The Man Who Sold The Eiffel Tower

Victor Lustig - was renowned as the Man who Sold the Eiffel Tower. He was born in Bohemia but later moved to Paris where he was able to con people on his frequent journeys between Paris and New York. His first con was to show people a device that could print $100 bills. The only problem, he would tell them, is that it only prints one bill every six hours. Many people paid him enormous amounts of money (usually over $30,000) for the device. In fact, the device contained two real hidden $100 bills – once they were spat out by the machine it would produce only blank paper. By the time the buyers discovered this, Lustig was well gone with their money.

In 1925, as France was recovering from the war, the upkeep of the Eiffel tower was an almost unbearable expense for the city of Paris. When Lustig read about this in a paper, he came up with his most brilliant idea. After forging government credentials, he invited six scrap metal dealers to a secret meeting in a hotel. He explained that the City could not afford to keep the tower and that they had to sell it for scrap. He told them the secrecy of the meeting and all future dealings was due to the fact that the public may become distressed at the idea of the removal of the tower.

While it seems implausible, at the time the tower was built it was meant to be temporary and this happened just 18 years after the original date for removal of the tower. Lustig took the dealers in a limousine to tour the tower. One of the dealers, Andre Poisson was convinced that the tale was legitimate and he handed over the money. When he realised he had been conned, he was too embarrassed to tell the police and Lustig escaped with the money. One month later, he returned to Paris to try the whole scam again. This time it was reported to the police but Lustig managed to escape.

At one point, Lustig convinced Al Capone to invest $50,000 with him. He stored the money in a vault and returned it two months later, stating that the deal had fallen through. Capone, so impressed by Lustig’s honesty gave him $5,000 for his effort. In 1934, Lustig was found guilty of counterfeiting. He plead guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in Alcatraz. In 1947 he died of pneumonia whilst in jail in Springfield, Missouri.

Heart of Gratitude

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: “I am blind, please help.” There were only a few coins in the hat.

A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.

Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, “Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?”

The man said, “I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way.”I wrote: “Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it.”Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story: Be thankful for what you have... Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively.When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile. Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear. Keep the faith and drop the fear.The most beautiful thing is to see a person smiling…And even more beautiful, knows that you are the reason behind it.

Many people will say that economics is boring and economists are dull. Even economics students themselves are among those silly wet blankets, complaining about the course contributes nothing to their career and fame. See, this is one of the severe problems of Malaysian mindset; they categorize and rank the education courses according to whether blue or white collar, salary, and others’ mouth. This type of thinking will actually impair the development of knowledge. Since we judge the course’ possible profitability, we will be also judged by those TIMES university ranking and so on and you can stop wondering why local universities were low-ranked.

Despite the fact that there are a lot of naysayers, there are a lot of cheerleaders in our life too. Just like the story above, there are few person who actually walking by and tell me that economics textbooks are wonderful! Ms Low from St John Institution, Dr Lau, Dr Yew, and Puan Natasya from University of Malaya, thank god =)

Korean Waves and Economy

Due to my lebih-lebih passion to a Korean girls group called Girls Generation or SNSD, I bought an original CD that cost me around RM 70. Being an economics student, every transaction happened in my life would be my food for thought.

Throughout the world economy history, cultural spread has proven to be one of the best ways to grow business. It is easy to tell the reasons. (I’m using the Korean idols culture example) First, there would be an increase in foreign demand for some types of Korean goods. In this case, albums, DVDs, magazines, comics and whatever goods that printed the faces of handsome and pretty Korean Idols. Of course, this would increase the volume of exports for Korean media industry which also means jobs creation in their motherland. Second, as Korean culture spreads to other countries, more foreigners become interested to visit South Korea and boost their tourism industry.

But the case doesn’t stop there. They know how to utilize the idol’s image to boost other businesses as well. The best example is the use of Korean idols in advertising facial creams, fashion, electronics, snacks and cars. Of course not every product is directly advertised but they cleverly and insert it in dramas, MVs and movies. I can tell you this marketing strategy is effective! Well, the most extreme economics advantage would be in plastic surgery sector. See how beautiful and handsome the Korean idols are. In year 2006, in the movie - 200 Pounds Beauty, they even try to revolutionize the bad perception of having plastic surgery.

In 2008, Korean leaders realised that they could no longer put all their attention into maintaining stability on the Korean Peninsula at the expense of limiting their own foreign policy objectives. President Lee Myung-bak has therefore adopted a new foreign policy approach, the so-called "Global Korea", hoping to move closer to Southeast Asia - a region that has long succumbed to bigger powers. Korea has taken part in the Asean Regional Forum and the "Asean Plus Three" framework. The increasing economic and political presence of South Korea has been largely underpinned by the "Korean Wave", which promotes Korea's popular culture in Asia and beyond. Known as "Hallyu", it is part of Korea's foreign policy mechanism designed to enhance the country's relations.

I’m saying that it is not good or what but I just admire their quick-realize of comparative advantage and creativity in grabbing economy opportunities. In fact, this should be applied in Malaysia. (Aiyo susahlah bang! Nanti Persatuan Pemuda ini dan itu tak kasi..susahlah nak buat culture di sini! Lu tengok, mat salleh nak pakai baju seksi gak concert pun tak boleh!)

Politicians in Malaysia just know how to sing Sorry Sorry by Superjuniors when policy fails:

Sorry Sorry Sorry Sorry

Naega naega naega meonjeo

Nege nege nege ppajyeo…..

False flag operation?

The pooled wealth of Malaysia’s 40 richest individual’s has risen 42%, spurred by the country’s economic expansion. According to the Malaysia Rich List 2010 published by Forbes Asia, the 40 richest individuals are now worth US$51bil, up from US$36bil in 2009.

