Tag: Wall Street

Ten of the World’s Richest without College Degree

On By Paul1 Comment

By P Chong                                 9 November 2011

 It’s said that some are born rich, others achieve riches and

still others have riches thrust upon them.

It’s found however, that if you’re gifted with a special talent

then riches will be yours to have.

Ten of the world’s richest persons are without college degree. They range from sportsmen, actors, singers, technologists and others. The common denominator is talent or special skill.

Now the question is whether education is at all essential for the road to riches. Not necessary so. There are evidences of professors or highly educated persons ending in poverty. In short, education is supposed to equip you for the life ahead of you. Really education is an unending process, that is why from the womb to the tomb, you’re always learning. Knowledge is dynamic & expandable.

Here are some questions to consider:

    • Need you go to school from the cradle to the grave?

    • What benefits do you hope to get out of education?

    • Will you really be able to apply your acquired knowledge to your life’s practical activities?

    • Can skill, talent, attitude & other positives be acquired through education?

    • In a word, will education ensure riches?

The following Ten are some of the world’s richest persons:

Here’s to show you the ‘Irony of Life’ :

Most ‘First Class’ students get technical seats, some become Doctors and some Engineers.

* The ‘Second Class’ pass, and then get MBA, become Administrators and control the ‘First Class’.

* The ‘Third Class’ pass, enter politics and Become Ministers and control both.

* Last, but not the least, The ‘Failures’ join the underworld and control all the above.

And those who do not attend any school, become Swamis and Gurus and Everyone goes to them.  

 

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Global Financial Tsunami

On By Paul1 Comment

By P Chong     Mon. 15 August 2011

Not since 1917 has the United States of America been faced with the downgrading of its Credit Rating until this fateful Friday on 5 August 2011 from its AAA standing to AA+. Standard & Poor’s well justified its action evidently by US’ ceaseless mounting national debt & its inability to pay.

David Walker, former US Comptroller General, says he’s not surprised that Standard and Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in history.

There’s no doubt that these are tough times.

Europe and the US are both wrestling with the reverberations of the GFC as the various governments on either side of the Atlantic confront the reality that throughout 2008 and 2009 they were obliged to bail out the privately run financial miscreants with massive injections of taxpayer moneys, just to prevent a complete meltdown of the global financial system. It has been a close-run thing, and the latest aftershocks are an indicator that we have further to go. (National Times AU).

Setting aside all political rhetoric, just through simple common sense of the “Man in the Street” as against the “Men in Wall Street” – great financial wizards or more correctly manipulators & crooks, the game of living it up beyond the economic limit cannot go on & on. The world at large cannot be held at bondage to keep on supporting the glamour & luxuries that’s been put on show.

  • Robbing Peter to pay Paul

  • Cutting the cloth according to your fit

  • Simple economic rule of supply & demand

  • Over-subscription hits on pride & plight

are all familiar to the layman, but completely thrown out of the window by the game that politicians play!

Take a close look at the above map of “National Debt by Country”. The key to take note is the debt percentage to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product). With the exception of Russia, most of the great rich countries, show a dismal performance in this economic aspect.

They say that the “Gate of Hell” has three main entrances: anger, lust & greed. In this case, GREED is the biggest culprit. The Romans had their fall. Similarly, such fate awaits the mighty & tall. For far too long, US has been pulling the economic wool over the eyes of the world – its currency has no tangible value as backed by gold . . . only the world’s confidence support it as the reserve currency. It’s really “toilet” paper money which US Treasury resorts to printing in plentiful amount in short term measures for long term benefits.

I remember the days during the Japanese Occupation in Malaysia, my father was landed with bags & bags of Japanese notes that were worthless as toilet paper! These days in Zimbabwe, people are going around with bundles of paper money for just daily shopping needs. Want to own a Zimbabwe billion dollar note?

There’s no such thing as being “Too big to fail!”

Without order, chaos will prevail!

Watch out! This financial virus is fast catching on globally!!!

US Bailing Out Europe?

On By Paul1 Comment

By P Chong                                         14 May 2010

Milton Friedman (late economist) said: “only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.”

