for GM and Morgan Stanley, one of the lead banks in the deal, would not comment on the day's trading. A message was left for a spokeswoman from J.P. Morgan, the other lead bank.
There's a lot riding on GM's stock price in the coming months, especially for the U.S. government, which loaned the automaker $50 billion to save it from financial ruin last year. In exchange, the government got a 61 percent stake in GM, and it hopes to get the bailout money back from the IPO and several follow-up sales that could take years.
GM, just 16 months out of bankruptcy protection, has made an impressive turnaround from losing billions before its restructuring to making $4.2 billion in profits in the first nine months of the year.
GM made a successful return to the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, at least by some measures. After being priced at $33 a share in the IPO, it opened at $35. It ended the day up 3.6 percent, after trading as high as $35.99 in the first few minutes of trading. Almost 457 million GM shares traded, about one tenth of all shares trading on the exchange.
The government and GM's other owners sold 478 million common shares in the IPO, bringing in a total of $15.8 billion.
The federal treasury made $11.8 billion in the IPO by selling 358 million shares. It stands to make $13.6 billion -- and lower its stake to 33 percent -- if bankers exercise options for 54 million more shares. If the options are taken, the government will have 500 million shares left, and they must sell them for $53 each in order to recoup all the bailout money.
Ron Bloom, the Obama administration's point person on the auto industry restructuring, said bankers have 30 days to decide on the options, and it's "completely their decision. We've asked that we be informed when they've made it, but we have not asked to weigh in and we do not intend to weigh in."
The Treasury Department cannot sell additional shares for another six months, and Bloom said no decisions have been made on a timetable for selling the remaining stake. He would not say if he expects the government to get all $50 billion back.
Ken Thomas contributed to this report from Washington, D.C.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
KBUNAI
Private Money, Taxpayer’s Money, Government’s Own Money & Stuff
By Syed Akbar Ali
There seems to be some confusion over what is taxpayer’s funds,
private money, Government’s own money and stuff. The confusion seems
to be with the Government and the GLCs.
The Government does not own any money. This is Rule No. 1. There is no
such thing as Government’s own money. All Government owned money is
taxpayer’s funds. Even for countries which do not have income taxes,
it is still public funds. The peoples’ money.
I hope the Cabinet Ministers are clear on this concept. Even if the
Government borrows money by issuing Bonds, it is still taxpayers’
liability because eventually it is taxpayers’ funds that will be used
to pay back the Bonds. And if the Government goes bust or defaults on
its hutang, then the taxpayers’ role and their liability will become
instantly magnified.
The people in Greece and Iceland have found this out quite rudely. If
the Government gets into financial trouble, then they will have to
raise taxes on the people, cut spending on public services for the
people, increase other revenues and stuff to pay off the Government
debt. Eventually the people pay for everything. The Government has no
money. All Government funds belong to the people. This is the only
rule everyone must remember, especially the Government. There is no
Rule No. 2.
The recent 2011 Budget has raised some questions if the Government
knows what is private sector and what is public sector, what is
taxpayers’ liability and what is not.
First of all lets be clear about the Government Budget. The Federal
Constitution provides that once a year the Government must table a
Budget to the Parliament for its approval.
“1.1 FINANCIAL PROCEDURE
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King), as the repository of the executive
authority of the Federation, is charged with the management of all
public funds of the Federation. In the exercise of these duties the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong acts with the advice of the Cabinet and on
matters of finance through the Minister of Finance (Treasury) who is
statutorily conferred with such powers.
The Yang di-Pertuan Agong through the Minister of Finance makes known
to Parliament each year the financial needs of the Government which
are then granted by Parliament from revenues raised from taxes and
other sources. No tax or rate can be raised nor any expenditure made
without the authority of Parliament.”
You can read more about this here. Surely then the Budget must involve
affairs of Government only.
Hence I find it quite odd that the Minister of Finance has mentioned a
listed private company in the latest Government’s Budget. The
Karambunai Resort is a listed company that is 43.9 % owned by a Tan
Sri Chen Lip Keong, who also owns gaming company NagaCorp, which is
listed in Hong Kong and operates a casino in Cambodia . All this has
come out in the media already.
Karambunai has said that its property was included in the Budget 2011
speech “after its Nexus Karambunai Hotel general manager attended the
Performance Management and Delivery Unit-driven national key economic
areas tourism lab together with other members of the private and
public sectors.”
And this is a company whose “quarter ended June 2010, the company
continued to remain in poor financial health, suffering losses of
RM14.39mil from a previous loss of RM14.62mil.”
I am wondering, if I had attended the Performance Management Lab would
it be possible for my jewellery business to be included in the Federal
Government's Budget too?
Is that how it works now? I too have a massive plan to create a whole
new industry comprising jewellery entrepreneurs. Just “allocate” say
RM1.0 Billion to me and I know exactly what to do. Ada padi semua
jadi, ada beras semua deras, ada fulus, semua lulus.
Dato Seri Najib the Minister of Finance even mentioned that the
Karambunai integrated eco resort will involve RM3.0 billion. Again I
am quite perplexed - is the Finance Minister speaking on behalf of the
Government or is he speaking on behalf of the private company? Who
provides the RM3.0 billion?
What is more interesting is that Karambunai is a listed company whose
shares are traded on the KLSE. Before making such momentous
announcements in Parliament (which will certainly affect the company’s
share prices) shouldn’t the shares of the company be suspended from
trading or something? Isnt that the normal procedure? Where is that
strange woman who sits over the regulator ?
According to media reports, even before the announcement in
Parliament, Karambunai’s share prices went from 5.5 sen on Sept 21 to
18 sen in a matter of three days. That is a gain of over 200%. It has
gone up even more now.
Dato Najib also said the Government will “give” RM100.0 million
towards this project. This was said openly in Parliament and telecast
live on tv. It is unclear what is the meaning of “give RM100.0
million”.
I do have a question : if for any reason the Government does not
“give” this RM100.0 million, can the shareholders of Karambunai
(especially the minority shareholders) sue the Government for breach
of “live telecast from Parliament” promises ?
Over in the skyscraper corner, PNB has come out fighting to explain
that they had plans since 2004 to develop the land they bought near
the Merdeka Stadium. They say the 100 storey building is viable. PNB
says they have the tenants to populate the 100 storey building. If so
good. I really have no qualms if the building is viable. Please go
beyond 100 storeys lah. 110 storeys pun elok juga - but only if it is
viable. Here let the real estate professionals do the arithmetic for
you.
PNB also says that they have their own funds to pay for the building.
Fine. However PNB is not entirely a private company. It is set up and
owned by the Government through the Yayasan Pelaburan Bumiputera. More
importantly it handles public funds. Here is some history about its
ASN scheme:
“To launch ASN, the Government instructed the Bumiputera companies
(eg. PERNAS) and statutory bodies (eg.SEDCS) to sell part of their
equity portfolios to the PNB at book value. Thus, it was reported that
PERNAS had to suffer a substantial loss for the year 1982 because it
had been forced to transfer more than RM 1 billion of assets to PNB.
