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AMC's Breaking Bad ended with a bang last Sunday, leaving viewers generally content and definitely shell shocked. Though the ride is over, we can finally look back at the series and reflect on how we can learn from both Heisenberg's victories and mistakes. How can a meth kingpin help you and your future careers? Here are some takeaways : 1. Be hard to replace   : Find a specific skill set and make sure you are good enough that nobody can quickly take your place. Whether it be modeling, analysis, writing, communication, or even a certain product with a 99.1% purity, having a specific niche or strength can ensure job security. Just try not to kill fellow associates to eliminate competition. 2. Associate with the right people : If you are the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room. Surround yourself with people who you believe can bring out the best in you. Doing business with a high school dropout and drug addict will certainly lead to complications in the fut...

We all have a love-hate relationship with the Candy Crush Saga. It's addicting to play yet equally frustrating when that one last bubble can't be popped. Well, the publisher of this game, King, has filed confidentially for an IPO. Based in London, King is following Twitter's footsteps in the IPO process. Although they filed confidentially, they announced the IPO soon before the investor roadshow begins. Some worried skeptics predict that King could face the same fate as Zynga. Zynga started with relatively normal valuations at about $11/share. But after struggling with generating revenue and a lack of consumer demand for their games, Zynga fell off the radar. Now they're sitting at 3.78, well below their IPO price. So what makes King a better investment? Well let's focus on Candy Crush. On my Android phone alone, I see that Candy Crush has over 100 million downloads. Let's double that for all the IPhone users out there. Then let's add a few million for the p...

On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a billion dollars of financial help to Ireland, as the country complied with the requirements set up in its 2010 bailout plan. The plan, which saved Ireland from bankruptcy after it suffered a massive banking crisis starting 2008, is reaching its end, as Ireland is getting ready to start issuing sovereign debt again in December. However, the country has to reach a minimum annual growth of 2% for its debt to become sustainable. Ireland is now out of its second recession in five years with a 0.4% second quarter expansion. This positive data, however, falls short of the optimistic 1.3% growth over the entire year predicted by the Irish government. Irish exports have grown by 4.3% over the same period, while household consumption grew by 0.7%. The IMF decision came almost one week after other good news for Ireland: on Friday, September 20, Moody's announced positive forecasts on Ireland's sovereign debt, which it now judg...

Telangana supporters gather to advocate for the region's statehood. The concept of statehood has always been a contentious debate in India. It’s recently gotten international press as Telangana, a region of Andhra Pradesh, is fighting a stormy battle for statehood. When India gained independence from the British in 1947, the modern-day Indian map began to emerge. States were created and borders were drawn. The map continued to take shape in 1956 with the States Reorganization Act, a piece of legislation resulting in the single largest change in state borders since India’s independence. The act called for state boundaries based on linguistic differences.  So, Karnataka was created for Kannada speakers, Kerala was created for Malayalam speakers, Gujarat for Gujarati speakers, and so on. Modern day Andhra Pradesh was created for Telugu speakers.  It seems despite their linguistic alignment with the other regions of Andhra Pradesh, the people of Telangana were unhappy from th...

Top private equity firm, Carlyle Group, gave Beats Electronics $500 million Friday valuing the company at $1 billion. In exchange for growth capital, it will be taking two of six positions on the high end sounds and audio tech company's board. The money will be used to buy back HTC's final twenty five percent stake in the company, ending a partnership that did not go quite as planned. The Taiwanese smart phone company bought half of Beats three years ago for $309 million dollars, and used the technology in its smart phones. As its cell phone sales have since far lagged behind Samsung, it has moved to sell its holdings in its partner, in order to focus on its most important business segment. Beats has started to expand into the speaker business, revealing a new line of pill speakers marketed in notable pop songs "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and "We Can't Stop" by Miley Cyrus. It has already captured sixty four percent of the premium headphone market,...