In other words, catastrophes and crises, according to Friedman and his ilk, are golden opportunities for imposing ideas that would otherwise be rejected under normal conditions.


One World Order

According to a report from Weiss Research Inc. on 10 May 2010, America is stepping in to bail out the European debtor nations – with “unbacked dollars out of thin air” – more correctly with “debt-based dollars”!

Fed Chief Ben Bernanke announced that the Federal Reserve will print UNLIMITED amount of U.S. dollars and then use them to buy bonds offered by failing European governments.

First, the Fed printed billions to bail out Fannie and Freddie … billions more to bail out failed bankers . . . and billions more to bail out failed automakers . . . AIG . . .

Now, Bernanke plans to print an UNLIMITED amount of dollars to bail out Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Spain . . . the entire European Union!

This blank-check scheme, recently worked out with European leaders, assures them that the Fed will create “dollars out of thin air” and then use those greenbacks to buy European bonds — many of them are junk bonds.

On top of this sheer madness, consider this: Over the weekend, Bernanke and the Fed also agreed to create unlimited amount of debt-based dollars to bail out Japan (its financial saviour, how ironic) . . . plus up to $30 billion to bail out Canada . . . plus billions more to bail out the government of Switzerland.

Lest it be forgotten, The United States of America is indebted to China & Japan (Supposedly in trouble too) to a tune of trillion of dollars!

This is utterly & totally insane! Already the American ship is in deep waters & yet it is speeding towards rescuing their sinking Europeans & others. Is this an act of guilt conscience? No . . . not really . . . but it’s revealing one massive hidden agenda . . . a global conspiracy game . . . the emergence of one global financial system!!!

“There is no other way to say it: The Federal Reserve has just lit the fuse on one of the greatest explosions of paper money in history . . . an explosion in the supply of dollars that can only gut the value of every other dollar in circulation.” (Weiss Research)

Let’s fast-track into the future: it’s going to be a world, though politically & territorially apart, of one “central financial system” controlled by the Wall Street “Financial Mafia”.

With the world’s delinquent nations spinning out of control generating a strong centrifugal force & engulfing others one by one, the “Financial Mafia” of IMF, an institution linked to Wall Street, is grappling the force & settling it into one fully integrated financial system. Obviously, henceforth where will the power of control be?

The fact that Greece is in turmoil with civil uprising & rioting is attributed to the Greeks’ hatred & resentment of the stringent conditions imposed by IMF (international Monetary Fund).

“This is nothing more than highway robbery: It can only deplete the value — the buying power — of every dollar the Americans earn, save, invest and plan to live on in retirement.”(Weiss Research)

Meanwhile, European investors, not fully aware of the hidden danger & implication of all this, are laughing all the way to the bank. The news that the Americans are picking up the tab for their out-of-control spending has triggered massive stock market gains all across the Continent.

All that glitters is not gold!

Is this some sort of political game?

What is US really up to, bailing out the European delinquent nations with money they don’t have?

This is so noble of the Americans sacrificing their own buying power & financial security so that European debtor nations can avoid default and continue to giving bonuses & luxury pensions to their workers!

“Capitalism creates a rational frame of mind which, having destroyed the moral authority of so many other institutions, in the end turns against its own.” – Joseph A. Schumpeter

As it is, the Eurozone is coming up with an exigency plan of their own to secure a value of one trillion exigency fund.

CAUTION!

New World Order

Everybody needs to have a rethink & think straight about all these debt-based dollars being created!

The world’s financial system is undergoing massive upheavals & what’s emerging will be a one-world financial system.

Bits of puzzle are falling into place to reveal the Big Picture!

Just think of the hidden agenda & global conspiracy of the coming of one-world system or government as biblically predicted.

There is an underlying sinister agenda to bring about globally every nation under one “Financial Empire System”.

“Some people stockpile canned goods and water in preparation for major disasters,” Naomi Klein, an investigative journalist in her book ‘The Shock Doctrine,’ writes. “Friedmanites stockpile free-market ideas. And once a crisis has struck…it was crucial to act swiftly, to impose rapid and irreversible change before the crisis-racked society slipped back into the ‘tyranny of the status quo’.”

Everybody has an opinion!

