In the age of internet and social networking, it becomes more and more challenging to create something unique to sell to the market. The effects of internet and social networking to businesses:
1. Since everyone has easy access to information, all kind of overpriced or untrustworthy products can be easily detected, therefore it's not hard to understand why many MLM businesses going to drain in the recent years. Just look at Sony pricing strategy, and it's not hard to understand why they suffer billions of losses in the recent years.
2. With internet, the taste and sense of everyone has been raised without notice. Everyday we're being bombarded with the latest and the most advanced products from internet. So it's almost impossible for us to sell something that looks cheap and substandard without slashing price heavily. Or worst, sometime even giving free people also don't want. When we go shopping, we will unintentionally walk into those franchise restaurants which guarantee quality and standard than walking into some standalone and looks cheap restaurants.
3. Thanks to the of free flow of information, every one can copy and also learn to become our competitors in a short period of time. No longer we can import some china goods and stamp our brand name to sell at extraorbitant price. No longer we can get some night market stocks and sell it at 2-3 times the price at shopping mall. People will know it very fast and find ways to substitute it with a far lower price.
So for any business, the only way to keep afloat is to stay away from the comfort zone, keep moving forward, maintaining a gap with the competitors, and focus on something that requires serialized effort, so that big competitors won't be able to compete purely with numbers.
And for those small businesses without any advantages, it will not be long before they are out of business if they are not able to change and develop their uniqueness that can sell.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
The Gold Bubble: The Grand Design to Con The World
Gold prices topping the history high of USD1900 today, two weeks after rising to USD1800. An amazing 5% return for a short period of time, and if calculated from the beginning of the year (USD1400++), it is an amazing 32.3% increase. If calculated from 2002 where gold is traded at USD300, it is a earth shattering 23% annual return, better than 99% of the top 500 companies in the world. And if you are not aware, Bernard Madoff's Ponzi scheme that have conned the world around USD60 billion offered yields of only 5% per year.
So what is The Grand Design that I am talking about? It is about how the elite group of capitalist carefully designing a plan since 2005 to con the world into thinking that gold will rise forever and make the biggest profit ever since the inception of capitalism. To understand The Grand Design, we must first understand a bit about the economic bubble.
British South Sea Bubble
The term "bubble", in reference to financial crises, originated in the 1711–1720 "British South Sea Bubble". The price of the stock went up over the course of a single year (in 1720) from about £100 a share to £1000 per share. Its success caused a country-wide frenzy as all types of people—from peasants to lords—developed a feverish interest in investing; in South Seas primarily, but in stocks generally. The stock dropped back to £100 per share before the year was out, triggering bankruptcies amongst those who had bought on credit.
When Sir Isaac Newton was asked about the continuance of the rising of South Sea stock, he answered "I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men".
Tulip mania
Tulip mania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. The price of tulip bulbs rise from 20f in 1621 to 2500f in 1635. The growing popularity of tulips since 1620 caught the attention of the entire Dutch, their population, even to its lowest dregs, embarked in the tulip trade.
Many individuals grew suddenly rich. A golden bait hung temptingly out before the people, and, one after the other, they rushed to the tulip marts, like flies around a honey-pot. Every one imagined that the passion for tulips would last for ever, and that the wealthy from every part of the world would send to Holland, and pay whatever prices were asked for them. The riches of Europe would be concentrated on the shores of the Zuyder Zee, and poverty banished from the favoured clime of Holland. Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen, footmen, maidservants, even chimney sweeps and old clotheswomen, dabbled in tulips.
When the bubble burst in 1636, the price of tulip bulbs fell back to 20f, many people went bankrupt and led to a widespread economic chill throughout the Netherlands for many years afterwards.
The Creation of The Gold Bubble
Every successful bubble start with a strong reason that will drive people to believe that the price of a certain item will rise at a tremendous pace forever. The stronger the reason is, the further the price hike will go on. Now let's study the situation of the gold.
