Opportunity in China

Right now I am sitting in cost management learning about the ROI, EVA, and of course minimum ROR. These are skills that I am sure that many of my previous bosses have ever learned.

I am also learning about the great need that the People’s Republic of China need for lawyers and accountants. I’m also reading a book titled Illicit, which is about illegal international trade which includes counterfeiting, which it is well known that most counterfeiting occurs in China. By weight counterfeited software, DVDs, and CDs make more money than the equivalent in marijuana. All in all this is a very lucrative business for anyone that doesn’t believe in copyrights wants to work in illegal international trade, and who is willing to work in China.

I am planning to work with the Japanese though. This way I can travel to Japan, enjoy Fugu, and buy a Playstation 3 six months before its release in the United States, and the subsequent games.

Interesting note, on Microsoft Word Playstation comes up as a misspelled word, but Xbox does not.

The American Flag

I wanted to share something from the Federal Flag Code.

SECTION 4
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.

In 1968 Abbie Hoffman was arrested for wearing a shirt that had the American Flag on it. Now of course some marketing genius decided that it would be patriotic to wear American flags, which of course ignores the Federal Flag Code.

Just something to chew on.

First Post

Egg Nogg Lattes are available at Starbucks. This is important because during this time of year I reject all other forms of food besides the components of Egg Nogg, and the additional caffeine that is added for energy (or Bourbon for sleepytime Egg Nogg). Most people are eating turkey or ham sandwiches this time of year, but I’m a vegetarian.

The big news of the day is that a member of the moral majority party (the Republicans) has just left congress for taking bribes. Randy Cunningham took 2,400,000 dollars in bribes from a defense contractor, and he forgot to pay taxes on that bribe. Now because he forgot to pay taxes he is getting busted for tax evasion as well. The lesson is that when taking bribes declare it on your taxes and you will not get in trouble with the IRS.

Now the interesting thing about taking a 2,400,000 bribe is that the penalty for taking that bribe is only six figures. Randy Cunningham made a profit on this transaction. Sure he doesn’t have a job anymore, but he’s got enough money to get by. Here is a hint, less people would take bribes if the punishment is more than the money that one gets from the bribe.

Today I went to classes after a week long break where I spent too much time playing Civilization IV and not enough time working on my Japanese. I got hit today with that, I’ll need to spend some more time catching up and continuing with my Japanese. The same goes for cost accounting a class that puts me to sleep every time I study for it. I can into business school with several preconceived notions, and many are turning out to be true including that accounting is fucking boring.