What about yours?

Let’s hear it.

Best Political System in Practice With the Best Talent There Is

On By Paul2 Comments

By P Chong                               26 April 2010

“A government of the people, by the people & for the people.”

Clearly in this light, tiny Singapore City State & giant Peoples’ Republic of China stand supreme.

US is no longer “a government of the people, by the people, & for the people”, but a government of ‘Wall Street, by Wall Street, & for Wall Street.’ What does it mean when Wall Street is contributing $500 million to both the Democrats & the Republicans for their political campaign? People in the Main Street are deprived, cheated & in more ways than one given a very bad deal . . . homeless, high unemployment, burdened with a national debt beyond their wildest dream, while the culprits & perpetrators are being baled out & rescued. Imagine the big crooks or “Financial Mafias” escaping the full justice of the law & the average & poor public reeling with pain & suffering!

If ever any justice is to come to pass, it will be anything but a show trial or theatrical act!

It’s the quality of leadership together with the system of government that will determine the health of a nation.

The best political system there is must be evidenced & seen to be in practice. You don’t have to dominate or elect for “a change in regime” in order to impose a good government system. If it is any good, it will be copied generally by all globally. Leadership is by example & no involvement of a bargain or gamble. Goodness is clearly seen in practice devoid of all hidden agenda or any real motive.

If a system is good & operable, it’s bound to be duplicated & copied by many without any unwarranted imposition, threats of war & domination. The worst crime ever committed by any nation is the invasion & intrusion upon the sovereignty of other nations, with the resultant cruel & unnecessary deaths of women & children plus the millions of displaced refugees.

The time-tested system of leadership selection, qualitatively & quantitatively, as practised by ancient China to the present, is through examination grading or academic attainment & performance, to be followed by a period of internship & training. Singapore adopts, adapts & adjusts to the method very well indeed . . . the proof is in the pudding, so to say. I must say it’s a rather laborious way of candidate sourcing for election, filling & fitting the various political portfolios.

Singaporean politicians are well paid, from a lowly ranked minister starting with a salary of $1.5 million (Singapore dollars) to the Prime Minster with $3.8 million, with the President commanding $3.9 million. These salaries may seem excessive, but they ensure a totally “clean & transparent” government unlikely to be tempted with greed, graft or corruption. Singapore has always been known for its squeaky clean image.

 

Americans are faced with heaps of problems – self-arising from within not instigated from without (as what the US government is adept in doing with other nations in the world).

The biggest democratic system of governance is India with a population second only to China. There in India, the corporations are controlled by elite bankers, pretending to be a government of the people, by the people & for the people. Parties like Congress & BJP have changed this definition to be “a government of the relatives, by the relatives & for the relatives”.

In US, the talk of freedom in the democratic world is misleading – more like big fish eating small fish. The Free Enterprise System is really the big oil companies & corporations. Where do small enterprises stand?

 

Western democratic system is a money power game with greed, corruption, cronyism & nepotism overtones attached. It’s a system fraud with conspiracy & a network of wheeling & dealing. It’s the survival of the fittest.

 

It’s all very well to see great performances by politicians on television, repertoire of oration, great campaign speeches & promises, but when it comes to implementation & delivery, nothing or little happens. Vested interest groups got to be strong to exert enough pressure to get their demands.

 

When the late Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore & was awed by the achievement of the little city state under the capable leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, he was assured that China would do far more better. Lee Kuan Yew, while flattered by the admiration, told Deng Xiaoping that Singaporeans are after all descendants of peasants & workers from China, but what China possesses is the great reservoir of true talents & scholars from the upper society elite who never had to leave the motherland in search of economic survival & wealth. Given the right motivation & opportunities, the whole nation of 1.3 billion could be mobilised to attain far greater success than Singapore within the shortest time frame possible.

Yes, indeed . . . how prophetically true!

Never in the recorded history of mankind has any nation come close to be of any compare with China! It’s amazing to witness its phenomenal leaping success. China’s leadership & government can truly & deservedly claim the accolade of success.

A nation must sail under good captainship with the crew working in unison not opposition. Everybody got to pull together to brave the storm & then only get to savour its triumph.

