Bank Nationalization

The federal government increased the government's ownership stake to 36% from 8% through a conversion of up to $25 billion in preferred shares issued last fall under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) on February 27, 2009. Let us recap some important points of this deal.

• Preferred shareholders will convert up to $27.5 billion of shares to common shares under the deal. If the maximum share conversions take place, the U.S. government will own 36% of Citi's outstanding common shares, and existing shareholders will own approximately 26%. The conversion is occurring at a price of $3.25 a share.
• The dilution of existing shareholders (existing shareholder will see their stake diluted by 74%) under the plan was greater than many expected and sparked a sell-off in Citi shares.
• The move doesn't involve additional funds to Citi from the Treasury, which has invested $45 billion in the bank under TARP. However, it will boost Citi by improving the bank's tangible common equity ratio,
• Citi will suspend dividend payments on the preferred shares.
• The government's remaining preferred stock will be converted to a new security that will pay the same 8% cash dividend as the current preferred shares, the Treasury said.

The risk of bank nationalization:

• Full nationalization - giving the government 100% of the bank - would wipe you out altogether; by giving the bank the chance to turn itself around, you may be able to keep some small portion of your shareholding.
• The nationalized banks will be forced to increase lending volumes artificially, making their competitors’ lives even more difficult. Private investors might decide to avoid the banks that remain fully private because of the higher perceived risk. Moreover, that could bring even more banks to the edge of collapsing.
• A new government lending institution, while that institution might be very slow in getting organized and not a particularly intelligent competitor once it did, it would be able to use the resources of the Federal government to make credit-card loans, automobile loans and mortgage loans at subsidized rates.

The Benefit of bank nationalization:
When a bank is nationalized, the public's interests are put before shareholders. That means a struggling bank can be restructured in ways that best suit the financial health of the nation.
In addition, if the government bought up the toxic assets, that could wipe out some of the uncertainty that has been plaguing financial markets for months because it hopefully would keep the value of the assets from falling further.

How to backing up your Internet favorites

The simplest method is to export your favorites to a file and save it in your document folder, on your desktop, or on a USB thumb drive. You can then use this file to restore your favorites in case of disaster. To do this:

1. Click on the “File” or “Add to Favorites” button depending on the version of IE.
2. Select “Import and Export”
3. Click “Next”
4. Click “Export favorites” and walk through the steps that follow.

Detailed instructions for all versions of IE are at:support.miscrosoft.com/kb/211089

When you have nobody to depend on, you are on your own….

It was dark. I eagerly greeted my exhausted husband returning home from work. Instead of joining me for dinner, Dan walked straight to the front door, and peered through the glass door. After a few minutes, he opened the door and darted to the street. I hurried to look through the window, there was a parked car on the street and Dan was engaged in a conversation with the person inside the car. The car moved slowly into our driveway, parked, and out came an old, fragile, silvered haired woman. Dan helped her out of the car and invited her into our house for water and the bathroom. Her name is Edema, 96 years old. This stranger was lost for nearly 3 hours after her hair appointment. I was shocked; why was this 96 year old woman behind the wheel on her own? What was going on with her life? After listening to her story, I understood her predicament, she has nobody to depend on and she is completely on her own. She had a beautiful family, middle class; a few years ago her husband passed away. Her only son passed away when he was in his 30s; the only relative she has left is her daughter-in-law who is in Tampa, approximately 180 miles away from Jacksonville. When the police finally arrived to escort her home, she thanked us and waved goodbye. I helped her to her car and I could see the frightened look and uncertainty in her sad eyes. She was nervous and had trouble getting back into her car. I begged the police, “Forget it, don’t let her drive in the dark!” The young police officer told me that the old woman was doing all right, I was the one who stressed her out. I hopelessly watched her clumsily got back into her car and followed the police car home. After that, we completely lost our appetite; I cannot imagine myself in her position. Fortunately, she can still see and hear very well, she is still on top of everything and knows what is going on in the world. What an amazing person!

DOW passed 14,000 mark

The Dow Jones industrial average swept past 14,000 for the first time on Tuesday, July 17.

S&P and NASDAQ were also trading high. If you take a close look at today's stock market, stocks rallied on cyclical stocks, such as railroad stocks, industrial (CAT, GE, DE…), and technical stocks. AXP (American Express) is the one of few non-cyclical stocks gaining in the market.


