NBC Nightly News now available on the Internets

Brian Williams just announced on the broadcast that starting Monday, NBC Nightly News will become the first national newscast to be available in its entirety over the web. Every evening starting at 10pm Eastern, the broadcast will be available to Internet viewers, with Internet commercials replacing broadcast commercials.

I am the only person I know in the "below 30" category that regularly watches one of the "Big 3" newscasts and I think this is a big step by the broadcast news industry in its attempt to reach out to younger viewers. The move will "unhinge" viewers from either having to either be home at 6:30 or set the VCR to tape. Waiting until 10pm to stream the broadcast also resolves concerns on the part of the affiliates that the web will cannibalize the local stations.

Dole Kemp ninety six!

One of the things I like about being on a college campus is the variety of speakers that regularly come to campus. After my strategery class today I went to Dey Hall where former Republican Vice Presidential candidate Jack Kemp gave a talk on revitalizing America’s cities. His talk was the standard "in praise of low taxes and less government regulation" talk he’s been giving for the past fifteen years. He referred to Hong Kong as an "anti-poverty machine," citing it as an example of how an environment of low taxes results in wealth creation.

I had with me my copy of Trusting the People. The book had been autographed by Bob Dole during a New Jersey rally in 1996 where I elbowed my way to the front of the crowd after the stump speech. As the Senator walked by, I waved the book in front of him, he grabbed it, reached for his pen while a Secret Service agent held the book open, and signed on the first page. After today’s talk I introduced myself to the former Congressman and he autographed the book as well.

So now my copy of Trusting the People has a the first page with "B. Dole" in the middle and "from Jack Kemp (old #15)" toward the bottom. It’s going to be quite a collector’s item.

Thoughts on Rosa Parks

One of my dearest readers pointed out that I have neglected to comment on the passing of Rosa Parks and her special place in American history. While most Americans will place her alongside Dr. King as an important catalyst of the civil rights movement, the person that comes to my mind when I think of her is someone name Jeannette Rankin.

 

Jeannette Rankin was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives. She was also an extreme pacifist and voted against the resolution to enter World War I. She served for only one term but spent the next twenty years active in the political process. She was elected to Congress once again in 1940 and the following year, she cemented her place in history as the only member of Congress to have voted against America’s declaration of war against Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor.

 

Both women shared the courage to go against doing what they were expected to do. Both also lived into their nineties.

Turning once again to Ebay

This past week I once again was asked to shell out major bucks for something I don't particularly care for, something that will go unused, and will become completely obsolete after about seven weeks or so.

I had to buy textbooks.

I tried to be smart this time by not buying any of the optional ones. I figured since I don't even do all the required work, I am not going to do any optional work! I found a couple of deals on Ebay. The local bookstore sells used copies of the marketing textbook used for $105. I got a copy (a softcover internaional edition) on Ebay for $35 (all Ebay prices include shipping). For operations, there is a novel we have to read that the store sells used for around $15, some enterprising second years are hawking theirs for $10, I got mine on Ebay for $4.25. Unfortunately I was unable to replicate my success with our strategery class. The textbook for which is a brand new fifth edition that sells for $57 and second years are pricing their used fourth editions for $35. I figured I may as well buy the new one since we used this text for another class down the line.

Watch me next year as I try to sell some of these books to the next first year class at prices higher than what I bought them for! ;)

Reporting from inside the "MBA Bubble"

One of the things that I am still getting used to is how when you're in an MBA program (or any other type of graduate school with an intense amount of work load), your work load is such that you stop paying attention to the news and other stuff happeninng around you.

This past Wednesday morning I was studying when I looked at the web at around 1am and saw that the White Sox had won the World Series. My initial reaction was that I was not even aware they (is that the appropriate pronoun when referring to a sports team or should the word be "it") was in the World Series. Then yesterday I was talking to some students and they were completely unaware of the indictments (or even of the surrounding controversy) handed out in Washington yesterday morning. Then this morning I watched the tape of this past week's Apprentice and was completely blown away by the ending in which all four contestants in the boardroom were fired (since no one from the boardroom got to go back to the suites, I wonder how the folks in the suites will find out who got fired in the beginning of next week's episode).

this is one of the unfortunate realities of being in graduate school.

