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Dubbed as one of the most handsome guy among the participants of popular 8TV shows Hot Chef ( 美食型男 ), Jason emerged as the ultimate winner, not by his look, but his cooking skills. Since then, he became a familiar face in Malaysia. Did you recognize Jason shopping at Mid Valley lately? In order for us to understand more about him, below are some of the his personal details: Full Name            : Cha Kian Heng Age                      : 34 Hometown           : Ipoh, Perak Status                  : Married Hobby                  : Collecting Thai Amulets Favourite Foods : Italian Pizza with many many cheese Favourite Sports : Badminton Favourite Sportsman : Fernando Torres (football player of Spain and Chelsea currently) The Interview: Q: What makes you decided to join the 8TV's 2011 Hot Chef competition? I think the most important decisions normally associated with the most important people around us. Due to the encouragements from my family and girlfriend (now is my wife), I take

Semester Wrap Up: Financial Jeopardy Date: Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 Time: 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Location: Tisch 200 Join the Finance Society as we wrap up another great semester with a friendly (but competitive) game of Financial Jeopardy. Bring some friends and form a team to compete with the E-board’s winning team from last year. Winners get a prize!

Oh Starbucks. There's always those people who make fun of Starbucks lovers saying, "I'd never pay 5 bucks for a cup of coffee!" and, "What does a 'tall' even mean?" But despite these critics of one of the largest coffee brand in the world, there exists millions of people willing to dish out those 5 dollars because it is the little things in life that one truly appreciates. Starbucks has created its culture to do just that and please tired customers in the morning with sweet and energetic drinks. Furthermore, many of the large corporations we hear about all the time, Apple and Starbucks being two of them, have begun realizing potential in Chinese markets. With recent expansion into China, Starbucks has been able to tap into a new market of millions of people. It plans on opening 400 new stores in the China/Asia Pacific region, which doesn't include what is already existing there. Even if, for example, 10% of China is willing to pay for a Starbucks

Spain’s unemployment rate has reached an 18-year high of 24.4% as announced this Friday. This is up from the 22.9% reported last quarter and close to the highest level on record. The distribution of this rate is even more appalling, as more than half of those under 25 years old are unemployed. As a reflection of these dim economic times across the pond, Spain’s credit rating was downgraded to BBB+ on Thursday. What is ludicrous about this, however, is the fact that Spain’s debt is still considered investment grade despite all the structural issues it faces and an unemployment rate higher than the US unemployment rate going into the Great Depression, which maxed out at 21-22%. This brings into question, once again, the accuracy and credibility of ratings agencies. In 2009 Moody’s issued a report stating that “Investor fears over Greek government liquidity was misplaced” six months before the country started seeking a bailout. Even more absurd were the ratings agencies AAA ratings of the

            Goldman Sachs chairman and chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein has insisted that he has no plans to relinquish any of his current positions.  Appearing for the first time on a television interview in two years, he denied any speculation on abdication. Goldman has faced many recent charges for fraud, insider trading, and other scandals in the aftermath of the financial crisis. On February 24, Goldman Sachs was notified that the charges could include its involvement in the disclosures made as an underwriter of about $1.3 billion of sup-prime mortgages.              This would be the second time that the investment bank faces the SEC for fraud charges.  Previously in 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Goldman for securities fraud during the financial crisis.  The firm was accused of hiring John Paulson, a former executive member and hedge fund manager, to hand select the worst subprime to sell to investors and then bet that they would fail.  Thes

So we all know about the Big Mac Index, which is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity and states that exchange rates should adjust until equilibrium—the market exchange rates that would equalize the price of an American Big Mac with an English Big Mac and a Chinese Big Mac. Recently, another bright economist has come up with an intelligent way of comparing real wages across the world using McDonald’s Big Mac as well.  Orley C. Ashenfelter of Princeton University calculates real wages as how much of a Big Mac could an hour of work can buy.  He then flips the ratio over and compares the number of minutes a McDonald’s employee must work in order to earn enough to buy a Big Mac across countries.  In his paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Ashenfelter concludes that after his own preliminary analysis of the decade long project, “Wage rates of workers using the same skills and doing the same jobs differ by as much as 10 to 1, and that these gaps declined o

