Have you heard of Lululemon ???

If you are into yoga, you might have heard of the Vancouver-based clothing company Lululemon .  Well I’m a customer so was really interested in what’s going on lately with the company as they are  facing new complaints about their yoga pants. After pulling the pants from shelves because they were too sheer, the new yoga pants are generating the same complaints, and a few others. Customers are saying that the new yoga pants are still too sheer and they are pilling after only a few months of wear. They also come apart at the seams.

Many customers say they are really happy with the product and others say they are having problems.“One pair was see-through and then one pair pilled, and then I had a hoodie and it pilled, and I think it was another pair of pants I took back,” says one Vancouver customer. “Just abnormal wear and tear.”

Their problem aint over as the Lululemon founder Chip Wilsonwas forced to apologize recently  after he essentially called a segment of his customers too fat for the brand. "Some women's bodies just don't actually work" for the company's $100 yoga pants, he said during a Bloomberg TV interview. Later Wilson said that he was "sad for the repercussions" of his actions. The remarks certainly won't help the brand recover from its see-through-pants debacle and subsequent stock plunge from earlier this year.

Tax them & they'll run away !!!

Did you know almost two thirds of  Britain's  million-pound earners disappeared from the country after the  introduction of the 50 % top rate of tax ? Who can blame them? One they could afford it, two who in their right mind wants to pay more tax, especially not the very rich!  

In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs. This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50 % top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election. ... 

It is believed that rich Britons moved abroad or took steps to avoid paying the new levy by reducing their taxable incomes. Experts said  Labor's ideological tax hike led to a tax cull of millionaires. Far from raising funds, it actually cost the UK £7 billion in lost tax revenue !

Interesting isn't it? The rich don't pay tax! But are we really that surprise...lol????

Bad living conditions for many in HKG, raises virus risk

During the 2003 SARS period, more than 40 residents of Amoy Gardens, a middle-class, high-rise private housing estate, died and 329 were infected . The investigators found severe watery diarrhea from infected people carried the virus into other people’s apartments in the form of tiny aerosols that were probably drawn by exhaust fans into the air from the building’s sewage system.  

The coronavirus began spreading in a Hong Kong hotel after it was introduced by an infected doctor visiting from Guangdong. From there, it passed to other hotel guests, who took it with them on airplanes to Canada, Ireland, the U.S., Vietnam and Singapore, illustrating the city’s potential to cultivate and disseminate pathogens internationally.  

 

Economic Shock  

 

SARS infected 1,755 people in Hong Kong, killing 300, and caused economic losses totaling HK$3.8 billion ($490 million) in two months alone as tourist arrivals dwindled and businesses from restaurants to taxi cabs slumped.  

 

Last year, 56.5 million people transited the city’s airport -- 65 % more than in 2002. By the time SARS petered out in August 2003, the virus had spread to more than two dozen countries and three regions, causing 8,096 cases and 774 deaths.  

 

Hong Kong acts as a transit point from China to Hong Kong, and Hong Kong to the world, That virus was discovered in a goose in Guangdong in 1996, seven years before it infected members of a Hong Kong family who had traveled to mainland China. The bird flu strain then spread across Asia and into Europe and Africa.  

 

Since SARS, Hong Kong established a Centre for Health Protection in June 2004 with a HK$500 million donation from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. The center now has an annual budget of about HK$1.6 billion. The government has also established a HK$500 million research fund for the control of infectious diseases after the SARS outbreak in 2003. That’s strengthened the city’s ability to detect and respond to emerging infectious disease threats.  

 

While newer laboratory testing tools have made surveillance more efficient, the city’s growing population and status as an international hub have increased the challenge of detecting potential threats. Cities are where some infectious diseases love to move between people nice and efficiently.  

 

Hong Kong has added more than 400,000 people the past decade. Many newcomers usually travels frequently to the Mainland and willing to sacrifice personal space for higher earning potential in the world’s 10th-largest banking center and third-busiest container port.  

 

‘Cage Homes’

Hong Kong electrician Chan is one of them, he shares a mold-stained toilet with his neighbors, says he’d move out if it weren’t for the rising cost of accommodation.  Chan’s one-room dwelling is smaller than some single-person cells in the city’s correctional centers, which are typically 62 square feet at Stanley prison and 77 square feet at the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre.

These Cramped living space in ‘cage homes,’  has become the reluctant choice for thousands of Hong Kong people.   Even as officials pledge to improve the affordability of housing, a scarcity of land, long waiting lists for public housing and the constant influx of people mean prices will stay high in the short term.  Chan barely survives on a monthly wage of HK$11,000 ($1,418) -- close to the HK$12,000 median income in Hong Kong -- after paying his bills and sending money to his family in mainland China.