In the wee small hours of the morning

Fifteen percent of my marketing grade will be decided in the next few hours as I compose a 750 word write up of HBS 9-596-036, better known to MBA students as the Land Rover North America case. 750 words is really not a lot, a year ago this month I was getting started on my Darden application essays and one of them was to write my life story in 500 words or less.

In the past I have always been confused about the Land Rover/ Range Rover brand, not certain as to which is the name of the brand (ie Ford) and which is the name of the model (ie Five Hundred). After spending the past three hours reading, I now know better. By tomorrow I should be able to tell you anything you would ever want to know about the difference between the Range Rover and the Discovery.

Dressing appropriately for the occasion

One thing you learn in business school is the importance of presentation, and often this means wearing the right gear for the event you plan on attending. Currently, I am having trouble figuring out what to dress up as for the MBA Halloween party tomorrow night. Making matters more complicated, I will be going striaght there from an Intervarsity meeting where the guest speaker will be the most popular professor at UVA. I can just imagine Ken Elzinga asking me "what are you up to here at Chapel Hill" as I am standing there in front of him in my clown suit holding a batch of balloons and a clown noisemaker.

This morning I put on a costume of a different sort. I dressed up for a lunchtime workshop put up by a big name consulting firm that had a recruiting presentation last night. Not having time to iron my semi-wrinkled shirt, I put on a blazer to cover up some of the imperfections. Unfortunately all this work was in vain for the recruiters from the firm did not show and had not bothered to inform the Office of Careers Services ahead of time.

Hump day

Centuries ago the Chinese used to believe that solar eclipses were caused by a celestial hound having swallowed the sun, hence blocking the sunlight from reaching the ground. They would react to a solar eclipse by banging on drums, yelling at the sky, and doing other things to scare the hound until he eventually decides to return the sun by spitting it back out.

 

I have noticed that since the fall break, the amount of sunlight I see each day has been getting progressive less and less. But unfortunately there is no celestial hound that I can blame my dilemma onto and yelling at the sky in the middle of the day will only result in unneeded attention from the University’s Department of Public Safety.

 

Between 9:15 this morning when I walked into McColl and 4:30 this afternoon when I left, my day was jam packed with going to class, rummaging through my locker, returning phone calls, going to the Dean Dome (80 yards away) to get my name on the raffle for basketball tickets, attending a company presentation, and meeting with classmates about possibly entering a case competition.

 

Lunch was eaten during the first five minutes of strategery, flushed down very quickly with two cans of Coke.

 

I never did get the chance today to speak to my professor about the spelling error on his syllabus but I did have the opportunity to harass one of my second year TAs. We arrived in school the same time this morning and as we walked across the bridge that connected the parking garage to McColl, I jokingly told her she was a world renown expert in the subject she’s teaching us about. She confessed that she was still in the process of reviewing her notes from last year and I told her I’d stop by during office hours next week to give her a pop quiz.

 

She laughed.

Spelling error on the syllabus

I wrote last month that I sometimes have trouble staying awake in my 2pm class, which is quite embarassing because I usually sit in the front of the room (at the end of the "U") and anything I do is witnessed by about one quarter of the 70 people in my section.

Earlier today I had the exact opposite problem. At the 2pm class the professor was explaining the syllabus when something unusual on the projection screen had caught my attention. While trying to decipher exactly what the passage was trying to convey, my mind began to entertain various scenarios as to how the professor would literally accomplish the goal stated on the syllabus. I was having such a tough time keeping myself from laughing out loud that I almost had to leave the room.

I am going to stop by to see the professor during office hours later this week to point out the error to him. I am sure he's aware that there should be an "s" at the end, at least that's how I normally use it.

Back to the daily grind

The one nice thing about Mod II is that I no longer have 8 o’clock classes. My days now begin at 9:30 and end at 3:20. I am going to need the extra sleeping time because the workload for this Mod looks formidable.