It seems so easy to say that states should provide more support for public universities, but should they?  Who pays if the states pay more?  The answer is: the average taxpayer.  Why shouldn't the student attending the university foot their own bill.  Why should a taxpayer who is not attending and who may or may not have children attending pay to subsidize college students? "We all benefit" is the usual refrain.  But, is that correct?  Does the average taxpayer benefit when Joe Dough gets a sociology degree from Alabama Polytechnic Institute, while sudsing his way through four years of school?  Certainly, the local bars in every college town would like to see higher subsidies by taxpayers for higher education.  They know where the poor college student likes to spend his/her own money.  Visit any major university and check out the attendance records in a typical class these days and you might wonder why taxpayers are subsidizing a lot of empty seats. The usual principle is

How correlated are humor and success? It’s hard to imagine that anyone believes that exhibiting humorous and genial qualities act disadvantageously. In fact, in the business field, being humorous works to one’s advantage. It’s more enjoyable to talk to someone who can slip in a few jokes and be funny than someone who is always uptight and formal. Being respectful and serious can be important too, but it can sometimes come off as boring. Where conversing and networking is important, being funny can make the conversation lighter and more enjoyable, thus opening opportunities that may have never been created otherwise. Formal studies show that being funny can make others perceive you as more enjoyable and thus approachable. Michelle Gielan, expert in positive psychology and cofounder of the Institute for Applied Positive Research, explains that more dopamine is released when something makes us smile to reinforce creativity, productivity, and engagement. In an analysis of 225 a

Earlier today, Google launched the long anticipated cloud storage platform that awards its users 5 gigabytes of free online data storage. Users can upload files in any format whenever, wherever they want. The unique thing about GDrive as an online storage service is that it’s part of the Google App Suite. The network effect of all Google users will essentially give GDrive leverage in not only getting the loyal Google users but also new users who might just want to try out this new service for its being part of Google. The way GDrive works is that it will operate as if it was a local file system. When users click the “save file” dialog box on Chrome OS, the system automatically leads the file to Google Drive. This feature is quite similar to the already existing Google Doc function (as a matter of fact it looks the same), but in switching to a new storage service, Google is aiming to better provide the transfer of files between all sorts of online applications. --Rong

Civil society is breaking down in Greece.  Riots, civil anarchy, violence and a rapidly descending respect for the rule of law is being played out on the streets of Athens daily.  What once was the "cradle of civilization" is now a country descending into barbarism.  The road to anarchy is often paved with good intentions. Left wing governments for three generations, originally inspired by the American-trained economist Georges Papandreou, have fought the fairness battle -- the same battle that Obama is engaged in today -- and Papandreou emerged the winner in Greece.  They got what they wanted -- a bloated government, a massive government bureaucracy, and promises of fat government retirements and free health care for their citizenry.  They got it all.  They had the same dream that the Obama folks have in the US. Now we can see clearly where that dream takes you -- the modern nightmare that is Greece and will soon expand to Portugal, Italy, Spain, France and, yes, even German

                As NYU students, we all know how painful our tuition is. Some of us have parents who have sold their first born (if not, an arm and a leg) for our education.  Others will simply have tens of thousands of dollars of student loans post-graduation. What’s worse is that our situation is not improving, as the US government plans on DOUBLING student loan interest rates from 3.4% to 6.8% on July 1 st , 2012. Statistics show that student loans are the second largest source of consumer debt, more than credit card debt and only behind home mortgages. The average student debt is over $25,000 and some even have over $100,000. The picture seems bleak, to say the least. But fear not, Sternies, because we are fortunate to have a president that is extremely pro-education, as he reminded us with his 2011 State of the Union address. He is trying to convince congress to grant him a one-year reprieve, most likely to discuss the matter further before making such a critical change. It is cle