What caused cyclical stock rallying? Oil prices have moved up tremendously and alternative energy is inevitable, especially ethanol fuel. Ethanol is produced by fermentation of sugar or starch. The main source of bio-ethanol fuel in the United States lies in corn. Corn has thus become a very profit commodity, this is a classical demand and supply scenario. When the farmer has excess money in hand, he will buy better and faster growing seeds from companies such as Monsanto (MON), fertilizer from Agrium (AGU), agriculture machinery from John Deer (DE) or Caterpillar (CAT). Furthermore, they need railroads to transport the products. In addition, most of the new ethanol plants dotting the Midwest are gas-fired. In the mean time, corn growers are using much more fertilizer, which is produced using natural gas; gas company XTO energy (XTO) was also participating in today's rally.

Health Information

SIGNS OF A STROKE (WITH 1 NEW ADDITION)

STROKE: Remember The 1st Three Letters...S.T.R

My friend sent this to me and encouraged me to post it and spread the word. I agree. If everyone can remember something this simple, we could save some folks..

Seriously.. Please read:

STROKE IDENTIFICATION:

During a BBQ, a friend stumbled and took a little fall - she assured everyone that she was fine (they offered to call paramedics) and that she had just tripped over a brick because of her new shoes. They got her cleaned up and got her a new plate of food. While she appeared a bit shaken up, Ingrid went about enjoying herself the rest of the evening. Ingrid's husband called later telling everyone that his wife had been taken to the hospital - (at 6:00 pm, Ingrid passed away.) She had suffered a stroke at the BBQ. Had they known how to identify the signs of a stroke, perhaps Ingrid would be with us today. Some don't die. They end up in a helpless, hopeless condition instead.

It only takes a minute to read this... A neurologist says that if he can get to a stroke victim within 3 hours he can totally reverse the effects of a stroke...totally. He said the trick was getting a stroke recognized, diagnosed, and then getting the patient medically cared for within 3 hours, which is tough.

RECOGNIZING A STROKE

Thank God for the sense to remember the "3" steps, STR . Read and Learn! Sometimes symptoms of a stroke are difficult to identify. Unfortunately, the lack of awareness spells disaster. The stroke victim may suffer severe brain damage when people nearby fail to recognize the symptoms of a stroke.

Now doctors say a bystander can recognize a stroke by asking three simple questions:

S * Ask the individual to SMILE.

T * Ask the person to TALK to SPEAK A SIMPLE SENTENCE (Coherently) (i.e.. . . It is sunny out today)

R * Ask him or her to RAISE BOTH ARMS.

*NOTE: Another 'sign' of a stroke is this: Ask the person to 'stick' out their tongue If the tongue is 'crooked', if it goes to one side or the other, that is also an indication of a stroke. If he or she has trouble with ANY ONE of these tasks, call 911 immediately !! and describe the symptoms to the dispatcher A cardiologist says if everyone who gets this e-mail sends it to 10 people; you can bet that at least one life will be saved.

First movie review - Six Degrees of Seperation

I recently watched the 1993 movie – “Six Degrees of Separation”. This is my New Year’s resolution; I want to learn new things. Watching movies will be a good starting point.

This story is based around the idea that everyone is connected to everyone else by a maximum of six other people; it's just finding those six that make the link. This is an extremely interesting story, told in a series of anecdotal discussions between the main characters and their friends and business partners at various different social occasions.

In New York, the art dealers John Flanders ('Flan') Kittredge and Louisa ('Ouisa') Kittredge are ready to have a business dinner with their South African friend and client Geoffrey Miller, when a wounded young black man comes to their fancy apartment asking for help, telling them that he had just been robbed in Central Park. He introduces himself as Paul (Will Smith), a friend of their son and daughter in Harvard and son of Sidney Poitier. The couple invites him to stay with them. During they night, they discover that Paul is not who he claims to be. When they investigate the life of Paul, they find the hidden truth, and their investigations are intriguing and lead them to re-evaluate their own lives.

This movie refreshed my memory; I almost forgot who Sydney Poitier was. He was the handsome actor in the movie “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and the first African-American to win the Academy Award for best actor.

In the movie, the art dealer mentioned that he owns the double-sided Kandinsky painting. Kandinsky was a famous Russian abstract painter, usually regarded as the originator of abstract art. His artwork is well represented in the Guggenheim Museum, New York. Next time I am in New York, I will go to museum to see his artwork.
Did you know that wines from even numbered years are superior to odd numbered ones? Yes, that‘s what I learned from the movie.

Financial note

Why financial advisers love to sell VA(Variable annuities) to their clinets? Primirarily financial advisers can earn fat commissions from their clients and it is easy to sell. Most consumers fall for the sales pitch of getting tax deferred savings by investing in mutual funds through a VA as well as the promise that they won't ever get less out of the VA than they put in.