 

Every class I have had today (operations, marketing, strategery), has more work than its counterpart from Mod I. And the professors seem much more serious. While my professors from the last quarter were flexible with allowing students to sit anywhere they want, the three (actually four, since the marketing class is taught by two professors) today asked that students sit in the same spot the remainder of the semester.

 

I wonder if this is the Mod where the knives will finally come out.

 

Rested, tanned, and ready

Al Gore in 2008! Oh wait, wrong blog.

After blowing my fall break on career treks to two cities and one weekend at Ocean Isle with the folks from church, I am back at Chapel Hill and ready to take on the new quarter. Or at least I am as ready as I am ever going to be.

               

Mod II will be the most challenging quarter of my two years. The core classes consist of marketing, operations, strategery, macroeconomics, and finance. Marketing and strategery require case readings and the case methodology. Macroeconomics is taught by the same beloved professor who taught the finance course over the summer. Finance is a continuation of the class from last quarter, but will be taught by a different professor. This particular professor received his PhD from Wharton very recently and is only a few years older than I am. I did pretty well in finance last quarter but unfortunately I can’t take credit for it because most of the material is review from what I took at UVA. Come to think of it, much of the material from Mod I (finance, accounting, microeconomics) is material I have already had in college. I am amazed at how well UVA has prepared me for business school.

 

When I visited Kenan-Flagler in January, my student host told me that classes (time in class as well as time preparing for it) take up only a small portion your timein business school. I am beginning to see his point. For Mod II, I have already committed to a case competition and a trip to Omaha with the finance club. This is not including the work I have to do to figure out exactly what type of career I want with my MBA and to find my summer internship. On the first day of class during Mod I, my economics professor said, “you will find that with every passing day, there is less time than the day before.”

                         

Part of the challenge this coming quarter will be spiritual as well as physical. When I started the MBA application process by taking the GMAT a year ago this month, I had some expectations of what I would get out of two years in any MBA program. These expectations are a combination of things ranging from financial rewards, the formation of lifelong friendships, to successful romantic endeavors. Soon after Mod I began, I realized that while these were good expectations to have, God has never said that they were to be my expectations. Furthermore, I was reminded that God calls for us to be faithful, and not necessarily to be successful. I cannot begin to tell you how my outlook has changed since I have been relieved of my expectations.

 

When I was driving back from Charlotte last week, I began to feel an increased sense of peace about my job search, my situation at Kenan-Flagler, and my life in general. I am not sure if God was asking me to trust Him or if I was hallucinating. It also could have been caused by the relief over the end of Mod I and even possibly the alcohol from the party earlier in the week but I am curious to see how long this sense of peace lasts.

Happy Honeymoon!

To a certain AOL employee who is getting married this weekend:

                   Congratulations! 

PS: The medium size bosphorus vase is in the mail.

Two days in Manhattan

This past Monday and Tuesday were pretty grueling. We visited ten banks in two days. The first night ended in an alumni reception at the Universty club where Dean Steve Jones gave a talk and introduced our guest speaker, a Vice President at Krafts Food. The speaker majored in economics at UVA before attending the MBA program at Kenan-Flagler (sound familiar?). In his introduction, Dean Jones jokingly referred UVA as "the finest University in Virginia." I snuck out of the reception to have drinks with a college buddy of mine at a bar down the block called Faces & Names.

The next day was another day of back to back bank visits as we hopped back and forth between locations in midtown and lower Manhattan. Tuesday ended around 7:30 when I met up with a UVA grad from college in Times Square and we had dinner at a Thai restaurant by Grand Central Terminal.

During the two days, I couldn't help comparing this trip to another one almost ten years ago when I visited many of these same banks with other UVA students. One bank hosted us at its location on Wall Street but this time around, the visit took place in its midtown office by Park Avenue. This was probably due to a recent merger it has completed. At one of the banks, we had a run in with our counterparts from Durham. As the presentation came to a close, the caterers began cleaning up the back of the room and replacing the cookies and fruit with food that is of much better and more expensive variety. We were told we had to leave earlier than the scheduled time because another group was coming in. When we exited out of the lobby and into the nearby Times Square area, another group of students walked into the building. The students looked almost exactly like our group except their name tags identify bear the logo of the other business school in North Carolina up the street from us.

