Reading Time: 2 minutes (What a week, Yahoo Tech-ticker, link) China’s role in the Fannie/Freddie mess As Fannie/Freddie crisis deepens, people find China in akward postion because China is the largest holder of 2F’s bonds: total $376.3 billion. I don’t know exactly how China got into this mess, but I think one reason is decision maker in China must

Reading Time: < 1 minute 401k Last week my old 401k at Vanguard was merged to my new 401k. I don’t know if you paid attention to your 401k or IRA lately, not a fun thing to do. I did a quick calculation, my old 401k portfolio lost 7.56% of its value from Dec 31 2007 to July 7 2008

Reading Time: < 1 minute (Update July 17) I went to Fazoli this evening to take some food home. Surprisingly there are many people again. Another sign average people are feeling the pinch in this recession. (Original) Fazoli has been my favorite lunch places for a while. Recently it got more and more crowded during lunch time. This seems strange

Reading Time: < 1 minute Greenspan (regulators): for he kept interest rate too low (1%) for too long, during the recession after dot com bubble. Bush (politicians): for his failed Iraq war which cost American tax payers more than 500 billions so far. He asked American “go shopping” after 911, in addition to buying a car or a house. Democrats

Reading Time: < 1 minute Fannnie and Freddie crisis I read Burham’s beat Fannie Mae’s Golden Goose article last Friday, after seeing the dramatic stock actions of FNM and FRE on that day. Following that, I also reviewed Barrons March 11 article, IS this Fannie Mae Toast? Yeah, it looks like it. The bad thing is, those executives at Fannie

Reading Time: 2 minutes Friday evening I was checking out the air fare for the planned China trip later this year. And I found aa.com price irresistible: $1000 from STL to PVG. So I jumped on it. With sky high gas price (and jet fuel), this price seems cheap to me. I remember last year I paid close to

Reading Time: 2 minutes (Update) I actually went to the Apple store in West County mall this afternoon, and played with the new iPhone 3G. The first thing noticed is the sign “iPhone 3G is sold out” blah blah blah. I saw a couple in 50s (T-mobile customers) looking for iPhone, and had to leave empty handed. The sales

Reading Time: < 1 minute Amid all the craziness on oil, stock market and iPhone, yesterday I realized the Beijing Olympics is coming in 4 weeks, and it seems I can not go there for the event. Fortunately I got a piece of Olympics since 2004. In the picture below, at the left is a Coca Cola limited edition can

Reading Time: 2 minutes Ted Koppel is on the top of the journalists I admire. He always asks tough questions in a polite manner, and he has very good insights on international matters. That’s why I was sad to see he leaving ABC NightLine a while ago; and yesterday I was glad to learn his latest project Koppel on

Reading Time: 3 minutes With the iPhone coming, and initial positive review from personal technology Guru such as Walter Mossberg. It’s not easy time for RIM investors and Blackberry users. For one, your friend who gets new iPhone in a few days will laugh your Blackberry is so old tech, with his/her iPhone features touch screen, two fingers zooming