There was a period when most of the press in Malaysia heavily publicized the list of Malaysia’s richest. Have you all heard of false flag operation?

False flag operations are a classic tool of deception and espionage. Intelligence agencies are usually linked to most false flag terrorism. False flag terror by a state upon its own population can be a powerful tool of control. False flag operations can range from intentional provocation or “letting things happen,” all the way up to outright orchestration. Many of the most prominent conflicts of the twentieth century were initiated, and gained the necessary public support, based on false incidents, intelligence, and journalism. The public does not generally support war unless provided a relatively just cause. At present diverse populations worldwide recognize that few wars if any have been justified. (Extracted from truthmove.org)

My instinct tells me that the over-publication of Malaysia’s 40 richest was a type of false flag operation. I call it a mini false flag operation. To make it clear, I’m not saying that the statistics of those wealthy tycoons are false but I believe there are still a lot of qualified and secretive faces should be appeared on Forbes Asia’s cover page. Never mind, it is not my main point anyway.

While CIA in US likes to use this strategy in order to gain public support for their policies, I somewhat feel that it is the same purpose for Malaysian government. This is because the richest list is telling us that the wealthiest guy is still a Chinese, most of them are Chinese and which industry are they playing. Nonetheless, it is telling us that the list of 2010 is almost the same for year 2009, 2008 and 2007!

Yes, undeniably, it means that the tycoons are good in managing their businesses but what I really want to say is, the list is somewhat supporting the fact that Bumiputeras are still needing a 70s-like New Economic Policy. [touchwood!]

A Must-watch Movie!

Although it was quite outdated but if you are studying economics, mathematics, political science, commerce or at least, psychology, you must watch this great movie – A Beautiful mind. It is a human drama about the struggle of a true genius, inspired by events in the life of john Forbes Nash, Jr.., and in part based on the biography A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer.

Here is the shortened synopsis: A mathematical genius, John Nash (Rusell Crowe) made an astonishing discovery early in life and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But his prodigious career was sidetracked by problems that would have broken many men – paranoid schizophrenia (you can Google it). Nash with the encouragement and love of his wife, however, fought back. After many years of struggle, he triumphed over tragedy and literally changed the world with his work, Nash equilibrium in non-cooperative game. He won the 1994 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Even until today, you can’t actually declare yourself as an economic student if you do not know Nash Equilibrium.

Money = Evil?

“Money is not everything” How many times have you heard that? I’ve heard it more times than I can count. For me, money is not everything but if you don’t have it stop thinking about other things. If we do not have money, we can’t really buy anything, we can’t give the best education our kids, we can’t give our parents an oversea travel trip. We study the definition of money and we know that money is only meaningful for the things that it can exchange. My own definition of money is a tool to buy time, necessities for my family, our future and love.

Meanwhile, I believe “money is the root of all evil” is misquoted. In fact, the quote “for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil” is true. Notice the difference? It’s about the love of money, not money itself, being the root of all kinds of evil. Come on guys; rethink the logic of saying that money is the root of evil. My father is a sole breadwinner for our family for more than 20 years. He finds as much money as he capable of, for sake of his beloved children, his wife, his parents and his retirement age. Does he love money? Yes, he is but that money is for his family. Does our government provide reliable social safety net, equitable policies for everyone regardless the color of our skin? I don’t think so.

If any major religions truly pointed to money as the root of all evil, a lot of people would be trying to be as poor as possible. Money would be treated like a communicable disease. Some people of faith do give away most of their income or take a vow of poverty so that they are better able to serve others and do good works, but most of those will describe their lifestyles as a special calling or a gift, something beyond what God requires of most adherents of their faith.

I’ve sometimes heard “Money is the root of all evil” used as an excuse for not saving, as if to say, “I’m a better person if I’m poor.” But intentionally spending all your money as soon as you get it does not make you a better person (unless, maybe, you’re giving it all away). Rather, it makes you irresponsible. On the other hand, making good use of your resources by saving for your future does not make you evil; it makes you more able to help others (or avoid needing the help of others) when the need arises.

"Brilliant" ideas from lecturers of USM

Plug loopholes to stop the brain drain (from The Star Online)

MANY fresh pharmacy graduates have been lured away by companies and hospitals from Singapore even before they complete compulsory service in Malaysia.
If this problem is not taken seriously or tackled, Malaysia will not achieve the ideal pharmacist population ratio in the time planned.

A report published in 2008 by the Health Ministry put the ratio of pharmacists to population in Malaysia at 1:4,335. This is far from the ideal ratio recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is 1:2,000.

In order to meet the WHO target, the ministry enforced compulsory service on all pharmacy graduates from 2005 – a year of pre-registration training followed by three years of compulsory service in the government sector.

The Government also sponsored many students to study abroad in addition to the provision of higher education subsidies to support professional programmes at local public universities.
Implications related to a brain drain include:

> The Government spending a lot of money on manpower training, but Singapore is enjoying the products without any investment at all; and,
> Local graduates migrating to Singapore are actually taking over public university slots that can be taken by other qualified candidates who are genuinely passionate in contributing to the country.

Drastic preventive and deterrent measures should be taken immediately to contain the migration of graduates. Among steps that can be taken are:
a) Introducing a contract for all candidates of critical programmes that require graduates to complete their training and compulsory service with the Malaysian Government;
b) Imposing an appropriate levy on employers from foreign countries recruiting locally-trained pharmacy graduates similar to or higher than the education subsidy for training of the graduates;
c) Instilling patriotism among the students in all higher institutions of learning, especially those in public universities;
d) Blacklisting family members of the migrated graduates from entering public universities; and,
e) Legislating a law to prevent migration of graduates of critical professional courses before they complete their training and subsequent compulsory service.