This government-imposed sale of assets resulted in serious opposition
from PERNAS and other affected Bumiputera Companies”
So again, Government was involved and taxpayers funds were involved
lah - from the very beginning. And PNB operates an "amanah saham"
operation. In English its called a "unit trust scheme". The key word
is "amanah" or "trust".
So when Tan Sri Hamad Kama Piah says 'we will use our own money' I
think he is missing the point. Pak Tuan, you dont have your own money.
Duit kami tu. I am an investor, so is my wife and so are my boys.
Millions of Malaysians are investors in PNB's "amanah saham" schemes.
Thats where the money comes from. PNB manages our money on "trust" or
“amanah”. So please adopt the correct attitude about whose money it
is.
PNB must also remember that the ASN and ASB investors are guaranteed
the return of their RM1.00 per unit invested in the scheme. In other
words, if PNB goes bust, the backstop is the Government, which means
taxpayers funds again. So please spend the funds wisely.
I do not doubt PNB’s capacity to build and make a success of a 100
storey building. To a large extent PNB has avoided being part of the
GLC fiasco that has been created by Khazanah Nasional Bhd. But dont be
too sure about large scale real estate developments. Here is the very
latest news (came out just a few days ago) about the Burj Al Khalifa,
Dubai ’s tallest building in the world :
“Even with an address at the iconic Burj Khalifa, rents for residences
in the tower are not immune from Dubai 's real estate crash. Indeed,
nearly a year after it was inaugurated with a massive
water-and-fireworks display, about 825 of the tower's 900 ultra-luxury
apartments remain unoccupied, according to Better Homes, a real
estatebrokerage in Dubai. The cost of renting a studio with
floor-to-ceiling windows, marble fixtures and wooden floors has
dropped to $1,815 a month from $3,025, while a one-bedroom apartment
is available for $2,722 (it used to be $4,536), the brokerage says”
So let us not be too sure of such grandiose projects. It took some
time to fill up the Petronas Twin Towers .
To conclude this walkabout - a well known tukang karut once told an
apocryphal tale about a man who went to see the Caliph. The Caliph
asked ‘have you come to see me on official business or private
business?’ The man replied, ‘this is just a social visit by your
friend’.
The Caliph immediately blew out the oil lamp provided by the
Government and lit up his own personal candle instead. He did not want
to use the Government's oil lamp for his personal business. The Caliph
knew how to differentiate between public funds and private funds. I
hope our people who are in charge of things understand this story too.
It is a great honour as well as a heavy responsibility to serve the
public. It is not a free ticket to makan duit buta or to fill your own
pockets with public funds or to be spendthrift with public funds. I
hope our Government knows how to tell the difference between the two.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The importance of following God in your everyday decisions
November 15, 2010
"And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15
Have you ever had to make a really important decision very quickly? And as if making a tough decision weren't difficult enough, sticking to that decision can be even harder!
But really, leadership is all about making tough decisions. And wherever God has you as a leader (and whether you know it or not, you are one), you're going to have to make difficult decisions quickly and stick to those decisions even if they aren't popular.
That's why I love Joshua's quick thinking here. Despite the fact that it was clearly an unpopular decision, Joshua says unequivocally, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." And do you know what happened? Israel responded by saying, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods" (24:16). If it hadn't been for Joshua's risky decision, who knows which god Israel would have followed?!
Whether it's laughing at an inappropriate joke or gossiping behind someone's back, you have to make decisions like this each day. So when you are faced with these small decisions to follow God or not, remember Joshua's decisive leadership and how he led others to God just by making the right decision.
LEAD OTHERS TO GOD BY FOLLOWING HIM WITH EVERY DECISION YOU MAKE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more from PowerPoint Ministries and Dr. Jack Graham, please visit www.jackgraham.org
"And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
Joshua 24:15
Have you ever had to make a really important decision very quickly? And as if making a tough decision weren't difficult enough, sticking to that decision can be even harder!
But really, leadership is all about making tough decisions. And wherever God has you as a leader (and whether you know it or not, you are one), you're going to have to make difficult decisions quickly and stick to those decisions even if they aren't popular.
That's why I love Joshua's quick thinking here. Despite the fact that it was clearly an unpopular decision, Joshua says unequivocally, "But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." And do you know what happened? Israel responded by saying, "Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD to serve other gods" (24:16). If it hadn't been for Joshua's risky decision, who knows which god Israel would have followed?!
Whether it's laughing at an inappropriate joke or gossiping behind someone's back, you have to make decisions like this each day. So when you are faced with these small decisions to follow God or not, remember Joshua's decisive leadership and how he led others to God just by making the right decision.
LEAD OTHERS TO GOD BY FOLLOWING HIM WITH EVERY DECISION YOU MAKE.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For more from PowerPoint Ministries and Dr. Jack Graham, please visit www.jackgraham.org
Monday, November 15, 2010
Road bully...
Trio assaulted for honking at cars
KUALA LUMPUR: Three men were seriously injured after they were attacked for honking at two stalled cars in Jalan Genting Klang here.
The incident occured at 5.30am yesterday when the victims, who were in a lorry, noticed a BMW and a Toyota Alphard moving haphazardly before stopping in the middle of the road.
Sentul OCPD Asst Comm Zakaria Pagan said the lorry driver decided to honk at the two cars to the chagrin of the drivers who stormed out of their vehicles.
The lorry driver sped off but the two cars caught up with the vehicle at a traffic light near Danau Kota. Ten suspects then alighted from the two cars and assaulted the three men with knives and wooden bats.
ACP Zakaria said the victims, who sustained injuries to their head, hands and legs, were sent to a nearby clinic by some passers-by.
The trio, aged between 25 and 48 years, were later transferred to Hospital Kuala Lumpur because of their serious condition.
He urged those with information to contact the nearest police station.
KUALA LUMPUR: Three men were seriously injured after they were attacked for honking at two stalled cars in Jalan Genting Klang here.
The incident occured at 5.30am yesterday when the victims, who were in a lorry, noticed a BMW and a Toyota Alphard moving haphazardly before stopping in the middle of the road.
Sentul OCPD Asst Comm Zakaria Pagan said the lorry driver decided to honk at the two cars to the chagrin of the drivers who stormed out of their vehicles.
The lorry driver sped off but the two cars caught up with the vehicle at a traffic light near Danau Kota. Ten suspects then alighted from the two cars and assaulted the three men with knives and wooden bats.
ACP Zakaria said the victims, who sustained injuries to their head, hands and legs, were sent to a nearby clinic by some passers-by.
