US wealth distribution in the last 100 years

Amazon #1 best-seller book

Bought an Amazon #1 Best Seller book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, this morning (to my Kindle and its hardcover version is out of stock since it is so popular). This tome has 696 pages dedicated to income inequality which gives detailed trace back to 18th centuries. As Nobel prize laureate economist, Paul Krugman, put it in NY Times for this book: "Conservatives are terrified .... warn that Mr. Piketty’s work must be refuted, because otherwise it will spread among the clerisy and reshape the political economic landscape."

Half of the universities will evaporate

A Harvard professor predicted "as many as half of the more than 4,000 universities and colleges in the U.S. may fail in the next 15 years ... in large part by the growing acceptance of online learning."
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-04-14/small-u-s-colleges-battle-death-spiral-as-enrollment-drops.html

Charlie Rose among the TIME 100 most influential people

Charlie Rose is among the TIME 100 most influential people this year. At least, he did influence me.
http://time.com/70815/charlie-rose-2014-time-100/

1st step of rectification of corrupt system?

In the past, China's elites were the reputed kleptocrats. Recent detention of 周永康 ( former top guy of security apparatus, former member of politburo standing committee and former head of CNPC), his wife, son, brother, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law may test President Xi's determination to rectify the flagrant corrupt regime.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/world/asia/severing-a-familys-ties-chinas-president-signals-a-change.html?_r=1

If bottom 5% of teachers are out, ---

Interesting data from the study of 2.5 million American schoolchildren.

Moravec's paradox

Jobs most likely being replaced by robots or automation in the next 20 years. Part of the following job list reflects the Moravec's paradox: High- level reasoning is a cakewalk for computers while low-level sensorimotor skill is a square-the-circle task for computers.

Only the fittest can survive - incoming university rating system

With the expected avalanche of opposition from universities, Obama administration is still scheduled to launch an university-rating system as early as 2015-2016 year. Two-thirds of public university revenues and more than 40% of private university budgets are from federal government. Universities spent a whopping $91M in 2012 just to lobby Congress. The result: A whole bunch of graduates are saddled with debts and with low-paid jobs. Universities in Taiwan have the same problem. I bet Taiwan government, unlike Obama administration, may be submissive to the public pressure and flinch to charge ahead to allocate funding and to weed out the disqualified universities based on the rating system.
http://time.com/66259/obamas-college-rankings-raise-campus-backlash/

How to spend $500M a year?

NYT has the survey of 100 highest paid CEOs. However, these CEOs definitely are NOT the highest paid CEOs. Leon Black of Apollo makes $500M while Bill Gross of Pimco makes $200M in 2013. Gross of Pimco needs to get up at 4:30 a.m. to work everyday. How much they earn probably is just a number, a symbol in the upper echelon of the gilded society.
http://www.equilar.com/corporate-governance/2013-reports/the-new-york-times-100-highest-paid-ceos

Company growth preempts workers' safety

When a company's revenue accounts for 24% of GDP, will this country's judicial system be on the side of workers? It is a David vs. Goliath battle between a poor family and Samsung. A Korean girl, started working at Samsung at age 18 and died at 22. Same rare disease happened to the other girl standing side by side with her on the same semiconductor workstation in Samsung. They all had acute myeloid leukemia (急性骨髓白血病) which occurs in 3 out of 100,000 people. Samsung still refuses to admit any wrong-doing. Growth just cannot preempt the priority of workers' safety and poetic justice is waiting to be served against Samsung.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-10/deaths-at-samsung-alter-south-koreas-corporate-is-king-mindset

Which came first, money or patient interests?

If a patient with macular degeneration (黄斑變性) can be treated with either a medicine that costs either $2,000 or $50 with the same effect, guess which medicine eye doctors will choose? If eye doctor chose $2,000 medicine for many thousands of his patients, he can become the doctor with top reimbursement in Medicare, $21M in 2012 from Medicare alone for ophthalmologist Dr. Melgen. The reason for doctors to choose $2,000 instead of $50 with the same effect: The pharmaceutical company that makes the $2,000 drug gives lucrative rebates for eye doctors who use this expensive medicine. Money instead of patient interests is the top priority for some high-paid doctors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/10/business/doctor-with-big-medicare-billings-is-no-stranger-to-scrutiny.html?smid=pl-share

只能靠資本和技術

最近閲讀一篇 Brookings Institution 去年九月發表的一篇台灣經濟的研究報告。台灣的進出口貿易佔 GDP 總額的 74%, 所以國際上的任何風吹草動，皆會影響台灣的經濟。在進出口貿易中，中國大陸(包括經由香港的轉口貿易 ) 已佔40% , 對美貿易已降至 10%( 雖然在大陸的台商仍大部分對美國出口) 。十年來和大陸貿易金額成長了6.6倍。對印尼，馬來西亞，菲律賓，泰國和越南的總貿易額十年來成長的金額高達12倍，但總金額不到對大陸貿易的5% 台灣的出口99% 是工業產品，但進口產品 77% 是農產品和原物料，這充分顯示台灣天然資源的不足，而台灣只能靠不斷的投資和人工技術的提昇，才有競爭力的可能。没有人喜歡對大陸的依賴漸深，但我相信全台灣沒有任何一個人知道 "如果不繼續和大陸保持密切貿易關係，請問如何讓台灣經濟繼續成長，甚至只是讓經濟原地踏步?" 中共從不諱言，他們在 ECFA 上作了重大讓利，唯一的目的就是希望在以後能以平和的方式在政治問題上和台灣有一個可被接受的解決方案。小國無外交，所以小國的外交不能講技巧，不能講權謀。小國的外交是藝術，没有絶對的對錯可言，只要在不完全平等的談判中，爭取多多益善的利益，那就是對台灣有利。對一個進出口佔 GDP 高達74% 而出口 99% 是工業產品的台灣，我們真的是只能靠資本和技術，才能在經濟成長上有競爭力。

Those good old days after WWII will not come back

According to a recent study by the famous income-inequality specialist, Berkeley economist Saez, the strata of wealth (not income) distribution in 2012 of total US household wealth is as follows: 25.6% for bottom 90%, 34.6% for the next 9%, 39.8% for the top 1%. The era of reasonable income distribution in those 30 years after WWII will never come back.

0.07% profit is a mind-boggling profit

Halfway through the book of "Flash Boys" that may unwind my confusion of high-frequency trading (HFT) in the last few years. It is estimated HFT may make 0.07% profit. For daily $225B U.S stock market, it amounts to $160M every day for HFT companies as long as they are able to reach the stock exchanges one milli-second faster than your stock transaction (Your eye-blink takes 100 milli-second)
http://www.amazon.com/Flash-Boys-Wall-Street-Revolt/dp/0393244660

HFT

Last night, Charlie Rose Show interviewed author of the book, "Flash Boys", which was the follow-up of last Sunday's "60 Minutes" coverage of the buzzword, high-frequency trading. Within a few milli-second front-running, HFT can preempt your stock transaction and earn a few pennies profit per share. They don't need to do any market analysis to know which stock to buy, they just need to lurk in the stock exchange center and make the transaction a few milli-second before your transaction goes to the next exchange center. People with capital and skill can really rig the market.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qFpmht1zbs

Harvard and MIT may merge in the future?

Economics departments of both Harvard and MIT will be merged. If successful, this pilot project may lead to complete merger of MIT and Harvard, the unparalleled super institution.
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2014/04/announcement.html