Overheard in New York

When I started this blog over the summer, I had a series of posts titled "Overheard at Kenan-Flagler" where I wrote about funny things and witty comments I have heard coming from my classmates. I eventually discontinued it because it was getting too gossippy.

But I saw a story on the local Channel 7 last night about this web site that serves a similar function.

Oh what an upset!

Virginia 26                   Florida State 21

All the memories from that fateful Thursday night during my second year came back as I watched the students rush the field after beating Florida State. It's just too bad that I don't go down (actually, I really meant to say "go up") to games anymore because of school work and had to watch the game on TV from Chapel Hill.

If only I had gotten into Dar .... nevermind. ;) 

A repeat of November 2, 1995?

According to my AOL sports ticker, with a little bit more than a minute in the third quarter, Virginia leads Florida State 26 to 10. Some idiot producer at CC1 must have gotten the scores mixed up again. ;) 

A visit to the other big “Chinese Wall”

Three years ago when I was in Beijing, I had the chance to see the Great Wall of China. In Charlotte yesterday, I saw another “Chinese Wall” of sorts when we visited the two banks headquartered there.

 

The morning visit to the trading room was incredible. The room looked almost exactly like the room from the movie Wall Street, with traders sitting at rows of desks, each desk equipped with multiple flat panel screens, an extremely sophisticated looking telephone, and a squawk box.  The vice president that gave us the tour (Kenan-Flagler graduate) explained that each trader is able to call clients and talk to other colleagues on the trading floor (and in New York City’s trading floor) at the touch of one button. During the tour, he showed us the spot where the firm’s analysts conduct television interviews, a spot with the trading floor and the firm’s logo in the background .

 

The afternoon featured an almost identical presentation and tour. The only difference was that the second firm’s trading floor features a giant, two story tall window overlooking Charlotte and I-277. The director who gave us the tour works for the syndicate, a division within the bank responsible for maintaining compliance with the Glass-Stegall Act. As we walked out the trading room and across the elevator lobby into the area staffed by other bankers, he commented that we had just crossed the “Chinese Wall” that separates the bank’s public and private sides.

 

This blog will originate from New York City (some time) next week as our investment banking career trek continues.

Trekking to Charlotte

Greetings from the biggest city in North Carolina. I, along with about 30 other students, drove to Charlotte earlier today for tomorrow's investment banking career trek. This is a one day event for students interested in working for one of the two firms headquartered in Charlotte.

The program of events began this evening with a happy hour in the office building of one of the firms we will be meeting with tomorrow. We spent two hours on the 40th floor of the building, with a penthouse view of downtown Charlotte, mingling with associates and directors, many of whom are Kenan-Flagler graduates.

As we rode the elevator down to the lobby after the happy hour, I was reminded of the importance of always exercising discretion when speaking in front of an audience. I was standing in the back of a packed elevator when one of my classmates jokingly suggested that we stop on one of the other floors on the way to the lobby. I then announced my plans to stop by (name of the bank's CEO's) office tomorrow to complain about my checking account. More specifically, I am extremely unhappy with having been charged twelve dollars to receive a wire transfer and have gotten no help from the branch manager in Chapel Hill in my quest to get a refund.

Some of the students around me laughed while those standing by the elevator door were strangely silent. Then one of them said "Joey (not the person's real name), can you do something about that?" It was then that we realized one of the associates was in the elevator with us. The associate turned his head, looked at me, and said "I don't have that problem, my checking account is with (name of competitor down the street)." We all got a big laugh out of his quick and witty come back. I, personally, was extremely impressed at how skillful he was at defusing the awkward situation.

When we walked out of the bank's corporate headquarters, my classmates made sure the thick glass doors have completely closed and the associate had disappeared back into the building (probably to do more work) before they started to laugh hysterically at my diplomatic blunder. We then went to some bar where we got something to eat before returning to our hotels.

"That's racist! "

I'd like to thank a particular Terrapin MBA and former AOL intern for pointing this Washington Post article to my attention. I first came across this web site about two years ago, it documents many of the things we see in the media and attitudes in our culture today that don't necessarily portray Asian folks in the most positive light. Some of the stuff he points out is pretty funny , others are indeed racist, while a couple are a bit of an over-reaction on his part.