Just because Corzine is an Obama supporter, is he going to get a free pass?  Madoff should have thought of this: "hey, it was just an accident!"  Or, perhaps: "I never intended to mislead anyone."  Would that have gotten Bernie Madoff a free pass?  I don't get why Madoff is in jail and Corzine is free as a breeze. It looks like Corzine is getting a free pass on the $ 1.2 billion of customer money that disappeared on his watch at MFGlobal.  If there is a difference between what Corzine did (presiding over the looting of customer accounts, protected by law as segregated from firm accounts) and what Madoff did (running a ponzi scheme with customer money), I fail to see the distinction.  Why is one guy behind bars and the other guy still the President's best buddy and on the loose?

Continue from previous post on "New Minimum Wage Policy", here we analyze the impact from an economics perspective. Many people said the new policy will jack-up the inflation figures due to higher production costs. Subsequently, it will dampen the GDP growth numbers. Is it true? The impact on inflation and GDP growth is ambiguous . Setting a minimum wage would boost wages and consumption for workers who remain employed (likely to be the more productive workers, working in companies that have higher profit margin), but would hurt the profitability of businesses that are labor intensive and could potentially lead to higher unemployment rate . The impact on growth will likely be a net negative in the short-run as it might result in raised cost without an increase in productivity. In the long-run, this policy may bring about a positive impact if it succeeds in encouraging workers to upgrade their skills or for companies to invest more capital to boost productivity. From an econo

The Obama Administration seems bound and determined to eliminate job opportunities in the American economy.  The latest salvo in the war on jobs by the Obama folks is the new set of rules and regulations coming out of the EEOC (the mis-named "Equal Employment Opportunity Commission").  The new rules would force more and more mandates on companies who have the temerity to hire a handicapped worker.  The new rules force dramatically higher "reasonable accomodation" standards on firms that hire handicapped workers. The Wall Street Journal highlights the new rules in their opinion piece today entitled (appropriately): "Disabling Common Sense." So, what is the predicable effect of the new EEOC rules?  For certain, employers will be less willing to hire the handicapped.  For another, since the definition of the handicapped is ever-shifting and will in time encompass virtually every American, employers will be less willing to hire anyone. The Obama plan for jobs

Last Thursday, we invited Jon Teo from General Catalyst Partners to provide a general overview of the Venture Capital industry, speak about his past investments and experiences, and provide insight about how to enter to the industry. The event was a pure Q&A sessions, and Jon fielded all questions extremely well. One of the more interesting points of discussion was the ideal skillset for entering the VC industry and whether our traditional business school education places us at a substantial disadvantage. There are many who claim that engineers (such as Jon) are much better suited to work in Venture Capital due to the fact the industry gravitates toward companies who innovate primarily on a technological level; therefore , individuals with in depth knowledge of programming and web-based products are better suited to pass judgement on such firms. In addition, valuation and corporate finance skills found in banking, P/E, and the hedge fund industries isn't to core competency of a

The French Presidential Election will proceed to a second round after both Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy failed to win 50 percent of the vote on Sunday. Hollande took 28.6 percent of the vote, while Sarkozy achieved 27.1 percent. However the day belonged to anti-immigrant, anti-euro advocate Marine Le Pen of the National Front party, who achieved a strong 18.1 percent of the vote. Le Pen’s performance highlights the French people’s frustration with the political elite and economic problems in the world’s fifth largest economy and Eurozone’s second largest economy. The unemployment rate, at nearly 10 percent, is a 12-year high and the country lost its AAA credit rating for the first time in January. After the vote the euro declined to $1.32 against the dollar while 10-year bond yields rose 5 basis points over fears that France could undergo further radicalization. Sarkozy, the first incumbent not to win in the first round since 1958 must gain the support of the m

