Location and possession

A reserved parking space in Manhattan costs about $700 per month. The same space in Memphis will set you back $20 per month. That's a pretty big difference. Likewise, an art piece found by a maid in an abandoned apartment is thrown in the trash because it is judged to be practically worthless. The same piece is found by someone who works at a museum and is saved and taken to the museum curator. It is now judged to be worth $2,000,000. A tattoo on the arm of a man hardly draws any attention. Put it on the lower back of a woman and you will notice a huge difference in the response. A house on the poor side of town has a value of $100,000. That same house in a pricy neighborhood is worth $145,000. A country in the hands of lazy, uneducated people has little value. In the hands of educated, hard-working people, it is priceless. An idea in the hands of a timid person will get nowhere. The same idea in the mind of a born salesman might be worth millions. What does all this mean? I don't know. You figure it out.

China

There's this story on the net about a statement by the new Secretary of the Treasury having to do with China's manipulation of its currency so that their exports have an unfair advantage over domestic products. It's been like that for quite some time. However, this is not a good time to be making statements like that. The old rule still holds true: never negotiate from a position of weakness. "The statement, which is certain to anger the Chinese government, comes at a particularly sensitive time, with economies in both the United States and China weakening and tensions already rising around the globe over trade. The United States, moreover, is increasingly dependent on China to finance its ballooning deficit." So said the New York Times. It will get interesting, to say the least.

They own us

From Yahoo! News: Dec. 29 (Bloomberg) – “The global recession is re-exposing fissures in U.S.-China relations that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson spent more than two years smoothing over. Heightened tensions between China and the U.S. may worsen a contraction in world trade that already threatens to deepen and prolong the economic downturn. The friction comes as President-elect Barack Obama readies a two-year stimulus package worth as much as $850 billion that will require the U.S. to borrow more than ever from China, the largest buyer of Treasury securities.” Tell me something I don’t already know. I said this was the situation two months ago. I think Bloomberg is stealing from my blog!!!! Please. No matter what, the woman at left is optimistic. You can tell by the hemline.

CUBA

Well, ladies and gentlemen, it is quite safe to assume that the new administration will open a huge doorway to Cuba. Now, the big thing here is to figure out which industries will most benefit from the new policy. I would say practically everything. The trick will be to get the banks to finance the myriads of new ventures that are being planned (as we speak.) Good luck to all of you and try not to stuff your faces with too much turkey.