Bored. M - A - X Bored.

Saw Casino Royale with the guys the other night, apparently the bad guy's name is Le Chiffre, which sounds like Le GF, and I'm not suggesting any connection between the two.

Been listening to Bloomberg radio recently, it's almost funny. The American way of economic analysis is somwhere between a talkshow and a political speech, and I think someone mentioned something like this "oh, is this bad, no it is not bad enough yet, cos it ain't gonna be better and we ain't seen nothin yet, there will be BLOOD on the wall, there will be Blood on the ceiling, there will be Blood on the ground, there will be BLOOD everywhere" Which just feeds my scepticism about the whole american-ism and the well-dressed high street, i.e. most of them need to read more.

Speaking of which, Warren Buffet is a god, if not the god, in investments, the only thing that i can't understand is his choice of cherry coka cola as his favourate drink. I mean, coke is fine as long as he doesn't do his lines too often but cherry? Maybe it has some secret minerals in it that keep you from turning stupid, you know.

On a more serious issue, apparently some Asian countires have been talking about setting up an alternative to IMF, International Monetary Funds, an Asian version that specifically to suit the needs for Asian countries. What IMF does normally is, collects money from its member countries and uses it to assist other countries where there is need for an injection of cash (sounds familiar?), but based on the Bretton Woods system that was designed for Westerners by the Westerners, it did not really address the socio-political pictures in Asia, and judging by how well the Westerners are doing recently, Asia is playing its card, which is a good sign I guess, for the re-shuffling of the cards, will the world be divided into the trinity? Thou shall hope so.

Now, all eyes on the newly elected American president. Some say he's the hope, some say he's not going to change anything, I say sell US dollars and buy Chinese RMB. In my alternative parallel universe, Bush would have been elected this year and Obama would have been elected eight years ago, in which case both would have served their talents better.

Obama looks like an action driven kind of guy, who pays attention to details, because he's from a minority group and it was the attention to forgotten details that got him to where he is today, he would have been a good president in the last eight years of economic booms, he might even have prevented the meltdown. Bush on the other hand, is stupid, there's nothing wrong with it if one uses his stupidity strategically in the right context, now is the right time, for no logic nor wisdom can solve the problems as those that US is facing right now.

Oh, I heard the State of California is going broke. The essential problem for America is that it's too big and too liberal at the same time. If one is just big, like China, you are holding up fine, but if one has both qualities it is not going to solve anything because there are too many failed body parts that are asking for medical attention, the banks, the motor industry, health care, blahblahblah. I've become more patriotic as the day goes by, as the Chinese big shots would say, ok, everybody needs to chill, remember if all else fails we still have three trillion US dollars to throw away.

Apparently the new James Bond film which has been widely criticised for its lack of bed scenes and narrative strength turns out to be the most relevant of all Bond films. Ghana's government was forced by the World Bank to privatized its water companies, which resulted in the general decline in the water service in the nation due to the extremely low efficiency in working progress compressed by the lack of economic benefits. Families from rural areas have to travel miles and spend more than half of their daily incomes on drinkable water. There's no Mr. Bond in the picture but the World Bank does get condemnation that it's hypocritical, forbiding foreign countries to socialize their utilities industry to satisfy even the most basic human needs, but when it comes to high street, there's no hesitation to socialize their own banks.(refers to BBC Business Daily 021208)
I guess in times like these one should be grateful for things that one always takes for granted, and finds un quantum of solace from the re-assured knowledge that when one does turn on the tap today, he would still get the running water.