ECB holds the key to solve the current European sovereign debt crisis

Last Friday, on the EU Summit, 26 out of the 27 EU nations agreed to a tight fiscal union and stringent fiscal discipline, with the only exception of UK not signing. While this agreement is important to address long term issues with regard to the lack of market confidence in European sovereign debts, it does not provide any solution to the problems at hand. Without full commitment of the ECB to supporting the sovereign debts, any other method will prove to be inadequate. No rescue fund is large enough to staunch the spreading of the crisis. Not EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund). Not IMF (international monetary fund). Only the powerful printing press of ECB.

We have to understand the true nature of the current crisis. Clearly there is widespread budget deficit problem among the EU nations. I believe Greece has to restructure its debt to be solvent. But we need to separate solvency problem from liquidity problem. Outside of Greece, we have a liquidity problem, not solvency, at least not yet. But investors have lost confidence. They are pulling out of the sovereigns of Italy and Spain, threatening the solvency of these nations. And I do not believe the fire will end there. It will spread further to France, and even Germany, eventually destroying all Euro denominated sovereign debt markets. The very survival of Euro is now at the mercy of the whimsical financial market.

In a crisis of this nature and proportion, what's the rightful role of a central bank? The answer is unequivocal: the central bank should act as the lender of last resort and move decisively to arrest the quick erosion of confidence in the financial market. But facing with a crisis of unprecedented scale, ECB chose to hand off, doing little. The half-hearted bond buying efforts are like using water cups to try to extinguish a house fire. The correct action for ECB to take should be 100% backstop of any sovereign that is committed to future fiscal discipline. That should bring down the interest rate on those sovereigns and give them time to work out their long term budget problems.

I understand the concern of "moral hazard". But I think now is the right time to act. The 26 EU countries, including all 17 Euro nations, have agreed to stringent austerity measures and future fiscal discipline. That should remove ECB's rightful concern about moral hazard.

The other argument against ECB buying the sovereigns is the fear of inflation. That should be the least of the worries right now. Given the austerity measures that many EU nations are undertaking, it is very hard to imagine any real chance of high inflation. Furthermore, ECB may not have to print much new money at all to stop the crisis spreading. Oftentimes the show of determination by the central bank is sufficient to stop the capital outflow from the sovereigns of the troubled nations.

One more benefit of ECB buying sovereigns, a very important one, is that it will restore the financial stability of the banks that are affected by the sovereigns. This is two birds with one stone.

My suggestion is nothing new or innovative. My opinion is shared by many. I simply can't understand why ECB goes against this. Probably because Germany is the primary beneficiary of the crisis. German ten-year bonds are yielding below 2%. But watch out Germany. Don't be complacent. Fire in your neighbor's house could spread to your own.

It is all in the price of the stock

I often hear this refrain from investors: all the news is already in the price of the stock. This becomes an excuse not to buy high quality stocks or not to sell crapy ones.

The fact of the matter is we never know whether it is all in the price of the stock at all. In many cases, good news begets more good news, and success breeds more success. On the flip side, failure engenders more failure. If a company is poorly run, it is very likely it will stay that way for a long time. Turnaround is very, very rare.

In investing, people are always attracted to "value". But what is "value"? I believe you get what you paid for. A fundamentally strong company rarely sells cheap. Cheap stock is cheap for good reason. In majority cases, cheap stock is value trap.

In a competitive market, great products are expensive and cheap products sells cheap. Occasionally, you do find expensive products are actually craps. But you rarely find great products sell cheap. It is same in the stock market. Great stocks are expensive, and cheap stocks are craps. And you do find cases in which expensive stocks are craps. Avoid those, then you will beat the market.

There are periods when great stocks can sell at cheap valuation. It is not due to the fundamentals of the companies, but due to difficult financial market or cyclic factors. As long as these companies are well managed, and fundamentally strong, when financial market dynamics turn around, or the end market improves, they will come out stronger, gaining more shares from fundamentally weak competitors.

In conclusion, if you are an investor, not trader, I suggest you focus on the fundamentals of the company, not its valuation. And you need to make sure that the strong fundamentals of the company you invest in are sustainable. If you can do this, you will have better returns than average investors over a long term.