And If you have seen these "cage homes", you'll know how lucky you are!

WMP ,China's version of a Ponzi Scheme??? 3

The Risk 
More than half of off-balance-sheet wealth-management products are linked to asset pools rather than specific investments, making it impossible to know the real returns. The maturity mismatch, poor transparency and lack of clarity about bank responsibility add to the risks.

The wealth-management products are actually a type of investment products. It is different from deposits, and investors must shoulder some risks. The question is do they know the risk. Apparently not right, if not why would anyone rush in? But shouldn't the bank tell them? 

Some banks display a sentence about the risks on a screen at the entrance to their branches. Still, investors have sought and received compensation for losses in the past.

Full Repayment  

For the first default of such a product, the principal was repaid in full after regulators stepped in and a guarantee firm bought the assets.  It was believed that Huaxia was the distributor and affiliated with the issuer.

Bank of Communications Co. also is compensating investors for a wealth-management product whose value dropped 20 % in two years. With these as the precedent, how would investors learn, it almost seems safe !!!!

Many believe -The big question is not only how do banks meet their ever-growing obligations, but also how to make hundreds of millions of investors realize that these are not real deposits. The best solution is to just stop the bank from selling such products in the first place...lol....

WMP- China's version of a Ponzi Scheme ??? 2

The WMP market has grew so huge, that should something goes wrong,  Chinese banks have their reputation on the line, and they face the risk of compensating investors because of pressure from the general public.  

Chinese banks, almost all state-controlled, have relied on such products to beef up their deposit base and finance long-term loans, some of which are held off their balance sheets and repackaged into assets to be sold to investors. Banks time the distribution and maturity date for the last days of the month so that the money can be returned to a saver’s deposit account and await purchase of new wealth-management products on the first day of the following month. That allows it to be considered a deposit on the bank’s balance sheet at month-end.  

Risk Perceptions 

Problem is it seems lenders and wealth-management investors have inconsistent perceptions of risk. While banks say the products’ returns are volatile and should reflect market realities, most customers regard them as de facto deposits and expect to make yields irrespective of all dangers.

The central bank on June 20 allowed the worst cash crunch in at least a decade and warned lenders to avoid raising short-term money to finance long-term loans as part of efforts to crack down on issuance of the products.  

While the two-week surge in borrowing costs was designed to reduce risky positions, the initial impact was to drive investors out of a plunging stock market and further into the shadow-banking system as lenders offered higher yields to attract savers’ money to ease their own liquidity shortage.  

Under certain conditions, the music must stop when investors lose confidence and stop their buying or withdraw from WMPs. The rollover of a large share of WMPs weighs heavily on formal banks’ reputations, because many investors firmly believe that banks won’t close down and they can always get their money back.

 

WMP( wealth-management products) - China's version of a Ponzi Scheme??? 1

Due to China’s credit crunch in June, millions of Chinese divert a large share of their savings into wealth-management products, known as WMPs. Many blame it on government's efforts to curb property speculation and bolster the stock market, which has lost almost 40 % of its value since 2010. Though offered by banks, WMPs are considered part of China’s shadow-banking system, estimated at $6 trillion, or 69 %of gross domestic product.  

So what's the attraction of these WMP?

Higher Rates  

Simply because they provide higher rates of return. WMPs is rather like time deposits to investors, except that most of them don’t have their principal guaranteed by banks. About half invest in low-risk deposits, bonds and money markets. The rest venture into riskier areas including stocks, derivatives and loans to local governments and property developers.  As investors increases, financial firms need even more induction of cash to pay off maturing products, resulting in mounting risks that prompted many experts to call them a “Ponzi scheme”. 

Property Restrictions  

China’s home-purchase restrictions over the past two years have also led families to invest in WMPs and trusts. Unlike investors in trusts, buyers of wealth-management products are mostly normal bank savers who are less savvy about investments and can’t afford to incur large losses. An investor with as little as 50,000 yuan can buy WMPs that have maturities ranging from a few days to as long as a year. For trusts, investors need at least 20 times more cash and an investment horizon exceeding a year. 

Facebook what's happening???

Facebook shares have been lagging the broader market since day 1.  Facebook attracts plenty of users, but the stock continues to have trouble with shareholders. Even its top executives are selling shares. The most prominent of the recent insider sellers is Facebook (FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg, who sold almost 170,000 shares. She also sold almost 7,000 shares from her family trust.

Insider buying and selling is fairly common in the corporate world, but that's a fair point. Given that Facebook shares have traded below their IPO price since hitting the market and trail the broader market's performance by a good amount, why wouldn't company executives buy up shares to encourage a little faith among investors? That actually speaks volumes right?

