MoonWalker Michael Jackson – worth more Dead than Alive
Just like investing stocks there’s an obvious trend in the music industry. One of the simplest rules in making money investing stocks is to follow the trend. So far there’s no single individual who had deviate from the trend and make good money except the so-called long-term investment also known as contrarian investment strategy. But then you can always argue that sooner or later the stocks will always reverse and go the way you were betting. Tell that to Warren Buffett. Anyway, the trend in the music industry was that your albums and fortune will always skyrocket after you’re no longer in this world – you’re dead.
It may be laughable but people will only remember singers or artistes who die young, preferably with scandals or publicity that invites debate by millions. That was the exact reason why most of the scandals or gossips in the Hong Kong entertainment industry were deliberately created to keep the artists “alive”. In fact the Hong Kong entertainment industry was so dirty that it was a known fact that you need to sleep with the “influential” persons in order to secure jobs. And I’m not talking about Edison, Cecilia, Gillian and Bobo’s nude and sex photos scandal.
With Michael Jackson’s death, the world has indeed lost a legend and pop-star after the King Elvis Presley who died in 1977 at age 42. Both share a common similarity – their songs were in cold storage and hadn’t had a hit album in years. But Michael Jackson did something which may reverse his estimated US$500 million in debts to positive figures – he invested. Now that his estimated assets could be worth as much as US$1 billion, you’ll read many opportunists to come out to claim a stake of his financial empire. Michael Jackson’s initial investment in Beatle’s catalog which he bought for $45.7 million back in 1985 is now worth at least US$400 million alone.
But it’s unclear if his intention to return the catalog back to Paul McCartney as specified in his will will go through considering Michael had actually sold 50% of his 50% stake in the Sony/ATV music catalog which includes his own music and the Beatles’ to investment firm Fortress Investment Group (FIG). Once good buddies, Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney became instant enemy when the former outbid the latter for the rights of the Fab Four’s legendary songs. While the story goes that Michael back-stabbed Paul after Paul told Michael his intention to buy the rights to his old songs and how much the catalog would worth someday. But then Paul was stupid in refusing to offer another US$4 million premium over Jackson’s bid if he was so sure the catalog was a gold-mine, not that he has no money to bid higher at the time.
There are not many legendary like Michael Jackson that the world can produce so naturally since his death, almost instantly everyone was nostalgic and start listening to his songs and watching his videos non-stop. Michael Jackson’s music video views on YouTube skyrocketed to 10 million from the average daily 216,000 – almost 50 times increase. Whether you like it or not, Michael Jackson was a genius and when he’s on stage, he’s God (of music) and you’re basically under his spell. The world will not see another electrifying King like him for many decades to come. Heck, we may never have another like him for the rest of our live simply because he’s irreplaceable. Rest in Peace Michael. Your moonwalker is legendary.
Enjoy some of his greatest music videos …
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Are you convinced the Bull was a suckers Rally?
Do you need to be a certified chartist or scientist to tell what the resistance levels are for either Kuala Lumpur Composite Index (KLCI) or Dow Jones Industrial Average? If you’re still clueless why the recent spike in the stock markets then go figure, will ya? The only difference between current global recession and the much compared 1929 Deep Depression was the easily available of money, lots of them. We, especially the U.S., was printing money like there’s no tomorrow. But who cares as long as there is tons of banana money floating on the street for our consumption? In a nutshell we’re living in a borrow-money in the name of stimulus packages. When the economy recovers, the government will do its best to recover these trillions of dollars in bailout money.
It’s nice to have certain governments such as the Malaysian who preferred hiding their head under the ground as if nothing happens, although they ultimately disclosed that the country’s first quarter contracted by 6.2% and the second quarter will not be any better. Don’t you hope that the PM will scream that the country will not enter recession comes rain or shine? Fortunately majority of the people were ignorant of the economy hence the crazy spending and this help the government a lot. The pumping of taxpayer money into the stock market helps the situation. All the fund managers will tell you secretly that local funds such as EPF and PNB have been aggressive net buyers and not foreigners. In fact the foreign shareholdings in the local stock market stood at the low of 20.7% - same as in 2004. A staggering RM93 billion of net outflow registered in 2008 alone.