Advisers doesn't tell you: you will pay an extra fee each year that hoovers around 1.3% to give you that asset protection, which kicks in only if you die. If you take all your money out while you are alive, there's no guarantee you'll get at least your original deposit back.

If you withdraw it, you are going to owe income tax, not capital gains ta, on your earnings.

To learn more abour Va, check out the web site suzeorman.com

My kids graduated

In the past two weeks, my two sons have graduated from university and high school. My husband and I watched them march across the stage along with the music to receive their diplomas. We felt so proud and happy at that moment.

Let’s turn the clock to the time they were born; they were both under 7 pounds and three weeks before their due dates. Stephen was born without hair, and Alex was born with a full head of hair. Stephen was a very mature child, and Alex was quiet and thoughtful. Alex has always adored his brother.

There are all kinds of schools in this world, but there is no school that can teach you to be a parent. I guess we have been lucky. Our two boys have always behaved well and have never given us too much trouble. Thankfully, in my twenty-two years as a parent I have not received a late night phone call from the police. They are both diligent and hard working students. They know we have been tried our best to be good parents; we have shared almost every important moment in their life - birthdays, ball games, swim meets, parties, school activities, etc. I know they appreciate us being there with them. When they were happy, we shared their joy; when they were sad, we struggled with them; when they were sick, we just lost sleep. When they were young, we instructed them to read certain good books. Today, they advise us what to read. Our role has gradually changed, but I’ll tell you, I have learned so much while bringing our boys up.

Today, they are not the two small children I remember; they are both graduated and moving on to different phases of their lives. Stephen is beginning his next journey; he’ll step into the world and learn how to be an independent young professional. Alex will continue his education to become a future scientist. In a world where not many children move on to college and many do not even complete high school, I think that we have earned an A plus as parents. Good luck, boys! Set your goals high, you can become whatever you want to be.

Taiwan’s First Family Crisis

Chao Chien-ming, the son-in-law of Taiwan’s president, was detained on May 23, 2006 for suspicion of insider trading. This insider trading scandal is not limited to only Chao; his parents, brother, and sister-in-law are also involved.

The whole scandal is a product of greed. Chao is from a middle income family; his parents are now retired from their positions as elementary school principal and teacher. Chao is a medical doctor and is employed in the best hospital in Taiwan. Chao married Hsing-yu, the daughter of Taiwan’s president, about six years ago. After the marriage, Chao has enjoyed the fame and privileges that coincide with high society. He loves to bask in the spotlight of the media, eager to show his wealth and power. Unfortunately, he has enjoyed far too much privilege; he has forgotten who he is. Chao and his father have leveraged their newly gained fame and connections from the marriage to dramatically increase their wealth. His father has acquired quite a few advisory positions and receives a large stipend, the most lucrative being from the government and various corporations. Is he qualified for these positions? Such questions do not even matter. He is now part of the first family. The Chao family is not only guilty of insider trading; they also involved in government land development transactions. Their hands are trying to get into every place where they can gain financial advantages.

Greed and power can corrupt good people. This is a fine example. Chao had a good family, education, and career. His marriage has led him down the road of luxurious indulgence. He was given a taste of money and power, and he and his family developed an insatiable taste for both. The more money he chased, the more crime he performed. There was no turning back.

My uncle

My uncle just passed away in Shanghai, China. I had been mad at him for awhile, but after I heard his death, I felt so bad. What would my late father say to me? My uncle was spoiled by his parents. I always felt so distant with him, we were never close. My father had been separated from him when they were young. My father went to live with his grandparents leaving my uncle as the only boy in their household. He has two younger sisters and my uncle was like a tyrant to them. He may have had some very good values, but we never had a chance to find out what they were. After my dad fled to Taiwan with Chiang kai-Shek’s troops in 1949, my father arranged for my uncle to settle in Taiwan as well; my father found him a clerical job in the ROC Air Force. My uncle visited us almost every weekend. He did not really do anything at our house; he sat in front of TV and ordered my sisters and me to get good food for him. I didn't know why. Every time he showed up in our house, we just tried to escape. My father did not like him, but he felt that his brother was his responsibility. My father took care of him and gave him financial support through his life. Uncle, I am glad you have returned to God’s hands. You suffered so much from your illness; you never really had hardship in your life, only loneliness. Now you don't have to suffer anymore. I wish you peace in heaven. God bless you.

06/11/2004

My first Journal