 

With a scenario as below . . . what would you expect?

  • Wall Street dominating & cheating the Main Street
  • Democrats fighting the Republicans in Congress
  • No less the infighting in the Senate
  • A lame President who attempts to look good on the outside
  • Greed hovering above the political-economic-socio problematic scene
  • Vested interest groups pressuring & carving out their own goods
  • 80% of the general public not trusting Washington
  • Sinking ship braving not the storm but remaining sinking beneath the dilemma of economic ills
  • Divergent forces & influences ripping the nation apart
  • A carton portrayal: “The Bush disaster is over! The Obama catastrophe begins!” in full display by the general public
  • Unconcerned Secret Elite or Illuminati, the real power behind the throne, only laughing to the bank, which they own anyway!

How do you hope to dominate, propagate or even duplicate

when the democratic system is ripped with rot right to the core?

You can only stay strong together but weak apart.

Nations should work together in the spirit of co-operation not domination!

Chaos reigns when order feigns!

And catastrophe sets its claim!!

There’s every danger of the US destroying itself from within like the Fall of Rome.

“What does it mean” asked Stacy Herbert from Keiser Report on RT-TV, “to be a Banana Republic without the Banana?”

 

Comments by:

Mike Chong: “Many will nod their heads to this . . . the so called land for the free is land of the greedy, selfish and “live at others expense” Government/public.”

Richard Chiang: ” Yes, very well said! Yet, the Americans, etc, try to impose their system on other countries.  Unfortunately, many of the people in these countries are misled into believing the so called Western democracy is the only system.  Also, in the name of the so called human rights, they try to impose their will on other countries while their indiscriminate bombings of unarmed people, including women and children, have often been ignored!”

 

 

A Decade That Was . . .

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By Paul Chong Friday, 11 December 2009

The concept of “Too big To Fail” proves to be otherwise

as shown by the collapse of General Motors & AIG.

When at the top, the only other direction, is down.

The bigger you are the greater the fall!

The old proverbial wisdom says: “Pride comes before a fall.”


The American Dream is dimming as in the wake of a wink. Historically, America couldn’t have a worst time than the decade that is going by. There’s been a series of one disaster or catastrophe after another . . . a decade of debacle chiefly 9/11 to financial wipe-out (2001 – 2009). This is the most dispirited & disillusioning decade the Americans ever lived through! Call it “The Decade of Broken Dreams”?, “The Decade from Hell”?,“The Decade of Reckoning”? Or “The Lost Decade”? . . . you’d soon run out of the superlatives!

General Motors Collapse

Could this be just a glitch or false alarm? The dreaded millennial meltdown never happened? No major wars were fought, yet thousands died – 9/11, Iraq & Afghanistan – both victims & soldiers, not counting the innocent dead & millions of displaced refugees.

Has God been conspiring & most unkind? God certainly forbids the falsehood & lies about the invasion. God has also been thrown out of every aspect of American life! God’s been forgotten but is God forgiving?

Perhaps all these catastrophes are signs from Heaven – one after another – two market crashes — one at each end of the decade. You might recall the first Wall Street crash, when swooning tech stocks tanked the market from 2000 to 2001, not long after the Nasdaq hit an all-time high of 5049 on March 10, 2000. (Recent levels: 2150-2200.)

This was followed by the defining moment of the decade, the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which redefined & impacted global politics for at least a generation and caused US to question the continental security which they rarely worried about. US waged war in Afghanistan that drags on for eight years now and today it is deadlier than ever. Then came the fiasco in Iraq. Don’t forget the anthrax letters and later the Washington, D.C., snipers and the wave of Wall Street scandals highlighted by Enron and WorldCom.

Hurricane Katrina which occurred right in the midst of the decade 2005 (August 29) in Southern Louisiana killing more than 1,500 & causing $100 billion in damage. This is the single largest natural disaster in US history – problems of which have largely been unsolved.

A housing bubble fuelled by the availability of cheap money and excessive borrowing set ablaze by derivatives, so-called financial weapons of mass destruction, put the economy on the brink of collapse. The Americans will be sorting through the damage for years. Meanwhile, the living, breathing symbol of this economic sordidness, the great con artist. Bernie Madoff, rots away in a N.C. jail cell, doing 150 years for orchestrating the biggest Ponzi scheme in the history of humanity.

