Manhattan Island

 

 

“Mannahatta/Manhattan: A Natural History of New York City” includes an image combining a computer simulation of Manhattan in 1609 with a current photograph.

无题

Europe is more concerned by Nobel Laureate

Paul Krugman is starting to point finger to European Leaders, blaming them hadn't yet realized the severity of current crisis. He mentioned, most of economists including him, had argued that the Obama administration's stimulus plan was too small, given the depth of the crisis. But America's actions dwarf anything the Europeans are doing.

Paul believed the poor leadership is part of the problem, while the deeper side might be the structural shortfalls of the Euro Integration. True or not, we will see.

Global Downtown, big gift for China

Downtown, to some degree, a disaster for most countries in the world, means a god-given chance to grow into an even stronger economic competitor than it was before the crisis.

The global slowdown is also doing some things that Chinese authorities had tried and failed to do for four years: slow inflation, reverse what had been an ever-growing dependence on exports and pop a real estate bubble before it could grow even bigger. From this angle, this economic slowdown is gift for China.

开一个硅谷

Can you buy a Silicon Valley? Maybe – Paul Graham

推荐这篇文章，讲如何开一个硅谷。很有意思。

对照这篇的讲法，比较了一下国内有可能成为“硅谷”的地方。

我挺看好武汉，大学资源丰厚，工科很发达。大学支撑很强，武大和华科很多教授都开公司。成本低，这个对start-up来说，很重要。容易得到市政府的重视。武汉现在有一个光谷。就看机遇了。天气不好，不过地方挺大的。

深圳，虽然没什么大学，不过人才都往这个地方跑，很重要的一个原因。移民城市，风气很质朴，不过成本确实很高。没有大学支撑的一个弱点就是，少了学校研究机构和培养的配合。stanford和mit几乎每个教授都是有公司的。

北京，也说要搞什么it区。说实话，官太多了。

上海，风气太浮华了，武汉也有这个弱点。所以，这里不是silicon valley，更像曼哈顿。

中科大，这个学校比这个地方更有名，不过中科大不是工科强的学校。

天津，有南开。离京城近，不错。

大连，天气好，居住很适宜。不过，大学少了点。

如果我要start up，首选武汉：有人才，成本低。这两点是最最重要的。一个不会省钱的公司是很难在吃不饱穿不暖的阶段下存活的。打仗时需要人的，这个大家都知道。

chocolate city, the chinese dream

Roughly twenty thousands of African people alive in trading markets somewhere neighbor to Guangzhou. Most of them are illegal to live or work there. Amusingly, Last time NC and me sent off JHH to La Guardia Airport, taking a taxi, and the driver mentioned about his former trading experiences in Guangzhou, :) And, most of the immigrants in Guanzhou are Nigerian.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/02/09/090209on_audio_osnos/?xrail

recommend two pieces

Startups in 13 sentences
http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html#f1n

spend less money, I always keep this sentence in mind,
understand user!



and,
I strongly recommend this piece!!

"How to start a start-up"
http://paulgraham.com/start.html

How the Central Bank Fixes the Exchange Rate

The last time had dinner with some friends talking about what factors decide the exchange rates of currencies. Here popularize some economics knowledge, only because I need to practice english writing for the coming qualification test... :P

"International Economics: Theory & Policy seven edition", by Paul Krugman (latest economics nobel laureate) and M Obstfeld. Page 453.

"How the Central Bank Fixes the Exchange Rate"
To hold the exchange rate constant, a central bank must always be willing to trade currencies at the fixed exchange rate with the private actors in the foreign exchange market.

So, that's why people keep saying that a large amount of foreign exchange reserve could ensure a stable exchange rate. Assuming some country's central bank run out of US Dollars. then anyone who holds its currency wants to trade for US Dollars, but can not trade. This leads its currency less attractive, and the result is the value of the currency plunges. That's why country always needs a large number of foreign reserves to hold its currency.

feb 23

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/22/opinion/22friedman.html?em

Thomas Fieldman,, supports to spend more on the start-up rather than zombie banks and old G.M.'s, by instancing intel which started in the recessions.
To be honest, T Fieldman's tone is more like a US politician, less specialized than an economist. The argumentation is a little plain and shallow.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/opinion/23krugman.html?em
Paul Krugman, argues that we need a system in which the zombie banks own the downs as well as ups. most of the article talks about nationalization.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123517380343437079.html
ok, there is another guy talking about nationalizing the banks. ie, take the banks over, clean them up, sell them in rapid order to private sector.
Even Greenspan told the Financial Times that, it's necessary temporarily nationalize some banks in order to facilitate a swift and orderly restructuring.
Mr. Varadarajan, a professor at NYU's Stern School and a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution, is executive editor for Opinions at Forbes.

test

没事先发个帖子试试，这是我的新apartment，有private room，最小的房间，不过已经比我家的房间要大很多了