Steve Jobs resigns as CEO of Apple

The news just hit the tape: Steve Jobs wrote a letter to Apple's Bard of Directors to resign from the CEO position of Apple. He will remain as Chairman and director of the board and an Apple employee.

The prognosis is not good for anyone who has pancreatic cancer, liver transplant and then cancer recurrence. I hate to say this, he is getting close to the end of his life. I hope I am wrong. I pray that he survive this. But reality is reality.

Apple will never be the same without Steve, employee No. 1. He is the soul of the company. He is the essence of the brand.

Steve is a great visionary. Back in the late 90s, he saw the end of PC era coming. He admitted that WinTel (Windows and Intel) has won the PC battle. Let's move on to the next battle front. He re-positioned the company for the post PC world. He refocused Apple's product strategy on the "digital life style" of the post PC era.

Steve is a great communicator. He is the ultimate salesman for Apple products. When Steve gives a presentation, you can't help but be mesmerized by his salesmanship and then go on by the products he pitched.

Steve has a great sense of what is cool. He is extremely detail oriented. I have heard that he personally pick the songs to be played on every single Apple's TV Ads. Apple is the first technology company that thinks aesthetics is equally important for tech products as the technology itself. That's why Apple's products are intuitive, meticulously and beautifully designed, and simply works.

Steve is also a very demanding executive. In the early days of Apple, he personally interviewed every job applicants. If you are not performing, your life at Apple would not be fun. You better find a job in another company. But if you perform, you will be richly rewarded, no matter how young you may be. It is really meritocracy in Apple.

I hope the culture that Steve instilled in Apple will last. If it does, I think Apple can continue its success.

I am a lucky early investor in Apple. I bought the stock in single digit price range and have hold the stock for many years. The stock may be under pressure tomorrow. But I am not selling. I think Apple's success momentum is really strong. Opportunity for Apple in China is enormous. Over time, I think the China market can rival that of the US. But that's over a long time.

Good luck Steve.

iPad launch

iPad was launched on Saturday April 3rd. According to some analysts, the demand was a little bit under-whelwing given the huge hype leading up to the launch.

Tonight NPR had a special session devoted to iPad. Walt Mossberg of WSJ was on the program. It appears that Walt still thinks iPad is just a replacement for laptop. I think that is really a wrong assessment of iPad's potential. Like I said before, iPad is NOT meant to be just another cool gadget. It is meant to replace print media such as newspaper, magazine, and book.

The success of iPad will NOT be determined by the hardware, but by the software application. Will people use iPad as an alternative to print media? I certainly think so and hope so.

WSJ today had a full page ad showing the Journal on iPad. Really cool!

Debunking the myths about healthcare reform

Debunking myths about Healthcare Reform

1. “ObamaCare” is a huge government take-over of healthcare

First of all, up until recently, Obama did not put out any reform proposal. From the get-go, Obama asked the congress to come up with reform that achieves three broad goals: expanding coverage, reduce cost, and improve quality. Only recently when Obama saw the stalemate in the Congress, did he put out his own proposal.

By labeling HC reform as “ObamaCare”, some politicians are basically appealing to the raw fear of some fringe group of people about a Black President. These are the people who will oppose to anything from Obama. They don’t even accept Obama as the President of the US.

Is the HC reform proposed by Obama a government take-over?

Far from it! For the futile pursuit of bi-partisanship, Obama even abandoned the idea of a Public Option and National Healthcare Exchange, which are supported by majority of American public. Yet even with that significant compromise, the Republicans are still united against it. What's Bi-partisanship? Bipartisanship means compromise: everyone gives up something to achieve a consensus. But if you say either my way or noway, then that is not bipartisanship.

Obama's HC reform proposal is not a government take-over. It is just a health insurance reform. Almost every HC sector supports it, from the AHA representing hospitals, to the American Medical Association representing doctors, to AARP representing senior citizens, and Phrama representing the biopharmaceutical industry. Guess who is the only party that adamantly against it? The Health Insurance Industry!

2. Expanding coverage to the uninsured is too costly and we can’t afford it

Is it true?

First of all, even without insurance, the uninsured are already costing the HC system. When they get sick, they go to the ER, which costs even more. That cost is actually passed on to all of us in the forms of higher insurance premium. This is called “cost shifting”.