Of course along the line you’ve some suckers analysts who tell you the worst is over and Malaysian stocks are starting “catching up”. Strangely these analysts were blowing the same trumpet again and again even during consolidation stage and after the World Bank cut its 2009 global growth forecast - the world economy will shrink by 2.9 percent and global trade is expected to plunge by 9.7 percent this year. There’re some funnier analysts who were quick to caution that the local stocks skyrocketed too much and too fast, right after the DJIA plunged. I bet your grandma or grandpa can become a better analysts than these nuts. Thus you’re seeing bloods on the trading floor today after Dow tumbled 200-points overnight, a sight quite distance to us since the spike.
U.S., unfortunately does not have the luxury of using hundreds of billions of dollars to spin their stock market because the bailouts were everywhere, so much so that President Obama thought it would be wise to avoid such issue, at least for now. It’s pretty simple really – as long as the unemployment is increasing or stagnant, it’s a sign that the economy is still in bad shape. You need consumers to start spending from condom to houses, don’t you? The simple question was – if the U.S. financial institutions were magically recovered from its cancer, why there was no rush to snap up stocks such as Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo? In any bull run the financial stocks would be the first to skyrocket, no? And have you seen the global credit card losses as of today? Frankly, the last thing I wish to read is the burst in the credit-card problem because that will definitely spark the global recession Part-II, while we’re still finding the silver bullet for the Part-I.
In reality the KLCI will find it hard to breach 1,100-points, the same way DJIA will not breach the 9,000-points – at least for now. So you know when to sell or short. But you may argue that you’ve entered right after the 1,000-points (KLCI) and has since made good profit. Congratulations but now that the KLCI is approaching 1,000-points what are you going to do? Are you still holding *grin* betting that this is a temporary setback? Or are you discipline enough to unload in preparation for the worst? This is the best part because your greed and fear started to trick your judgement.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Apple Steve Jobs’s latest gadget – a Liver Transplant
Why did Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) captain, Steve Jobs, went on long leave since Jan 2009? If you run a poll, majority of the respondents will tell you that Steve was away fighing cancer while many would not think twice that Steve was actually dying from disease. Jobs, 54, disclosed in August 2004 that he had been treated for a form of pancreatic cancer. His “skeletal” appearance last year however had many worried that the charismatic co-founder of Apple Inc. could be suffering from a severe medical condition. Rumors never stop speculating about his health and the influencial Steve was even predicted to make his appearance at the recent World Wide Developers Conference – Steve Jobs failed to appear.
The rumor mill spread to Memphis, Tennessee, when a house in a swank neighborhood there has been bought for a princely sum and was undergoing minor renovations in preparation for its new resident. The buyer was said to be none other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs as he was speculated to be readied to be treated for his pancreatic cancer. Today, Wall Street Journal confirmed the 2-month-old rumor when it reported that Steve was indeed seeking treatment (in Tennessee) and actually had received a liver transplant two months ago and is recovering well. But there’re people who were rather curious why Steve took the trouble seeking treatment in Tennessee when there are many good treatment centers around his home. The answer could be that St. Jude Hospital in Memphis happens to be one of the best endocrinology centers in the world with abundance of researchers equipped to handle Steve Jobs’ health problems.
So, is this a piece of good news for Apple’s stock on Monday? As of now nobody knows because it depends on how investors would like to react to it. The stock could skyrocket now that the uncertainties are over since Steve is recuperating as reported by WSJ. Like it or not Steve is still very influential and his appearance at Apple’s office could spark a mini bull. But on the other hand there are arguments that a liver transplant is a complicated surgery as the organ is not an easy gadget such as an iPhone. If indeed it was true that Steve had a liver transplant it would take months before it can be certain that his new part is “behaving”. Nevertheless the Apple’s stock will definitely swing wildly upon opening bell on Monday.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Najib Rosmah Sdn Bhd – LKY came with Hammer and Nails?
Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew last visited Malaysia in 1989. The architect of the current modern Singapore has never step onto the soil since then, at least officially, due to obvious reason – former Malaysia Prime Minister, Mahathir, won’t allow it. And now that Najib Razak has become the sixth prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew who has close relationship with the Razak family paid a visit to the country and his visit was front-paged by all Chinese-newspapers. As expected the old dictator Mahathir wasn’t amuse with his presence and was as sarcastic as before about the visit. The fact that Lee Kuan Yew was given the welcome carpet as if he was still the Prime Minister of Singapore really anger Mahathir who still hates the senior Lee.
Lee Kuan Yew couldn’t help but to go down the ground to smell the current political sentiment ever since the arrogant and corrupt BN (Barisan Nasional, the coalition governing the country) lost heavily in the Mar 2008 general election. You don’t think this old guy came here for the local durian, do you? He may wish that his country’s intelligence didn’t possess the “evidence” linking Najib to Mongolian beauty Altantuya, if the claim that Singapore intelligence has a file on Najib was true. After all, it’s better to work with a devil that you know than a devil you don’t. In reality senior Lee would rather work with BN than the coalition of PAS-PKR-DAP. Furthermore it’s easier to tell a guy what to do by constantly whispering “I Know What You Did Last Summer”?
But the political landscape has since changed and Singapore needs to assess the situation (in Malaysia) in preparation for a sudden political change, again. The fact that Lee’s opinion after each of his visits to some states inclusive of Penang and Kelantan was given wide coverage as if he was the Prime Minister of Malaysia carries weights. Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng and the former Chief Minister (the loser) Koh Tsu Koon immediately started the blaming game after Lee commented that the Penang state infrastructure progress very little since his last visit in 1989. It’s funny that the local politicians took seriously comment by Lee Kuan Yew but did nothing when the actual taxpayer complained on the same issue.
The strangest and amazing about Lee’s visit was none other than his visit to have a four-eye talk with Najib’s wife, Rosmah. Maybe it was the satay but when it was reported that the reason he paid a separate visit to Rosmah because she and her husband worked as a team and it was necessary for him to understand both members of the team, it raised many eyebrows. On the surface it seems the country is governed by a tag-team of husband and wife – Najib and Rosmah Private Limited (or Sdn Bhd). This is laughable although has serious impact especially on the business community. The last thing investors would like to hear is their money was parked at such a risky country. Maybe Rosmah was trying to show who the actual boss was and perhaps she was wearing the “Bossini” attire during Lee’s visit to her *grin*.
Of course you can’t beat the naughty talks that Lee Kuan Yew was actually flexing his muscle now that Najib has become the most powerful person in Malaysia yet Singapore’s intelligence has sufficient, well, you know what that is, to nail the husband and wife’s balls on the public gallery. If there’s a plan to control Najib’s administration remotely from Singapore, now is perhaps the best time. And to think that Mahathir was smiling from ear to ear after he successfully removed the sleepy head Abdullah Badawi. However I bet nobody would complain if Malaysia will become as developed as Singapore under Lee’s special “advice and guidance”, minus the corruption of course. But then there would be an old man sulking till the day he rest in peace, because nobody give a damn to what he has to say after his 22-year-rule that corrupt the whole country’s administration. The senile old man will not stop and will continue to belittle “Little Emperor” Lee Kuan Yew.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- PAS to abandon DAP and PKR - Greed or Stupidity?
- Malaysia a Paradise of Scandals – from Sex to Stadium
- Foreign Funds My Foot! Learn from Genting Singapore
- PM Najib’s Cronies and their Related Companies
- Former Dictator Suharto Dies leaving huge Wealth
- If only Malaysia has leaders half of Lee’s Intelligence
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
iPhone slashed to $99, Faster 3G S Model
Apple Inc. slashed the entry price for an iPhone in half and lowered some laptops by $300 Monday, the company's first dramatic price cuts since the recession began a year and a half ago. Steve Jobs was not there but that was expected as you can't rely heavily on one person if the company were to survive in long-term. Apple also unvealed a new model of the iPhone - the 3G S, same look but with a faster processor, longer battery life, an internal compass, a video camera and a photo camera with better resolution and auto-focus.
