Unemployment is not just an economic problem, it is the root of larger societal problems when people who strive to be gainfully employed lack opportunities to do so. a greater problem lies in structural unemployment when because of changes in the economy, citizens are left out of employment opportunities because of a lack of or mismatch in the skills required. with structural changes in advanced economies taking rapidly, entire industries and sectors are being relocated out of countries by corporations seeking to take advantage of cost advantages abroad. such changes are irreversible, as developing economies catch up and attract more corporations seeking cost effectiveness as all industries become increasingly competitive globally.
As much as misplaced industries cannot be easily replaced, misplaced workers often find it difficult to find employment as they find themselves irrelevant both in terms of experience and skills. as an economy shifts towards higher value-add sectors, these new sectors create jobs that require higher levels of specialised technical knowledge that previously displaced workers cannot meet. job creation on a country wide basis often masks increasing rigidities in employment opportunities and labour supply. countries need long term planning that takes into account the effect of changing industrial patterns as a result of globalisation and technological advancement as well as labour marker rigidities that are a result of various education, manpower and legal policies over decades.
Foresight is an art, in as much as it incorporates as much science in modelling and scenario analysis, it is ultimately an attempt to imagine the future, fraught with uncertainty. yet without any attempt to do so, is to feign ignorance and trust that labour markets and citizens will sort themselves out. this will be the root of increasing social instability as disenfranchised citizens find themselves misplaced and lacking the necessary skills to find jobs in the shifting economic landscapes. it is important thus for governments to consider the effects of changes in the economic landscape on employment across different age groups, skill bases and educational level across all its policies. the incentive to work, the reward for diligence, the belief in one’s labour and the ability to reap the fruits of one’s labour must remain as key foundations of any economy, in any state of economic development or progress.
Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening, the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course? Each of us has such a bank. Its name is time. Every morning, it credits you with 86.400 seconds. Every night, it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day, it opens a new account for you. Each night, it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get it from the utmost health, happiness, and success. The clock is running. Make the most of today.
The Quality and Conduct of Management.
A company’s executive should say what they will do, then do what they said. Read the past annual reports to see what forecasts that managers made and if they fulfilled them or fell short. Managers should forthrightly admit their failures and take responsibility for them, rather than blaming all-purpose scapegoats like “the economy”, “uncertainty”, or “weak demand”. Check whether the tone and substance of the chairman’s letter stay constant, or fluctuate with the latest fads in the economy.
These questions can also help you determine whether the people who run the company will act in the interests of the people who own the company:
Are they looking out for No. 1?
A firm that pays its CEO $100 million a year had better have a very good reason. Otherwise this kind of obscenely obese payday suggests that the firm is run by the managers, for the managers themselves.
If a company reprices its stock options for insiders, stay away. In this switchroo, a company cancels existing stock options for employees and executives, then replaces them with new ones at advantageous prices. If their value is never allowed to go to zero, while their potential profit is always infinite, how can options encourage good stewardship of corporate assets? Any investor who buys stock in such a company is a sheep begging to be sheared.
By looking at the annual report for the mandatory footnote about stock options, you can see how large the “option overhang” is.
Are they managers or promoters?
Executive should spend most of their time managing their company in private, not promoting it to the investing public.
Finally, ask whether the company’s accounting practices are designed to make its financial results transparent-or opaque. If “nonrecurring” charges keep recurring, “extraordinary” items crop up so often that they seem ordinary, acronyms like EBITDA take priority over net income, or “pro forma” earnings are used to cloak actual losses, you may be looking at a firm that has not yet learned how to put its shareholders long-term interests first.
-The Intelligent Investor, Chapter 11-
Which factors determine how much you should be willing to pay for a stock? What makes one company worth 10 times earnings and another worth 20 times? How can you reasonably be sure that you are not overpaying for an apparently rosy future that turns out to be a nightmare?
5 elements are decisive:
1.The company’s “general long-term prospects”
2.The quality of it’s management
3.Its financial strength and capital structure
4.Its dividend record
5.Its current dividend rate
Let’s look at these factors…
Long-term prospects.
Begin by downloading at least 5 years’ worth of annual reports from the company’s website. Then comb through the financial statements, gathering evidence to help you answer two overriding questions. What makes this company grow? Where do (and where will) its profits come from? Among the problems to watch for:
a.The company is a “serial acquirer”. An average of more than two or three acquisitions a year is a sign of potential trouble. After all, if the company itself would rather buy the stock of other businesses than invest in its own, shouldn’t you take the hint and look elsewhere too? And check the company’s track record as an acquirer. Watch out for corporate bulimics-firms that wolf down big acquisitions, only to end up vomiting them back out. Other firms take chronic write-offs, or accounting charges proving that they overpaid for their past acquisitions. That’s a bad omen for future deal making. (You can usually find details on acquisitions in the “Management’s Discussion and Analysis” section of the annual report; cross-check it against the footnotes to the financial statements.)
b.The company is an OPM(other people’s money) addict, borrowing money(issuing debt) or selling stocks to raise boatloads of other people’s money. These fat infusions of OPM are labeled “cash from financing activities” on the statement of cash flows in the annual report. They can make a sick company appear to be growing even if its underlying businesses are not generating enough cash. (To determine if the company is an OPM addict, read the “Statement of Cash Flows” in the financial statements. This page breaks down the company’s cash inflows and outflows into “operating activities”, “investing activities”, and “financing activities”. If cash from operating activities is consistently negative, while cash from financing activities is consistently positive, the company has a habit of craving more cash than its own business can produce-and you should not join in by putting your money in the company.
c.The company relies on a handful of customers for most of its revenues.