The trio, aged between 25 and 48 years, were later transferred to Hospital Kuala Lumpur because of their serious condition.
He urged those with information to contact the nearest police station.
High life or spoilt life.....
Millionaire undergrad enjoys the high life
Other news & views
Compiled by Tan Sin Chow
A 22-year-old undergraduate owns more than S$5mil (RM11.5mil) worth of property and luxury cars in Singapore, reported Sin Chew Daily.
The undergraduate known as Ah Long said his parents bought him two condominiums worth S$2.2mil (RM5mil).
He had earlier owned a three-storey landed property worth S$2.2mil (RM5mil). The fully furnished property was bought about three years ago.
Ah Long said his parents bought him a S$320,000 (RM736,000) Mercedes Benz when he obtained his driving license.
“They later bought me another Mercedes Benz worth S$400,000 (RM920,000).
“I also have another car, a Honda, which I use to bring my dog for its grooming sessions,” he said.
The daily reported that the youth’s father owned a legal firm and had many investments in the island republic and China. His mother, a Chinese national, still worked as a senior engineer.
Ah Long said that he liked handphones and pens, adding that he had bought at least eight handphones over the past three years.
The most expensive handphone he had ever owned was a S$12,000 (RM27,600) Nokia Vertu.
He said that he also had six Montblanc pens priced between S$600 (RM1,380) and S$2,000 (RM4,600).
When asked what he wanted to do most, Ah Long said he would love to work as a “frontliner” in a hotel.
“I love to experience different things,” he said, adding that he donated S$200 (RM460) monthly to a children’s foundation and various charitable organisations.
Other news & views
Compiled by Tan Sin Chow
A 22-year-old undergraduate owns more than S$5mil (RM11.5mil) worth of property and luxury cars in Singapore, reported Sin Chew Daily.
The undergraduate known as Ah Long said his parents bought him two condominiums worth S$2.2mil (RM5mil).
He had earlier owned a three-storey landed property worth S$2.2mil (RM5mil). The fully furnished property was bought about three years ago.
Ah Long said his parents bought him a S$320,000 (RM736,000) Mercedes Benz when he obtained his driving license.
“They later bought me another Mercedes Benz worth S$400,000 (RM920,000).
“I also have another car, a Honda, which I use to bring my dog for its grooming sessions,” he said.
The daily reported that the youth’s father owned a legal firm and had many investments in the island republic and China. His mother, a Chinese national, still worked as a senior engineer.
Ah Long said that he liked handphones and pens, adding that he had bought at least eight handphones over the past three years.
The most expensive handphone he had ever owned was a S$12,000 (RM27,600) Nokia Vertu.
He said that he also had six Montblanc pens priced between S$600 (RM1,380) and S$2,000 (RM4,600).
When asked what he wanted to do most, Ah Long said he would love to work as a “frontliner” in a hotel.
“I love to experience different things,” he said, adding that he donated S$200 (RM460) monthly to a children’s foundation and various charitable organisations.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Fun & danger in the cyberworld........
Our public private lives
Stories by HARIATI AZIZAN
sunday@thestar.com.my
Malaysians are certainly no wallflowers on Facebook and other social networking sites. From political views to sexual fantasies, many eagerly post personal details online without realising the dangers of oversharing their personal data.
INTRODUCING our newest family member 3kg Ashraf Fared, mom & baby doing great."
The explosion of social media networks like Twitter and Facebook has made sharing life experiences like this instant and public.
So many personal news flashes are blitzing us around the clock that most of us will feel lost without them.
But how many of us in Malaysia are ready for messages like "I am 5cm dilated now" or "God, I'm crowning"?
A mother from England recently pushed the boundaries of sharing when she gave live updates on Twitter during the birth of her son – all painful 13 hours of it. Fi Star-Stone, 34, had told British media that she merely wanted to dispel some of the myths of childbirth by sharing her experience with her friends and family.
In Malaysia, some topics, childbirth included, are still socially baulked at but if you log onto any of the social media networks, you will see that we Malaysians are no passive wallflowers.
From political views and religious beliefs to who they are dating and what they had for lunch, many Malaysians are eager to share their personal opinions and information online.
And according to a survey by international market research firm TNS recently, we are right at the forefront where social networking and micro blogging are concerned.
Malaysians, it revealed, spent the most time – nine hours weekly – on social networking sites compared with other nationals worldwide.
Malaysians are also ranked as the most cyber-social people in the world with an average of 233 friends compared with 12 in Japan and 68 in China.
When it comes to time spent online, Malaysians are on par with the Americans (an average of 21 hours) and the British (22 hours), with an average of 20 hours online per week.
This worries cyber security experts like Adli Abd Wahid, head of the Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) at CyberSecurity Malaysia as he feels many Malaysians are still unaware of the implications of over-sharing their personal data on the web and the threats to their privacy.
"If you look at what some Malaysians post, you will get worried – don't they realise that everyone can read this?" he points out.
New normal
Acts of divulging excessive personal information on the Internet – or "oversharing" as it is defined by Webster's New World Dictionary in 2008 – is hardly a new phenomenon.
Even way back in the 1990s, people have been sharing personal information on the Net. "Archaic" internet services like personal websites and blogs – long before social media networks burst out on the scene – provided platforms for those who wanted to put themselves out there.
The major difference is that most people then kept a nickname or separate identity on the Internet. Not many people used their real names for e-mail either. Try asking for someone's personal e-mail address and they would have reacted as if you had just asked them for their kidneys.
And those who caught the "too much information" syndrome found out the hard way how their lives can be affected by their lack of discretion.
K. Mary got a memo from her human resources manager, as well as nasty e-mail, after she commented on her bosses (who she described using nicknames) in her blog. She found it impossible to continue working at her company after receiving snide remarks and the cold shoulder from her slighted superiors.
Rita Y.* kept a blog on her sexual fantasies under a pseudonym but she kept worrying about her identity getting exposed, especially after she wrote about her sexual fantasies with her boss. The stress got too much that she decided to quit her job.
This new social network surge, however, is pushing everyone "out there" whether he/she wants it or not.
Designer and programmes manager Grey Yeoh feels that many Malaysians now do want to be out there on the InterÂnet.
"I have friends who update their tweet and facebook every minute. They will post whatever they do, every little thing.
"I think that is over-exposure. Whether you see it as a weakness or a bad thing, it exposes your character," he says.
He points out that the new cyber-social behaviour works on the conceit that everyone in a person's social circle not only wants to know, but needs to know, what the person is having for lunch.
"But really, do people need to know in detail what you are doing every minute of the day, and where?"
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg loves to bring up the reaction he got when he first introduced the News Feed on the social network in 2006 whenever the "online privacy" debate is stirred up. At that time, users freaked out to see their every little update instantly blasted out to their friends and demanded for the service to be taken down.