"The site doesn't boast big numbers -- about 60,000 hits a month, Yu says -- but since launching in February 2001, it's become a daily must-read for the media-savvy, socially conscious, pop-cultured Asian American. It's part Gawker ("Check out this Bud Light commercial. Just another Asian karate dude . . . getting his [butt] kicked . . . By an old lady . . . That's racist! "); part Drudge Report ("New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson acknowledges in his new autobiography that Wen Ho Lee was 'mistreated' "); part Ain't It Cool News ("The new TV drama, 'Inconceivable,' starring Ming Na, premiered last night on NBC . . . Hopefully, they'll give her more to do than they did on 'ER.' "). But it's also altogether original."

Privatizers vs. evangelicals

I dropped my car off this morning for an oil change and walked to the UNC campus to do some reading, writing and researching. I am currently sitting in an undergraduate economics lecture at Carroll Hall. Carroll Hall was featured in the movie Patch Adams. It is also the building that housed Kenan-Flagler until July, 1999.

 

The most popular professor at UVA gave a talk at Abilene Christian University last month. The focus of his talk was on what should be expected by institutions of Christian academia but his comments on Christian professors in secular universities is interesting. He divides these educators into two categories, one he calls privatizers and the other evangelicals.

Privatizers are Christian professors but you would never know about their faith from the way they conduct themselves on campus. As Ken (students who have taken his upper level class on anti-trust get to call him by his first name) so eloquently puts it:

“Their Christian faith is private and apart from their jobs. These professors live in two worlds, not simultaneously, but sequentially: one is secular; that’s the campus; the other is sacred; that’s their church.”

Evangelicals are those that are more vocal about their faith. While members of this group are careful to maintain a welcoming environment for students of all faiths in the classroom, they are active in supporting student Christian groups and providing spiritual mentoring for Christian students.

                                                

I have noticed that Ken’s categorization is appropriate not only for Christian professors but also for Christians in general. For example, I know Christians who are so secretive about revealing their faith to co-workers to the point where they will shy away from saying that they go to church on Sundays. There is one professor who teaches a core class at Kenan-Flagler who is an excellent example of a privatizer. I have seen him in church yet the way he conducts himself (and I am not saying this in a judgmental or critical way) inside McColl does not indicate in anyway that his worldview is any different than that of his secular colleagues.

 

This past Friday I was at a meeting of the graduate student Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship group and a retired UNC professor referred to Ken as (paraphrasing) “the best example of a Christian mentor at a secular university.” Members of the Inter-Varsity group will find out why that is later this month when Ken stops by to speak at our next meeting.

"Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me"

Yesterday was the last exam for Mod I and last night we all ("we all" defined as everyone still in town) met up at the Martini Bar. After chucking down three or four glasses of Diamond and Dole (or at least that was what I thought the name of it was) and one vodka martini (in honor of the new James Bond), the party really started to get happening.

I came up with this funny line that I kept recyling the entire night, much like a politician giving the same stump speech at different rallies to different audiences. I told people that when I drink, not only do I turn red but my face also becomes numb. So if I were drunk enough to say something crude to a woman and she were to slap me, I wouldn't feel a thing.

At midnight, the parade of drunks ..... I mean students .... then flooded down the street to Lucy's where we spend the next two hours on the dance floor. Yes, by "we" I mean myself included. All types of students that, even the ones that you would never expect to hit the dance floor in a million years, were dancing the night away.

Can't wait for Mod II.

Google and Comcast in talks to buy AOL?

I just heard the news on the radio a few minutes ago and am surprised McCoy missed it. I guess the announcement earlier today that Microsoft has agreed to make its MSN Messenger system compatible with Yahoo! Messenger is a sign it has decided against going into business with AOL.

(Come up with something witty later)

The accounting exam today was hard, but do-able. The case was based on the 2005 financial reports for La-Z-Boy and while some questions were different than the ones he's asked in past finals, there was nothing out of left field.

But perhaps the most important accounting journal entry I made today was not on the exam but the recognition that the two most important years of my professional career is officially one-eighth over.