You must have met some financial consultants (of whom mostly have lower academic qualification and experience than you) before, most of them will tell you that gold prices will rise forever, gold prices never go down in the pass, etc. This of course is far from the truth. The fact is, like other commodities, gold prices did fall, not once or twice, but many times. In early 1980, gold prices did hit USD850 due to strong oil prices and high inflation, but fall back quickly to USD300-400 when the bubble burst. Now you understand that gold prices will fall as well.
Please take note that during 1980 to 2005, the gold prices hardly move at all. If we invested in gold in 1980, we will get nearly 0% return for the period of 25 years. But if we put our money as fixed deposit at 4% per annum interest rate, we will get 156% of return. In other way, it also means we loss 156% if we invested in gold. Some consultants might say that investments take long time to realize profit, but if an investment make us loss 156% after 25 years, can we say it is a good investment? Therefore, to say gold is a good investment is very wrong. The chance to get loss is there.
When no people were looking at gold in the 25 years, the elite capitalist were quietly stockpiling the gold. At 2005, US and the western countries have hold most of the gold in the world. Study the following list of countries with top gold reserves in the world (updated July 2011):
1 - USA: 8965 tons
2 - Germany:3747 tons
3 - IMF: 3103 tons
4 - Italy: 2702 tons
5 - France: 2684 tons
6 - China: 1161 tons
7 - Switzerland: 1146 tons
8 - Russia: 915 tons
9 - Japan: 843 tons
10 - Netherlands: 674 tons
From the list, we understand that US and Europe has a stockpile of close to 25000 tons of gold while China and Japan has only 2000 tons. After spending 25 years in stockpiling gold and buying gigantic sum of goods from China and Asian countries with dollar debt notes, the elite capitalist understand that the time to cash out has arrived. A clever way must be designed to lure people to convert their dollar to gold at a sky shooting price. But, with the bad performance of gold in the past 25 years, it is not easy.
Only the uneducated men and women will believe that gold prices will never fall. With a little research, most people will know that gold prices did fall previously. So it is hard to lure smart people like you to believe that gold prices will rise and rise with no ceiling on it. The elite capitalist understand this, and they need to design a strong environment and reason to pump up the gold prices. With so much gold at hand, the design must be a grand one, so that not only the ordinary people will be lured into it, but even countries like China and Venezuela shall not escape from this plan. Hence, The Grand Plan was created.
So what is The Grand Design that I am talking about? It is about how the elite group of capitalist carefully designing a plan since 2005 to con the world into thinking that gold will rise forever and make the biggest profit ever since the inception of capitalism. To understand The Grand Design, we must first understand a bit about the economic bubble.
British South Sea Bubble
The term "bubble", in reference to financial crises, originated in the 1711–1720 "British South Sea Bubble". The price of the stock went up over the course of a single year (in 1720) from about £100 a share to £1000 per share. Its success caused a country-wide frenzy as all types of people—from peasants to lords—developed a feverish interest in investing; in South Seas primarily, but in stocks generally. The stock dropped back to £100 per share before the year was out, triggering bankruptcies amongst those who had bought on credit.
When Sir Isaac Newton was asked about the continuance of the rising of South Sea stock, he answered "I can calculate the movement of the stars, but not the madness of men".
Tulip mania
Tulip mania was a period in the Dutch Golden Age during which contract prices for bulbs of the recently introduced tulip reached extraordinarily high levels and then suddenly collapsed. The price of tulip bulbs rise from 20f in 1621 to 2500f in 1635. The growing popularity of tulips since 1620 caught the attention of the entire Dutch, their population, even to its lowest dregs, embarked in the tulip trade.
Many individuals grew suddenly rich. A golden bait hung temptingly out before the people, and, one after the other, they rushed to the tulip marts, like flies around a honey-pot. Every one imagined that the passion for tulips would last for ever, and that the wealthy from every part of the world would send to Holland, and pay whatever prices were asked for them. The riches of Europe would be concentrated on the shores of the Zuyder Zee, and poverty banished from the favoured clime of Holland. Nobles, citizens, farmers, mechanics, seamen, footmen, maidservants, even chimney sweeps and old clotheswomen, dabbled in tulips.