I wondered about this statement at the time Obama made it.  Clearly, by changing all the rules of health care insurance and mandating conformity, it was unlikely that the vast majority of Americans would not find themselves forced by 'The Affordable Care Act' to have to deal with a completely different health insurance plan and completely different set of health care providers. I now understand what Obama meant.   He was speaking to his immediate family and (politician) friends.  They are exempt from the "Affordable Care Act."  Clearly what he meant to say was: "if you are exempt from Obamacare, like me and my family, you can keep your existing health insurance."  He never meant to mislead.

China's official news agency, Xinhua, reported on Tuesday that Shanghai would open up its planned Free-Trade Zone on September 29. The roughly 29 square kilometer area in Shanghai will be exempt from trade barriers and censorship rules that affect all parts of China outside of its Special Economic Zones. The ridding of mandated customs inspections of all imports and exports aims to boost trade volume and attract foreign investment in China's most populous city. The most attention-grabbing quality of the new Free-Trade Zone is the lifting of internet censorship bans on Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times, allowing unrestricted access to these sites only within the small zone in the city. The new policy aims to attract foreign firms to spur local banking, insurance, shipping, and healthcare industries, among others. “In order to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone, we must think about how we can make them fe...

Netflix recently announced a second deal with a cable company to bring its online streaming service to cable. The deal with Swedish company Com Hem would add a potential 600,000 customers to its service. This comes after Virgin Media struck a similar deal in the U.K to bring Netflix to at least 1.7 million of its customers. The two cable providers would begin offering the service to subscribers of their respective TiVo DVR services. While this deal may seem like big news for the two companies, Netflix and Com Hem's DVR service must have a balance to properly coexist. This is because any DVR system can undercut the streaming service provided by Netflix or vice versa. For example, if I wanted to watch an episode of Law and Order SVU, I could potentially look it up on Netflix or just have TiVo record all SVU broadcasts onto the DVR hard-drive. The TiVo service that Com Hem provides can be anywhere from twice as expensive to seven times as expensive as Netflix, and with Netflix right o...

The poor are losing ground in the new Obama world.  The facts are showing up even in the halls of collectivist extremes like the New York Times.  The rich are getting richer and poor are being locked in place.  Big government is throttling the economy and the hopes and dreams of lower and middle class Americans. Today's Wall Street Journal's article by Simon Constable lays out some of the simple and obvious facts of the Obama era: "The richest 20% of households account for 38% of spending, according to government data for 2011, the latest available.  Compare that with 2003 when the top earners spent 26% of the total."  The article goes on to say..."it could get even worse."  It will. Who really benefits when the regulators strangle the banks?  Do banks really need to get much more conservative in their lending practices?  Why does the government know best?  How far can you stretch the FDIC guarantees before American banking is simply a subsid...

President Obama and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani both openly stated their support for a new diplomatic effort regarding Iran's nuclear program. Obama, addressing the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, stated that there was "basis for a meaningful agreement." In recent weeks, Rouhani, who was elected in June, has suggested that he is open to developing a program in which Iran is allowed to further their nuclear energy program but prevents them from building a weapon, claiming that a nuclear weapon program would "contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions." Obama said that Secretary of State John Kerry was working with the Iranian government to resolve the negotiations about Iran's nuclear program. In his statement to the UN General Assembly, he stated that success in the negotiations would be a "major step in a long road to a difficult relationship, one based on mutual interests and mutual respect," adding that "the roadblock...

Saving money is not always as easy as it first seems, and all those good intentions and budgets can fly out of the window without you even noticing – so why not try some more unusual money saving tips? Here are five of our best tips to help you save up! Never pay with coins That’s right, take out all those coins weighing down your purse or wallet and put them in a piggy bank or jar instead. That 10 Sen coin isn't worth much on its own, but once you start saving up all your coins, it can add up to a considerable sum. Avoid the temptation of dipping into your coin fund by storing in it a tin with just a coin slot at the top. If you have to get out a can opener to access those coins, you’re more likely to wait until it’s full before you open it!   Never say NO to a freebie Whether it’s free shampoo and soap from a hotel or free condiments from a restaurant, stock up! These free products are just as good, but with the added bonus that they cost you nothing. It also means that...