The outcry surprised him, he reportedly said, but he was convinced that once people tried it, they would get over their shock and like it. And they did.
As Zuckerberg claimed early this year, people no longer have an expectation of privacy. It is no longer a "social norm", he was quoted saying. "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time."
Yeoh agrees that this is the norm for many young Malaysians who do not seem to have any hang-ups and fears about online privacy and sharing their personal information on the Net. However, he questions their knowledge on cyber etiquette and security, especially with their alarming openness with strangers over the Net.
"Sometimes they do not know what can be used against them from the Internet.
"What I'm saying is that you have to be careful about what you post. Even if you think that no one will read it, there are those who will. I think many Malaysians are still IT-illiterate. They are not aware of how dangerous it is to expose yourself on the Internet. People are not educated enough about privacy, copyright infringement and laws."
Student Amirah Jasni says she and her friends are still searching for the right balance of privacy and oversharing.
"To make it worse, values are changing, so we are also struggling to balance sensitivities with safety issues. What is acceptable and what is not is constantly changing. Even outside, my old aunts do not see anything wrong with asking about personal things like someone's salary or their marital status," she says.
Families of victims in the recent North-South Expressway bus accident in Negri Sembilan were upset when video recordings of the tragedy were uploaded on Facebook by survivors and witnesses. Calling them disrespectful and insensitive, the families said the people were only adding to their misery.
Social network is creating a thin line between the personal and public, notes Adli, and coupled with the cultural and global shifts, people are struggling to find the balance.
"People used to have an anonymous or a secret identity online to post explicit stuff about themselves. Now everyone keeps their real identity when they go online but they still post their secrets or intimate and explicit information about themselves online," he quips.
Even Malaysians now have no qualms about posting naked and explicit pictures of themselves.
One secondary schoolgirl reportedly posted 50 pictures of herself in the nude, in the shower and even of her giving boys oral sex on her Friendster account.
Deep threat
Consultant psychologist Valerie Jacques says that it is normal for a person to want to share his or her personal information with others.
Exposing oneself and sharing personal details are rooted in basic psychological needs.
"However, if these needs are not met within family and warm blooded relationships, then it will begin in cyberspace where it is pretty cold but gives a false hope of warmth."
She observes that oversharing may also be a trend because we are living in a world where "people want friends and don't have any".
"Either they are stuck behind their PCs at work or they spend so many hours in the office and behind a screen that being part of social networks is important. So, they begin to share more and more about themselves until they expose themselves without realising it or understanding the consequences,'' she says, conceding that it is pretty high risk behaviour to be indiscriminate about who you befriend.
Adli concurs, reminding Malaysian users to be careful about who they accept as their Facebook friends.
"Usually I tell people, if you have 10 friends in real life and 1,000 friends online, you need to ask yourself who they are. Either you are befriending people whom you don't know or those whom you should not be friends with. Or it just means your real life sucks, so you need to improve your social skills," he says frankly.
Jacques believes that with the right knowledge, people can control their tendencies to overshare.
"If we know how people can use and abuse your personal information and how people are taken for a ride and used by others for their own gain, then the indiviÂdual will have more control over these tendencies to share. If not, it seems like a hunger and thirst to be seen, acknowledged, recognised and loved, among others."
A college student who befriended a 30-something man in an online chat room three years ago found out the consequences of his oversharing on the Internet recently.
Not long after they became friends, the older guy asked the student for an online lesson. "He wanted me to teach him how to masturbate, so I showed him through a webcam," said the 22-year-old.
Unbeknown to him, his "friend" recorded his act, which he used to blackmail him for more sexual favours and money.
This is one of the reasons Lilian Chan, better known as The Obnoxious 5x Mom on the Net, is careful about what she writes on her blog.
Chan, who has been blogging about her life as a mother since October 2003, says that initially, only a handful of people knew about her blog.
"Now a lot of people know about it – my Catholic church priests, in-laws, sons, neighbours and others. So, I am rather guarded on what I express. However, I don't believe in being a hypocrite. I still say what I strongly feel about."
One thing she refrains from is making false accusations or poking fun at people.
"I believe a blog is an extension of a person. So, I don't normally go and find fault or make false accusations against people. There is then no reason why I will get any backlash. If indeed I make a mistake, I quickly apologise."
What she admits to is poking fun at politicians. "But I know the line between being funny and making seditious remarks, so I am pretty safe," she says.
Mimi* found oversharing on the Internet a big help when she was going through a bad time with her husband.
After she discovered that her husband was two-timing her with her own friend, she started a blog to vent her rage.
"I told my closest friends about it, and it became one big bi***ing session. After a while, it became ridiculous, but venting on the blog helped me work through my emotions and it helped me get back on my own two feet."
When she felt better, Mimi removed her blog from the web.
Jacques agrees that venting online can be healthy but warns that it may have dire consequences if one is not careful.
"The question is who is venting and to whom? Also when venting is done in a public space and others get the privilege of reading stuff, this can be taken in the wrong way and then with different perception, people are viewed and thus treated differently," she says.
Adli concurs. "Most importantly, when you post anything on the Internet, especially something that may affect you, your career or your family, you have to understand that it will be available to basically the whole world."
* Not real names
Stories by HARIATI AZIZAN
sunday@thestar.com.my
Malaysians are certainly no wallflowers on Facebook and other social networking sites. From political views to sexual fantasies, many eagerly post personal details online without realising the dangers of oversharing their personal data.
INTRODUCING our newest family member 3kg Ashraf Fared, mom & baby doing great."
The explosion of social media networks like Twitter and Facebook has made sharing life experiences like this instant and public.
So many personal news flashes are blitzing us around the clock that most of us will feel lost without them.
But how many of us in Malaysia are ready for messages like "I am 5cm dilated now" or "God, I'm crowning"?
A mother from England recently pushed the boundaries of sharing when she gave live updates on Twitter during the birth of her son – all painful 13 hours of it. Fi Star-Stone, 34, had told British media that she merely wanted to dispel some of the myths of childbirth by sharing her experience with her friends and family.
In Malaysia, some topics, childbirth included, are still socially baulked at but if you log onto any of the social media networks, you will see that we Malaysians are no passive wallflowers.
From political views and religious beliefs to who they are dating and what they had for lunch, many Malaysians are eager to share their personal opinions and information online.
And according to a survey by international market research firm TNS recently, we are right at the forefront where social networking and micro blogging are concerned.
Malaysians, it revealed, spent the most time – nine hours weekly – on social networking sites compared with other nationals worldwide.
Malaysians are also ranked as the most cyber-social people in the world with an average of 233 friends compared with 12 in Japan and 68 in China.
When it comes to time spent online, Malaysians are on par with the Americans (an average of 21 hours) and the British (22 hours), with an average of 20 hours online per week.