The time has come for the authorities to think and act quickly so that the currently available loopholes in the system are not exploited by the neighbouring country.
Our country is already facing a serious problem where sponsored students are refusing to come back to serve the country. Now the issue is worsened by the migration of locally trained graduates.

CONCERNED LECTURERS,
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences,
Universiti Sains Malaysia.

I must say that these “concerned” lecturers are concerning their rice bowl or the future of students. At least they must take a glance on basic economics books to understand the consequences of recommendation (b) and (d). Sigh~ This article is able to explain why local students are reluctant to study in public university.

My favourite company's motto

Nike - "Just Do It"
Morgan Stanley - "One Client at a Time"
McDonald's - "I'm Lovin' It"
Honda - "Power of Dreams"
Panasonic - "Ideas for Life"
Adidas - "Impossible Is Nothing"
AirAsia - "Now Everyone Can Fly"
Motorola - "Hello.Moto"

The most hated one
"Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah"

Housewife vs Minister

People always say “simply is the best”, but not all things can be applied. However, I do believe that if a complicated matter can be explained by simple sentences and logical analogy, the people who explained it is definitely better than any professional. A lot of readers in Malaysia are easily be manipulated by the front news but they never look at the matter from other sides and makes better analysis. Economics always started with problems and facts, explained by reasons and assumptions, solved with theories and understandings.

Below here is an article written by a housewife. (thanks to liksheng) I’m not sure but it seems the housewife makes more sense than the KPI Minister. The difference between her and the others is she can UNDERSTAND the source of problem while others just ADVOCATE the seriousness of the problem. Ridiculously, the others even support the way suggested by the person who first shouted off the problem. Here it goes:

My dear Ministers,

I think both of you must know what are the reasons why the Malaysian economy has been on the fall for the last decade. Malaysia has a lot of oil and gas and the income was supposed to enable Malaysia to survive for many years to come.

However, what PETRONAS has made since it was incorporated has evaporated into thin air, where the profits have been WRONGLY used by the Federal BN Government to support many failed business deals, such as the Bumiputra Finance scandal, the buyback of MAS shares from Tajuddin at RM8 a share when the market price was only RM3 a share, and many others such as Port Klang Free Zone, Perwaja Steel, etc etc. There are just too many to name.

Perhaps you should read what Malaysians have been circulating among themselves on the article below in comparing Malaysia to Greece, which Dato Seri Idris Jala also used!Bureaucracy - you are only too aware, otherwise you won't be talking about KPIs. Bloated civil service - so many civil servants Corruption - need we say more on this when contracts are awarded without tenders?

Tax evasion - when Inland revenue does not do anything on transfer pricing! No transparency in governance - Govt and ministers are not held accountable. These sound very familiar in Malaysia.

I would like to comment on some of your proposals, although I wish I can do so for all of them:

Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished. If you look at many developed countries, the government provides FREE text books for primary and secondary school children, and now you are talking about Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished!Just look at the poor natives from Sarawak and Sabah for example, including the Kelabits and Penans in Sarawak, some parents do not even have money to buy their children's text books and uniforms!

If we are serious about human assets for the future of Malaysia, you should try to encourage all children to be educated, especially those who are poor. In Malaysia, those who are poor are mainly those in the villages like in Sarawak and Sabah, especially the natives like Dayaks, Kelabits, Penans, Kadazans, Muruts, Kenyahs, etc etc.

If the BN Government can allow RM billions to be wasted through corruption and bail-outs, how is it that they cannot afford to buy the books for primary and secondary schools, at least up to Form 3?

Malaysia's fuel prices are among the cheapest in the world. I am sure both of you are very intelligent people, otherwise how could you both have such high education and went up so high in positions to MD and ministers? When you say fuel prices are cheap in Malaysia, what are you comparing them with?

Are you comparing apples with apples or apples with oranges?Just look at the regular petrol fuel prices below:
Malaysia - RM1.80 per litre
Singapore - S$1.757 per litre
Australia - A$1.35 per litre
You should not convert the prices in Singapore and Australia from S$ and A$ to RM in order to compare them. What you should compare is the per capital income of the population in each country.

In Malaysia, a fresh graduate can only earn RM1,500 a month, this is very good already, some in Sarawak can only earn RM1,000 or less a month. In Singapore, a fresh graduate earns at least S$2,000 a month and in Australia, a fresh graduate earns at least A$3,000 a month. I know it as 2 of my children were offered engineering jobs in Malaysia for RM1,500 a month, they were also offered S$2,000 a month in Singapore and A$4,500 in Australia a month!

Look when you compare fuel prices, you need to look at the earnings and you cannot just simply convert the various prices into a single currency.Why don't you compare prices of cars in Malaysia with those in USA, Australia and NZ and UK?I hope both of you have done some studies in economics and finance before you start doing all the analysis and comparison and make yourselves look stupid in comparing apples with pears!

Foreign students will pay full fees at public universities. I wonder why this was brought up. Has the Malaysian Government not been charging full fees for foreign students? If it is the case, why are public universities not offering Malaysian students to study in local universities at reduced prices but allow foreign students to study there?In most developed countries like Australia and Singapore, they only offer some places to foreign students but at full price! I wonder what the BN Government has been thinking all along. Why not offer those university places to our own Malaysians at those reduced rates instead of them spending more overseas?

Jealousnya~

This is why I want to study in UK! A promo tour for the paperback publication of SuperFreakonomics. Here’s what the cover looks like, via a tube poster (pic) Stephen J. Dubner will be clogging up your airwaves with radio and TV interviews as best as he can. He will also be giving a set of lectures around the U.K.

Martin A. Armstrong: The strange case of the jailed market genius

In my opinion, if he did not get the imprisonment or any did fraudulent, he would be one of the Nobel prize winners. I believe Vincent Lim would be very interested to learn more about his pi cycle theory.