Some people think that Facebook doesn't have much staying power as a social media platform. Ask around & you'll bound to hear someone said they do have a FB account but they have not log in for ages!

Others argued that Facebook has a strong competitive edge -- except perhaps against Google.

But even if Facebook has billions of users, it's continuing to struggle to become a viable business, which is of ultimate importance to investors.  But Billions of users aren't enough, you got to be able to make some money right?

Free Shipping from Amazon...?

Guess what??? Free shipping offer to Singapore for orders above US$125 was announced on the Amazon website on June 8. Amazon says that only goods it sells, and not those from third-party sellers, will qualify for the AmazonGlobal Saver Shipping programme.  Free shipping makes a lot of sense and would save fans of Amazon a lot of money.

However not everyone is impressed by Amazon's free shipping programme because of its caveats. There are too many restrictions. Under this new scheme, goods sold by Amazon which are in stock will arrive in 11 to 14 days. Items weighing 9kg or more, gift cards, Kindle devices and some over-sized items, do not qualify for the free-shipping scheme. One needs to spend US$125 just to get free shipping, & not everyone will want to buy eight to 10 books at a go. Oh well, it's a business so what you expect?

The art of art investment: Herbert Vogel and Dorothy

Thought of collecting art as an investment?  Seems it's becoming popular here. Well if you are thinking of doing that , perhaps you should find out what veteran art investors do.

Herbert Vogel and his wife Dorothy,  are famous America art collectors. They do not fit the usual profile of your usual art collector, they are not rich! Haha... which is like many of us. Herbert was a high-school dropout & later worked as a postal worker. Dorothy was a librarian in a public library, and they lived in a tiny one-bedroom apartment all their lives. 

Yet, they managed to amass a collection of almost 5,000 sculptures, paintings and prints, worth about US$400 million, which they then donated to 51 museums across the country. Through their extensive collecting history, Low and the Vogels offered some valuable insights to art lovers and value investors everywhere on how to create wealth and beauty: 

Buy for the long term

They followed the classic strategy of "buy and hold". They are not interested in quick profits, thus, they purchased with the intention to keeping them for the long term. 

Buy for love, not profit & Look for investments which are new and original  

The Vogels never buy an artwork simply because they believed it would appreciate in value. Instead, they bought them because they appreciated their beauty and the value they added to their lives.  

Know the market & when to buy  

Given their limited funds, they were extremely savvy with their investments - and they made it a point to understand the market well.

Review: Duromine & Panbesy for weight loss

After almost 3 weeks on Duromine, I've lost  about slightly more than 6 kg!
 I've finally won the battle of the flab. I feel GREAT !!! I look even better!

Don't know will it last? But I'm definitely going to be more careful with my meals from now onward.

My problem is all the snacking that went on when I watch TV- & I watch TV a lot. I know  how the different chips taste like because I've tried them all- scary right? I know a girl who hated chips & never eats them- how I envy her, she's thin like a reed. I wanted to be like her....but..... I just wasn't born that way. I love sweet stuff & chips loaded with cheese or sour-cream !!!

Thinking of it makes my cravings surface again. Guess I need to stop thinking of them! My doctor taught me a trick, associate an awful image with my favorite food. So when ever I think of my cheese cake, I think of my arch enemy (at work) eating it....LOL...... it really works! It's so disgusting.... I literally don't feel like eating cheese cake anymore! All my friends thought it's brilliant...lol.. thanks DR Keith !

 Parsons Medical @Yishun, Yishun Ave 2, Blk 779, #01-1541. Singapore 760779
Tel; 64846010 , 8777-0736, 9746-7720
Open from: 9am to 12pm on Tuesday, Wednesday 
                  : 3pm to 8pm on Thursday
Parsons @Orchard : 360 Orchard, International Building, #04-10 , Singapore 238869

Tel; 8777-0736, 9746-7720
Opening Hrs : 10am-1pm & 3pm-8pm on Monday & Friday  
                        3pm to 8pm on Tuesday, Wed
                        10am-1pm on Saturday

The side effects of Panbesy/Duromine !

Today is my 10th day on panbesy & duromine. 3 days on a low dosage of panbesy 15mg & the rest on 30mg of duromine. Very Happy to report the flabby arms were a thing of the past!
Panbesy & Duromine is effective. I've lost 3 & half kg so far !!!! Happiness.......

As for side effects, is there such a thing as overly energized? Well I am feeling that ...lol..., not that I mind though. It only makes me better at my job, I even picked up a couple of mistakes here & there which impresses my boss!!!! (I think) . Sleeping is a problem for the first night, now is back to my usual- so no more complains there.