Sure there will be some extra costs to bring these uninsured into the coverage. But in a long term, everyone’s insurance premium could come down, because hospitals don’t have to spend charity care for the costly medical treatments for the uninsured.

Moreover, it is morally wrong not to have universal healthcare. Poor countries like China are doing that. Shame on us if we don’t! We are a country that spends almost half of the world HC spending, yet achieving sub-par HC outcome, and yet not able to cover everyone.

There are broad socioeconomic benefits to have universal HC. Say you have a great business idea, and want to start a new business. Right now, you may be afraid to do that because you will lose your employer-based Health Insurance and leave your wife and children vulnerable. With universal coverage, that would not be a problem.

3. People trust private insurance companies more than they trust the government

Give me a break!

Without government oversight and regulation, do you honestly believe that the insurance won’t deny your necessary care in pursuit of higher profits?

How do insurance companies make money? They make money from the difference between what they collect, or premiums, and what they pay out, or medical claims.

So there are two ways for the insurance companies to make more money: raising the premium, which they often do, and deny medical claims, which they often do too.

Over the last decade, insurance premiums have doubled. Insurance companies actually cherry-pick who they want to cover. They want to cover the healthy ones because they don’t have a lot of medical claims. If you have pre-existing conditions, God help you! If you try to purchase insurance on your own, God help you!

Are you still saying you prefer private insurance over the government? If you do, you are a stupid teabagger with an IQ that matches Sarah Palin’s.

4. 90% of people are happy with their health insurance

Yes, 90% of people are happy with their health insurance, only until they get sick and old, or lose their jobs.

Enough said!

5. Tort reform will solve all the problems

Malpractice insurance is a tiny tinny portion of our national total healthcare spend, which topped 2.5 trillion dollars in 2009. Eliminating malpractice insurance won’t do a din to the total health care cost. Some politicians sound like tort reform is their best reform idea. They are either stupid, or deceitful. You make the judgment.

Final words: HC Reform cannot wait any longer. Our nation has a broken health system. We cannot just pass it over to the next generation. The power of vested interests is too strong. You have to fight for it. It's your future. It's your children's future.

Oh, it's an iPad.

OK, it is iPad! You can make fun of the name. But this device will indeed be revolutionary. I call it a digital Gutenberg. Yes, digital Gutenberg!

One big surprise is the low price points of the device, as low as $500 for the 16G Wifi model. Many has expected it to be close to $1000.

Apple is notorious for its expensive laptops and Macs. Why Apple set such a low price point for this revolutionary product (not too much more expensive than those junk netbooks)? Steve Jobs said it loud and clear: we want to get this product to as many people as possible.

The iPad is a Trojan horse. Apple is not going to make a lot of money selling the iPads. I figure that they are barely break-even after counting the production and distribution costs.

So where is the beef? I think it is in the eBooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines, and games, and yes, mobile advertising that can be exploited here. Apple gets 30% cut of all the things sold through iTunes, AppStore, and eBookStore. More over, once the volume reaches a critical mass, Apple will allow advertisers to dynamically place targeted ads in eBooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines and, of course games and other applications.

So clearly iPad is a Trojan horse. The hardware is not the key. It is the future Apps.

The eBook application is exciting. Imagine you have a book you want to publish and sell. You go to Random House. They tell you that you have to put $8M upfront for them to publish it for you. Where can you come up with the $8M?

Well, with ePub, you can publish your book for just a few hundred bucks, and then sell it through iPad's eBookStore! Wow, I am tempting to write a book now. Maybe I can sell a million copy and get rich quick :)

During the presentation, New York Times showcased its eNewpaper app specifically designed for iPad. I read a couple of newspapers and periodicals, such as FT, NYT, WP, WSJ, Economists, etc. When I travel, I don't want to carry them with me. Now I will just take the iPad.

For the newspaper companies, they will save printing, and distribution costs (so iPad is a very "green" product). It is not an exaggeration if I say iPad may save the entire newspaper and magazine industry!

Now you understand why I call iPad digital Gutenberg.