Malaysia Prime Minister promised that there will be an important announcement on 1 May 2012 ( Labor Day ). Without much thought, it's very obvious that it was closely related to " Minimum Wage Policy " which already echoed by Government to win the heart of public. However, it receives much objections from private sectors, especially small-and-medium enterprises (SME) claiming that the new policy would impact on their balance sheets drastically. Really? Impact of a minimum wage policy As pressure mounts on the government to ensure that private sector workers in Malaysia earn salaries above the poverty level of RM760, Malaysia could set the minimum wage at RM900 for Peninsular Malaysia and RM800 for East Malaysia. According to World Bank, Malaysia's wages have risen by a CAGR of 2.6% over the past 10 years, while inflation has risen at a higher pace of 3.0-3.5%. Source: Department of Statistics, Malaysia Who is the BIG winner? The new policy would benefit some 3.2mill

Nicolas Sarcozy, President of France, is in deep political trouble.  He should be.  Along with Angela Merkel of Germany, Sarcozy has orchestrated the absurd policies that have been pursued in the Eurozone over the past 36 months.  The answer to too much debt, if you believe Merkel and Sarcozy, is more and more debt.  Together with half-hearted pleas for budgeting austerity, the Merkel-Sarcozy is a "more of the same" plan that simply makes a bad situation potentially catastrophic. Tim Geithner and Barrack Obama have openly advocated even more ridiculous policies for the Eurozone, patterned after their own US policies, that make the Merkel-Sarcozy absurdities look mild by comparison. It is amazing how often the Merkel-Sarcozy formula is used in countries throughout the western, developed world.  All of these countries, without exception, have made promises to their citizenry that cannot be kept.  So, now, all of these countries have a combination of out of control sovereign deb

Professor Series: Ed Melnick - Statistics in Finance Date: Thursday, April 26th, 2012 Time: 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm Location: Tisch 200 Come and check out Finance Society's last Professor Series event of the Year as Professor Ed Melnick discusses the growing role of Statistics in Finance. Melnick is a Professor of Statistics and the former Chair of the Department of Statistics at Stern. He will be discussing the vital role probability plays within the world of Finance and some of his research. Professor Melnick is a great lecturer and this is definitely an event you don't want to miss! Wall Street Tour Date: Friday, April 27th, 2012 Time: 1:30 pm Location: Meet at Stern Take a tour of the Wall Street area with Finance Society on Friday, April 27th. We'll be visiting spots such as Trinity Church, the grave of Alexander Hamilton, the NYSE, the Wall Street Bull, the Federal Reserve and various other financial centers of downtown NY. Limited spots are available for

Bank of America has recently settled a lawsuit with two public pension funds for $ 160 million.  The case involved BofA's purchase of Merrill Lynch.   Who pays for this? As in many things, no one seems to ever ask the question: who pays?  Instead, folks bask in the view that the bad guys got their due.  But, did the bad guys get their due in the BofA case? BofA is a public company.  The biggest single owner of BofA are American workers of slightly above average income.  How do they own it?  In their pension funds. The next largest owner is another set of average Americans -- folks who own mutual funds either in their IRA accounts or in the brokerage accounts.  These folks have saved this money, invested it, and have ended up as a major owner of BofA. So, when you ask who pays, look in the mirror.  The two public pension funds who won $ 160 million in the case will be paid essentially by the owners of BofA, the single biggest group being other public pension funds.  So, to make it c

Rich Ross, the Chairman of the film unit at Wald Disney Co. resigned after the company’s devastating $200 million loss on John Carter , a figure rumored to be the biggest ever for a single movie. And because of Ross’s resignation, Disney CEO Robert Iger’s franchise-focused film release strategy is placed in even further doubt. This year, Disney has cut its number of film releases in half to only 12 because of this strategy of releasing fewer, larger-budget, and what they speculate to be extremely popular, films that have the potential to become long-lived, consumer franchises. Essentially, Disney is betting big on every single movie they come up with. The strategy seemed promising at first, as most of these big-budget movies are built around marketable characters from Pixar and Marvel, except that it failed spectacularly with John Carter, which led to a quarterly operating loss of $120 million for the studio, the first since Ross succeeded Dick Cook as Chairman back in October 2