Politicians

"Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it." - Mark Twain

There are 535 members of Congress (435 House and 100 Senators).

Here are some interesting 2005 statistics from Capitol Hill Blue:

79 members have low credit scores.

64 have personal and financial problems

31 members have been accused of spousal abuse.

33 have been arrested for drunk driving. 34 if you include former President Bush.

24 are being sued.

9 have been accused of writing bad checks.

14 have drug-related arrests in their background.

How do you feel about politicians?

Tidbits

Chinese Consumers

China has surpassed the U.S. in terms of car sales. In January, China sold an estimated 790,000 vehicles. The U.S. had sales of 657,000 vehicles in January. This is historic as China is becoming the consumer capital of the world. No wonder every auto manufacturer has set up shop there. China will play a key role in leading the world out of this recession.

The Buffet Formula

Buffet has a formula for timing the market.

Total market capitalization / GNP

Total market cap. would be the value of the entire stock market. For Korea in 2008, that's around $623 billion. The GDP of Korea in 2008 was $969 billion. Basically, if the market capitalization is around 70% of GNP, stocks are cheap. Based on the above figures, Korean stocks are undervalued at around 64% of GDP.

Unions

Every year I seem to dislike unions more and more:

1. The recent scandal at the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and attempted cover-up.

2. Ssanyong Motors workers were actually planning to strike before the company went bankrupt. Can they see the forest from the trees?

3. 20,000 AT&T workers are planning to go on strike during one of the worst recessions since 1982.

Why aren't people just thankful that they have a job?

Friends and Languages

Most of my friends can speak a foreign language and love travel. Why? Because they're intelligent and open-minded. Speaking a foreign language will open doors. (Gives you more opportunities.) Traveling opens your mind.

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness."-- Mark Twain

I just returned from a trip to Shanghai. One of my oldest and dearest friends is working and living there. He was recently profiled on Chinese television.

Here's the clip:

Frequent Flyer Update

I love to accumulate frequent flyer miles. My main program is Asiana Club, a member of Star Alliance. Here's how I maximize my miles:

1. Fly any Star Alliance carrier. (Shanghai Airlines and Air China have joined the alliance.) Just show them your Asian card and you're good to go.

Also, there is a family membership plan that allows you to pool miles. When my mom came to Korea, I signed her up for an Asiana membership which gave me around 11,000 miles for her trip. So, join with your wife, brother, sister, etc. Life partners do not count.

2. Credit Cards. For Koreans, the best card is the Citibank Asiana card and the LG card. 1,500 won = 2 miles. (I'm jealous because I only earn 1 mile per 1,000 won from my Samsung Asiana card.)

3. LG Telecom. You can earn frequent flyer miles if your cell phone bill is around 35,000 won per month. Call LG Telecom and give them your Asiana frequent flyer number. LG has been giving me around 400 miles a month based on my 40,000 won a month cellphone bill.

4. Duty-Free Shop of the Korean Tourism Organization. Do you ever buy anything from the duty-free shop in Incheon? There are a lot of duty free shops there, but I only buy things at the KTO shop. 1 mile for every $2 (U.S. dollars in purchases)

5. Exchanging money. Kookmin, SC First Bank, and Shinhan offer 1 mile for every $5 in currency exchange. At Kookmin bank, if you're doing a wire transfer you'll get 1 mile for every $20. Transferring $5,000 = 250 frequent flier miles.

6. Hotels. Here is a list of worldwide hotels that will give between 100-500 miles for each night's stay. Best Western, Hilton, Starwood, Carlson, Hyatt, Intercontinental, Kempinski, Langham, Marriot, Okura, Raffles, Regal, Swissotel, and Worldwide. For hotels/resorts in Korea that earn 250-500 miles per night: Lotte Hotel, Mayfiled Hotel, Shilla Hotel, Seas Hotel, Paradise Hotel, Kumho Resort, Hyundai Hotel, Poonglim Resort, and Andy's 여관.

7. Breathing. (Some day I hope I can earn miles by just breathing.)

Addendum:

Asiana has recently added some member benefits.

1. 5% bonus mileage. So, if you fly 1,000 miles, they'll give you 1,050.