When the bubble burst in 1636, the price of tulip bulbs fell back to 20f, many people went bankrupt and led to a widespread economic chill throughout the Netherlands for many years afterwards.
The Creation of The Gold Bubble
Every successful bubble start with a strong reason that will drive people to believe that the price of a certain item will rise at a tremendous pace forever. The stronger the reason is, the further the price hike will go on. Now let's study the situation of the gold.
You must have met some financial consultants (of whom mostly have lower academic qualification and experience than you) before, most of them will tell you that gold prices will rise forever, gold prices never go down in the pass, etc. This of course is far from the truth. The fact is, like other commodities, gold prices did fall, not once or twice, but many times. In early 1980, gold prices did hit USD850 due to strong oil prices and high inflation, but fall back quickly to USD300-400 when the bubble burst. Now you understand that gold prices will fall as well.
Please take note that during 1980 to 2005, the gold prices hardly move at all. If we invested in gold in 1980, we will get nearly 0% return for the period of 25 years. But if we put our money as fixed deposit at 4% per annum interest rate, we will get 156% of return. In other way, it also means we loss 156% if we invested in gold. Some consultants might say that investments take long time to realize profit, but if an investment make us loss 156% after 25 years, can we say it is a good investment? Therefore, to say gold is a good investment is very wrong. The chance to get loss is there.
When no people were looking at gold in the 25 years, the elite capitalist were quietly stockpiling the gold. At 2005, US and the western countries have hold most of the gold in the world. Study the following list of countries with top gold reserves in the world (updated July 2011):
1 - USA: 8965 tons
2 - Germany:3747 tons
3 - IMF: 3103 tons
4 - Italy: 2702 tons
5 - France: 2684 tons
6 - China: 1161 tons
7 - Switzerland: 1146 tons
8 - Russia: 915 tons
9 - Japan: 843 tons
10 - Netherlands: 674 tons
From the list, we understand that US and Europe has a stockpile of close to 25000 tons of gold while China and Japan has only 2000 tons. After spending 25 years in stockpiling gold and buying gigantic sum of goods from China and Asian countries with dollar debt notes, the elite capitalist understand that the time to cash out has arrived. A clever way must be designed to lure people to convert their dollar to gold at a sky shooting price. But, with the bad performance of gold in the past 25 years, it is not easy.
Only the uneducated men and women will believe that gold prices will never fall. With a little research, most people will know that gold prices did fall previously. So it is hard to lure smart people like you to believe that gold prices will rise and rise with no ceiling on it. The elite capitalist understand this, and they need to design a strong environment and reason to pump up the gold prices. With so much gold at hand, the design must be a grand one, so that not only the ordinary people will be lured into it, but even countries like China and Venezuela shall not escape from this plan. Hence, The Grand Plan was created.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Mass Effect系列
最近乘Steam Store大折扣买了Mass Effect和Mass Effect 2，一气柯成把它们完成后，真的是感到万分惊叹。无论在故事、图像、场景设计、玩法、音乐和音效等方面都接近完美，实在是近年来最令我感到满意的游戏，Half Life、Crysis、Halo等系列比较起来根本没得比，差得多了。
Mass Effect的故事背景是2180左右，当时人类才发现突破光速飞行的方法30年，并开始接触了一些外星人。就在此时，主人翁发现一个远久的生物即将重临银河，所有高级生物即将被毁灭，于是展开了拯救银河行动。当然这只是大纲，Mass Effect对整个故事背景有非常细腻的解说，让我们轻易融入故事里和主人翁一起探险。
对玩了电脑游戏有接近20年的人，都应该知道Adventure game已经是减少卖少，而有素质的根本是已经绝种了。如果你喜欢Adventure game，Mass Effect系列肯定不会让你失望。游戏重心绝对是放在故事上，不像Doom、Fear等一直没有目的的打打杀杀，很没趣。
Mass Effect是一个Trilogy，最后篇章将在明年面世，非常期待！
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)