Dry mouth syndrome ? Ya I have that, I just drink more water- so no problem, I was thinking that'll help hydrates my skin...lol...

I'm enjoying the fact that I've stop craving for food, even snacks - that's the best side effect! I've been cursed with a sweet tooth, & that has always been a problem...... now solved! Wonder will it last after I get off Panbesy/ Duromine?

Ever think of trying slimming pills like Panbesy or Duromine for weight loss ?

Do you know obesity is on the rise? Like everyone else I grew up on fast food, a couple of my birthdays were celebrated in these joints - when I was a kid! Then there's the oily hawker food, which is an almost daily consumption. I love satay .....what to do?????

How not to get fat with this ? YUM !

No wonder I've developed flabby upper arms, tummy & fat thighs. Do you have any idea how awful that is? Five days ago I caught  my bf  staring- looking at my flab! He denied of course but there & then I knew I've got to do something about it- something drastic!.

Google for help.... lots of help appear in lovely blogs from ladies & their success stories of how they won the battle of the flab! There's hope for me!

Many recommended Parsons Medical. And guess what, my fellow bloggers were right, the doctor, a DR Keith Ong is kinda nice & understanding. I was a bit embarrassed when I got to the clinic & ask for Panbesy- it's like announcing to the world "I"M FAT"  ... so shy right?  But Dr Keith being so popular must have seen tons of girls like me. Within a second he made me feel almost at home, thank God!

Today is my  3rd day on Panbesy. I've been feeling really energized & super alert.
My mind usually "wanders off " during meetings while my boss rambles on,
but today I was like 100% there....haha.... I could concentrate better!
I lost 1kg so far. Even my flabby arms looks better already !

Porsche’s plans to make China the company’s biggest market by 2014

Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Porsche said it will begin selling Macan compact SUVs and delivering a $2.2 million supercar in China next year as part of its expansion plans in the world’s largest automobile market.  

Porsche, which counts the Cayenne sport utility vehicle as its best seller in China, will build on that success with the Macan, whose sales will begin in the second half of next year, Helmut Broeker, head of China operations, said in a Jan. 18 interview. The carmaker also plans to double its number of dealerships in the country to 95 in 2014 from 49 now.  

The new products are part of Porsche’s plans to make China the company’s biggest market by 2014. Porsche has benefited from a surge in demand for SUVs -- the fastest-growing segment in China’s auto market -- with the Cayenne accounting for about 65 percent of the company’s deliveries in the country.  

“The fact that they’re bringing a smaller version of the Cayenne SUV model is something that specifically in China will work quite well,” said Klaus Paur, the Shanghai-based global head of automotive coverage at research firm Ipsos. “It is catering to a segment that is fast growing. It is also part of a trend of luxury brands making their cars more accessible to the market.”

918 Spyder  

Porsche is taking orders for the 918 Spyder hybrid supercar, the first of which will be delivered to buyers in the first half of next year, Broeker said, declining to give sales figures for the automaker’s most expensive model. The car will cost 13.4 million yuan ($2.2 million) in China when including import and consumption taxes, according to the company. “The 918 Spyder of course is a great product for China,” he said. “There’s quite a lot of interest in China. But I don’t think you will see many cars on the road.”  

For this year, Porsche will open about 20 dealerships in cities including Beijing, Shenzhen, Foshan . The China head wants sales this year to be “few cars” above levels in 2012, when deliveries rose 28 percent to a record 31,205 units, he said, declining to be more specific.  

The maker of the 911 sports car will also start selling new editions of the four-door Panamera and Cayman this year. The Panamera is Porsche’s second-best selling model in China after the Cayenne with deliveries at about 9,000 units last year. The automaker has no plans to follow other foreign automakers in manufacturing vehicles in China to avoid import duties as customers expect their Porsches to be engineered and made in Germany, he said.

To promote its sports car image in China, the company will open a 135-million yuan handling circuit and training center in Shanghai in 2014, next to the city’s Formula One racetrack, according to the company.

 

Unbelievable isn't it????

Can we become a renminbi hub?

Singapore, the major commodities trading partner with China and regional treasury centre for multinationals, is following Hong Kong to become the second overseas RMB trade hub. However, experts believe that in the foreseeable future, Singapore will unlikely replace Hong Kong’s position as the primary RMB trade centre. 

Although Hong Kong – being part of China – is obviously the most ideal location for the country to experiment in its RMB liberalisation, China is now making attempts to take its local currency trading outside the country and Singapore is one of the best choices.  

