Reading Time: 2 minutes Happy New Year!!! The Chinese New Year of ox, or bull (or cow). If you missed making new years resolution on Jan 1, this is another time to make up. Hotel Frequent Guest Program Like Airline frequent flyer programs, there are hotel frequent guest programs. And I joined two lately: Hilton HHonors and Mirriott Rewards.

Reading Time: < 1 minute Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A; BRK.B) has not done well lately. Nonetheless, Nightly Business Report (PBS) interviewed Buffett. The topic ranges from new administration, recession and investing. The interview is about 30 minutes long. Interestingly Susie Gharib tried to ask particular investment advice, Buffett declined politely.

Reading Time: < 1 minute It seems the financial crisis has been more like a banking crisis these days, with the RBS virtually nationalized by the British goverment, and Citi and Bank of America increasingly can not stand on its own. The No. 1 and No. 2 US banks according to market cap, J.P.Morgan (NYSE: JPM) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:

Reading Time: 2 minutes Bank of America is back in the news because they asked and got $20 billon from US govement, to back the loss from Merrill Lynch acquisition. (Source: Yahoo Tech-ticker) Personally I like Bank of America, ever since I became their customer serveral years ago. Two benefits of being BoA checking acct cosumer: 1) Their branch

Reading Time: < 1 minute Good reading I found John Bogle’s 6 Lessons for investors (WSJ op-ed, Jan 8 ) to be good. A few years ago I read John’s Little Book of Common Sense Investing, and was not impressed by it because at that time the market was very hot. Now it all makes sense to me. John is

Reading Time: 2 minutes Madoff story continues to occupy the news these days (e.g., this one from NYTimes). Yesterday, Satyam, the No. 4 Indian IT outsourcer, broke the news with giant accounting scandal (BBC news, wiki: Satyam). But the story does not end here. In my mind, there are many other ponzi schemes in our lives, and sometimes people

Reading Time: < 1 minute Sunmmary: the issue of 3G license (news here), the immature domestic standard being assigned to CHL, and no cool handset. All the above combined with the slowdown of Chinese economy is creating a headwind for China Mobile near term growth. China Telecom (NYSE:CHA, the landline operator recently acquired CDMA business from China Unicom) is ramping

Reading Time: < 1 minute I ordered this Asics GT-2130 from 6PM early this Monday ($46 including shipping). The regular costs $95. It arrived yesterday and got plenty of cushion. 6PM is doing a sale on many Asics shoes. (click men or women on the left to refine results).

Reading Time: 2 minutes Summary of 2008 Aren’t we glad 2008 is finanlly over? I am sure most people (who are not hiding under rocks) are. On a positive note, most of us survived from the crash (so far). But we do learn a lesson or two on economy and market: live within means, don’t over extend yourself, and

Reading Time: < 1 minute I am thinking going to this event again this year. I went there 2 years ago, and was impressed by what Grand Center has to offer. I can not think of other big New Year celebration activies here. The direction to Grand Center is here. Happy New Year !!!