Blackberry, Blackberry, Blackberry. It looks like it's time for you to take a giant step away from the highly competitive smartphone market. Anyone remember when these things were the cool phone to have? That lasted all of 6 months. 4 or 5 years ago when smartphones were in their early beginnings and people had to deal with the horrible data plans that offered sub-3G speeds, Blackberrys were a viable option. So viable that the market loved their stock, and it enjoyed levels above $70/share. In 2011, it had a pretty solid run too since companies worldwide adopted the Blackberry as a cheap and efficient work phone for employees. But now with the Samsung Galaxy S4 and Iphone 5, 5s, and 5c dominating the market, there's no room for the tiny screen and tiny keys that Blackberry offers. Their new smartphones haven't been cutting it. Blackberry failed to penetrate the consumer market, and that's the market where the money lies. Just today, Blackberry was finally acquired by an...

The highly anticipated fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez took place last weekend at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Showtime Networks announced this past Thursday that the mega-fight generated over $150 million in pay-per-view revenue with 2.2 million purchases which broke the previous record also held by Mayweather for his $136 million fight with Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. Mayweather himself received a guaranteed payout of $41.5 million for the fight, but the money trail does not end there.  Estimates suggest he may very well earn over $80 million for the fight because he also receives reimbursements for each PPV sale that somebody buys.  While he is recuperating from his dominating win over Canelo last weekend, Mayweather is taking off some time to relax on vacation before his next fight in May.  The opponent is still to be determined. Some critics have suggested boxing is a dying sport.  But big payout days like...

              Yesterday hundreds of Apple stores opened their doors to eager customers eager to get their hands on the newest iteration of the iPhone. However for the first time Apple was launching not one, but two new iterations of the iPhone. Labeled the iPhone 5c and 5s, this newest iPhone lineup represents a departure from Apple’s typical one-phone strategy. In the wake of increasing competition from Android-powered smartphone providers, most notably Samsung, and decreasing market share, Apple has been hard-pressed to find way to reestablish itself as the dominant player in the smartphone space. In addition to the release of the “budget model” 5c and “mainline” 5s, the company has also majorly overhauled its operating system. The straightforwardly-named iOS 7 was designed to address the concerns of many Apple users that the iPhone was functioning on an outmoded platform.             ...

The Obama Administration and the Federal Reserve have consistently over-estimated the strength of the US economy.  The Fed has, on no occasion since 2009, had a remotely accurate prediction, constantly and consistently over-estimating economic growth by well over 40 percent on average.  With that record, one wonders why anyone cares what the Fed thinks about the future.  (The Wall Street Journal on Thursday reported, in a graphic, the predictions that the Fed had made over recent years). Now, economists like Laura d'Andrea Tyson, a Clinton economic advisor, wonders why the poor are getting poorer in the Obama non-recovery since 2009.  After five years of government expansiveness and a Federal Reserve out-of-control, the rich are getting richer and the poor and middle class are losing ground. Strangely, these results were perfectly predictable.  They follow from the Obama policies.  We have implemented in detail what David Stockman, in his recent book "The G...

Grand Theft Auto V, more commonly known as GTA V, is unquestionably one of the greatest games of the year. Though it was only released yesterday, the game is already breaking records. In its first day alone, it had over $800 million dollars in sales. This number easily beats the previous record of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 which had around $500 million in first day sales. The movie could continue breaking records as it is not only a commercial success, but also has gotten great reviews, with a 98 on metacratic for the Xbox version. The fact is though, that a new generation of consoles is about to emerge, with the release of the Xbox One and the PS4, and GTA V will be one of the last blockbusters on the current generation (though versions of the game will be available for the new consoles). This game cost $266 million to produce and came a few years after GTA IV. The problem I see going forward with the industry is that on the heels of the massive success of GTA V, companies will spend ...

