Any adjustment here and there in any facet the WORLD's financial system will inevitably cause a domino effect. That is precisely why the Japanese government is so afraid of the rising strength of their currency. If the yen rises tremendously, and the US dollar remains stagnant, it will be extremely taxing for the US to import goods from Japan, any smartass will know that they should import from countries with a weaker currencies that theirs unless they are left with no choice.
We have been on this issue of when to remove the credits and the stimulus for quite some time already.
But, I'm afraid that this situation will leads to an effect called the "Escalation of Commitment" which necessarily means that people just pool in more and more money relentlessly, and in turn, overlooking the subtle negative implications. Basically, the nature of Man is that we rather take a risk than to lose it altogether. In layman terms, we rather continue paying for a house than to foreclose it. The government is afraid that when they remove the stimulus, the entire economy will collapse for sure, so why not we drag this stimulus and gamble for an economic recovery?
Well, while this might be true, the thing about the dragging of this stimulus package is that people become more and more reliant on it. To put forth an analogy, imagine you have just been stabbed in the chest by a knife, if you take it out immediately, it is going to hurt big time and it might even kill you but there is still a high chance of survival. Conversely, if you leave the knife there and wait for the pain to subside, veins, tendons and muscles will start conglomerating around the knife in the body and twine around the knife. Till then, when you finally decide to take it out, it is similar to extracting a part of your body and you will die.
Even those who have not been dependent on it has now started to lean against it because it is just there, it's so convenient so why not exploit it like everyone else? And if the package is there for a longer time, it abets people to sink into this kind of mindset and more & more people start to join in the fun until there is no turning back anymore.
Till then, a radical approach will be needed, to erase all these people off the stimulus pillar, get rid of all of them once and for all, synonymous to oblieration and this can result in damaging repercussions.
All in all, I feel that the government has to stop this stimulus package soon or people will start taking it for granted because they know that the government will continue dragging it for the sake of them. Hence, they will never stand up on their own feet to start working for their own future.
Credits -geekologie, -faqs, -wiideath
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Redesigning Toys
Christmas is on 25 Decemeber and today is the 8th October. That's merely a couple of months away !!!
But as seen from the dismal toy sales the previous year, toymakers are not so optimistic about the sales this year. So what are they going to do to counterattack these diminishes in the sales of toys?
The answer is to rethink designs and inventory strategies.
As John Frascotti, the Chief Executive Officer of Hasbro mentioned, "The consumers are looking more towards the value of the toys, getting great value for your money. Also, they look for brands that they trust."
As we can see from the products of Crayons, Martel, Toy "R" Us, Disney toys and many other toymakers, they are using alot lesser of technological bells and whistles. Reason being, they simply have to cut the costs of these toys by a mile. Come to think of it, if you expect a toy to be priced low, you cannot expect the fanatical technology to be incorporated into these toys because they cost a bomb. To get a toy for $20 or so, you will merely get innovative toys that entice kids and thats the end of the story.
In my opinion, I will definitely not pay more than $50 for a toy, I mean it's merely a toy, something that will only espouse the kids' attention for a couple of weeks and then they get bored of it. Let's get real now, kids are evolving just like us, their attention span are shorter and they, too, demand alot more out of toys today, rather than looking out for quality, it might be worth investing in quantities to constantly gratify their needs.
In addition, as the CEO of Disney Toys mentioned, they have to lias with the licensee because of the forseen shortages in inventories in the upcoming season. Well, I concur with her, today, people are overly cynical about the sales of products. Even consumer products production are at an all time low, people dare not import because they cannot afford cash flow out of the country anymore. They all are suffering and peopel are playing the conservative game right now. Therefore, they key challenge here is to only product in mass, the toys that are hot in demand in the market, but this requires extremely close co-operation between the manufacturer and the company. Their relationship has to be sturdy and efficient, nothing can screw up in communications and trust level must be high. This is because if the toymakers do not trust the manufacturers, they will take orders elsewhere and by the time the company needs more production, the manufacturer won't have the time to manufacture these toys because they already have taken up orders elsewhere. So the key here is to have a reliable manufacturer that always stand by you at all times.
Well, I sure do hope the toy industries stay because I love those cute little toys out there. Hopefully, there will be greater innovation along the way.
Credits -smartcanucks, -traveldaysinn, -techtalkforfamilies, -itsfabry
But as seen from the dismal toy sales the previous year, toymakers are not so optimistic about the sales this year. So what are they going to do to counterattack these diminishes in the sales of toys?
The answer is to rethink designs and inventory strategies.
As John Frascotti, the Chief Executive Officer of Hasbro mentioned, "The consumers are looking more towards the value of the toys, getting great value for your money. Also, they look for brands that they trust."