Extra: Qualcomm stock dropped more than $8 after Apple indicated that the iPad uses its in-house designed ARM chip (remember the PA Semi group Apple acquired a few years ago?). Unlike the x86 market, which is dominated by one single company Intel (I don't think AMD counts), the ARM world is fiercely competitive. Every single IC design house in the world has its own design. I doubt either Intel or Qualcomm is a good long term investment. Even Google is under treat if Apple can use iPad to dominate mobile advertising. Google has a hard time to translate its success in desktop advertising into the mobile market. I will stick with Apple.

Disclaimer: I own some shares of Apple's common stock. So take whatever I said with a grain of salt.

iSlate or iPad, whatever it is called, will revolutionize the printed media for ever. Steve Jobs's last act.

Tomorrow, Apple will unveil the long anticipated "latest creation", iSlate, or iPad, a tablet device that has captured enormous interest and hype in the media.

But this is not hype. If Apple can pull it off, this could be a revolutionary device that will for ever change the "printed" media as we know it. This is probably Steve Jobs last act, and maybe also the most significant one in terms of its impact.

Forget about iPhone! This iSlate thing is ten or even a hundred times bigger!

Printed media are doomed in its current forms. It is a matter of time. Since the invention of the Gutenberg printing press, this industry has not had any significant innovation. Yes, you may say Xerox was pretty big. And, color was available a few decades ago. Other than that, the printed media have remained static for hundreds of years.

This will change. The iSlate will enable a whole new experience. Not only the content can be dynamic and real time, it can also be presented to readers/viewers in multiple forms: audio, video, text, or hyperlink. It is going to be a whole new experience.

Imagine you read the latest Wall Street Journal: the stock quotes page can be updated in real time. If you click on it, the stock chart will pop up. Don't know what "CDS" means, just click on it. The interview with President Obama now can be both text and video.

Imagine you are reading a travel magazine: all the beautiful photos and video clips are now just one-click away. Not to mention the targeted advertising that gives you latest deals in vacation.

And best of all, a lot of rain forest will be saved!

Believe me, this iSlate thing is huge! Apple will dominate the media industry for years to come.

Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in Apple common stock.

Top ten reasons why some don't want health reform

10) They are suckers to the health insurance industry
9) They want their health premium to double again in next eight years as it did in the last
8) They want to pay high prices for low quality of care
7) They want to pay high prices so that the health industry can keep its fat profit margins
6) They want to pay high prices so that managed care company executives can have exorbitant bonuses
5) They want to lose their coverage if they lose job
4) They want to be denied of coverage for "pre-existing conditions"
3) They love insurance industry bureaucracy
2) They support whatever right-wing conservatives tell them
1) They hate whatever idea coming from President Obama or the progressives

NASA erased the original Apollo 11 moon landing tape

Today NPR ran a story about the missing moon landing tapes. It turned out that NASA erased those tapes. The reason for doing that was ridiculous: NASA ran out of magnetic tapes! What? Are you nuts? Can anyone believe this?

In the afternoon, in "All Things Considered", NPR reported another story about the Apollo 11 mission. It reported that a desert region in Flagstaff Arizona was the training ground for the astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission. In fact that region was meticulously created to mimic the terrain on Moon's surface. Here is a quote from the story:

"Near Flagstaff, Ariz., are fields of volcanic cinders, the result of eruptions about the year 1065. The cinders provided excellent material to re-create the lunar surface. The result of this was an accurate replica of a section of the moon's Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed."

If you put the two stories together, what can you make of them? Did moon landing really occur? Was it just the result of cold-war propaganda?

Hmm. That would be something to think about. Maybe those crazy conspiracy theories aren't too crazy after all.

Character assassination of Michael Jackson by the media

These are the words from Paris Catherine Jackson, Michael Jackson's 11-year old daughter:

"Ever since I was born, daddy has been the greatest dad you can ever imagine.... I just want to say, daddy, I love you so much...."

Is she talking about the "Wacko Jacko" we have gotten accustomed to know? How could "Jacko" be a normal dad?

For so many years, the media have fed us with an imagine of Michael Jackson that is either a weirdo at the best, or a child molester at the worst. And I believed the media without much thought or investigation.

Paris' emotional words about Michael Jackson prompted me to do some research on Michael Jackson. After objective assessment of the available information out there, I have come to the conclusion that Michael Jackson may be one of the kindest celebrity singers we have ever known.