This worries cyber security experts like Adli Abd Wahid, head of the Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT) at CyberSecurity Malaysia as he feels many Malaysians are still unaware of the implications of over-sharing their personal data on the web and the threats to their privacy.
"If you look at what some Malaysians post, you will get worried – don't they realise that everyone can read this?" he points out.
New normal
Acts of divulging excessive personal information on the Internet – or "oversharing" as it is defined by Webster's New World Dictionary in 2008 – is hardly a new phenomenon.
Even way back in the 1990s, people have been sharing personal information on the Net. "Archaic" internet services like personal websites and blogs – long before social media networks burst out on the scene – provided platforms for those who wanted to put themselves out there.
The major difference is that most people then kept a nickname or separate identity on the Internet. Not many people used their real names for e-mail either. Try asking for someone's personal e-mail address and they would have reacted as if you had just asked them for their kidneys.
And those who caught the "too much information" syndrome found out the hard way how their lives can be affected by their lack of discretion.
K. Mary got a memo from her human resources manager, as well as nasty e-mail, after she commented on her bosses (who she described using nicknames) in her blog. She found it impossible to continue working at her company after receiving snide remarks and the cold shoulder from her slighted superiors.
Rita Y.* kept a blog on her sexual fantasies under a pseudonym but she kept worrying about her identity getting exposed, especially after she wrote about her sexual fantasies with her boss. The stress got too much that she decided to quit her job.
This new social network surge, however, is pushing everyone "out there" whether he/she wants it or not.
Designer and programmes manager Grey Yeoh feels that many Malaysians now do want to be out there on the InterÂnet.
"I have friends who update their tweet and facebook every minute. They will post whatever they do, every little thing.
"I think that is over-exposure. Whether you see it as a weakness or a bad thing, it exposes your character," he says.
He points out that the new cyber-social behaviour works on the conceit that everyone in a person's social circle not only wants to know, but needs to know, what the person is having for lunch.
"But really, do people need to know in detail what you are doing every minute of the day, and where?"
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg loves to bring up the reaction he got when he first introduced the News Feed on the social network in 2006 whenever the "online privacy" debate is stirred up. At that time, users freaked out to see their every little update instantly blasted out to their friends and demanded for the service to be taken down.
The outcry surprised him, he reportedly said, but he was convinced that once people tried it, they would get over their shock and like it. And they did.
As Zuckerberg claimed early this year, people no longer have an expectation of privacy. It is no longer a "social norm", he was quoted saying. "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time."
Yeoh agrees that this is the norm for many young Malaysians who do not seem to have any hang-ups and fears about online privacy and sharing their personal information on the Net. However, he questions their knowledge on cyber etiquette and security, especially with their alarming openness with strangers over the Net.
"Sometimes they do not know what can be used against them from the Internet.
"What I'm saying is that you have to be careful about what you post. Even if you think that no one will read it, there are those who will. I think many Malaysians are still IT-illiterate. They are not aware of how dangerous it is to expose yourself on the Internet. People are not educated enough about privacy, copyright infringement and laws."
Student Amirah Jasni says she and her friends are still searching for the right balance of privacy and oversharing.
"To make it worse, values are changing, so we are also struggling to balance sensitivities with safety issues. What is acceptable and what is not is constantly changing. Even outside, my old aunts do not see anything wrong with asking about personal things like someone's salary or their marital status," she says.
Families of victims in the recent North-South Expressway bus accident in Negri Sembilan were upset when video recordings of the tragedy were uploaded on Facebook by survivors and witnesses. Calling them disrespectful and insensitive, the families said the people were only adding to their misery.
Social network is creating a thin line between the personal and public, notes Adli, and coupled with the cultural and global shifts, people are struggling to find the balance.
"People used to have an anonymous or a secret identity online to post explicit stuff about themselves. Now everyone keeps their real identity when they go online but they still post their secrets or intimate and explicit information about themselves online," he quips.
Even Malaysians now have no qualms about posting naked and explicit pictures of themselves.
One secondary schoolgirl reportedly posted 50 pictures of herself in the nude, in the shower and even of her giving boys oral sex on her Friendster account.
Deep threat
Consultant psychologist Valerie Jacques says that it is normal for a person to want to share his or her personal information with others.
Exposing oneself and sharing personal details are rooted in basic psychological needs.
"However, if these needs are not met within family and warm blooded relationships, then it will begin in cyberspace where it is pretty cold but gives a false hope of warmth."
She observes that oversharing may also be a trend because we are living in a world where "people want friends and don't have any".
"Either they are stuck behind their PCs at work or they spend so many hours in the office and behind a screen that being part of social networks is important. So, they begin to share more and more about themselves until they expose themselves without realising it or understanding the consequences,'' she says, conceding that it is pretty high risk behaviour to be indiscriminate about who you befriend.
Adli concurs, reminding Malaysian users to be careful about who they accept as their Facebook friends.
"Usually I tell people, if you have 10 friends in real life and 1,000 friends online, you need to ask yourself who they are. Either you are befriending people whom you don't know or those whom you should not be friends with. Or it just means your real life sucks, so you need to improve your social skills," he says frankly.
Jacques believes that with the right knowledge, people can control their tendencies to overshare.
"If we know how people can use and abuse your personal information and how people are taken for a ride and used by others for their own gain, then the indiviÂdual will have more control over these tendencies to share. If not, it seems like a hunger and thirst to be seen, acknowledged, recognised and loved, among others."
A college student who befriended a 30-something man in an online chat room three years ago found out the consequences of his oversharing on the Internet recently.
Not long after they became friends, the older guy asked the student for an online lesson. "He wanted me to teach him how to masturbate, so I showed him through a webcam," said the 22-year-old.
Unbeknown to him, his "friend" recorded his act, which he used to blackmail him for more sexual favours and money.
This is one of the reasons Lilian Chan, better known as The Obnoxious 5x Mom on the Net, is careful about what she writes on her blog.
Chan, who has been blogging about her life as a mother since October 2003, says that initially, only a handful of people knew about her blog.
"Now a lot of people know about it – my Catholic church priests, in-laws, sons, neighbours and others. So, I am rather guarded on what I express. However, I don't believe in being a hypocrite. I still say what I strongly feel about."
One thing she refrains from is making false accusations or poking fun at people.
"I believe a blog is an extension of a person. So, I don't normally go and find fault or make false accusations against people. There is then no reason why I will get any backlash. If indeed I make a mistake, I quickly apologise."
What she admits to is poking fun at politicians. "But I know the line between being funny and making seditious remarks, so I am pretty safe," she says.
Mimi* found oversharing on the Internet a big help when she was going through a bad time with her husband.
After she discovered that her husband was two-timing her with her own friend, she started a blog to vent her rage.
"I told my closest friends about it, and it became one big bi***ing session. After a while, it became ridiculous, but venting on the blog helped me work through my emotions and it helped me get back on my own two feet."