As we can see from the products of Crayons, Martel, Toy "R" Us, Disney toys and many other toymakers, they are using alot lesser of technological bells and whistles. Reason being, they simply have to cut the costs of these toys by a mile. Come to think of it, if you expect a toy to be priced low, you cannot expect the fanatical technology to be incorporated into these toys because they cost a bomb. To get a toy for $20 or so, you will merely get innovative toys that entice kids and thats the end of the story.
In my opinion, I will definitely not pay more than $50 for a toy, I mean it's merely a toy, something that will only espouse the kids' attention for a couple of weeks and then they get bored of it. Let's get real now, kids are evolving just like us, their attention span are shorter and they, too, demand alot more out of toys today, rather than looking out for quality, it might be worth investing in quantities to constantly gratify their needs.
In addition, as the CEO of Disney Toys mentioned, they have to lias with the licensee because of the forseen shortages in inventories in the upcoming season. Well, I concur with her, today, people are overly cynical about the sales of products. Even consumer products production are at an all time low, people dare not import because they cannot afford cash flow out of the country anymore. They all are suffering and peopel are playing the conservative game right now. Therefore, they key challenge here is to only product in mass, the toys that are hot in demand in the market, but this requires extremely close co-operation between the manufacturer and the company. Their relationship has to be sturdy and efficient, nothing can screw up in communications and trust level must be high. This is because if the toymakers do not trust the manufacturers, they will take orders elsewhere and by the time the company needs more production, the manufacturer won't have the time to manufacture these toys because they already have taken up orders elsewhere. So the key here is to have a reliable manufacturer that always stand by you at all times.
Well, I sure do hope the toy industries stay because I love those cute little toys out there. Hopefully, there will be greater innovation along the way.
Credits -smartcanucks, -traveldaysinn, -techtalkforfamilies, -itsfabry
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Dreams
What we all dream to become
Credits -jimcarroll, -mydochub, -fotosearch
Accountant
Credits -jimcarroll
Doctor
Lawyer
Credits -jimcarroll, -mydochub, -fotosearch
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
District 9
Truly an incandescent masterpiece. Sloppy cinematography but the plot is indeed full of depth and mystifying. It constantly bombarded me with intriguing yet inexorable issues which are pertinent to our society today. District 9 is a place where a total of 1.8 million aliens reside, for a total of 2 decades now. A spaceship above District 9, believed to be an asset of the aliens is apparently left floating above District 9, immobile. Due to many protests from the citizens, the government has tasked Wikus Van Der Merwe as the field officer to drive the aliens out of District 9. As he was performing his duty, he found a bottle of liquid at an alien’s house, belonging to Christopher Johnson. The liquid is apparently the essence of the liquid collected from the alien’s technology. It has been titrated and filtered into one small bottle and what’s been collected is merely a small bottle of liquid after 20 years of effort. The liquid is believed to be the main source of fuel for the one part of the spacecraft in Christopher’s house, which has been separated from the main spacecraft. As Wikus was meddling with it, the bottle opened up and a small bit of the liquid sprayed onto his face, blinding him for a moment. From then onwards, an unbelievable transfiguration took place, followed by relentless experimentation on him, massive escape, along with an unprecedented teaming up with Christopher Johnson in hope of returning back to his normal self.
This movie is really inspiring and so telling. From my perspective, I feel that the aliens are synonymous with the minorities in our society today. Like the aliens, they are constantly rejected by the society and ostrasized as a result. In terms of recognition, no matter how hard they try, they are always pinned down chronically. No one believed in them, whenever they try to make a breakthrough, people think that they are always up to no good and that effort was redundant. Perhaps, we should step back and reflect sometimes, how are we actually treating the minorities today? We have accepted the flaws and all of the majorities but why are we still stereotyping and discriminating the minorities? How many potential chances are we actually giving to them? Practically none. Like in the movie, Wikus began to morph into an alien and immediately, he was exploited and ostrasized by all. No one wants to be close to him anymore, even his close friends and all. But isn’t this relevant in our society? When you are a doctor or a lawyer, you gained reverence from the others, but when you are lost your job, people start veering away from you immediately. When you call them, they will think that you are merely trying to get opportunities and money out of them. On the other hand, they might just need a helping hand at that point in time, but who really is willing to lend that helping hand in this society where survival of the fittest prevails?
Also, the movie has raised a number of ethical issues in biotechnology. Wikus who has successfully integrated the DNA of the aliens along with his has since then been the one to watch out for. The whole world is looking at this breakthrough, the unbelievable morphing. He was made to test out alien weapons which only they can see with his left alien hand. It began with testing on dead cows and slowly it moved on to living aliens as test subjects. It is not surprising that today in our biotechnology industry; we use all sorts of test specimens including living humans. But how far can we actually go and where will our limit be placed?
