Reading Time: < 1 minute I used to go to Shell gas station. One reason is when I started to driving in 1998, I heard from fellow graduate students that “Shell gas is the best”. Another reason is there is a Shell gas station near my home. But after I tried the BP (British Petrolum, formerly Amoco) station lately, I

Reading Time: 2 minutes I think I found the root cause of this whole financial crisis, just like the Wall Street investment banks, hedge funds, AIG (NYSE:AIG), Washington Mutual (NYSE:WM), the problem is American home buyers/consumers are overly leveraged. Note I used the word home buyers, not owners, because theoritically the banks (oh, to be precise, the Chinese, the

Reading Time: < 1 minute Ron Paul had an interesting perspective on this topic.

Reading Time: < 1 minute In this turbulent market, most of my stocks took hits, from China Mobile (NYSE:CHL) to Arch Coal (NYSE:ACI), to Chesepeake Energy (NYSE:CHK), Marathon Oil (NYSE:MRO), not to mention the once-high-flyers such as Sohu (Nasdaq:SOHU) and Wuxi Pharma (Nasdaq:WX), both of which I already sold. At the same time, I am happy to see my two

Reading Time: < 1 minute March 16: Bear Stearns, $29 billon Sept. 6: Fannie/Freddie, $200 billion Lehman Brothers: sorry baby no bail AIG: $85 billion Who is the next??? Essentially Fed/Treasury are transfering the downside risks from individual companies to the fed/treasury/greenbacks. Note the money pledged to support Fannie/Freddie/AIG could exceed the original number if the problem worsens. I can

Reading Time: < 1 minute At least that’s what Fed chairman Bernenke and Treasury secretary Paulson think, and the congress and president agree with them. But how about the shareholders and we the tax payers? The AIG shareholders are almost wiped out (slightly better than Fannie and Freddie), and the price tag is $85 billion for now. So summary, the

Reading Time: < 1 minute and here is President Bush has to say this morning (source: yahoo): “We are working to reduce disruptions and minimize the impact of these financial market developments on the broader economy,” Bush said in the Rose Garden, choosing to address the market turmoil at the top of an appearance with visiting Ghanian President John Kufuor.

Reading Time: 2 minutes With the Lehman Brothers discussion underway in its 3rd day, and Asian market is anxious waiting for positive outcome. I am thinking otherwise. Regardless Lehman gets sold (as a piece or in several pieces), continue its business with bankrupcy in mind, this Lehman thing is just a tip of iceberger we are going to see.

Reading Time: < 1 minute This is the message Paulson sent to the street this morning. In other words, Paulson was saying “speculators, you should know this coming in last 6 months, sorry but I can not help you out this time, because in doing so I could lose my job too”. Pauslon gave two reasons he won’t bail out

Reading Time: 2 minutes Today is a special day, the seven anniversary of 9-11. I still remember that morning, when I watch the morning TV as usual, I saw the smoke coming out of World Trader Center Tower, and wondering “what absent-minded pilot fly his/her plane into the tower”? We all know what happened after that. The war against