The United States of America has failed to lead by example. Its dollar value is collapsing, its economy is faltering, its unemployment hits double-digits, the list just go on & on. Has Western capitalism seen the end of its road? Is America, its citizens known famously as “the ugly Americans” now becoming old & weary . . . no longer having the zeal & zest to dictate?

You be the judge & jury!

Modern Economy – A Lesson To Be Learnt

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By Paul Chong Monday, 23 November 2009

Basic science tells us that to every action there is an equal & opposing reaction. It follows with the natural law of phenomenon of cause & effect. So with solving any problem, consideration lies with the cause not the effect – treating the cause & not the effect is the only logical solution.

US Dollar Being Shot At! Greenspan?

Do you remember the 1970s era of the Pyramid Marketing Schemes as deviously ingeniously devised by the Americans, particularly from the home ground of Utah? There was this mushrooming of the “Get Rich Quick” concept with ‘Holiday Magic’ spearheading & exploding the marketplace. It adversely affected the pockets & lives of many a home & individual. It was banned in Singapore & became restricted, operating as a Multi-Level Marketing Scheme. There are still such Multi-Level Marketing companies around, and in reality all its productivities benefit largely the company itself – the distributors getting the crumbs & pittance. Calling a rose by any other name still makes it smell the same.

Unlike the conservative British, the Americans are undoubtedly the most innovative & progressive with propitious modern ideas of marketing. In a word, they are the greatest “wheelers-dealers”! They preach & practise this philosophy right to the extreme – with success objective at all costs. The underlying theory maybe sound, but in practice it’s invariably unsound, as individuals have differential capability & capacity.

The Americans are famous for their doomsday & catastrophic shows on the big screen. This time they really hit the real thing – from Wall Street to the Main Street. But it’s not confined or restricted just to the American scene – it’s so monumental that the global economy is reeling & hurting. The cause of the Pyramid practice has evolved & resulted into the Domino effect. Like in a masquerade ball, the Americans have been wearing those loose cloaks with masks to cover up their faces.

Who’s to be blamed? Bush then & now Obama administration would like to attribute the alleged root of this economic crisis to the market itself – speculators, hedge funds, greedy bankers & lax regulators. Passing the buck does not eradicate the fact that it’s one Monumental Policy Failure on the part of the US government.

We are witnessing history unfolding right before our eyes. Two monumental things are glaringly obvious:

1. A dangerous collapse or near breakdown of the capitalist             financial system.

2. A massive outpouring of Free Money by the US government in   bailing out the “Big Boys” who are the real culprits of this             economic calamity. Hundreds of billions are spent in bailing out   the key major players – not at all benefiting the average American & sending the budget deficits going through the roof.

This Monumental Policy Failure of expanding money supply & credit growth is fuelling the economy negatively. The economy is imploding within with the exploding of endless printing of paper money. These two colossal events of the past 24 months with the collapse of Wall Street in 2008 & the irrational response of Washington in the outpouring of free money & the Federal Reserve printing money without restraint.

What happened initially with the huge speculative real estate bubble, which not even Greenspan nor Bernanke would now deny, has triggered off the ramification of the banking problems & the recession.

Many of us to be sure must remember the worthlessness of the Japanese money during the Japanese Occupation in both Malaya & Singapore. The Japanese were also running their printing press overtime to finance their warfare & occupation. Now in the present era, just ask any Zimbabwean what a billion or million dollar note is worth in his country.

US dollar is not backed by anything, not gold or silver or any tangible commodities and with its paper money running off the press like crazy, what can you expect of its worthiness in the final analysis? The confidence of the world for its currency is at a critical point, and all it takes is 24 hours for all the other nations to drop its use as the currency reserve.

As said, US may well be destroyed from within & from without – the wrath & non-confidence of the world may be brought to bear down on US all within the hours before the wake of Wall Street.

One Nobel Prize winning economist predicts a run on the dollar as “Probably the kind of disorderly run that precipitates a global financial crisis . . . ” while other monetary experts now warn “We are in the terminal stages of the world’s most gigantic pyramid scheme.”