Cloning technology is under research and who knows ten years or even five years down the road, you see a plethora of humans that actually look alike down the street? Perhaps this is the result of the pressure which the world has put in place on the industry. To constantly keep pushing them to come out with something new and fresh for the society to look at and eventually earn billions of dollars out of it. Finders’ keepers so to speak. Whoever uncovers the new technology first wins?
The next issue highlighted was the notion of survival. Looking at the Maslow’s Needs of Hierarchy, we see that Man’s lowest need is psychological needs and that is the need for food and basic survival. In the movie, we see that aliens are trading top-notched machines and technology for cat food. This might sound incredulous but this is true. We, humans, are constantly working so hard, researching, planning, and experimenting, for what? For money of course, to bring us a better standard of living that is. We might not be looking for cat food, but ultimately, aren’t we too, working to get a luxurious lifestyle along with fine cuisines out there? We used our entire life to work on breakthroughs and trade off our invaluable skills just for something as basic as food and living. After one big round, we still have to come back to the basic psychological needs of survival.
Last but not least, Wikus in the movie has been trying very hard, consistently to go back, to fix himself, to return to normal. Is our society trying to fix itself? Not really, from what I see and even they try to, their efforts will definitely be in vain. Today, we are already so competitive and moving at seemingly light speed, we cannot afford to take any breaks now. Once you stop, you will be overtaken and your social status will be instantly obliterated. You will be banished back to a commoner and a minority. No one wants that because we all know we will be looked down upon and no one can survive glaring eyes and supercilious eyebrows raised upon us today. We all want to succeed and win this battle, to be recognised and be a winning individual.
But sometimes, have we gone too far that we ignore consequences that might even results in the death of our competitors? Look at Pfizer’s recent controversial ban and fine for the mis-usage of Bextra. We are researching on new drugs relentlessly in order to find one that will benefit mankind and hopefully gets approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But once approved, people seems to deviate away from their goal, they start to try as hard as possible to sell the drug in a n effort to recoup back the money loss in other drugs research and money spent on the approved drug. This has apparently resulted in many deaths in the United States because of the mis-usage of the drug as a palliative drug. Have we truly lost our purpose and direction in life? Are we so infatuated with money that we see lives as merely a stepping stone to our success? Can we truly take a step back and start moving backwards, to a once happy society and a peaceful community without any wars? Not very possible I surmised.
Credits -shockya, -mikeely, -scifiscoop, -bloggingjupino, -timeanddate
This movie is really inspiring and so telling. From my perspective, I feel that the aliens are synonymous with the minorities in our society today. Like the aliens, they are constantly rejected by the society and ostrasized as a result. In terms of recognition, no matter how hard they try, they are always pinned down chronically. No one believed in them, whenever they try to make a breakthrough, people think that they are always up to no good and that effort was redundant. Perhaps, we should step back and reflect sometimes, how are we actually treating the minorities today? We have accepted the flaws and all of the majorities but why are we still stereotyping and discriminating the minorities? How many potential chances are we actually giving to them? Practically none. Like in the movie, Wikus began to morph into an alien and immediately, he was exploited and ostrasized by all. No one wants to be close to him anymore, even his close friends and all. But isn’t this relevant in our society? When you are a doctor or a lawyer, you gained reverence from the others, but when you are lost your job, people start veering away from you immediately. When you call them, they will think that you are merely trying to get opportunities and money out of them. On the other hand, they might just need a helping hand at that point in time, but who really is willing to lend that helping hand in this society where survival of the fittest prevails?
Also, the movie has raised a number of ethical issues in biotechnology. Wikus who has successfully integrated the DNA of the aliens along with his has since then been the one to watch out for. The whole world is looking at this breakthrough, the unbelievable morphing. He was made to test out alien weapons which only they can see with his left alien hand. It began with testing on dead cows and slowly it moved on to living aliens as test subjects. It is not surprising that today in our biotechnology industry; we use all sorts of test specimens including living humans. But how far can we actually go and where will our limit be placed?
Cloning technology is under research and who knows ten years or even five years down the road, you see a plethora of humans that actually look alike down the street? Perhaps this is the result of the pressure which the world has put in place on the industry. To constantly keep pushing them to come out with something new and fresh for the society to look at and eventually earn billions of dollars out of it. Finders’ keepers so to speak. Whoever uncovers the new technology first wins?