When she felt better, Mimi removed her blog from the web.
Jacques agrees that venting online can be healthy but warns that it may have dire consequences if one is not careful.
"The question is who is venting and to whom? Also when venting is done in a public space and others get the privilege of reading stuff, this can be taken in the wrong way and then with different perception, people are viewed and thus treated differently," she says.
Adli concurs. "Most importantly, when you post anything on the Internet, especially something that may affect you, your career or your family, you have to understand that it will be available to basically the whole world."
* Not real names
Saturday, November 13, 2010
FA....Stocks record worst week in three months
Stocks fall over worries China might raise rates; drop in commodities hurts oil, gold stocks
.
In this Nov. 11, 2010 photo, specialist Glenn Carell, right, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Stephen Bernard and Pallavi Gogoi, AP Business Writer, On Friday November 12, 2010, 5:50 pm EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock market recorded its biggest weekly drop in three months as a feeling of malaise took over after the U.S. failed to rally world leaders to come up with plans to strengthen global growth.
"The G-20 wasn't much of a success for the U.S.," said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. "There's a sense that nobody really has the ideas on how to get us out of here."
On Friday, stocks and commodities took another nosedive on worries that China might put the brakes on its surging economy. Any cooling of China's economy would slow down demand for raw materials, and that sent prices of oil, metals and grains tumbling.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.52, or 0.80 to 11,192.58, led by sharp losses in energy and materials stocks. Construction giant Caterpillar Inc., which has huge operations in China, fell 1.40 percent to $81.04 and oil company ExxonMobil Corp. fell 0.84 percent to $70.99.
For the week, the Dow was off 2.2 percent, its seventh-largest weekly drop this year and its biggest weekly fall since the week ending Aug. 13.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 14.43, or 1.2 percent, to 1,199.21, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 37.31, or 1.5 percent, to 2,518.21.
The Chinese government said that the pace of inflation hit a more than two-year high in October. The markets took that as a signal that the China would hike rates to tamp down inflation. It led to a sell off in global markets, from China to the U.S. The Shanghai composite index plummeted 5.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.9 percent.
Gold fell $37.80, or 2.7 percent, to $1,365.50 an ounce. Crude oil fell $2.93, or 3.3 percent, to $84.88 a barrel, while soybeans plummeted 70 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $12.69 a bushel.
China's robust economy has helped offset sluggishness in developed markets like the U.S. and Europe. Many companies, like Caterpillar and McDonald's Corp. have credited international sales, particularly in China, as a reason earnings have been strong.
The speculation about a rate hike in China came as little headway was made on a plan to strengthen global growth. Leaders from the Group of 20, which includes large developed and emerging economies, failed to agree on policies about trade and currency manipulation that could stoke protectionism and a trade war.
Other nations refused to endorse a plan the U.S. presented to force China to allow the value of its currency to rise. The U.S. argues that China is keeping the value of its currency artificially low because a weak currency makes exports cheaper and more attractive globally. That, in turn, gives China an unfair advantage in global markets, helping its economy at the expense of others.
The dollar resumed its slide against other major currencies. It had rallied in recent days, particularly against the euro, as Ireland's debt crunch renewed worries about the European financial system. A fiscal crisis in Greece this spring helped bring down stocks around the world, and investors are hoping Ireland can right its own finances without having to seek a bailout as Greece did.
Bond prices fell, sending interest rates higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.78 percent from 2.65 percent the previous day.
Intel Corp. was among the few gainers Friday, rising 1.51 percent to $21.53 after the chip maker said it will raise its dividend 15 percent.
Falling shares outnumbered gaining ones five to one on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 4.2 billion shares.
.
In this Nov. 11, 2010 photo, specialist Glenn Carell, right, works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Stephen Bernard and Pallavi Gogoi, AP Business Writer, On Friday November 12, 2010, 5:50 pm EST
NEW YORK (AP) -- The stock market recorded its biggest weekly drop in three months as a feeling of malaise took over after the U.S. failed to rally world leaders to come up with plans to strengthen global growth.
"The G-20 wasn't much of a success for the U.S.," said Kim Caughey Forrest, equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group. "There's a sense that nobody really has the ideas on how to get us out of here."
On Friday, stocks and commodities took another nosedive on worries that China might put the brakes on its surging economy. Any cooling of China's economy would slow down demand for raw materials, and that sent prices of oil, metals and grains tumbling.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 90.52, or 0.80 to 11,192.58, led by sharp losses in energy and materials stocks. Construction giant Caterpillar Inc., which has huge operations in China, fell 1.40 percent to $81.04 and oil company ExxonMobil Corp. fell 0.84 percent to $70.99.
For the week, the Dow was off 2.2 percent, its seventh-largest weekly drop this year and its biggest weekly fall since the week ending Aug. 13.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 14.43, or 1.2 percent, to 1,199.21, while the Nasdaq composite index fell 37.31, or 1.5 percent, to 2,518.21.
The Chinese government said that the pace of inflation hit a more than two-year high in October. The markets took that as a signal that the China would hike rates to tamp down inflation. It led to a sell off in global markets, from China to the U.S. The Shanghai composite index plummeted 5.2 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.9 percent.
Gold fell $37.80, or 2.7 percent, to $1,365.50 an ounce. Crude oil fell $2.93, or 3.3 percent, to $84.88 a barrel, while soybeans plummeted 70 cents, or 5.2 percent, to $12.69 a bushel.
China's robust economy has helped offset sluggishness in developed markets like the U.S. and Europe. Many companies, like Caterpillar and McDonald's Corp. have credited international sales, particularly in China, as a reason earnings have been strong.
The speculation about a rate hike in China came as little headway was made on a plan to strengthen global growth. Leaders from the Group of 20, which includes large developed and emerging economies, failed to agree on policies about trade and currency manipulation that could stoke protectionism and a trade war.
Other nations refused to endorse a plan the U.S. presented to force China to allow the value of its currency to rise. The U.S. argues that China is keeping the value of its currency artificially low because a weak currency makes exports cheaper and more attractive globally. That, in turn, gives China an unfair advantage in global markets, helping its economy at the expense of others.
The dollar resumed its slide against other major currencies. It had rallied in recent days, particularly against the euro, as Ireland's debt crunch renewed worries about the European financial system. A fiscal crisis in Greece this spring helped bring down stocks around the world, and investors are hoping Ireland can right its own finances without having to seek a bailout as Greece did.
Bond prices fell, sending interest rates higher. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 2.78 percent from 2.65 percent the previous day.
Intel Corp. was among the few gainers Friday, rising 1.51 percent to $21.53 after the chip maker said it will raise its dividend 15 percent.
Falling shares outnumbered gaining ones five to one on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 4.2 billion shares.
Malaysia Chronicle: Don't be a sore loser, Dr Mahathir!