Investors may have been at a loss to explain the panic that befell financial markets at the end of last month, but one man saw it coming from a mile off. Financial forecaster Martin A. Armstrong predicted the beginning of the current jitters to the very date, 27 February – and it’s just the latest in a long line of spectacular predictions.

But Armstrong is in no position to benefit – he has been imprisoned without trial in the US for the past seven years. He is accused of defrauding Japanese investors of more than $700m, but the case cannot come to trial. Armstrong is currently being held in contempt of court after refusing to turn over $15m in gold bars and coins he is supposed to have hidden away, which he insists he no longer has. This impasse means he has now served the longest sentence in US history for a prisoner held in contempt.

His imprisonment and forecasting abilities have made him a cult figure among conspiracy theorists. Armstrong’s predictions are based on a model of economic confidence that he developed in the 1970s. He reckoned that there is an intense turning point in financial markets every 51.6 years, with investor confidence churning on a smaller 8.6-year cycle. Armstrong came to believe that this 8.6-year cycle was related to pi – 8.6 years is equal to 3,141 days, the result of multiplying pi by a thousand. He claims he developed a 32,000-variable super-computer based on the model, with “perhaps the largest economic database in the world”. The claims may seem far-fetched, but the model has made some uncanny predictions (see below).
Armstrong himself has seen his fair share of boom and bust. He claims to have made his first million by the age of 15 selling rare coins, telling Noelle Knox of Associated Press that he “lucked out” on a batch of rare Canadian pennies. He turned his hand to writing a commodities forecasting newsletter, and founded Princeton Economic Consultants (no affiliation to the university) in 1983, aged 34. The business flourished as confidence in his pi-cycle model grew. The Wall Street Journal described him as charging clients “$2,000 an hour for private consultations”.

But he soon ran into trouble – he was accused of mail fraud and failing to collect sales tax on gold bullion sales. Armstrong fought the case to the Supreme Court, but lost and was ordered to pay more than $600,000 in back taxes. By September 1987, his debts totaled $4.4m, including $2.7m in unpaid taxes, and he had to file for personal bankruptcy just a month before the October 1987 crash – which he and his clients claim he also predicted.
But as another 8.6-year cycle rolled around, his model threw up another forecast, and he called the collapse of the Japanese Nikkei in 1989. The celebrity he achieved allowed him to expand into Japan, avoiding US scrutiny by managing offshore investments for foreign clients, even as his personal estate in the US was still in the process of being liquidated. Armstrong preyed on Japanese investors who had lost their shirt in the crash, offering a “repair bond” opportunity for investors to recoup their losses.

Unfortunately, he lost a fortune (almost $500m) making risky bets on the yen, then hiding his losses with proceeds from new investors. The losses came to light in 1999 as banking giant HSBC scrutinised the books of his brokers, Republic Bank, prior to a takeover. Republic repaid more than $600m to Japanese companies, notes Gretchen Morgenson in The New York Times, and Armstrong was thrown in jail, where he has languished ever since. Another hearing for his contempt case is due this month, but even if his fraud case eventually goes to trial he may not serve any more time – if convicted of all 24 counts against him, he would have received a sentence of around six and a half to eight years, says Morgenson.

What the pi-cycle model predicts now?

Recent events in the world’s stockmarkets show the stunning accuracy with which Armstrong’s pi-cycle model can forecast markets, with investors panicking right on cue on 27 February. But what stage of Armstrong’s 8.6-year cycle are markets at now, and what does he forecast for the years ahead?

According to the Princeton Economic confidence model, markets peaked on 27 February and can’t be expected to perform strongly in the year ahead. Armstrong is bullish for 2008, however, seeing a rebound for markets, housing and especially physical assets, such as commodities, that year. He notes that the fact many commodities peaked last spring shows capital flows are currently focused on the stockmarkets worldwide, and that after the panic selling clears, commodities will resume their bull market for the “next major leg up”, with oil going above $100 a barrel and gold well over $2,000 an ounce. The next major slump is forecast for 18 June 2011. Over the longer term, the next 51.6-year confidence cycle will end in 2032, plunging markets into a 1930s-style depression. He believes that the next 51.6-year cycle will be kick-started by a return to ‘big government’ economic policies, whereby governments intervene much more extensively in the economy.

The truth is you are not seeing the truth yet

The following is a great analysis titled “Amway is not a scam – but you can still be scammed”. I got it from somewhere and it explains why a lot of people have mixing views on Amway and other brands. In my humble opinion, there are only two types of MLM: first one is Amway and the other one is non-Amway. In terms of products, the MLM market is neither a competitive market nor other types of market that you read in text books because demand largely driven by agents themselves. In fact, they form a perfect competitive market for hopes and dreams to become wealthy. This is why mlm market produces externalities such as below:

1. Ignorance, confusion, and misconceptions about MLM
The first is essentially ignorance or misconceptions. MLM suffers greatly by the fact that virtually all illegal pyramid scams claim to be MLMs. When they inevitably fail or are closed down by the government, the meme that “MLM=scam” is reinforced. In reality this is poor logic. The very reason the scams are claiming to be MLMs is because MLMs are legal, legitimate businesses. Nevertheless, the effect on public perceptions is a daunting problem for the legitimate companies.

Associated with this are many misconceptions about how legitimate MLMs operates. Many folk believe we make money by recruiting others, and “smart” people know that means the model will inevitably “saturate” and you can’t make any money since there’s no longer anyone left to recruit. Of course, this isn’t MLM, it’s an illegal pyramid. We don’t make money by recruiting, we make money through sales volume. MLM isn’t really a business model – it’s a marketing strategy with the aim of increasing sales volume. Indeed, in general for any given level of sales, the more people you recruit to achieve it, the less you make on it. It’s no different to owning say a traditional retail store selling clothes. You could sell them all yourself, and keep the whole profit, or could employ some other sales staff. They’ll cost you money, but you hope that the increase in sales will offset the increase in costs.
These types of misconceptions abound, with people concerned about the legitimate problems inherent in illegal pyramids, and believing they exist in multi-level marketing.