The next issue highlighted was the notion of survival. Looking at the Maslow’s Needs of Hierarchy, we see that Man’s lowest need is psychological needs and that is the need for food and basic survival. In the movie, we see that aliens are trading top-notched machines and technology for cat food. This might sound incredulous but this is true. We, humans, are constantly working so hard, researching, planning, and experimenting, for what? For money of course, to bring us a better standard of living that is. We might not be looking for cat food, but ultimately, aren’t we too, working to get a luxurious lifestyle along with fine cuisines out there? We used our entire life to work on breakthroughs and trade off our invaluable skills just for something as basic as food and living. After one big round, we still have to come back to the basic psychological needs of survival.
Last but not least, Wikus in the movie has been trying very hard, consistently to go back, to fix himself, to return to normal. Is our society trying to fix itself? Not really, from what I see and even they try to, their efforts will definitely be in vain. Today, we are already so competitive and moving at seemingly light speed, we cannot afford to take any breaks now. Once you stop, you will be overtaken and your social status will be instantly obliterated. You will be banished back to a commoner and a minority. No one wants that because we all know we will be looked down upon and no one can survive glaring eyes and supercilious eyebrows raised upon us today. We all want to succeed and win this battle, to be recognised and be a winning individual.
But sometimes, have we gone too far that we ignore consequences that might even results in the death of our competitors? Look at Pfizer’s recent controversial ban and fine for the mis-usage of Bextra. We are researching on new drugs relentlessly in order to find one that will benefit mankind and hopefully gets approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But once approved, people seems to deviate away from their goal, they start to try as hard as possible to sell the drug in a n effort to recoup back the money loss in other drugs research and money spent on the approved drug. This has apparently resulted in many deaths in the United States because of the mis-usage of the drug as a palliative drug. Have we truly lost our purpose and direction in life? Are we so infatuated with money that we see lives as merely a stepping stone to our success? Can we truly take a step back and start moving backwards, to a once happy society and a peaceful community without any wars? Not very possible I surmised.
Credits -shockya, -mikeely, -scifiscoop, -bloggingjupino, -timeanddate
Monday, October 5, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
US Unemployment
As we can see right now, US unemployment has already hit 9.8%, a 26-year all time high.
Just when all of us thought that we are seeing signs of recovery, that the economy is climbing back on its feet, we experience another shock, an unforseen ramification that the government has to fix.
Unfortunately, I personally surmise that the unemployment rate will definitely hit over 10% because the cash-for-clunkers program are not even removed yet and we are already seeing the unprecedented rise in unemployment rate.
Just when people are seeing recovery and the government having been prepared to remove the clunkers program soon, the unemployment rate starts to surge.
Can you imagine the day when the cash-for-clunkers program are removed? I wouldn't. It will definitely be a major disaster. I forsee a situation whereby people stop spending for a few months on the luxury goods, they start seeking refuge in Wal-Mart for cheap offers, no one drives as often due to the rising oil prices and people dare not take the precarious move to invest in stocks.
Then, we will start seeing plummeting stocks, bonds and equities and the stock market will sink into depression once again. Consumer demand starts to drop rapidly and government will have trouble once again. Not forgetting that consumer demand is one of the major pillar that supports the economy, if it falls, the whole economy will sink into a crisis, like a domino effect. Mortgage loans start to decrease because people dare not buy houses again and this cause the housing market to sink into a second depression. Oil prices start to remain stagnant for a while before they capitulate and start dropping like mad again. Of course, these scenarios are some of the worser off ones, now let's be optimistic and pray for the best !
Credits -nationsonline, -swlearning, -mysouthwestga
Just when all of us thought that we are seeing signs of recovery, that the economy is climbing back on its feet, we experience another shock, an unforseen ramification that the government has to fix.
Unfortunately, I personally surmise that the unemployment rate will definitely hit over 10% because the cash-for-clunkers program are not even removed yet and we are already seeing the unprecedented rise in unemployment rate.
Just when people are seeing recovery and the government having been prepared to remove the clunkers program soon, the unemployment rate starts to surge.
Can you imagine the day when the cash-for-clunkers program are removed? I wouldn't. It will definitely be a major disaster. I forsee a situation whereby people stop spending for a few months on the luxury goods, they start seeking refuge in Wal-Mart for cheap offers, no one drives as often due to the rising oil prices and people dare not take the precarious move to invest in stocks.
Then, we will start seeing plummeting stocks, bonds and equities and the stock market will sink into depression once again. Consumer demand starts to drop rapidly and government will have trouble once again. Not forgetting that consumer demand is one of the major pillar that supports the economy, if it falls, the whole economy will sink into a crisis, like a domino effect. Mortgage loans start to decrease because people dare not buy houses again and this cause the housing market to sink into a second depression. Oil prices start to remain stagnant for a while before they capitulate and start dropping like mad again. Of course, these scenarios are some of the worser off ones, now let's be optimistic and pray for the best !
Credits -nationsonline, -swlearning, -mysouthwestga
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)