Daniel Craig coronated as James Bond VI

I have never heard of Daniel Craig. But then again I have never heard of Pierce Brosnan neither before he was casted for Golden Eye. The 21st James Bond movie, Casino Royale, premiers a year from this week. Both Judith Dench ("M") and John Cleese ("Q") will return to reprise their roles. But I am curious as to their contract statuses. This will be Cleese's third "Bond" and Dench's fifth.

Odds not looking good for stats

One of the nice things about Kenan-Flagler is that regardless of how poorly I do in a particular class, I have the comfort of knowing that the professor can only give an "L" (low pass) to a maximum of 5% of his students. In a class of 281 students, that means at most, 14 students will get an "L." I have always looked upon this arrangement as a safety net of sorts, almost like social security, an insurance of last resort, that I really have to be a major putz to get an "L" in a class.

After this morning's statistics final, I am going to have to count on the this so called safety net. I was not doing well in statistics to begin with. I performed below the mean on the "quiz" (it was really a midterm) and was lost (in a secular sense) throughout a good part of the second half of the Mod. As I was studying last night, I decided that instead of studying to understand the concepts, I was only going to study past years' finals to understand how to do the problems. I took comfort in knowing that other students I saw studying last night were almost equally clueless and that, as my professor said during the first week of class, (paraphrasing) "there are only so many different ways we can ask the same questions over and over again."

But the exam this morning was harder than any of those given in the past years. In addition, there were conceptual short answers questions that I could not answer because I studied the old exams without actually understanding the underlying mechanics of the math involved. Throughout the exam, I kept thinking about my accounting professor's ongoing joke about what happens when you cross an elephant with a rhino. There were a couple of questions where I was really tempted to reference the joke in my answer because "elephrino" anything about the relationshp between SST and SSR in a standard multiple time series regression. (not an actual exam question)

Bringing shame to the UVA Economics Department

One of my favorite movies, Wall Street, features a scene where Bud Fox found out he took a loss on a stock he bought for Gordon Gekko's account. His co-worker Marvin said "you really went down the toilet on that ugly b-tch." 

This was how I felt this morning as I handed my economics final to my economics professor. Most of the answers (even the multiple choice ones) I entered were educated guesses that I was uncertain about. Never again can I tell people that I have a good understanding of economics.

How not to be Google- or Friendster- stalked

The author of this article was on the radio this morning talking about "UnGoogleables," folks who want to keep their names from appearing on a Google search. What I don't understand is that even if you are able to get the owner of a web site or a blog to remove your name, it will still show up on cached portion of a Google search.

In other news on web-privacy, Friendster has rolled out a new feature allowing users to find out if other users have looked at their profiles. Some of you folks who log onto Friendster just to gawk at other people's profiles may want to be careful.

When I launched this blog in June, a friend expressed surprise that I would share such a large part of my life on the Internets. My reply is that I am sharing this information only with folks who know my true identity. This includes the friends that I have "allowed" onto the blog, my former co-workers, and my Kenan-Flagler classmates (and professsors) who know who I am. Other than people that know me in real life, I go to great deals to prevent the average Internet lurker from finding out my identity.

Farewell to Leading and Managing

A whole fifteen percent of my final grade was determined this morning for Leading and Managing.  Leading and Managing focuses on teaching the soft skills that aren't traditionaly taught, such as bringing about change, team building, and managing decision making. A lot of students (myself included) consider it a giant waste of time and one of my other professors consistently gets the biggest laughs when he makes fun of the class. But I have been told by other students that it's the most important class taught in Mod I because it teaches you the soft skills that you will need over and over again regardless of what field you go into.

The final was a hassel. Every other final is open book, open notes, and open laptops. But for this one, we are only allowed to bring in a 4 x 6 index card (both sides) with our notes on it. I managed to do okay on the exam with a minimal amount of bleeding and damaging.

Has anyone seen my "power chord?"