2. Scammers can scam you with Amway
The second area that seems to influence people is their own personal experiences, or those of people they know, or, increasingly, experiences of others they read on the internet. The interesting thing is when you delve into the problems with those experiences, they very rarely have anything to do with Amway or multi-level marketing per se, and they have to do with how some people operate their multi-level marketing businesses.

You can be scammed in any business. A car salesman can knowingly sell you a lemon (if you read “The Market for Lemons” written by Nobel laureate George Akerlof). A teacher can “force” you to purchase a substandard text book they’d written and printed themselves. An Amway business owner could sell you Double X by telling you it cures cancer, or you can be a millionaire with little work.

In each case you’ve been scammed, but the scam had nothing to do with the car industry, or the medical profession, or teaching, or Amway. It had to do with those individuals (and perhaps some of their associates) and the way they were behaving.

The multi-level marketing strategy, and Amway as its largest representative, is a brilliant way of doing business which allows anyone to start and own their own business, of which ever size they desire, with little financial risk, and without having to pursue it full-time. Just like in any other industry however, you can be scammed, and if you’re so inclined, you can scam people, but like any other industry, the scammers rarely last long.

Why SOME Malaysian hates MLM

1. MLM agents are annoying
This is true. They think their business plan is the best tool to make money in shortest time with easiest method, namely “you just have to find several people signed up and your down line will find more people and so you would be rich!” They call you, they cheat you by saying “let’s go out yumcha tonight and ended up being “brain wash” in a place you not familiar with. They critic your current financial position, your job, your car and your dream. They like to show off with their cars, house, clothes, and devices and of course, CASH!

2. Anyone can join
It truly does not matter who you are or where you come from, you can start a business in mlm.There really is an open door policy. So while it allows struggling, hard working, honest people a genuine opportunity at financial freedom. It also lets in uneducated, lazy, selfish, dishonest scam artists, who don’t care what effect their actions have so long as they make money.

3. “I don’t want to work with you!”
You don’t want to be under his/her network because the fella could be your relative, schoolmate, colleague, unknown person and whatever. For Malaysian Chinese, I know, because you don’t want him/her to become richer than you. You don’t want to under him/she because it sounds like you are a lower standard. The most extreme case is you just can’t wait to see when and how the agent will fail.

4. The plan sounds too good to be.
If it really that good, I don’t need to be in school and so nobody would need to work like hell.

5. Agency problem
Some mlm agents pretend to be wise although they are not as educated as you are. They rationalize something that ought to be wrong. They create their own theories. AND you don’t want the uneducated to overpower you. Who would want to see a person with form-5 education earns more money than a doctor?

6. You had been cheated before

7. The product seems unreliable or too expensive
How can a simple tooth brush make you a millionaire? “Walao?! It takes 2k to buy this thing or membership fee?!”

Survival of the prettiest

Nowadays, there is a famous quote:”Everyone wants to be Angelababy”. I still remember the first advice of our ex-dean, Prof Norma Mansor when I just newly entered into FEA: “For the not-so-pretty ones, you have to work harder than others”. Well, life is unfair.

Judging from my 22-year old life experience, there is no evidence that can disprove my old belief. When I work as a sales assistant in a famous boutique, male customers will usually be more polite to pretty staffs. When I work as a fragrance promoter, male customers will be more willing to listen when they were approached by pretty promoter. When I work as a takaful agent, the same thing happens again. The truth is their skills were not really better than the uglier ones. But, at least they earn more selling opportunities than the uglier ones.

Needless to say, there are many privileges of being beautiful. Even economists have long recognized that physical beauty affects wages, even in occupations where appearance does not seem relevant to job performance. It seems that attractive men and women are paid more than ordinary people for the same work. The question is why. Maybe Mankiw had already given some answer for us.

From Greg Mankiw’s blog:

The Beauty Premium
My Principles textbook has a case study on the economic benefits of being beautiful (in the chapter Earnings and Discrimination). In NY Times, economist Hal Varian has an article in the Business section describing new research on the topic by Markus Mobius of the Harvard economics department and Tanya Rosenblat of Wesleyan University. The research is based on experiments in which some people are asked to hire other people to perform certain tasks. Two conclusions:
1. Employers thought beautiful people were more productive even when their only interaction was via a telephone interview. It appears that the confidence that beautiful people have in themselves comes across over the phone as well as in person.
2. Employers (wrongly) expect good-looking workers to perform better than their less-attractive counterparts under both visual and oral interaction, even after controlling for individual worker characteristics and worker confidence.
These results suggest that the beauty premium is not entirely rational on the part of employers. What say you?

"Independent"

Growing up in a region where $500 a month is a good wage, a place where tycoons and sons of soil rule the economy, a place where the government forces you to be the fittest in order to survive; I totally believe that under capitalism man exploits man. I’m not born with golden key and I know that there are millions of people claiming the same thing. Why even the rich jackasses still declare themselves as poor in Malaysia? This is because the word “independent” in Malaysia is highly valued in the sense that it makes you feel proud of yourself as you make the money by yourself although your old ones finance your business, pay for your car, your education fees and your girlfriends’ shopping spree.

