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Mark-to-market
accounting
Divine intervention
Accounting rules for financial firms are a mess. New proposals go some way to cleaning them up
Divine intervention
Jul 16th
2009
From The Economist print edition
From The Economist print edition
Accounting rules for financial firms are a mess. New proposals go some way to cleaning them up
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The world population is projected to reach 9 billion in 40 years,
despite the drop in world fertility rates. Arable land is
limited so crop yield enhancing is crucial to feed ever more
mouths.
Companies that help boost crop yields are welcome. One
such company is Monsanto, a chemical and agricultural company from
the US that is notorious for inventing Agent Orange, a deadly
chemical that caused body deformations to those victims of Vietnam
war. However, it has helped raise America's average crop yield
significantly above world average by its GM seeds and Roundup, a
chemical weed killer.
The controversy is whether it is a sinner or a saint
as the recent issue of The Economist debates.
秘笈一，自制投资表格
罗杰斯一直都记得1968年，当他开始在华尔街闯荡时，
罗杰斯成名华尔街后，他的总分析表也广为流传。一开始，
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标签：杂谈 |
Subprime mortgage might not be the smoking gun.
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标签：杂谈 |
RMB to become a global currency?
News had it that RMB is to become the global currency, with
all the likelihood that it would replace the USD in the near
future. Is this possible?
China is certainly motivated to depend less on the dollar.
Sitting on a pile of the US currency, China is anxious to have the
Fed behave in a responsible manner. The recent spike in the yield
of long-term Treasury bonds kept China's central bankers awake at
night. Depreciation of the green buck would mean all the
hard-earned savings would be eroded by inflation. Nothing would
suit China better than have the savings measured on its
terms.
Currency serves three purposes: as unit of measure, as medium
of exchange and store of value. And the significance of a currency
depends on the strength of the economy it represents. No wonder US
dollar dominated the world. Now times have changed. The US economy
has been hit hard
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标签：杂谈 |
Green Dam and HKU's mainland recruitment interview
The Green Dam saga has also entered University of Hong Kong's
(HKU) recruitment interview question list. The question list
challenges the mainland candidate to jump out of their mental box
and also demonstrates how Hong Kong's tertiary education values
individual thinking and creativity.
In June, potential mainland candidates were invited by HKU's
recruitment teachers to attend interviews, during which they were
asked to expressed their views on subjects ranging from Michael
Jackson to Green Dam. Some were apparently caught off guard.
Michael Jackson's passing was indeed a hit but his personality and
influence was less illuminated than his songs among the young. Also
less discussed is the news that the Green Dam is going to be
installed on all new PCs shipped after July 1.
As I was among the first few who went to study at a Hong Kong
unive
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标签：杂谈 |
Green Dam Youth Escort
In early June, 2009, Beijing ordered all personal computer
(PC) makers to install a filtering software by July 1. The deadline
was almost missed by all. Facing criticism from both domestic
netizens and foreign PC makers, Beijing decided to postpone the
deadline to an unspecified date.
The software, called Green Dam Youth Escort (Green Dam), has
already been widely installed on PCs in internet bars and other
public places. The initiative was well-intended: it intends to
protect the young from harmful sites that contain pornography. But
the mandate to install it on all PCs was surprising.
Domestic netizens voiced their discontent over chartrooms and
BBS's. Some have found security defects in the software that might
potentially invite hackers. Some have cracked the software and
decoded the list of websites and sensitive words that the software
is designed to filter, whi
It seems that not all of the problems had an origin in
monetary policy. Look at General Motors, which is mired in
over-promising labor welfare and is on the verge of bankruptcy.
What a mess!
But paying off its souring obligations with printed money is
what the US Fed is doing. If money flows more than the goods and
services they represent, money gets cheap. And obligations are no
more than a promise to future goods and services. Now that the
extra money cancels the promise, the net effect is that the money
remains and that a bit of good or service disappears. Yes, that's
where inflation creeps in.
But central banks worldwide have a case for printing money.
The problem got out of hand because consumers and businesses
borrowed too much. They leveraged themselves up too much such that
they could not meet their obligations facing the slightest of
turbulences. As one with a bit of financial sense would know,
leveraging up
今天参加了CFA一级考试。之前没怎么复习，很多题目都是面熟而答案模棱两可。所以很多事后使用了排除法来选择答案，不算偷鸡吧。虽然之前做过经济金融类的讲师，教过相关的课程，但考试的时候还是有一些捉襟现肘。对一些知识点没有切身的体会，这是一个弱点。很多知识，在大脑中暂住过，然后走了，就像萍水相逢的路人，而非一个朋友。熟悉的知识点，就像一位老友，方方面面都清楚，都了解，不仅了解过去，也能预测其发展状况。知识点，也像人一样，需要全方位了解，把它放在一个相关的背景中，有一段故事，有一个教训，才能使其立体化。就像通过此次金融危机，大家多多少少都对信用违约掉期（CDS）有所认识一样。知识是朋友，朋友也是知识，不是吗？
今天也是高考的第一天，同时也是我参加高考的10周年。当年的考试整得我身心疲惫，此次考试心态还不错，说明终于从高考的阴影中走了出来，虽然时间有点长。这也说明高考摧残之深。高考后5年内的噩梦主题都是围绕高考展开，除去那些看恐怖片的晚上。此次考试在体育馆举行，现场有近1000人，场面恢宏。还好，我还能在考前1小时内小睡。心理这关终于过了。然而生理上而言，却背疼、脖子疼、颈部疼。考试折磨仍然在，只
Everybody seems to know that credit default
swap (CDS) is one of the culprits of the financial crisis of late.
It is also known that CDS works like an insurance against someone's
default and it trades in the notional amount of $60 trillion
without regulation. The US government is talking about bring CDS to
exchanges to have it monitored. But questions remain: What is a
CDS? Why do we need a CDS? How does it work? What problem does it
cause? How did it trigger the crisis? Why need it be regulated and
how?