The most mundane things become so much funnier when you're stressed about finals. This evening a student sent the following email to the first year class:

Subject: Lost power chord

I lost my IBM power chord today during the exams. I wanted to know whether anybody has found it and passed on to the lost and found section. I  was taking the exam in room no # 3500.   Since the lost and found section will open on monday only I will be extremely grateful if somebody with a spare power chord can help me out.

Another student gave the following reply:

The lost power chord can be found in the song “The Four Horseman,” off of Metallica’s seminal 1983 release “Kill ‘Em All.”

Hitting the voter registration rolls

I received my voter registration card today in the mail. The very odd thing about where I live is that even though my mailing address is Chapel Hill, my apartment community is so close to Durham County that I drive by a sign saying "Welcome to Durham" on my way home from Kenan-Flagler. I have always wondered just whether I really live in Chapel Hill and if so, where exactly the county/city line is.

My voter registration card only compounded the mystery. It lists my Chapel Hill address and the Chapel Hill address of my polling place. Yet it lists my municipality as Durham (under "MUNI: DUR").  On top of that, the card was sent from the Durham County Board of Elections.

I am a strong believer that when someone moves into a new community, there should be at least a six month moratorium before he is allowed to vote in an election. When I vote this coming November, I am going to be standing there in the booth with no clue as to who the candidates are, or even what the issues are. I will probably do what I have done in the past in these situations, write in the names of my friends and professors.

Finance, done!

Just got back from my finance final. At around 10:50 this morning, I had a "holy crap" moment when I was unable to do question number four, skipped ahead to question number five, and realized that question number five was on the one topic I understand the least from the class.

By the time noon rolled around I managed to present a semi-respectable answer to every one of the six problems. But how concerned should I be about the fact that finance begins with an .... F!

UVA grad reaches new heights

Some of you have probably heard about the American scientist and businessman who paid his way aboard (or is it on board?) the International Space Station. What you probably don’t know is that Greg Olsen is a University of Virginia graduate. During my first year at UVA, I used to study in a building in the Engineering School named after him.

Inside joke

This entry is intended to the edification of my former co-workers, because anyone else will probably not understand the significance of the humor.

Last week I had a conversation where I mentioned that I had missed the previous night's Bank of America presentation because I went to a Bible study but got back to the school afterwards in time to help myself to the cocktail shrimp that was left in the lobby. The person then started laughing and said "I just can't imagine you pigging out on the cocktail shrimp."

You wanna bet?

Shocked and awed

If there was any reservation in my mind that a portion of my classmates was still unaware of the existence of this blog, such lingering doubts were put to rest this past Wednesday at 8:10am. That was when I was outed by my accounting professor.

 

My accounting professor normally begins class every day with a shtick of some sort. It could be a funny anecdote or a video clip from the Internets. He began on Wednesday by talking about an email exchange he had three weeks ago with someone he initially thought was a student. This person wrote him an email about an Australian ad that was shown in class, called "Big Ad." The email included a link to a parody called "Small Ad" and a request for my professor to show it to the class. My professor played "Small Ad" for us the following week and wrote back to the sender (paraphrasing) "I hope you were in class today, I showed 'Small Ad.'" The sender wrote back (again, paraphrasing) "I am not in your class, I live in Australia."  The professor then inquired as to how he knew about what was going on in his class from halfway around the world. The sender then replied that he had done a search on the Internets for "Big Ad" and came across a blog entry about the accounting class.

 

At this point my professor clicked on the projection screen and my blog entry from August 29 was displayed on the screen for the entire class. After getting over the immediate shock of what had and what was about to occur, I quickly regained my composureand put on my best poker face. My professor read out loud the blog entry and clicked on the entry's link linking to his home page on the faculty directory. He said "I figure this student will be inthis room sometime during the day and he will be shocked to see this blog on the screen."

 

We then proceeded to talk about the AOL acquisition of Time Warner. After class ended, I sheepishly walked up to him and turned myself in. He asked if I was shocked and said the email exchange was one of the strangest thing that's ever happened to him.

 

Sir, seeing my blog discussed in class was one of the strangest thing that's ever happened to me too.

In praise of price gouging

As someone trained in economics, I look at the world differently than the average layman. One good example of this contrast is businesses increasing their prices in the wake of disasters such as the recent Hurricane Katrina. Most politicians naturally pander to the populist outcry by taking legal actions against such profiteering.