As you study the sources of growth and profit, stay on the lookout for positives as well as negatives. Among the good signs:
a.The company has a wide “moat”, or competitive advantage. Like castles, some companies can easily be stormed by competitors, while others are almost impregnable. Several forces can wider a company’s moat: a strong brand identity (think of Harley Davidson, whose buyers tattoo the company’s logo onto their bodies); a monopoly or near-monopoly on the market; economies of scale, or the ability to supply huge amounts of goods or services cheaply (consider Gillette, which churns out razor blades by the billion); a unique intangible asset (think of Coca-Cola, whose secret formula for flavored syrup has no real physical value but maintains a priceless hold on consumers); a resistance to substitution (think of utilities companies supplying electricity).
b.The company is a marathoner, not a sprinter. By looking back at the income statements, you can see whether the revenues and net earnings have grown steadily over the previous 10 years. The fastest-growing companies tend to overheat and flame out. If earnings are growing at a long-term rate of 10% pretax (or 6% to 7% after-tax), that may be sustainable. But the 15% growth hurdle that many companies set for themselves is delusional.
c.The company sows and reaps. No matter how good its products or how powerful its brands, a company must spend some money to develop new business. While R&D is not a source of growth today, it may well be tomorrow-particularly if a firm has a proven record of rejuvenating its businesses with new ideas and equipment. In the long run, a company that spends nothing on R&D is at least as vulnerable as one that spends too much.
-The Intelligent Investor, Chapter 11-
A castle built on a cloud, just as the name implies, lacks a solid foundation. and just like any house that is built on shoddy grounds, it cannot withstand the wind and the rain when the storm clouds passes by.
Baby, that was what I felt when I read your blog post on the 18th of August. Our love isn’t built on lies, but if you are not going to stop doubting and start believing, we can never be truly happy.
Sometimes, its easy to forget all the happy moments that we have been through when you are sad. But thats just part of being human. I dont blame you for that, but baby, I really hope that we would be building our cosy castle, layer by layer, brick by brick, on the green meadow from now on.
I want to live happily ever after with you. Will you hold my hand and trust me with your heart?
A fairytale with an impossible happy ending.
(:
As written above.
This post is to commemorate the finding of your first job. It hasn’t been easy, but you braved the chilling winter and it is now spring. And it is really heart warming to read your blog now, as you say ‘hi’ to crowded trains and post photos of happy pancakes.
I am really happy for you baby, and I hope you will stay like that. Always.
I love dragon boating, not only because I feel that it’s a strong man’s sport, but it’s beautiful in a way that it teaches me, and constantly reminds me not to be selfish.
Canoeing is a self-centered sport, where a person’s achievement corresponds to his efforts. Unlike canoeing, dragon boating is about giving. This is a sport that requires me to abandon the desire to stop, or put in less than my best when the going gets tough. Its about putting in my best for my team mates. It’s as Adrian perfectly moulded the idea in 3 simple words; Pain, Team mates, My Best.
There’s a story of a village, where the village chief decided to hold a celebration. And in the festive occasion, the chief asked his people to bring their best wine along so that all the wine that the villagers brought will be poured in to a huge cup and be shared among everyone. And it doesn’t matter if a villager’s best wine isn’t good enough because at the moment when all the wine has been poured in to the cup, the quality would be averaged out.
However, the villagers thought to themselves that they would just bring water and pour it into the cup at the festival and the rest wouldn’t know…
So, the festival came and when everyone drank from the cup. Not surprisingly, it tasted just like water… This is the essence of being in a team. A team is about giving. A team is about the strong helping the weak so that collectively, everyone becomes better off. A team is not only about accounting to oneself, it’s about every single bit of an individual’s effort, benefiting everyone in the team as well.
Sadly however, as race day approaches, this camaraderie isn’t what I feel. Instead, I feel myself dreading every training day. I drag my feet, bringing my burdened thoughts to Kallang-heavy hearted. During training, the strong disrespects his peers, doesn’t trust their team mates outside the click, and behaves like a pathetic bitch that trash talk within themselves after training. This is just wrong. It kills the spirit. And this wrong cannot be justified even though we are the best team out there in the upcoming race.
There are the angels as well. Team mates that motivates me. Team mates the gives me the reason to push harder and go further even though I know that there are people who doesn’t trust me in the boat while I row. And thats the reason why I am still in the team. These are the people that I treasure. These are the people that I row for during races. Even though some may not be racing, I would be bringing their heart and spirit along to the race, because they are the ones who make all these sacrifices worthwhile.
Happiness documented.
Yifang Huang 21 March at 00:08
it is spending the night together, going for race together, being so burnt together, missing each other at the race site and being in love with you by just simply standing with you during prize presentation. (:
-baby’s love note! (:
SRR’10 1:20:58
MR500’11 1:55:45
We grabbed another gold. (:
1000 reblogs = $10
10000 reblogs = $100 .. and so on
Okay, we know, we know, it’s shameless self promotion. We will be using the increased traffic from our website to fund this donation. We will be sending Red Cross the check for the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami.
UPDATE: We forgot to add what we’d do if someone were to “like” the post. We will combine the reblogs and likes we got from our last post along with the reblogs and likes we get from this post.
We wish we can donate more, but it’s all we can handle. If you would like to donate directly to the cause, please click here.
We will be donating 1 cent per every reblog, 1 cent for every like and 5 cents per every new follower we get. We’ll be sending the check to American Red Cross.
Email us at what@viaSQUARED.com for any questions regarding this.
EDIT! Hopefully this will get enough notes, but if it gets too many, we’d have to stop it at 50000!