For its MacBook line, Apple showed off new laptops that boast longer battery life and faster processors. The company rolled out a new 13-inch MacBook Pro that starts at $1,200, or $100 lower than an existing similar notebook, and a 15-inch Macbook Pro that starts at $1,700, $300 less than the current model. Ultra-thin MacBook Air price was also slashed to $1,500 from $1,800. Apple also announced Mac next version operating system - Snow Leopard - scheduled to be out in September ahead of Microsoft Corp.'s next edition of Windows on Oct 22. Snow Leopard now support Microsoft's Exchange Server software.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Apple’s new iPhone and Palm’s new Pre - Watsup?
- Hey Mr. PM Badawi, I have an Apple iPhone too
- Part-2 of financial problems haunting the Stock Market
- Technology Stocks and Feds are running out of Steam
- Google Android G1 Phone – this Beast is Features-Rich
- Beyond $600 again? GOOG stock might needs Android
Monday, June 08, 2009
PAS to abandon DAP and PKR - Greed or Stupidity?
If there’s one distinct different between UMNO (the main “Godfather” in the ruling BN government coalition) and PAS (one of three parties in the opposition coalition), it has to be the obvious democracy that the latter is practicing. So much so that the party (PAS) does not seems to fall apart despite different opinions at the top leadership level, at least not yet. In contrast if you dare to even speak out your mind within existing BN government’s coalition, you would be very lucky if UMNO’s hidden wing didn’t whack you, either verbally or physically. But based on PAS’s just concluded election, how long could PAS stay in one piece?
The election result that saw Nasharuddin Mat Isa, re-elected as PAS's deputy president after he defeated his competitor Husam Musa (who managed 281 votes) by 199 votes was indeed a good news to Najib’s administration. Although Nasharuddin (garnered 480 votes) scored less than 50% of the total votes thanks to spoiler Mohamad Sabu (261 votes), it gave an impression that the foundation of PAS may soon crumbling down. Together with PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, Nasharuddin now could continue with their unfinish agenda – a possible unity government with UMNO and in the process weaken the Pakatan Rakyat coalition for the next general election.
Fortunately PAS’s spritual adviser Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat is still alive and kicking. You don’t have to be a genius to guess what would happen to PAS should Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat was no longer around as he’s the “glue” that keep the party afloat and in one piece. He may be just a spiritual adviser but the party president and the newly re-elected deputy president would not dare to push their luck to the limit lest they wish to commit suicide for offending the highly respected figure. It’s not a secret that both Hadi Awang and Nasharuddin were freaking excited the moment the “unity government” with UMNO was mentioned but Nik Aziz is very well aware of the consequence in sleeping with the slutty UMNO – he did that before and has been regreted ever since.
Of all the politicians still alive, spiritual adviser Nik Aziz is perhaps the undisputed person you will respect, not because he live a simple life but he is one hell of a consistent politician. Sure, he commited the biggest mistake in his life by joining BN (Barisan Nasional) and UMNO from 1970 to 1978 but he was naïve to think that UMNO was sincere about “Malay Unity” back then. It was no secret that UMNO is a slut who will not think twice about inviting anyone home to sleep and have fun but that’s when the UMNO is weak and need the “juices” to rejuvenate its muscle. Thereafter UMNO would harass their partner and may go the extra miles in sexually abuse its partner until they quit as can be seen by PAS in the 1970s. By the time PAS decided to quit BN it was too late as the party was in broken pieces as many of its members were already split and were poisoned or seduced by money to stay on.
Nik Aziz would rather stay put with the state of Kelantan only than to sleep with UMNO again with the promise of federal ministerships. But why these two chaps (Awang Hadi and Nasharuddin) were so stupid as not to see the trap setup by UMNO? Could these two persons the moles and traitors within PAS whose task now require them to create havoc within PAS and in the process cause the Pakatan Rakyat into disarray? On one hand you have the spiritual adviser screaming until foaming at mouth that PAS will never join UMNO or consider unity government, yet on the other hand you have the president and the deputy president yelling as if a unity government with UMNO is the next greatest human invention since bread.