Really Dr Mahathir? Really? Singapore will overtake Malaysia just because it focuses on economic growth and has no fair distribution of wealth between the races?
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cringe-worthy response to news that Singapore is poised to surpass Malaysia and become Asean’s third-largest economy by the end of this year really makes him look like a sore loser who makes excuses and won’t own up to shortcomings.
“Singapore will overtake Malaysia because its focus is just on economic growth,” Dr Mahathir had told Bloomberg in a story headlined “Singapore Seen Overtaking Malaysia 45 Years After Lee’s Tears”.
“There is no social restructuring goal such as fair distribution of wealth between races as we have in Malaysia.”
Two things really bug me here — why didn’t Dr Mahathir acknowledge Singapore’s world-class policies many of which are worth emulating and why didn’t he do a post-mortem on his own as a leader who is accountable for Malaysia’s past performance that contributed to the present situation? After 22 years in power, he should be able to come up with a better reason of why Malaysia is getting its ass whooped by Singapore than “they don’t have fair distribution of wealth between races”.
World Bank figures show that in 1980, the year before Dr Mahathir came into power, Singapore’s economy was less than half the size of Malaysia’s — US$11.73 billion vs US$24.94 billion.
By the time it was mid-way through his administration though, Singapore — with less than one-quarter our population and with very limited land and no natural resources — had already reached a stunning 87 per cent of Malaysia’s economy in 1991 — US$43 billion vs US$49 billion.
In 2002, the year before he left office Singapore’s GDP was at 87 per cent that of Malaysia’s — US$88 billion vs US$101 billion.
The ringgit, meanwhile, did a backward somersault in its spectacular dive from near parity with the Singapore dollar in 1980. By 1991, one Singapore dollar bought RM1.50. And by 2002, one ringgit was worth only about 50 Singapore cents. So basically, our currency shrank to half the value of the Singapore dollar during Dr Mahathir’s time. But that’s because they don’t have “fair distribution of wealth between races” right?
The toxic rivalry Dr Mahathir feels with Singapore in general and its former PM Lee Kuan Yew in particular is well known. The Bloomberg headline encapsulates the situation near perfectly — “Singapore Seen Overtaking Malaysia 45 Years After Lee’s Tears”.
Given the economic evidence, saying Dr Mahathir lost does not even begin to describe it. In more adequate gamer parlance — he got pwned and made to look like a noob. But still, that’s no reason to give excuses.
There is a saying — there is none so blind as those who will not see. Being asked the reasons for tiny Singapore overtaking Malaysia and replying that they don’t have “fair distribution of wealth between races” just doesn’t cut it.
I only hope Datuk Seri Najib Razak is capable of a better response.
In the meantime Dr Mahathir, enough with the excuses and try not to be a sore loser. - Malaysian Insider
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s cringe-worthy response to news that Singapore is poised to surpass Malaysia and become Asean’s third-largest economy by the end of this year really makes him look like a sore loser who makes excuses and won’t own up to shortcomings.
“Singapore will overtake Malaysia because its focus is just on economic growth,” Dr Mahathir had told Bloomberg in a story headlined “Singapore Seen Overtaking Malaysia 45 Years After Lee’s Tears”.
“There is no social restructuring goal such as fair distribution of wealth between races as we have in Malaysia.”
Two things really bug me here — why didn’t Dr Mahathir acknowledge Singapore’s world-class policies many of which are worth emulating and why didn’t he do a post-mortem on his own as a leader who is accountable for Malaysia’s past performance that contributed to the present situation? After 22 years in power, he should be able to come up with a better reason of why Malaysia is getting its ass whooped by Singapore than “they don’t have fair distribution of wealth between races”.
World Bank figures show that in 1980, the year before Dr Mahathir came into power, Singapore’s economy was less than half the size of Malaysia’s — US$11.73 billion vs US$24.94 billion.
By the time it was mid-way through his administration though, Singapore — with less than one-quarter our population and with very limited land and no natural resources — had already reached a stunning 87 per cent of Malaysia’s economy in 1991 — US$43 billion vs US$49 billion.
In 2002, the year before he left office Singapore’s GDP was at 87 per cent that of Malaysia’s — US$88 billion vs US$101 billion.
The ringgit, meanwhile, did a backward somersault in its spectacular dive from near parity with the Singapore dollar in 1980. By 1991, one Singapore dollar bought RM1.50. And by 2002, one ringgit was worth only about 50 Singapore cents. So basically, our currency shrank to half the value of the Singapore dollar during Dr Mahathir’s time. But that’s because they don’t have “fair distribution of wealth between races” right?
The toxic rivalry Dr Mahathir feels with Singapore in general and its former PM Lee Kuan Yew in particular is well known. The Bloomberg headline encapsulates the situation near perfectly — “Singapore Seen Overtaking Malaysia 45 Years After Lee’s Tears”.
Given the economic evidence, saying Dr Mahathir lost does not even begin to describe it. In more adequate gamer parlance — he got pwned and made to look like a noob. But still, that’s no reason to give excuses.
There is a saying — there is none so blind as those who will not see. Being asked the reasons for tiny Singapore overtaking Malaysia and replying that they don’t have “fair distribution of wealth between races” just doesn’t cut it.
I only hope Datuk Seri Najib Razak is capable of a better response.
In the meantime Dr Mahathir, enough with the excuses and try not to be a sore loser. - Malaysian Insider
Friday, November 12, 2010
Take Your Job and Love It
by Max Lucado
My heart took delight in all my work.
Ecclesiastes 2:10 NIV
Contrast two workers.
The first one slices the air with his hand, making points, instructing the crowd. He is a teacher and, from the look of things, a compelling one. He stands on a beach, rendering the slanted seashore an amphitheater. As he talks, his audience increases; as the audience grows, his platform shrinks. The instructor steps back and back until the next step will take him into the water. That's when he spots another worker.
A fisherman. Not animated, but frustrated. He spent all night fishing, but caught nothing. All night! Double-digit hours worth of casting, splashing, and pulling the net. But he caught nothing. Unlike the teacher, the fisherman has nothing to show for his work. He draws no crowds; he doesn't even draw fish. Just nets.
Two workers. One pumped up. One worn-out. The first, fruitful. The second, futile. To which do you relate?
If you empathize with the fisherman, you walk a crowded path. Before you change professions, try this: change your attitude toward your profession.
Jesus' word for frustrated workers can be found in the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel, where we encounter the teacher and the frustrated fisherman. You've likely guessed their names—Jesus and Peter. Peter, Andrew, James, and John made their living catching and selling fish. Like other fishermen, they worked the night shift, when cool water brought the game to the surface. And, like other fishermen, they knew the drudgery of a fishless night.
While Jesus preaches, they clean nets. And as the crowd grows, Christ has an idea.
