Category — News
Financial Crisis Of The Century
Are we in the midst of a financial crisis of the century? Yesterday former Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan says the “once-in-a-century” financial crisis that is likely to claim more big firms before it eases.
Already having claimed investment bank Bear Stearns, mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and left 100 year old Wall Street institution Lehman Brothers filing for bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers suffered nearly $7 billion in real estate-related losses.
Another potential victim is American International Group, AIG. It is hit by a series of credit rating downgrades. AIG is scrambling to raise capital after losing more than $18 billion in the past nine months. The credit downgrades could doom its business as it makes the company harder to issue debt and obviously harder for it to regain the confidence of investors.
How bad is the AIG mess?
The New York Times reported late Sunday night that the company is seeking a $40 billion bridge loan from the Federal Reserve. A source close to the firm said that if AIG does not raise cash and is downgraded by ratings agencies, it may have only 48 to 72 hours to survive.
The reason AIG got into this mess is that it strayed from its core assurance business, took on massive debt to keep profits growing to Wall Street’s expectation. AIG shars has dropped 91% so far this year.
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September 16, 2008 Comments Off
No More 20 Days Interest Free For Credit Cards
Recently, wifey had a closer look at her credit card bill and was surprised to see late charges and interest charge. We called to find out “WHY”? Okay, for the record, we made the mistake of not paying the bill in full. Not because we don’t have enough cash but keyed in the wrong figure and paid a few ringgit less. As a result, we were penalized enough cash for a meal. The penalty include interest charges and late payment charges. We found out was the following and for your info and action. [Read more →]
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August 19, 2008 No Comments
5 Reasons Why You Should Not Lust For An iPhone
The new 3g iPhone which created such a buzz the world over (read people queuing for hours before the shop opens) lead me to the 5 reason why you should not lust for an iPhone (yet). The new phone is a cool gadget and very useful to boot. No doubts about that. Apple has done a great job, not in the hardware side, but on the human ware side of things. For your info, a phone with 3G, GPS, camera, music is nothing new. Others are there but what they lose out on on the applications that make the phone fantastic.
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It cost a bomb here. Yes, with our weak currency, the phone will cost close to RM 3k. That’s a lot of dough. Invested properly, that 3k can be many times the money you spend now. Read my article on compound interest.
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You have to hack it to use it. The phone originally works only on AT&T and we don’t have it here. There is talk that one of the networks will bring it in soon. If you really lust for one, expect to pay a premium again.
- Lousy battery life. Most multimedia phones don’t have a long battery life and the 3G phone is no exception. Don’t you just hate having to charge my phone everyday and worst still, if it runs out of juice while you are expecting an important call? I do.
- iTunes everything. You have to do everything through iTunes from simply getting a ringtone to loading an application. Why?
- You’ll like need a data plan since there is so much you can do with it. Additional cost on a 3G data plan or a surprise bill at the end of the 1st month you play with your iPhone. Just a bit of fiddling around with a total 1 megabyte download cost me RM 10 recently.
Side note : Apple is catching up on Wintel on certain segment of users, especially for computers over US$ 1,000, Mac computers accounts for 50% of sales. The applications created by the Apple team is truly fantastic. But
But for now, there is no reason to lust for an iPhone.
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August 6, 2008 No Comments
Credit Card Mess Looming
I came across this article from The Consumerist. Apparently Amy Christiansen decided to test the system in which a bank approves credit card applications. Her
Christiansen said she decided to allow Bennett to fill out a credit card application from Bank of America. He accurately wrote in his birthday in 2002, his annual income of $0, and the fact that he is an “other,” that is, neither a homeowner nor a renter. He signed his name in writing that was obviously that of a child, she said.
Bank of America spokesmen says it was a system error! If it happens in America, I just wonder when it will reach Malaysia? Anyone game to try this on one of the banks in Malaysia. This could create a credit card mess not to mention news.
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June 20, 2008 No Comments
Don’t Buy Insurance To Cover This
Folks, insurance tends to be a serious matter. Sometimes there is mistakes and humor involved. Now most of us recognize the importance of having different types of insurance cover for different risk i.e. life, medical, accident, fire etc.
However, I don’t think we need (or want) coverage as shown in the advertisement below.
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June 13, 2008 No Comments