The MAS also said that Singapore is well-prepared to facilitate trade-linked business flows with Mainland China. As Asia’s largest foreign exchange trading centre after Japan, Singapore houses many multi-national corporations’ treasury centre as well as offshore trading operations, and has all the necessary financial infrastructure needed to conduct and boost RMB trading. Besides several banks in Singapore have begun offering RMB banking services to their clients and expanded their product offerings to retail investors. 

Analysts believe Singapore possesses huge potential to become another RMB trading hub, not only because the pie of the offshore yuan business has grown so big – around 7 % of China’s international trade was settled in RMB during the first quarter of this year, but also because the Chinese government will not want to leave Singapore out as a centre to facilitate its trading ties with the whole Southeast Asia. However, in the mean time, they pointed out that Hong Kong will remain as the paramount RMB trading centre, due to both political and economic reasons. 

From the political side, the Chinese government still wants to take the yuan liberalisation slowly and keep it under control. A rapid yuan appreciation will likely harm numerous Chinese businesses that have long-term sales contracts denominated in U.S. dollars. 

From the economic side, Hong Kong has taken an early bird advantage, since it is so far the only jurisdiction outside Mainland China with an RMB clearing banking presence. Thanks to that, Hong Kong banks took the major share of RMB deposit flows from Mainland China through trade channels. 

Whatever it is, this is an exciting time for us!!!As Singapore’s RMB ambitions grow and China looks to expand RMB’s international influence, the two governments are taking further steps to promote RMB settlement in Singapore. Hmmm.... time to stock up? ....lol.... 

Amazon Wins Dismissal of Apple’s Claim

U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton in Oakland, California, today granted Amazon’s request to throw out one claim in Apple’s lawsuit alleging trademark infringement and unfair competition over the Amazon Appstore for Android, a service begun in March that sells applications for the Kindle Fire and devices running Google Inc. ’s Android software.  

Apple is seeking a court order to block Amazon from using the term. Amazon has argued the words are a generic term that Apple doesn’t have exclusive rights to use. The iPhone maker, which started its APP STORE in 2008, said Amazon’s use of the term was false advertising because it deceives customers into believing that Amazon’s service has the qualities of Apple’s applications store. Apple maintained this could divert its revenue to Amazon. 

Judge’s Finding 

“The court finds no support for the proposition that Amazon has expressly or impliedly communicated that its Appstore for Android possesses the characteristics and qualities that the public has come to expect from the Apple APP Store and/or Apple products,” Hamilton said.  

Apple hasn’t shown that Amazon’s advertising attempt to mimic Apple’s, failed to show that Amazon made any false statement, and presented no evidence that customers were misled by Amazon’s use of the term, Hamilton said.  She ruled only on Amazon’s request to eliminate the false advertising claim.

 

What's next? We need to stop calling an apple, "apple" just incase got sued by APPLE Inc. ??????....lol...

CEO

Someone try to convince me why one person like those CEOs deserves such an obscene amount of money while others in their company has to take the bus everyday!

The argument is often that Because if they don't make that much money they'll leave, and we can't have that for some reason. Apparently there aren't people just as capable (or maybe even more capable) willing to do the same work for much less. I guess that whole saving money on employee expenses thing only matters for those on the lower end?

No kidding, this is completely ridiculous right! What contribution can one person make to the company that makes them worth a few thousands times more than their employees? Like the CEO is making $30,000,000 and they can't find someone to do the same job for $15,000,000?

Again they said Because the shareholders and board decided they're worth that much. Make your company $billions and you could get your name on the list. Besides you have football and basketball players receiving multiple times what the CEO's are receiving. Is that ok? You have actors receiving 10s of millions of dollars for movies any high school student could do. Is that fair? How about singers like Madonna?

But we have seen CEOs that lose their company billions and still get a bonus, results don't seem to count for CEO pay. Their incentives have little to do with reaching long term goals. In fact the structure of these incentives often encourage them to do things that are short term profitable but long term bad. It even leads to questionable if not illegal actions.

Also you will find that they make millions in incentive pay even when profits and stock value are going the wrong way. Look at some of the worst performing companies that you can find and then look up the CEOs incentive compensation. You can start with the ones that have gone bankrupt.

Argument is, it's a market economy, and anyone deserves as much as they can convince someone to pay them in a competitive environment. That's true for CEO, professional athletes, singers, or anyone else.

However I think it's more like:
CEO: "Okay, Company X, I think I deserve $500,000, a nice benefits package and two cars."

President of the Board: "Gee, you're a great CEO, but that sounds a bit extreme..."

CEO: "By the way, I think you guys all deserve more money too."

President of the Board: " I like the way you think! You're hired!