He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. (vv. 2-3 MSG)
Jesus claims Peter's boat. He doesn't request the use of it. Christ doesn't fill out an application or ask permission; he simply boards the boat and begins to preach.
He can do that, you know. All boats belong to Christ. Your boat is where you spend your day, make your living, and to a large degree live your life.
Your boat is God's pulpit.
I have a friend who understands this. By job description she teaches at a public elementary school. By God's description she pastors a class of precious children. Read the e-mail she sent her friends:
I'm asking for your prayers for my students. I know everyone is busy, but...
On and on the list goes, including nearly deaf Sara. Disorganized-but-thoughtful Terrell. Model-student Alicia. Bossy-but-creative Kaelyn.
Does this teacher work for a school system or for God? Does she spend her day in work or worship? Does she make money or a difference? Every morning she climbs in the boat Jesus loaned her. The two of them row out into the water and cast nets. My friend imitates Peter.
Suppose you were to do what Peter did. Take Christ to work with you. Invite him to superintend your nine-to-five. He showed Peter where to cast nets. Won't he show you where to transfer funds, file the documents, or take the students on a field trip?
Holy Spirit, help me stitch this seam.
Lord of creation, show me why this manifold won't work.
King of kings, please bring clarity to this budget.
Dear Jesus, guide my hands as I trim this hair.
Pray the prayer of Moses: "Let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!" (Ps. 90:17 MSG).
Hold it there. I saw you roll those eyes. You see no way God could use your work. Your boss has the disposition of a hungry pit bull; hamsters have larger work areas; your kids have better per diems. You feel sentenced to the outpost of Siberia, where hope left on the last train. If so, meet one final witness. He labored eighteen years in a Chinese prison camp.
The Communist regime rewarded his faith in Christ with the sewage assignment. The camp kept its human waste in pools until it fermented into fertilizer. The pits seethed with stink and disease. Guards and prisoners alike avoided the cesspools and all who worked there, including this disciple.
After he'd spent weeks in the pit, the stench pigmented his body. He couldn't scrub it out. Imagine his plight, far from home. And even in the prison, far from people. But somehow this godly man found a garden in his prison. "I was thankful for being sent to the cesspool. This was the only place where I was not under severe surveillance. I could pray and sing openly to our Lord. When I was there, the cesspool became my private garden."
He then quoted the words to the old hymn:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice so clear whispers in my ear
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
"I never knew the meaning of this hymn until I had been in the labor camp," he said. God can make a garden out of the cesspool you call work, if you take him with you.
For Peter and his nets, my friend and her class, the prisoner and his garden, and for you and your work, the promise is the same: everything changes when you give Jesus your boat.
From Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2005) Max Lucado
My heart took delight in all my work.
Ecclesiastes 2:10 NIV
Contrast two workers.
The first one slices the air with his hand, making points, instructing the crowd. He is a teacher and, from the look of things, a compelling one. He stands on a beach, rendering the slanted seashore an amphitheater. As he talks, his audience increases; as the audience grows, his platform shrinks. The instructor steps back and back until the next step will take him into the water. That's when he spots another worker.
A fisherman. Not animated, but frustrated. He spent all night fishing, but caught nothing. All night! Double-digit hours worth of casting, splashing, and pulling the net. But he caught nothing. Unlike the teacher, the fisherman has nothing to show for his work. He draws no crowds; he doesn't even draw fish. Just nets.
Two workers. One pumped up. One worn-out. The first, fruitful. The second, futile. To which do you relate?
If you empathize with the fisherman, you walk a crowded path. Before you change professions, try this: change your attitude toward your profession.
Jesus' word for frustrated workers can be found in the fifth chapter of Luke's gospel, where we encounter the teacher and the frustrated fisherman. You've likely guessed their names—Jesus and Peter. Peter, Andrew, James, and John made their living catching and selling fish. Like other fishermen, they worked the night shift, when cool water brought the game to the surface. And, like other fishermen, they knew the drudgery of a fishless night.
While Jesus preaches, they clean nets. And as the crowd grows, Christ has an idea.
He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into the boat that was and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd. (vv. 2-3 MSG)
Jesus claims Peter's boat. He doesn't request the use of it. Christ doesn't fill out an application or ask permission; he simply boards the boat and begins to preach.
He can do that, you know. All boats belong to Christ. Your boat is where you spend your day, make your living, and to a large degree live your life.
Your boat is God's pulpit.
I have a friend who understands this. By job description she teaches at a public elementary school. By God's description she pastors a class of precious children. Read the e-mail she sent her friends:
I'm asking for your prayers for my students. I know everyone is busy, but...
On and on the list goes, including nearly deaf Sara. Disorganized-but-thoughtful Terrell. Model-student Alicia. Bossy-but-creative Kaelyn.
Does this teacher work for a school system or for God? Does she spend her day in work or worship? Does she make money or a difference? Every morning she climbs in the boat Jesus loaned her. The two of them row out into the water and cast nets. My friend imitates Peter.
Suppose you were to do what Peter did. Take Christ to work with you. Invite him to superintend your nine-to-five. He showed Peter where to cast nets. Won't he show you where to transfer funds, file the documents, or take the students on a field trip?
Holy Spirit, help me stitch this seam.
Lord of creation, show me why this manifold won't work.
King of kings, please bring clarity to this budget.
Dear Jesus, guide my hands as I trim this hair.
Pray the prayer of Moses: "Let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do!" (Ps. 90:17 MSG).
Hold it there. I saw you roll those eyes. You see no way God could use your work. Your boss has the disposition of a hungry pit bull; hamsters have larger work areas; your kids have better per diems. You feel sentenced to the outpost of Siberia, where hope left on the last train. If so, meet one final witness. He labored eighteen years in a Chinese prison camp.
The Communist regime rewarded his faith in Christ with the sewage assignment. The camp kept its human waste in pools until it fermented into fertilizer. The pits seethed with stink and disease. Guards and prisoners alike avoided the cesspools and all who worked there, including this disciple.
After he'd spent weeks in the pit, the stench pigmented his body. He couldn't scrub it out. Imagine his plight, far from home. And even in the prison, far from people. But somehow this godly man found a garden in his prison. "I was thankful for being sent to the cesspool. This was the only place where I was not under severe surveillance. I could pray and sing openly to our Lord. When I was there, the cesspool became my private garden."
He then quoted the words to the old hymn:
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice so clear whispers in my ear
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me
And He talks with me
And He tells me I am His own
And the joy we share as we tarry there
None other has ever known.
"I never knew the meaning of this hymn until I had been in the labor camp," he said. God can make a garden out of the cesspool you call work, if you take him with you.
For Peter and his nets, my friend and her class, the prisoner and his garden, and for you and your work, the promise is the same: everything changes when you give Jesus your boat.
From Cure for the Common Life: Living in Your Sweet Spot
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 2005) Max Lucado
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