With regard to the accusation of child molestation, the police has found absolutely no evidence to support the accusation. There have been thousands of children having stayed in Neverland. If Michael was a child molester, there would have been many many more children coming forward to testify against Michael. But during the trial, parents of many of these children actually defended Michael.

The media have again succeeded in assassinating the character of another perfectly good person.

Rest in peace, Michael! I know you are now walking in the Paradise with the Lord. Thanks for all those great music you have given us. You will be greatly missed.

Lobbyists united to sabotage health care reform

The voice of opposition to health care reform is getting louder, noisier, and more deceptive in the Capitol Hill. Politicians are more concerned about preserving the profit margins of the health insurance companies than reducing the cost and improving the quality and outcome of health care.

At the center of the issue is whether a public insurance plan (public option) should be offered to compete with private insurance plans. Politicians supported by big health care businesses are fighting tooth to nail to thwart a public option, which is absolutely essential for implementing needed reform to reduce health care cost and improve quality over long run. Instead of offering a coherent opposition to public option, which is supported by 70% of Americans according to some surveys, these politicians are actually focusing their opposition to the estimated high cost of providing universal health insurance to cover the uninsured. This is a very smart tactics, because the public at large is very concerned about the ballooning federal budget deficit.

But focusing on the cost is really misleading. Regardless we have HC reform or not, this cost remains the same as long as we have to cover the roughly 45 million uninsured. In fact the cost will continue to rise if we do NOT reform the current system. The cost is NOT due to reform. The cost is precisely the reason we need reform.

Public option is absolutely critical to health care reform. Without it, how can we implement the badly needed changes to the entire reimbursement system, which is at the core of the problems of our health care system. Private insurance companies have never implemented any reform. What they are mostly concerned about is not the fairness and effectiveness of the HC system, but the profitability of their business. That is understandable. That is why we need a public plan to promote reform, provide standards, and guide the benefit design and reimbursement to better align payment/profit with clinical outcome.

I have been reading google news Health section. Google rank news based on how many people read the news. I have not seen any news items appeared in Google's Health section in the past two weeks when HC Reform was the hottest topic in DC. People simply are not paying attention! That gives the lobbyists a huge chance to thwart HC reform.

I am very pessimistic about HC reform. American public is just too stupid and ill-informed to understand how critical the reform is to their quality of life and that of their children's. They are not paying attention. They give such an important issue to the hands of the lobbyists.

This is how democracy works.

An Iranian Revolution? Hardly.

Protest in Iran's capital city Tehran against the alleged voting fraud has captured people's imagination in the west. Is this the beginning of a "green revolution"? I think this is just a wishful thinking on our part. The fact of the matter is there isn't a revolution. Hardly.

1) Protests are isolated and small in scale. It has not spread beyond the elite city Tehran. Iran has over 70M in population, and 85% of them participated in the election on June 12. If there is widespread vote fraud, you would have seen a much more widespread demonstration in different places. But so far, we have only seen it in the capital city Tehran, mainly among the elites and college students. The vast rural population has not joined the protest.

2) Was there really vote fraud? According to pre-election polls, Washington Post reported that Ahmadinejad was way ahead, by a margin of 20% or 2 to 1, in most of the precincts. The election result should not be a surprise at all.

I am still puzzled by why western media were so quick to take side in this dispute over election result. I hardly see Mousavi much different from Ahmadinejad in terms of nuclear policy or policy towards Israel. The media did not take side last year in the Mexican election dispute. Why this time?

Honestly, I think Iran has the best democracy among the countries in middle east. That does not mean it would necessarily result in a friendlier foreign policy to the west.

Gearing up a fight for Health Care Reform

Obama today delivered a speech to AMA (American Medical Association) on Health Care Reform. Over the last few months, the large interest groups are intensifying their opposition to HC Reform, centered around the public health insurance plan proposed by Obama. They resort to the old tactics of misleading advertisement. They tried to label the public health plan as government controlled HC. But what is the alternative that they propose? Just give individuals subsidies to purchase private health insurance. Is that reform? No they just want status quo.

But the country cannot afford not to have a true reform. The current system is broken. Maintaining status quo is NOT an option. Private insurance plans have failed to deliver any menaingful reform, or produce better patient outcomes. In fact, under the current system, patients get more treatments without having better clinical outcomes. US spends as much as three times per person on healthcare than other developed nations, yet delivering below-average clinical outcomes.

