|
|
One billion strong
Michael Alan Hamlin
And many are looking for jobs...
While the depth of the global financial crisis - and its real impact on Asia and the Philippines - is becoming alarmingly clear a year after its onset, late last year the Internet hit a new record. In December, for the first time ever the Internet audience (age 15 and older accessing the Internet from home and office computers) surpassed the one billion mark according to comScore, a research firm specializing in researching the “digital world.”
Click here to read the comScore news release.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
1/30/2009 9:14:23 PM |
|
|
|
Better regulation, not more
Michael Alan Hamlin
The collapse of the subprime mortgage market, triggering the global financial crisis and the collapse of the American investment banking sector; subsequent and related investment scandals, prominent among them the $50 billion Ponzi scheme run by Bernard L. Madoff ; and earlier business scandals beginning with the dramatic collapse of Enron in 2004 have understandably resulted in calls for increased regulation. But those calls are a kneejerk reaction that will likely hobble economic recovery rather than ensure better, more honest business and financial management.
No doubt, regulators were clearly asleep at the wheel for much of the first decade of the 20th century. Enron took advantage of deregulated energy markets meant to lower the cost of electricity with the opposite result - while losing billions of dollars; in fact, close to the amount Madoff lost for his mindlessly trusting investors. Convoluted subprime derivatives sold over and over at escalating commission rates was an exercise in exquisite and irresponsible irrationality.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
1/22/2009 11:34:30 AM |
|
|
|
Obama frenzy
Michael Alan Hamlin
While in Washington DC earlier this month, I found the ultimate Obama souvenir for my Obama-crazed friends. It’s an Obama paper doll that comes in a booklet with different outfits for the paper-thin Obama and Michelle (Yes, both dolls are in their underwear waiting to be draped with paper clothes.). I didn’t stop at one of the many Obama souvenir stands scattered throughout the US capital - including one that is practically on the doorstep of Obama’s new home at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue - to purchase this bit of memorabilia.
I secured the Obama paper doll booklet at the new Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum located in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center next to Dulles International Airport. The Museum - partly a large converted Boeing hanger - is stuffed primarily with war planes from World War II onwards, including the Enola Gay, the silver-skinned B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
1/22/2009 11:30:05 AM |
|
|
|
2009 Prognosis
Michael Alan Hamlin
Earlier this week I sat down in New York with Sasquehanna Growth Equity (SGE) partner Vincenzo La Ruffa and Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed) senior vice president and AsianPundit colleague Brett M. Decker to discuss their prognosis for the “Happy Blue Year” Americans cynically greeted each other January 1. SGE is a leading private equity group investing in growth capital and late stage venture opportunities in the financial technology, software, business services, and specialty finance sectors.
SGE is a unit of Sasquehanna International Group of Companies, a significant investor in innovative Asian entrepreneurships, and La Ruffa oversees technology startups such as 29 West Inc. - a provider of high-performance financial messaging services - and Derivix Corp. - which provides a real-time options trading system for the financial sector. He is a seasoned investor, having previously placed $100 million in late-stage growth companies. La Ruffa has looked at several financial technology opportunities in Asia.
Continue
reading >>>
|
Posted
1/11/2009 12:10:59 AM |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