To be forewarned is to be forearmed.

Take Care.

Plain Old Greed – An Unwanted Creed

On By Paul1 Comment

Plain Old Greed

An Unwanted Creed

Banking institutions use the principle of “OPM” which literally

means “Other People’s Money”. Likewise with all the stock exchanges

where corporations made their listings to secure & amass additional funds

from the public. In the western democratic capitalist world this principle

is exploited without compassion to the fullest extent. Such practice is rampant

and widespread right down from the Government to the Man in the street.

imagesBernard Madoff

You have heard it often said ‘It could only happen in America’! This is a country of high drama and crimes . . . with happenings to dwarf any other globally. This is a country that is out to dominate, dictate, decide & even define in all spheres of human endeavour. The recent fraud case of Bernie Madoff who was sentenced to 150 years life sentence sets an unbeatable human record and defies all human crimes since time memorial. How could an apparently innocent-looking guy cheat the system, pulling wool over the eyes of the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission) and was undetected for as long as three decades fraudulently grossing over 65 billion? The world is without an equal in this respect. Could it be just plain stupid policies & lax regulations that breed such fraudulent crime?

A scenario of such nature paints vividly a big picture of greedy moneymen, free market hucksters, white-collar thieves of the highest & self-serving politicians. It bespeaks a system that caters for the rich & powerful to the detriment of the poor & neglectful.

Whenever events of such magnitude happened, politicians only speak in terms of statistics. Numbers & statistics are so meaningless in place of compassion, human values & sufferings. It’s what people do to people that matters most . . . jobs lost, life savings spent, millions of homes foreclosed, the emotional strain & stress & lots of other intangible consequences.

A society of thrift & frugality cannot be instituted overnight. Such culture must long be inculcated & established & must be able to endure the test of time. It is not something that comes & goes. Any sensible individual will know that you cannot go on spending like crazy & hope to make life easy.

Can you imagine all the nation’s wealth, i.e. the tax payers’ money, is being used to service a backbreaking load of debt that was accumulated to fuel the booming bubbles in the stock market, the bond market, the housing market & whatever credit of the economic hell! How do you solve a double-digit unemployment and a mounting national credit of $2.7 trillion expected by the end of 2010. Interest rates virtually down to zero! The amount of cash in circulation printed & pumped in by Federal Reserve has surged past the horror-inflation of 30 years ago. To begin to understand what’s it like having a dead currency is to ask a Zimbabwean!

The imbecility of the US Congress in thinking it can spend America’s way out of a recession caused by too much spending and debt takes the breath away – that should set you crying all the way to hell! It’s not a recession . . . it’s all the way a financial scandal that is the shame!

In times of financial crisis such as the present, Dubai’s building has become its undoing. Dubai’s propensity for building big while also throwing funds at overseas banks has left it looking to its neighbors for spare cash as boom turns to crunch. How much in the way of silly lessons has it learned from the master, the US government?

At least some countries like the Chinese are recognizing that the US way of finance involves running up vast debts through deficit spending while taking what’s wanted and killing anybody that gets in the way.

US Population, brought up on a politicized & substandard education system of pop culture rather than the classics, believe in greed to be the creed. Greed is the excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth.

Greed is the American disease – seriously considered as “cancer” hard to eradicate. This reckless greed is responsible for:

  • The obscene salaries of the CEOs

  • The crooked cops & politicians

  • The disgraceful corporate scandals that cover the media

  • The murders of the narcotics world

  • The proliferation of wars & encroachment of others’ sovereignty

In brief, greed is the reason that US is being run by the insurance, pharmaceutical, weapons and the petroleum industries. Suffice to say that greed is the cause of every conceivable problem existing within the American social structure. It’s not just Bernie Madoff or the Garys and the Morgans, who are but a small bunch of evil men . . . but the evil has seeped right through from Wall Street to the Main Street.

Believe me

Greed is no Creed

It’s utterly evil in Deed

Totally an unwanted Creed!

Paul Chong

A Chinese by Descent

An Australian by Consent

Sunday, 19 July 2009