What I have learned today [2015/5/25-2015/5/27]

1. In asset bubbles, hold cash, gold, and real assets.

2. With the increase of chipped cards, other types of credit card frauds have increased.  Balloon effect at work :D

3. Productivity may be limited by cost of energy. This makes sense unless there are breakthroughs in making inputs more efficient, the output should be limited as the costs become uneconomic.

4. Finny Kuruvilla invests according to biblical principals. I have not done a due diligence on him but it is good to see that we can invest well following the bible.

5. India is ranked 142 out of 188 countries in the World Banks' "Ease of doing Business" list.

6. Japan's advance in robotics is likely to raise productivity in small-medium firms.

7. Fuld, ex CEO of Lehman, did not care much about risk before the end by not listening to the head of fixed income and risk manager. He cannot blame others. He did mess up by focusing too much on profit rather than risk management.



*From Snapshot Serengeti

What I have learned today [2015/4/17]

1. Crickets not the magic bullet for food safety. There are some tweaks needed for optimal production of crickets as protein sources. I am not so surprised because nothing is really perfect and requires constant improvement.


2. You can die from a broken heart. Rush of stress hormones can shock the heart. The immune system suffers. Wow...better guard my heart...


3, Music has different effect on different people when sleeping. Yup, nothing is a one size fits all solution. Need to experiment with yourself. I like listening to slow and low praise songs before sleeping.


4. Venezuela and Iran heavily subsidize oil prices to win political support. Excessive subsidies are never a good idea because it creates inefficient consumption (e.g. waste) and high opportunity costs (money that could be on education). Well, given the historical low oil prices, it does make sense to slowly decrease the subsidies for a better future.


5.  George Soros' investing styles include  investing in markets that there are disruptions and exploiting politics. Well, it makes sense but in market disruptions, you really don't know what is going on. Often even experts are wrong. Also, exploiting politics? Hmmm...not my cup of tea.



*From Snapshot Serengeti