 

I beg to different with that approach.

 

I, along with many economists, happen to believe that profiteering is not only a good thing, but necessary in order to efficiently allocate resources. David Milton wrote about grain speculators in his book Hidden Order: the Economics of Everyday Life. He wrote that many hold such speculators in contempt because they take advantage of price swings to make profits and capitalize on citizens’ need desire to feed their families. But he also points out that these speculators help minimize the fluctuation in food prices by purchasing when prices are low (helping drive prices up) and selling when prices are high (helping drive prices down).       

 

David Leonhardt wrote an excellent column in yesterday's New York Times about the societal benefits of allowing prices to reach their natural equilibrium.

After Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast, the price of lumber and other building materials shot up. Demand for these items was suddenly higher, and the people who sell them knew that they could charge more. So they did, in what seemed to be - and may, in fact, have been - an act of pure greed.

But it was also an act that hadsome clear benefits for society. With the cost of renovations now higher, some homeowners will delay their projects until the prices come back down. That will make more materials available for New Orleans and will also help reduce prices. It's the market economy's version of a virtuous cycle.

 

Bill Clinton to speak at 2007 graduation?

Now that Erskine Bowles has been selected as the next President of the UNC system, I am going to go out on a limb and predict that the 42 President of the United States will be our commencement speaker for 2007.

Here's how I analayze the situation. The last time we had a big name graduation speaker at UNC was Bill Cosby at 2004. I don't remember who spoke this past May. They just announced the speaker for this coming May's graduation and I was completely underwhelmed by the selection. Now that Clinton's former deputy chief of staff is the top dog at UNC, I am sure his name will be tossed around by the committee that selects the 2007 graduation speaker.

I think having Clinton speak at my graduation would be mostly a good thing. I can tell my kids he spoke at my graduation. As long as they put someone in charge of keeping him to a time limit, I think we will be okay.

President Erskine Bowles

It was announced yesterday that Erskine Bowles has been selected as the next President of the UNC system. He was a business major at UNC, I believe he graduated from what is now the Kenan-Flagler BSBA program. Someone described him to me "he came from money, married money, and made money." Right next to McColl is the Dean Dome, which is located on a street named after his father, Skipper Bowles.

Although he's a Democrat, a lot of Republicans have told me that extremely complimentary things about the man. The real irony of all this is that very much like his father, Bowles never managed to get elected to political office (he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate twice). This position will probably be the only time in his life he can be addressed as "Mr. President."

My financial aid disbursement

My sincerest apologies for not having updated this blog in more than a week. The past two weeks have been extremely hectic. We are at the very end of the quarter, the last class is this Wednesday and my first final exam is Friday.

This past week we closed on the sale of the condo and we had a bit of last minute drama. When the buyer and her agent viewed the condo back in August, I had already moved out and all my furniture was gone except for one Ikea couch that remained. Realtor Jim explained that I had made plans to dispose of the couch before the closing of the sale. The buyer (actually, I think it was her mom) then politely asked if I could leave it there for her. The words “Buyer requests that seller leaves the couch” were added onto the sale contract, which I signed.

My interpretation of the addendum was that the buyer was asking that I leave the couch, that my signature was my acknowledgement of her request, and that I was not obligated to give it to her. In actuality, I had no intentions of giving her the couch for I had already promised it to my next door neighbor. On the day of the closing, the buyer and her realtor made the final walkthrough and showed up at the closing office furious that the couch had vacated the premises. Realtor Jim explained that they had requested the couch, but I had never agreed to grant them their request.

 

Unfortunately the attorney at the closing office, who represents the interests of the contract, agreed with the buyer’s interpretation and I had to cough over some money for the couch. I was on the phone almost the entire time with Realtor Jim and at one point, he whispered to me, “this man must have gone to the Bill Clinton School of Law.”

 

Out of spite, I am going to go to the Ikea web site and add the buyer’s name and address onto the mailing list so she can be apprised of their next sale. Since I know from personal experience how hard it is to keep up with the mortgage payment, she will need to save every penny she can.