We have to change the system. Private insurance plans have failed. So there have to be something alternative. A public plan can help guide a better medical payment system that aligns physician and hospital reimbrusement with patient outcome, the so called pay-for-performance concept.

Without a public plan, health care reform is DEAD. Status quo wins, and the nation is going to the road of bankruptcy. Under the current system, Medicare Part A program alone has an obligation with net present value exceeding 100 trillion dollars! The system is completely broken. It must be fixed!

The fiscal problem is NOT the 1.75 trillion dollar budget deficit projected for 2009. The fiscal problem is how can we sustain the current spending trajectory of healthcare expense, not only for Medicare, but the nation as a whole.

Obama speech in Cairo

I just finished watching Obama's address to the Muslim nations titled "a new beginning" which he gave in Cairon on June 4th of 2009. In the speech he talked about six issues: violent extremism (instead of the word "terrorism"), conflicts between the Israelis and the Palestinians and the Arab world, nuclear weapon, democracy, religious freedom, and women's rights.

I found myself nodding all through his speech. He articulated what I believe in, only much better than what I can ever express in words. I think most of the progressive Christians hold similar views on those issues Obama talked about. Finally, we have a leader who is rational, reasonable, smart, and wise. The problem is that the evil forces in the world are very strong. Can Obama's vision be realized?

I certainly hope that many will be inspired by his vision and work hard to make it a reality around the world.

I really wish him the best of luck, and may God bless him and make him succeed and prosper in whatever he does.

Every Christians should pray really hard for President Obama that he have the strength wisdom and help from God to carry out his vision.

Good news from the government Bank Stress Test

According an article in WSJ, half of the 19 banks may need to increase the equity cushion. But they have 6 months to raise capital to shore up equity.

Banks could increase equity by either raising capital from private investors, or converting the TARP funds they received from government bail out into equity. Obama repeatedly said that he doesn't want the government to get involved in private businesses. So I guess TARP conversion will be the less desirable option.

Because banks have gotten 6 months of probation, by the end of the 6 months, none of the banks may need to raise any new capital at all. If the economy stabilizes, as many early indicators point to, then banks may be able to earn its way out.

Two names that I invested in have fared much better than I expected. Citi group turned out to need only $5B. There is no question that Citi could earn its way of this in next 6 months. Citi's brokerage business must be making a lot of money these days :)

The other bank that I own, Capital One does not even need any new capital, according to WSJ. I thought it would be needing somewhere around $1.5B. It has gotten 3.6B TARP fund from the government last fall. If Capital One ever needs capiatl, it could convert some of the TARP into equity. Obviously that would be dilutive to existing shareholders. Or alternatively, it can wait for 6 months and earn its way out of $1.5B short fall. In first quarter alone, its security portfolio (amounts to 30B if my memory is right) had a gain of $500M. Given how well the capital market, including the credit market, has performed so far, I think it can easily make another $500 in Q2. So even Capital One needs $1.5B, there won't be too much euqity dilution in the end.

Both stocks will go higher.

Disclaimer: I am not a registered financial advisor. My blog is not intended to provide investment advice. Readers beware. Invest at your own benefit or peril!

An Apple "MediaPad" for Newspaper subscription?

According to a Newsweek article, Apple is working with Verizon to introduce a kindle-like MediaPad device. Hmm, sounds like newspaper subscription comes to the Apple MediaPad. Read my last post about my speculation that Apple is introducing a new netbook-like device for Newspaper app.

Here is the link for the Newsweek article.

Apple to the rescue of the Newspaper industry?

It was rumored that Apple is close to launch a 10-inch screen "netbook" type device sometime this year. Although Apple has repeated squashed the speculation that it would sell a low-priced netbook, a bigger iPdod Touch like device, if it can be called "netbook", seems to be aligned with Apple's strategy.

Let's face it: the "netbooks" out there are pieces of junk. The only thing those devices can do is browsing the internet. Apple should never damage its own brand by making similar piece of junk.

If you study Apple closely for the past several years, every time it introduced a new device, there is a clear application that goes with the device. Apple devices have never been a general purpose device at the beginning. As the product evolves, the device can pull in more applications. But at least in the beginning, there is always one new application that goes with a new device.

