capitalism *is* fun :-)

I was mentioning about this in an earlier post. The bid was eventually won by a chinese bidder, who offered $2.1 million for a lunch with the Sage of Omaha. We might consider this, the most expensive lunch of the year

In 1985 there were 13 billionaires in the USA. Today there are over 1000. There richest 1% of Americans, control more wealth than 90% of the US population - combined.

This is one of the funniest things I have read in ages:
No American has died of old age since 1951. That was the year that the government eliminated that classification from death certificates. I wonder what was it replaced with? "Corporate job caused cerebral trauma?"

There I was at Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) 2 days ago. While waiting for my Latte Venti, I left a tip for them in the little box they have for this purpose. There, I saw a little yellow shining coin. It was the smallest coin in circulation (1 ban), which has an estimated value of 0.3 US cents. Who on earth would go to StarBucks and leave 0.3 US cents as a tip? Going to StarbBucks it’s all about the money. You have more money to burn on coffee then anyone else. There is a high chance you drove there with a low-mpg oversized SUV and parked somewhere totally wrong. Come on man … at least leave a decent tip, or don’t do it at all.

I just noticed that there aren’t many pictures on this blog. So I decided to post some nice pictures. This one is of a wonderful credit-card holder. Too bad they are not shipping it to my country. I would have ordered one straight-away.

You may order your’s here, if you are lucky and they deliver to your country. It’s priced at 10 Euros or 14 US Dollars.

This is an old one (at least for me), but I have decided to post it, since it’s fun.
I will now describe the various models of capitalism in the world.

Traditional capitalism: You have 2 cows. You sell one, and buy a bull. Later you will get to have a lot of cows, sell them, and retire rich.

Corporate capitalism (Enron type): You have 2 cows. You sell 3 cows in an IPO, using bank guarantees from your brother in law. Then you swap a debt for a public offer and buy back the 4 cows with tax exemption for 5 cows. Ownership of the 6 cows is transferred to an offshore company in the Cayman Islands who is owned by the majority stock holder, who will then sell you back the 7 cows. According to your annual report, you have 8 cows and options for another one. You sell one cow, and buy the US president. No report is being published. The people buy it.

American capitalism: You have 2 cows. You sell one, and force the other one to produce the equivalent of milk produced by 4 cows. You are surprised when it dies.

French capitalism: You have 2 cows. You are on strike, demanding to own 3.

Japanese capitalism: You have 2 cows. You redesign them to be 10 times smaller then a normal cow, and produce 20 times more milk. Then you create cartoons with them, called Cowkemon and promote them worldwide.

German capitalism: You have 2 cows. You redesign them to live 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.

British capitalism: You have 2 cows. Both are mad.

Italian capitalism: You have 2 cows, but you have no idea where they are. You take your lunch break.

Russian capitalism: You have 2 cows. You count them and have 5. You count them again and have 42. You count them again and have 16. You stop counting and open another bottle of vodka.

Swiss capitalism: You have 5000 cows, but none belongs to you. You charge the owners a depositing tax.

Indian capitalism: You have 2 cows. You worship them.

Chinese capitalism: You have 2 cows. 300 people are busy milking them. You have zero unemployment, high productivity and arrest the reporter that published different figures.

Have we actually learned something in a few thousand years? When I see people praying at the gas pump, for God to bring down gas prices, I can say we are doomed.

The current offer on eBay for a lunch with Warren Buffet is at $77.100. Impressing amount for a lunch!
I wonder what’s included in that amount … and who will pay the bill?
The winner of the bid will dine with seven friends and Buffett at the Smith and Wollensky in New York.
All money goes to charity.

Anybody care to bid for a lunch with me?

I decided to give it a try. Visa shares performed nicely since their IPO. Up 46.30% since the IPO went live, about 4 months ago. It still has some room to run, and the business it’s pretty immune to the current global issues (oil price and the credit crunch).

Let’s see what happens. I am rating this stock: BUY

I have a mobile subscription with a CDMA operator. I am considering to close the contract since they are total crap. I have a mobile phone and a PCMCIA card which I won’t be able to use anymore. Both are in mint condition. While browsing their site, I noticed that they have a "recycle" program. A lot of blah-blah about a cleaner environment, recycling, etc. They are not offering you any incentive for doing this. Ok .. I don’t really need an incentive for this. I would do it out of good will.
Here comes the nice part. When I login to my user account with them, I have an option to purchase refurbished equipment from them at outrageous prices. Their prices for new equipment are outrageous also. They ask up to $200 for a phone with a monochrome LCD and 80’s technology, and it’s the price you way when you get a subscription to go with it.

Now I figured it out. They ask people to recycle phone for the sake of the environment, and behind the doors (in the user area accounts), they actually resell them for a price. Brilliant idea :)