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Olympic Controversy?
What kind of Olympics would it be without a little controversy? There are questions about the real ages of the Chinese women gymnasts that won the gold medal this week. Maybe what really happened is that the real He, Yang and Jiang are 16, but they weren't good enough, so in the interest of the state, they were replaced with better but younger athletes to compete in their place.
14 Aug 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 10:40:09
Making the Poor Fill the Gap
As usual when confronted with a budget impasse and revenue short-fall, Ahnold's only solution is to increase the sales tax "temporarily". Is it really a good idea to make spending money more expensive during sluggish economic times? Probably not. It's also disappointing that the Dems are on board with this.
05 Aug 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 13:58:39
New Car Ban in SF
Once again the proposal to ban car traffic on Market street rears its ugly head. Its this kind of single-minded thinking that leads to a transit first policy that is really a transit only policy. I don't car how many laws you pass, you are not going to get people out of their cars. And shifting traffic to Mission and Howard will only add to the congestion that already exists on those streets.
But really, I'd like to see this happen just to see Daly and the bike coalition take one on the chin when business tax revenue drops because shoppers have gone to more accessible shopping centers in the Bay Area (like Walnut Creek or San Jose). But it will never happen (Probably.This is San Francisco we're talking about, after all).
23 Jul 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 12:49:14
Bad Analysis Drives Google Down
Google stock dropped despite the fact that they made 35% more money this year than during the same quarter last year. The reason for the drop? They came up short of analyst projections!!!
I just don't understand the lemming mentality of the market. Why punish Google by driving down the price simply because some "analysts" made projections that were too lofty? Shouldn't you punish the analysts instead? Don't the investors who bought on the basis of faulty analysis bear some responsibility for acting on that bad analysis?
It's as though we've gone back in time to 1999, when analysts said the sky was the limit for so many dot-coms. Never mind that many of those dot-coms had no semblance of a business plan or even any way to make money. Flash forward two years, and all those companies start to implode. It was soon discovered that some of those "analysts" were just shills trying to make money for their bosses. So why do investors still depend so heavily on the words of analysts?
Google MADE more money this quarter than they did last year! Shouldn't they be rewarded for doing well DESPITE a sluggish economy? I just don't understand.
18 Jul 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 11:24:03
Poor Satire From the New Yorker
The can call it whatever they want. The fact remains that the cover depicting Obama and his wife as Islamic terrorists and revolutionaries is inflammatory and a complete political smear of Obama's image. Regardless of what their goals were, all they've really done is reinforce the efforts of Murdoch's bunch to paint Obama as anti-American.
14 Jul 2008 Posted by MD Wong at 10:54:29