The idea of toying with a unity government with UMNO has created discomfort within Pakatan Rakyat itself, who called itself the government-in-waiting, especially to DAP. In reality the Pakatan Rakyat’s strength was derived from the people or rakyat’s votes that came not only from the ethnic-Malay but also the ethnic-Chinese and ethnic-Indian. It’s either all or nothing at all. It would be interesting to see how the voters will cast their votes should PAS decided to break away from the Pakatan Rakyat coalition and move into UMNO’s luxury bed. UMNO has nothing to loose but everything to gain from the differences inside the PAS and Najib is smiling at his lady luck. But what if the whole idea of a unity government from PAS’s president and his deputy was a political move aimed at the coalition’s leaders themselves.
Since the sudden victory post Mar 2008 general election, people were talking about Anwar Ibrahim being the prime-minister-in-waiting with PAS president and DAP adviser becoming the deputy prime ministers. PAS, being the most senior of the three was not amused with such speculation as they would like the top seat of prime minister for themselves. Why can’t PAS’s president becoming the prime minister and the rest two partners share the deputy prime ministers instead? Do we have to tell them especially PAS not to count the chickens before they hatch? How do they know that the stupid Malay, Chinese and Indian voters will not vote in their long-term favorite UMNO, MCA and MIC back with staggering majority at next general election? Surely if they can be so stupid for the last 50-years, there’s no formula that says they can’t be the same stupid voters again for another 50-years.
The fact that Anwar Ibrahim has distance himself from acknowledging that he will become the de-facto prime minister should Pakatan Rakyat miraculously form the next federal government (without any opposition from the BN) proved that PAS was indeed ambitious to secure the premiership and PAS could not accept that they become the second man behind PKR. It seems that Mahathir, the guru behind divide-and-rule governance, does not have to crack his head on how to apply the strategy after all on the once mighty Pakatan Rakyat (PR) - PAS did BN the favor of starting the canabalising of each other within the PR. In the name of Islam, would PAS abandon his comrades of different religion and work with UMNO who shares the same religion but tainted with not only corruption, brutality, nepotism and cronism but also cold-blooded murder? Maybe it’s all about money *grin*. Maybe money can buy all these religious teachers if not the greed for power.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Malaysia a Paradise of Scandals – from Sex to Stadium
- Najib’s New Game-Plan has Started
- May 13th Anniversary – the same Power Crazy Politicians
- Congratulations PM Najib Razak and Tun Abdullah Badawi
- UMNO is big Bully but that’s because PKR-DAP are Babies
- Crackdown on bloggers’ websites? Stop the Stupidity
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Apple’s new iPhone and Palm’s new Pre - Watsup?
Remember Jim Cramer and his Mad Money show that literally attracts a pool of loyal crazy followers? Well, he said now is the time to buy a house (in United States of course) and for that you should also buy Bank of America stock but I’m reluctant to listen to him because I think the housing problem is still not over yet. Jim also recommended Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL, stock) because technology stocks (that’s Nasdaq) are about to break out. I agreed with him that it would be a waste to buy QQQQ, the Nasdaq-100 or ETF of tech-stocks, when you can actually buy the jewel from the basket – AAPL.
But the main reason I toyed around with AAPL’s stock was because of the rumors that Apple is going to reveal something exciting next Monday at the World Wide Developers Conference. Sure, Steve Jobs will not be presenting but that’s good because we shouldn’t rely on just one person to move the company forward. Others can perform equally well in revealing the new iPhone, if indeed there’s going to be one. If you have not heard of Apple then maybe you should starting from now. It’s a company with almost $29 billion of cash on its balance sheet. That’s a lot of money dude.
The battle is actually between Apple’s iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s (Nasdaq: RIMM, stock) Blackberry so PALM would need more than Palm Pre to perform threesome *grin*. Google’s Android will enter the room by end of the year though. But there’re silent and loyal Palm users who have been waiting for this moment – the release of Palm’s high-end smartphone. I’ve to admit the new Palm Pre is pretty awesome as it was designed to tackle some of the limitations currently possessed by iPhone such as multi-tasking, physical keyboards, 3-Megapixel camera with flash, combines exchange, gmail and others inboxes and contacts and Amazon MP3 store built-in. However Palm is probably 12-months late into the segment and it would be interesting to see what’s in store from the new iPhone – provided there’ll be one next Monday.