1%

Scared-of-dying (kiasi-ness), scared-of-losing (kiasu-ness), scared-of-cumbersome (kia-whatever), envy, gossips, critics – there are so many evil force in the FEA looking to bring even the finest students down. Why not promote positive thinking? Consider these two statements “You can make a difference by involving into this wrecked mess” and “Never mind la as long as nothing can affect me”. 80% will prefer the latter one. 1% will proactively pick up the first one. 9% will somewhat provide oral support for that 1% and the remaining 10% will provide genuine support for that same party. (Genuine in the sense that they will attend the general meeting) Of course those figures are merely estimation but, I believe the real situation could be worst.

The story of that 1% is not about someone who did something brave. Nor it is about someone who did something dangerous. It is about a group of students who felt that something went wrong and it must be corrected. These people must have watched too many hero-typed movies because their action is like opening a Pandora’s Box, given the fact that they know what the limitations are.

Human beings are naturally imperfect; it takes as little as to flip on the television or read the newspaper to be reminded of the flaw, sin, and corruption that grips humanity. The feats of strength and courage from real heroes are implicitly routed in their natural imperfections: the shortcomings, failures and mistakes that make them human and challenge them to pour their dedication to bettering themselves and those around them. But striving to overcome our natural imperfections — to persistently strive to rise above and beyond life’s challenges — is what makes ordinary men and women truly heroic. Here, I shall give my greatest salutation to Liksheng (the Boss), Joann, XinMin, Peiling (the Blur), Madelyn Lim (the shrewd girl), Jason Law (the Rocker), Christine Liew (the chatty), Shermine Lim, Zax Liew (the Sleeper) and last but not least, Vincent Lim (the Untouchable).

Though we humans are naturally imperfect, we also have unlimited potential. And while forever imperfect, if we choose to always strive and never quit, there is no limit to the heights we can reach. The lower you start, all the higher the view will appear when you reach the top.

“A hero is a man who is afraid to run away” – the story of 1 percent.

The “Untouchable”

“Happy go lucky” is his favorite motto. He keeps holding the spirit of “Achievement is not about A's” and “Study time is equivalent to happy hours”. He has a great enthusiasm in financial savvy and somewhat know how to deepen his pocket. Others merely good in writing on papers but he desires to apply those understanding practically. Yes, he is the magnificent Vincent Lim (Bursa scholar). The number of ‘real student’ in FEA, who is really eager to learn the science of economics and the beauty of theories, sadly to say, are not even exceed twenty. But I believe that the name ‘Vincent’ would definitely be filled up the top ranking.

His biggest Achilles' heel is his image problem. Naturally, not everyone will like the ‘weird kid’. In fact, he always comes out with odd ideas and critics. His obsessiveness about being right is strong enough, he will reject those people out of hand before they question their own biases and self-manipulations. It is easier for smart people who have a habit of defending bad ideas rather than honestly examine what is at the core of their psyche. He knows the rule of “one is innocent until proven guilty”; most of his tricks of logic and debate refute questions and attacks.

In terms of economics dispute, Vincent Lim can be labeled as PETRONAS. (By describing it in the analogy of oligopoly market of petrol suppliers) But, in goods market, he should be labeled as weapon which is useless during peace time. No demand, people do not use it unless there is a war. Little influence can be made by him as politics is not merely about maximizing friends, it is also about minimizing foes and how you preserving your image. A lot of ingenious things have been said about the reasons for his image problem (such as his boorish style of not bringing any books or bag to lectures), but there is one explanation that hardly anyone dares mention: Maybe he just too smart. Perhaps he is untouchable, but at the same time he hardly can touch anyone.

The Fallen Heroes

“To give up the task of reforming society is to give up one’s responsibility as a free man”. There was once a girl - Charismatic, smart, energetic, social able and a multi-language learner. She can be a soft-spoken companion or a piercing debater. Days before the 2009/2010 varsity general election, she was one of the most highly anticipated soon-to-be candidates for Faculty of Economics. Unfortunately, she forgoes her only chance. Her name is Xinmin.

“When you ain’t got nothing you got nothing to lose”. This quote can be suited to the best man of Malays gang. I label them “the three musketeers” – Amar, Azan and Azrul. This is no joke. Screening through their resumes, you would realize that one of them was the scholar of Bank Negara, another was the scholar of Telekom and the last one had a medical study in Australia before. Of course the papers’ ink cannot prove everything. But, judging from their participation in lectures, their works and their personalities, you might eventually agree with me.

Still, they couldn’t overcome one thing – the population of Chinese in FEA. Needless to say, majority rules in democracy and so the musketeers didn’t expect much during the AGM. Still, Amar won the presidency of PEKUMA. However, their party destroyed by the carelessness of the ex-PEKUMA leaders. They did not even get the approval from the HEP for their AGM and consequently, the AGM must be redone. Damn it!

Some of you may ask “Is that all the FEA got?”

Let’s face it. Everyone in FEA seeks benefits and plans to achieve something while they are still fully or partly out of the real work environment. The only thing that matters is “are you making it at the expense of others?” Well, Mr. Corrupted and gel man just did it. But never judge FEA by its trashes. There are two CEOs, namely Joanne Leong and Cassandra – the most outstanding leaders of AIESEC UM. Their scientific management and brilliance awarded them a title of “Iron Ladies”. Alas, they do not care so much about FEA.(indeed, both of them are genuinely independent)

But, some may argue that “why should we bother them? Even they choose not to be involved anything in their own faculty”. No, this is wrong, damn wrong. At the outset, the conquering senior gang had already feed so many opportunities to their assigned juniors. Bear in mind that some of them even went so far to pick up pretty juniors or those came from their secondary school. There are plenty of things which they do it in closed door. (I think I don't need to explain about this) One hand cannot clap alone. The truth is, these juniors are not only brainy, and they even master the skill of “know-who”compared to those book worms with “know-how” only. Since then, the two sagas begin their cunning plan – reap off all the advantageous activities which could spice up their resumes, enjoying the sense of being admired and having their vacations that covered by the name “wakil UMFEA”. The cost is, you and me have to seek other organizations that could provide the same benefits. I mean, at least some choices should be provided before we can be alleged as ignorant.