The Fed announced today that it would continue it's bond buying binge to the tune of $ 85 billion monthly, a policy that has been in place since the 2008 financial collapse.  This has expanded the once miniscule Fed balance sheet to over $ 4 trillion.  The Fed, of course, can create money digitally.  That's what it uses to buy the bonds.  It just says:  "let there be money" and there is money.   This massive expansion in the monetary base has created huge excess reserves in the nation's commercial banking system.  Why doesn't anyone loan this money out? The pitiful loan activity is a result of two factors.  Dodd-Frank and activism in the Justice Department and others has made it a criminal activity to loan money to anyone who doesn't have the very, very best credit.  And people with that kind of credit have lost interest in borrowing to build businesses in the new Obama world of massive regulation and impending soaring health care costs....

Are you first time gold and silver buyers? Why don't you invest in these popular metals? If you did so, you have had a wonderful investing experience after 2008 global financial crisis. But, do you really understand these metals? Were they really precious (especially now)? Traditionally, gold and silver were one form of exchange. Because of the invention of fiat money, they were being turned into some short of "back-up" currency , in case our fiat money system go burst. It's natural when things go wrong, gold and silver tends to appreciate in value. In other words, people hold precious metals to preserve the value of their assets. 3 Reasons Why Gold and Silver... Still hot in demand , especially by emerging affluent Chinese. Traditionally, Chinese loves gold. They bought it for events such as new born baby, new year, wedding and even funeral ceremony. Strengthening USD ??? Yes. It's a correct reason also. Why? Because of news that US going to stop QE3, USD is str...

Earlier today, Lawrence Summers, a contender and front runner in the race to become the next Chairman of the Federal Reserve, withdrew from the race, leaving Janet Yellen as the new prospect. Mr. Summers is a close economic advisor to President Obama and former Treasury secretary.  This news adds to the unusual interest and coverage of this election, which first gained its popularity when speculation that Ben Bernanke, the current chairman of the Federal Reserve, would no longer serve as the chairman. Other candidates in the running include Timothy Geithner, who has not officially entered the race but is being heavily pressured by the media to enter, and Christina Romer, a former Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Ultimately, all these candidates have similar stance on ways to approach the economy but differ in their intensity of action. For instance, Janet Yellen, the current vice chairman of the Fed, is in favor of printing money. She has a tendency to approach every econ...

The Journal of Economic Perspectives is an academic journal that summarizes the state of research in various fields of Economics.  Perusing this journal shows the extreme political bias of much of modern day economic research.  The Summer 2013 issue was devoted to "income inequality."  The main theme was that rich folks are getting richer, but, of course, the facts actually show just the opposite.  Not deterred by the facts, the various economists that opine in this edition blithely parrot absurdities such as wealthholders ability to "sustain their preeminence. What is the analysis?  Imagine that you wanted to know if baseball teams created dynasties and "perpetuate" their dominance of baseball.  What facts would you want to assemble to prove this? Here's the way economists think:  collect data that shows that back in the old days, the baseball teams that won the pennant won 65 percent of their games each year.  Then show that, today, the teams th...

Prior to Budget 2014 (to be tabled next month), speculation has rift up on a few proposal to tighten the rules, especially on property sector. Following the outcry from public stating the alarming high property prices, measure should be taken to tackle the issue before bubble was formed. The Bubbling Biz... Among the measures being proposed were: Non-other than Real Property Gain Tax (RPGT) Higher Stamp Duty : ~ 5% of purchase price for 3rd property ~ 7.5% for 4th property ~ 10% for 5th property onward Loan-to-Value ratio reduce to 60% for 3rd property onward While the above info need to be ascertained further, some banks already implemented their in-house ruling. What's that? It was to limit the maximum term for refinancing of property to 10 years . Yes. Sooner or later, all of the banks will follow. * Please note that the above 3 rules need to be ascertained further. Stay tune!