2. One discount coupon a year: For a Asiana Gold member, there is a 5,000 mile discount coupon for a free flight. So, if a flight to Australia costs 70,000, it would only be 65,000 with the coupon.

3. Two Business class lounge access coupons. Incheon has a really nice Asiana business class lounge. Free Internet, food, drinks, ice-cream, etc.
You can get two lounge access coupons a year, even if you're not flying business class. Sweet! I was inside there once, they also have beds. Much better than waiting outside with the rest of the cattle.

I'm getting close to Asiana Diamond membership, which means a 50% off mileage coupon every year. That's incredible. I could fly roundtrip to the U.S. for 35,000 frequent flier miles. And receive 10% bonus miles every time you fly. Diamond and Gold members also recieve priority baggage and check-in. I've been walking up to the Business Class check-in for years. There's hardly any wait. Avoiding the herd is good.

No !@#$#! Bailout

The Detroit "little 3" are panhandling for billions from the U.S. government (taxpayers). Since I'm a taxpaying American, I thought I'd chime in on this issue.

Here are the problems:

2007 Worldwide car sales
Toyota 9.37 million

GM 9.37 million

2007 Profit/Loss

Toyota $17.1 billion profit ($1,874 per car)

GM $38.7 billion loss (-$4,055 per car)

GM is better off not selling or manufacturing cars. If you can't make a profit selling over 9 million cars a year, why are you in business?

There is no vehicle from the "little 3" that I would actually buy. I thought the Pontiac Solstice was interesting, until I saw the interior. It looks like it was made in a toy factory.

Here are the cars that I would buy (in no particular order):

MINI Cooper

Mazda MX-5 (I own an earlier version of this one.)

Honda S2000

Volkswagen GTI

Nissan Altima

Hyundai Tiburon

There are other cars that I like, but they are unaffordable and also the maintenence costs are too high. Most German and Italian car companies fall into this category.

Why would I help a company that manufactures products I would never buy? I guess the joke's on me...

2008 Credit/Debit Card Tax Deduction

The 2008 Korea Credit Card Tax Deduction

A lot of misunderstandings and mysteries surround this deduction. I'm going to attempt to explain it. =) For 2008, the kind people at the National Tax Service are being more generous than in 2007.

First of all, go to the bank or contact your credit card company (via telephone or web) and get a 2008 total spending statement. Now let's get it started....

1. Let's say I spent 3,500,000 won in total on my Samsung card in 2008. (I spent 3,490,000 won on beer and 10,000 won for the subway.)

2. Multiply your total (gross) 2008 salary by 10% For example, if my total gross income was 10,000,000 won. 10,000,000 x .10 = 1,000,000

3. 3,500,000 (total credit card) - 1,000,000 (Salary x .10) = 2,500,000 won.

4. 2,500,000 won x .20 = 500,000 won (Tada!)

5. 10,000,000 - 500,000 = 9,500,000 won (This is your new taxable income.) So, instead of paying taxes on 10,000,000 won you would pay taxes on 9,500,000 won. Easy. Right? =) (I love tax deductions. Don't you have a warm feeling inside now?)

This is the 2008 NTS formula: [(Credit Card Transaction - Total wage and salary x .10) x .20] http://www.nts.go.kr/

*In 2007, the NTS used this formula: [(Credit Card Transaction - Total wage and salary x .15) x .15]

Balanced Development

One of the priorities of the Roh administration was balanced development. Hence, the attempt to move the capital from Seoul to an outlying region. When I first heard about his plan, I was skeptical.

Most people are familiar with Los Angeles or San Francisco, but did you know the capital of California is Sacramento? Or that New York's capital is Albany?

Population of Los Angeles: 4 million Sacramento: 475,000
New York City: 19 million Albany: 94,000 lol

The capital doesn't necessarily insure population growth or economic development.

What works?

Based on the history of California, if you want population growth and economic development outside of large urban areas, there are two options: universities and businesses.

Think of Silicon Valley, it was a barren desert until companies decided to locate there. However, Silicon Valley was initiated by Stanford University. Stanford built an industrial park in 1951. Then, they leased the office space to high-tech companies including: HP, GE, and Lockheed.

With the new law schools in Korea, students from Seoul are starting to move to provincial areas. http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2898245

Isn't this easier than moving a capital?