Of course, there are numerous future leaders in FEA – Clarence, Alex Goon, Wu Kuan Yeng, Nirmala, Jessica Low, Teng Siang, Jee Yeng, Loi tick Hong and a lot more! Some failed to be representative and the power falls into one person’s hands (monopoly). Even they do so; it is meaningless as they do not own any authority. Worse come to worst, even the I-week Chairman can be said as promoted by him. A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation – Robert G Ingersoll.

FEA is falling down, falling down, falling down...

One of the failures of Malaysia’s economic system as a whole is it has been infected by cronyism and corruption for a long time. Ever wonder, why the incredible Digi did not get the 3G license? Why the heck those 2 companies (TT Dot Com and MiTV) which do not have any TELCO involvement gets 3G license? Ask this guy (picture)

A lot of people say that our faculty representative got all the competitive conditions to be a public person. He got the conventional politician and businessman look-alike face, constantly having short conversation with students, officers and lecturers (a.k.a. social able), smart and helpful.

Not really. His biggest advantage is, he got a bunch of friends who have the same conditions that he already owned. So, what’s wrong with that? Seeing from the surface, this phenomenon should supposedly create a well-taken -care-of environment in Faculty of Economics and

Administration, University of Malaya. His friends would complement his weaknesses, widen his supporters’ base and do the impossible jobs. For instance, registration of tutorial classes which is regarded as a disaster period in FEA and all those scared-to-die (kiasu) things. Undeniably, this is the best strategy that they can adopt to survive. Any representative who is running a solo operation would means an academically or political suicide. To be frank, it is still consider too early to judge his performance.

The real fuss is his predecessor. I call him “the gel man” (the name explains everything as he truly put a lot of gel on his hair). If I’ve not mistaken, this gel man’s last words to current representative are “keep going on. People sometimes will not know although you did a lot of things” Wait a minute, what things that you did actually? Having a sweet journey to Philippine with your girl friend (thanks to their lovely couple photos on Facebook) although she does not holds any post in PEKUMA? Meanwhile, the Chairman of PEKUMA (I call him “Mr. Corrupted”) did not even disclose their three-person trip on announcement board. Did he open out the position registration for Career Path 2009, which they earned a huge amount of penny?

What I want to indicate is the cronyism of the student leaders - favoring personal friends. This form of cronyism is called "old boy network", in which appointees to official positions are selected only from a closed and exclusive social network – such as the alumni of particular universities – instead of appointing the most competent candidate. It is too easy to blame them considering the members of Career Path 2009 consisted most of the friends of gel man and Mr. Corrupted. However, the problem doesn’t stop at there and in fact the real ruckus goes off on the legacy left by the two sagas. The most respected Malay gang of FEA which had been bullied for quite long enough by the cronyism gave their strike in the PEKUMA annual general meeting, hoping their best man could hold the highest post. (to be continued)

Fake economist

Cut subsidies! Stop giving financial support for fuels, foods and tolls! Slash off the burdens of government before our country goes bankrupt by 2019! Indeed, the newspaper headline is a powerful tool to seize people attention and most importantly, their agreement on one issue. It is certainly unnecessary to shock and frighten the people with the doomsday warning that the country may go bankrupt within a decade if the subsidies continued.

Few days ago, I noticed a status in Facebook saying that “Low-priced goods, government spending surplus and a well-performing economy can’t be happened in a same time, according to the principle of economics! Cutting subsidy is the best strategy now” At first, I thought that this guy must have created his very own theory. If government stop giving subsidy isn’t the price of goods will be higher? Besides, a well-performing economy do happens when government spends more (deficit). The best example here would be our much-publicized 10.1% GDP growth in Q12010. Lastly, why can’t a well-performing economy cannot maintain a low-priced goods market?

“Undoubtedly, he is just a self-claimed economist who knows nothing about economics but blowing blindly according to his whims. Maybe the Chinese newspapers’ articles inject too much of confidence into him to draft such outrageous status in Facebook,” As my mind flooded with objections, curiosity and little bit of Vincent Lim-like spirit of participation, I denied his opinion (although he may copied it from somewhere - http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/14880). It didn’t stop there, he wrote an almost-essay-typed reply which sounds so professional (of course, my suspicion on copying from somewhere was growing at that time). Again, I denied it and this time surprisingly, he quite agrees with me. (Maybe he was running out of ideas) Well, frankly speaking, what I see is that the nation resources and revenue have been mismanaged to the extent that apart from paying income tax.

What’s the root cause? Is the government spending on things which benefit only some individuals like the infamous Disneyland trip, full page advertisement in the US, etc.? (I can go to hundreds of pages with just examples here) The attitude of “u help me, I help u” can only suggest improper management of public funds. If our nation’s leaders do not have that mentality and matureness to manage the country properly, at least the readers should have it.
Well, let’s examine some of the recommendations of the subsidy rationalization lab:

· Reduction of gas subsidy, resulting in an increase in electricity tariffs. However, most households will not be affected as the move will only affect those consuming more than 200kWh.
· Toll rates to increase in mid-2010 as per concession agreement except for highways without alternative toll-free routes.
· Outpatient treatment at public hospitals to be increased from RM1 to RM3. In-patient treatment will also increase, depending on the wards (Class One, Two or Three), from between RM3 and RM80, to between RM6 to RM160.
· Text book loan scheme and tuition subsidy aid to be abolished. Students will also have to pay for public examination fees.
· Foreign students will pay full fees at public universities.
· Local undergraduates and postgraduates to pay more in student fees, ranging from RM300 to RM800.