For example, when Apple introduced iPod, it was all about music and iTunes application. AppleTV was meant to bring video delivered over the Internet to TV screen (with limited success because of the restrictions content providers put on AppleTV). What about iPhone? Initially iPhone was all about multi-touch internet browsing experience. IPhone is the first mobile device that had a true full-blown internet browser (not the garbage WAP browser) and much more (multi-touch interface).

So if Apple is to introduce a 10-in "netbook", what new application it will bring with the device? How about NEWPAPER and BOOKS?

Everyday you hear the news about the financial stress the Newspaper industry is experiencing: shrinking ad dollars due to web competition and economy, compounded by rising costs of printing and distribution. The business model is broken, just as that of the music industry. If iPod saved the music industry, I believe the new Apple "netbook" will save the Newspaper industry.

Imagine a 10-inch netbook with an Application that bring all your favorite newspapers to your finger tips: New York Times, WSJ, Washington Post, and many other. The multi-touch and multi-media interface will be FAR superior to the inky paper we read every day. I for one will cancel my paper sub and opt for digital.

And the Newspaper can sell TARGETED ads on the screen! Again, I stress targeted, meaning the ads can be different on different subscriber's device, based on subscriber's preference.

Obviously, this device won't be a pure book/newspaper reader, as Kindle is. It will have general purpose applications like the iPhone, iPod Touch and Mac PC has. But the killer app for the device would be the Newspaper reader.

Let's wait and see!

SDR as alternative to US dollar?

Last week Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan made a proposal that caused quite a stir among the international finance circles. Zhou proposed to elevate the status of SDR (Special Drawing Rights) in IMF (Internationa Monetary Fund) to replace US dollar as international reserve currency. Both Obama and Geither rejected it as "not necessary". But is it really?

What are the problems of current system where US dollar is the de facto currency for international trades and the world currency reserve? There are many. And I believe the main cause of the current global financial crisis can be traced to the problems with US dollar:

1) US has enjoyed an extremely low interest rate for a long time due to dollar's special status
Because dollar is the standard currency in which international trades are settled, excess capital has to flow to dollar denominated assets (US treasuries, agency MBS, and other US assets), creating an artificially low interest rate environment for the US and relatively high interest rate environment for the rest of the world. Due to the low borrowing costs, US government and consumers have over time accumulated huge amount of debt to support large government spending and lavish personal consumption. The gradual increase in US national debt (leverage) initially created bubbles in asset pricing (late 90s Nasdaq equity bubble and 2008 real estate assets bubble), and eventually led to global crisis of confidence in the value of dollar (2002-2008) and bursting of the asset bubbles (2008 financial meltdown).

2) When US dollar serves as world reserve currency, US monetary policy has impact beyond US borders, affecting global economic growth. When US loosens monetary control to try to finance domestic spending, it also creates liquidity glut around the world, and causes inflation to spike. That was what happened during 2002-2008: crude oil price rose from 20s to 150. Prices of grains, and other commodities rocketed during the same period. On the other hand, when the US ran into a liquidity crisis, as it is now, countries around the world are facing liquity freeze as well.

3) Individual countries can use currency manipulation to gain competitive advantage in international trades.
When US devalues its currency, it is essentially reducing its debt obligation to countries who hold US dollar reserve (lend money to the US). Often time, countries resort to currency devaluation to get out of national debt (Obama may be doing it now for the US). And in the menawhile, a cheaper currency increases export and reduces import, helping domestic industries to gain global competitive advantage. Such practices will lead to protectionism in global trades. Protectionsim will result in slower global economic growth.

All these problems can be corrected with a truly global currency, not in place of but on top of local currencies. A global currency, independent of the influence of any single country's domestic economic and monetary policies, should attain a much more stable value. Individual countries can still pursue its owm monetary policy flexibility without too much an impact on global economy. Countries don't feel cheated if their exports are paid for in the international currency that has stable value and cannot be devalued by single country for the purpose of gaining competitive advantage. So all in all, an international currency, maybe in the form of SDR of the IMF, may be a great idea, and may cure the US addiction to low borrowing cost and high consumption.

Isn't US trying to reverse trade deficit with other countries? SDR may help a long way towards that objective.