Other Articles That May Interest You …
- Hey Mr. PM Badawi, I have an Apple iPhone too
- Part-2 of financial problems haunting the Stock Market
- Technology Stocks and Feds are running out of Steam
- Google Android G1 Phone – this Beast is Features-Rich
- Beyond $600 again? GOOG stock might needs Android
- Bear Stearns Bailout, should silly you blame Cramer?
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Malaysia a Paradise of Scandals – from Sex to Stadium
Amazing, isn’t it? Just when you thought the dust has settled another surprise, or rather scandal, appears and screaming for your attention. Unlike BMF scandal that saw a whooping RM2.5 billion vaporized into thin air back in 1980s the same cannot be said about PKFZ’s scandal which has eaten RM7.453 billion of taxpayers’ money and is about to put the whole project in the country’s Guinness Record – a staggering RM12.453 billion. The country has indeed made her progress at an astounding rate – not only the quality of scandal or corruption (in terms of value) has increased, the quantity has also skyrocketed exponentially since then.
Going by the rate the scandals are queuing waiting to explode, now is perhaps the best time for Najib’s administration to prepare a long list, assign a queue-number to each of them with the most critical given priority and release it one after another. The reason is pretty simple. Bombard and overload the people or taxpayers with the scandals and chances are high they’ll forget about it the next day because before they can debate and digest the first scandal at their favorite coffee-shop, the next scandal would be front-paged and then the third, the fourth, the fifth and the list continues. Remember I said the most critical has to go first? So by the time the last scandal (if there would be a last scandal in the first place) makes its appearance the scale of it would probably amounting to a few thousands of ringgit that eventually people will ignore it. Great strategy isn’t it?
So, why are we so surprise about Malaysian government allegedly cover-up in Kelantan prince’s scandal over Indonesian babe 17-year-old Manohara Odelia Pinot and the latest RM300 million stadium named after the King - Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin, which collapsed just a year after it opened? Point your gun at my head but I’m still betting my last dollar that corruption was involved. But in Malaysia corruption is OK as long as the project does not “collapse” but unfortunately the stadium did collapse one year after it was officially opened by the King himself, and that’s embarrassing enough. At least during Mahathir’s era the Penang bridge (built by Korean construction company), PLUS highway, Putrajaya and Petronas Twin Towers (Japanese and Korean contractor) have not collapse. This leave the preliminary question if the politicians should start pointing the finger at the Korean contractor the moment the stadium collapsed, unless of course this Korean contractor did not even qualified for such project in the first place.
You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that corruption in Malaysia is so serious that there were abundant jokes about the situation. A bunch of Malaysians paid a visit to their Korean friend’s house hoping to taste homemade “kim-chi”.
- Malaysians: Whoa!!! Your house is like a palace … Is that the latest Benz model? Just how on earth could you afford this? No wonder you won’t go back to Korea *laugh*
- Korean: Come here and I’ll show you my little secret … Can you see that Penang bridge?
- Malaysians: Yes? *scratching their head” ...
- Korean: Well, it was supposed to be two Penang bridges because our study showed a single bridge will be insufficient to cater for the traffic …
- Malaysians: So? *getting more confuse*
- Korean: So? So there you have it – a single bridge built with the cost of two …
- Malaysians: *it took them several minutes to digest what the Korean told them* … then burst into laughter as if they’ve found the holy grail …
Some years later, this Korean decided to pay a visit to one of his old Malaysian friends.
- Korean: Whoa! Your house is triple the size of my palace … Is that the latest Lambo model? Simply Amazing! How did you do it?
- Malaysian: Come here my friend and I’ll show you my little secret …
- Korean: OK, OK, I’m coming … *was about to orgasm*
- Malaysian: Can you see that bridge over there?
- Korean: *staring for a couple of minutes* … but I don’t see any bridge …
- Malaysian: *burst into laughter* … precisely …
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