In recent years, many people around the world have found it easier to make money from rising asset prices than from working. America's current prosperity depends on unearned wealth, not earned income. For the typical American family, the bulk of that wealth is in housing, which enjoyed big jumps in value. Households have kept the economy going by borrowing freely against the paper gains in the value of their homes.

The surge in share prices in the late 1990s boosted the shareholdings of American households by $7 trillion over four years, equivalent to almost two years' income from employment - without requiring any effort. The value of those shares has since fallen, but the drop has been more than offset by soaring house prices. Since 2000 the value of homes in America has increased by more than $5 trillion, making many Americans feel richer and less inclined to save. But much of this new wealth is just an illusion.

A rise in share prices can, in theory, reflect expected future gains in profits and an increase in economy's productive potential. But rising house prices do not represent an increase in wealth for a country as a whole. They merely redistribute wealth to home-owners from non-home-owners who may hope to buy in the future. Homes are not just assets, they are also a big part of living costs. When the housing prices rise, the capital gain to home-owners is offset by the increased future living costs of non-home-owners. Society as a whole is no better off.

In the long run, the only way to create genuine wealth is to consume less than your income (ie, save) , and invest in real income-creating assets. In a healthy economy, households should spend the income they earn, less whatever they can set aside for the future.....

** from "Economics - making sense of the modern economy"

今天过了一个蛮不错的星期天。打完羽球后，休息一会儿，就和女友跑去 Bugis 拜神，为新的一年祈祷许愿。过后就在附近 shopping，买了一件价廉物美的 Levi's 长袖 T-shirt 和枕头，女友也买了一件米奇 T-shirt，接着到 Starbucks 喝咖啡，吃外面打包的 Tori-Q，看看书，听听音乐，就这样悠哉地过了一个星期天，明天又得上班啦。

2007 年即将结束，接下来这几天都会有种舍不得的感觉。
这一年似乎发生了许多事情，最大的收获是什么呢？应该就是遇见了 Idy ，我生命中除了母亲外最重要的女人，哈哈。
2007 年对 banking 来说，应该是历史上最恐怖的一年之一。美国的 subprime crisis 让人看到了做事不脚踏实地的后果，未奋斗却先用未来钱，一味盲目地追求快速致富，而忽略了基本功和知识。很多时候空有理想和贪念，却没有实战经验，大洒金钱出去，换来的后果伤害自己不用紧，怕的是还会伤害更多人。
回想起年初所定下的一些目标，并不是每一个都做到，其实觉得蛮对不起自己。为什么这么懒呢？为什么还是这么贪玩？不过呢，2007 年给了我许多的领悟，应该说是让我觉得做起事来更踏实，基础已建得七七八八了，接下来的一年就可大展宏图吧？
之前在报刊读到一篇文章，说到一个人空有做事能力是没用的，只要人家不给机会你，你就没办法发挥和上位，薪水也就漂浮在同样的水平线，随着每年的通货膨胀率不断增加，你在这社会也愈来愈贬值了。哎，你有压力，我有压力，如何懂得把握天时地利人和的确是一门学问。

The first thing necessary to correct an error is to discover it, the next is to admit it, and the last is to avoid it. 性格使然，后两点比较难做到，结果常常累人累己，真是糟透极了……

To live implies action. Action implies choosing, that is, selection and rejection. Every time you select one action, you are rejecting all the other possible actions that you could take. When you decided to come to this lecture, you rejected the possibility of being in other places at this time.

All of our actions imply a choice. We always take that action which we think is going to give us the greatest satisfaction. All action also implies change. It implies that the future can be changed.

What we are constantly trying to do is to exchange something we have for something we prefer. We seek to change the future to the way we would prefer it to be. All human life is an attempt to change the future.

Some people sometimes say that they would like to know the future. For example, they would like to know what the prices are going to be in the stock market next week.
Actually, we do not want to know the future. If you, or I, or anyone could know the future, this would mean it was set and we could no longer act to change it.

All human activity is an attempt to change the future. We have a wide choice of actions that permit us to change the future. If we select the right actions for our purpose, we will produce the future conditions we desire.

All human action also implies imperfection. If we had perfection, there would be no reason to act — no reason to change the future. This means that if we had everything we wanted, there would be no reason to live. When the day comes that you have everything you want, let me know. I shall make arrangements to come to your funeral, because you will then be dead. So do not ever think that we can have perfection, or that we can have everything we want.

Life is a series of choices of actions trying to improve the future, and the future always needs improvement from our point of view. Life is never perfect, but it is subject to change, and it is our hope that our actions will produce changes for the better rather than for the worse.

~~ from Understanding The Dollar Crisis, Percy L.Greaves, 1973

昨晚临睡前想到了一些东西，想写在 Blog 里，不过经过忙碌的一天后，却绞尽脑汁也想不起来那些要写的东西。没办法，就只好放弃，写些其他的事情。
原来生活上也有许多平时我们觉得想去做的事情，不过却由于懒散、忘记、忙碌等种种原因，不知不觉没做下去了。这些事情看起来都不是很起眼，不必浪费时间，但我总觉得很多时候人生的转折点都与这些不起眼的事情有关。有时侯一个不经意的小动作，就足以影响大局，不仅改变自己，也改变了身边的某些人。所以，忙碌之余，是不是该花点时间想想什么该做、什么不该做呢？
最近的第24届东运会给了我们一些提示，一个国家虽小，只要有心和努力，一定一样能够赢得许多奖牌。反观某些国家面积虽大，天然资源丰富，人材众多，表现却不成正比，非常可惜。
一个是常满足于现状的"kampong 冠军"，一个则是不断追求更好、被说成"kiasu"、"kiasi"的，到底哪一个才是好呢？

换了新工作后，日子都显得很忙，羽球也少打了许多。
前几天和女友及一班朋友去跑 Standard Chartered marathon ，10 km 用了 1 hr 20 min 40 s ，对一个之前没什么准备的人来说应该是及格吧。
还好没崩溃，不过我知道离 Fit 这个字越来越远了，是年龄的关系吧。

以前单身时比较我行我素，做什么、说什么都没什么顾虑。
现在开始学会了包容和迁就，处处都会学习先为妳着想。
明白最近妳的工作变得辛苦，烦恼比从前多了。
不想见到妳的笑容少了，我会尽力做好自己，时时刻刻都会在妳身边。