What is money?

What is money?

In ancient times, money used to be something tangible, such as gold, silver or copper. Business transactions, be it trade of physical goods or capital transaction, were done with physical money changing hands.

But the world has evolved into a credit world. Business transactions have long gotten rid of changing-hands of physical money. Transactions have been done through credit: a promise to pay in physical money in the future.

With the adoption of computer technology, money is just a number on the ledger. It is an accounting entry, a mere measurement of wealth. It no longer takes a physical shape.

So in essence, money is just a promise, a credit, or a trust. When the trust in money is broken, such is the case right now, money becomes elusive. When the central banks around the world are freely printing money to bail out financial institutions and businesses that are deemed too-big-to-fail, what is the worth of money we are holding? At what point, the trust in paper money will be completely broken?

We have already seen people fleeing paper money to find refuge in the physical store of value, such as gold and silver. Gold price is approaching $1000.

But the question is: should we go back to gold? Will commodity-based money cure the ill of paper-based (or promise-based) money?

The answer in my view is no. We are not going back to the days when physical money was the primary medium of business transactions. Credit money is here to stay, which means, even in a commodity-based monetary system, money will still be just a promise, a promise to pay in gold, silver, or what ever commodity the money is backed with, in the future. When business transactions (trades of goods and flows of capital) continue to expand, credit money will also expand. Credit money will always be greater than the ACTUAL physical reserve the central banks hold. In times of financial crisis, when people come to redeem the credit for physical money, central banks won’t have adequate physical money to meet the redemptions. At that point, the decoupling of money from its commodity backing will have to occur (such was the case in 1971 when President Nixon formally decoupled US dollar from gold).

My view is that we should not go back to gold or silver standard. And I do not believe commodity-based monetary system is the answer. The answer is proper regulatory oversight of the financial institutions.

Money is a trust. We need stringent regulation to safeguard the trust.

AIG disclosed payments of > $100B to banks related to its derivative bets

Finally AIG disclosed the names of the counter parties of the CDS contracts it has written. The headline reads that AIG paid out >100B. But in fact, that wasn't exactly final payment. AIG just posted collateral on the CDS contracts that it has sold to those counter parties, Goldman being the No. 1 on the list.

Regardless it is payment or collateral, AIG should not be allowed to write so much CDS contracts without having sufficient capital to back them up. Gambling on CDS should never be allowed for the regulated financial institutions. If investors wanted to gamble, let them do that. But regulated financial institutions have fiduciary obligations to its constituents (depositors in the case of banks, and policy holders in the case of insurance companies).

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Here are quotes from CNNMoney.com:

AIG Reveals Over $100 Billion Of Payments To Banks, U.S. States

March 16, 2009: 07:55 AM ET

LONDON (Dow Jones) -- American International Group said over the weekend it had paid over $100 billion of its bailout funds to U.S. states and international banks including Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale.

The cash was used to cover collateral payments, cancel derivative contracts and meet obligations at its securities lending business after the firm had to be bailed out last year.

Most of the major U.S. and European banks were represented on the list, but AIG (AIG) revealed that Goldman Sachs was the biggest single beneficiary from the payments, receiving $12.9 billion.

Bank of America Corp. and Merrill Lynch together received $12 billion in payments, followed by Societe Generale , which got $11.9 billion and Deutsche Bank , which was handed $11.8 billion.

Payments to municipalities totaled $12.1 billion.

"AIG recognizes the importance of upholding a high degree of transparency with respect to the use of public funds," the group said in a statement.

The group had previously argued that disclosing the identity of counterparties could damage its business relationships or cause competitive harm, but it had come under increasing pressure from lawmakers to provide details.

The remainder of the $173 billion that AIG received from taxpayers has been used to repay debt, boost capital levels at some of its units and fund vehicles created to wind down its derivatives contracts.

Shares in the group, which is now 80% owned by the government, have fallen more than 99% from their peak in early 2007.

The announcement over bailout payments came after AIG became embroiled in a row over bonus payments to employees at the unit that was largely responsible for its near collapse last fall.

The decision to pay around $450 million in bonuses elicited howls of protest in Washington, with key House lawmaker Barney Frank, D.-Mass, calling on the government to examine whether the bonuses can be legally recovered.