Judging from the recommendations, I think government should be looking at cutting down their self-created wastages rather than trying to remove subsidies. Subsidies should also continue for basic food items, including cooking oil and gas. As we all know, services sector plays a significant role in creating wealth for our country especially the food and restaurant industry. If such a cut being anticipated, well, my mum will be telling me that “I’m gonna cook again this coming weekends”

The justification that government used for cutting subsidy for tolled-highway is there are alternative government roads. That money should be used to upgrade existing government roads - and building new alternative roads. But, where there are no alternative government roads, like the much-used KL to Karak. Isn’t that sound ridiculous? It brings the same meaning as safe up the funding for the department that is productive and uses the saved one to build a new department that still-not-familiar with its function. If there are better alternative roads, why doesn’t the government build it at first? Also, why again build the alternative roads that could have again destroy jungles and if possible, why don’t use the exploitable land for better economic activities such as plantation?

One thing for sure, the government is trying to demonize 'subsidies' - and that is wring because these subsidies benefit the rakyat generally, and this is good as the majority of Malaysians are still poor and fall in the lower-income group. Think properly, if there is really no more subsidies, isn’t the poor will become poorer while most of the affluent one remain unaffected, the income gap will be widen! (Erm…maybe the “self-claimed economist” who posted up the status is a rich guy and he doesn’t really need to bother the subsidy cut since he can afford all of them. And the funny thing is that he proudly declared himself was in a neutral-standing!)

The Petaling Jaya Utara MP told The Malaysian Insider that while the government has outlined ways in which to gradually lessen subsidies, other “main causes of debts” had not been carefully addressed. According to Pua, the issue of subsidies was a small problem compared to the actual cause of Malaysia’s huge deficit problem. The DAP man claimed that the main cause of debts was due to huge government expenditure where major problems of wastage of funds and corruption remained unsolved. “(Besides that) we see things like the giving out of interest free loans to private companies like Syabas, those are examples which must be addressed. Subsidy is only one of the smaller factors,” said Pua. “I think IPPs (Independent Power Producers) was highlighted quite well up there, they take about RM13 billion in gas subsidies per year. Compare that against food subsidy bill, RM3.4 billion. Where the government should be focusing their attention on?” said Pua. “If you increase the burden on the people but you maintain the billions of profits for IPPs that would be a very unfair policy, (then) you are creating an additional burden,” he said.

Now there is a lot of wastage of money by reason of 'privatization'...tendering out, etc. If your pipe burst, no longer does the JBA come and do the repairs - they give it out to a contractor. Money could have been saved if the JBA (or the JKR) did these minor maintenance and repair works. Same with holes on the road - now a tender...and some private contractor ends up doing the job. Not only is there a delay ...but it is also a lot of waste of money.

There are so many ways that our government can save money - and I would say cutting subsidies is not really the way. As it is, it is already near impossible to survive as a sole-bread winner family because wages were kept low for so long. In big cities like Kuala Lumpur, you can’t really survive with RM3000 monthly salary. Now both spouses are forced to work, and then the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development will start complaining that the fertility rate is decreasing.

Fuel subsidies - well, Malaysia was not interested in improving and developing public transport systems. In fact, some say that they made sure it was bad...and undependable - so much so that people were forced to get their own cars or motorbikes just to get to work. (Ask my buddies that having their internship in city centre and you will get response like “LRT sucks!” and “I wish to have a pair of wings!”) If there was an effective public transport system, there will be fewer destructive gas-producing cars on the road - hence less fuel used and in turn, fewer fuel subsidy. Besides, then traffic polices are not really doing their duties. Traffic jams are still one of the unattractiveness of Malaysia. One of the typical practice in private sector is pay rise is depending on performance. Thus, same should be applied in public sector where the police’s pay rise should be dependent on KPI. Simplistically put, a net exporting country like Malaysia should profit when global oil prices increase. Demand for oil is ever increasing, but the limited supply pushes the value of this prized commodity up. An oil-rich country like Malaysia, which is projected to be a net exporter until 2014, is making more money when prices skyrocket. Why is the country suffering from the effects of global oil prices then?

One of the bloggers says “Sometimes people have to learn the hard way. I always advise my son that not to ride his bicycle too fast, he thinks he was good and one day he fell and bruised and cut himself. Same can be applied for Malaysia. Why does a nation or a person become a bankrupt? Because, it is spending more than it’s earning. Simple, remember the excesses the government paid for hammers, screwdrivers, government contract, army uniforms and so on …..This way of excessive spending will surely drive a nation to bankruptcy. Monies lost in PKFZ, motorcycle company bought for half a billion ringgit and then sold for 1 Euro are all excesses. Who will be bankrupt at the end? – Malaysian. “

“My worry is that if we vote not to do this, our children will condemn us. A saying that I live by is that in life, there is no gain without pain, and there is no breakthrough without breakdown,” Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Idris Jala said to crowd of about 1,000, with some seen nodding in agreement.

Holyshit!!!! My worry is that if we vote to do this, my family can’t even have a proper three meals a day and that’s the time we condemn government. (Unfortunately, it could be too late). No gain without pain? Who is getting pain and of course, who will be getting gain? No breakthrough without breakdown? So, that means cutting subsidies is a breakdown in order to achieve future breakthrough? Goes back to Milton Friedman’s quote “One of the greatest mistakes is to judge policy by intention rather than results”

One of the stupidest things being done by this self-claimed economist is follow everything that appears on newspaper and never has a second thought of it. He even went further by using a socialist nation – North Korea to make a comparison of public services. At the moment being bang off, he quickly covers that by saying it is merely for extra information and pretends like knowing everything.

The excessive debts and distortions in Malaysia’s economy cannot be all attributed to subsidies alone. Needless to say, greater problem lies in corruption and political uncertainties.