Penny Lane

I was watching the West Wing this morning while I was preparing for my PFT this afternoon, and they had the episode about abolishing the Penny. You know... THE PENNY. With the Lincoln and the copper and the pling pling in the piggy bank.

I love pennies. I REALLY DO. I'm not being facetious. Pennies make the economy of this country work. For example: You want to go get, say, a cheetah print Snuggie at Wal*Mart and you don't want to pay more than $20? Good thing it's only $19.99!! <3 the Penny.

In the U.S. we revere the penny. We have sayings about the penny, like "A Penny saved is a Penny earned." or "It's gonna cost you a pretty penny" or "Penny for your thoughts!" "that boy's a bad penny!" AND "those bad pennies always turn up when you don't want them to..."

So why abolish the Penny when it's so much a part of our Americana culture? WELL as the West Wing makes clear, the Penny is almost entirely out of circulation.

TERRY: The dollar has the buying power today that the quarter had 30 years ago. The penny's buying power shrunk to nothing.

SAM: Well, that's not true. You can get yourself a gumball.

TERRY: No, you can't. They cost a nickel.

Actually NOW they cost a quarter. This episode was made a few year ago and what with inflation and all... *sigh* to be in the gumball biz...

To tie this all back to Copenhagen and my apparent Theme of the Month "The Environment", it is also explained that mining the millions of tons of copper and zinc that go into making pennies is bad for the environment. 2/3rds of all pennies are out of circulation, they are in jars or couches or and not in "take a penny leave a penny" containers at the grocery store. That many pennies roaming free is also pretty bad for the environment since they are seen as garbage. How may times have you seen pennies on the street? What a sad fate for Lincoln, srsly.

Which brings me to my favorite quote of the episode:

Sam: The Mint gets letters with pennies taped to notebook paper. Letters
from citizens who found the pennies on the street and mailed them back to the Treasury to help pay down the debt.

I think this plan COULD and SHOULD be enacted on a grand scale! Here's the plan: Save your pennies and mail them back to the Treasury Dept. in those U.S. Postal boxes... you know, the "one price no matter what the weight is" boxes... all we need is... 9,000,000,000,000,000 pennies!

Alright, forget it. Abolish the penny. That dinky shiny coin is basically worthless.

And maybe in the grand scheme of things, this is a non-issue. The West Wing knows that, and makes fun of that fact within the episode:

LEO: What do you need?

SAM: No, if you're in the middle of something, I can come back.

ADAMLEY: We're eliminating genocide. What are you doing?

SAM: Eliminating the penny. So I'll come back.

But STILL, I kinda wish we could address the small things with as much vigor as we address the bigger issues.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

*photographer's note: that photo of pennies does include one dime, but that dime is so BUSTED it's probably only worth a penny.*

Lightbulbs and BANNED IN CHINA!?

In an attempt to be more energy efficient apparently Congress has decided to force us all to purchase energy efficient light bulbs starting in 2012.

I think this is the most genius thing they have ever done. Sometimes people are too stupid to know what is good for them.

FOR EXAMPLE: Purchasing energy efficient bulbs for 30 sockets in your home would cost $90 more than purchasing incandescent bulbs. HOWEVER this investment would save you between $500 and $1500 dollars over 5 years on your energy bill. A CFL uses 800 FEWER watts a day, or .15 cents less on your bill. That's 4$ a month. The bulb pays for itself in one month! In addition to the bulbs using less energy to produce the same amount of light, they also need to be replaced 1/4th as often. It's just good household economics!

What's next?
LED lights on your Christmas tree: only costing about .30 cents per day if left on for 24 hours!
Solar powered water heater!
Insulating all your pipes so they don't take more energy to heat and cool!

And as we all know, saving energy slows climate change which means your kids won't be seapeople. :D

IN OTHER NEWS, I have just learned that my blog has been banned in China. I feel pretty bad about that. I probably shouldn't have blogged about the Berlin Wall. Or climate change. Or democracy...

Dear China,

Please UNban my blog because I love China. We can talk about Taiwan at a later date. And the human rights violations. And Tibet. And the one child policy.

Yep. so unbanning... NOW!

kthanks. <3 Alya

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall

I felt that it was important to mark this historic event by writing about the economics behind the Berlin Wall in today's world. This social and political event in Berlin was attended by world leaders and people who just wanted to be a part of it. The coolest part for me was the Berlin Wall Replica Dominoes which were over a mile long and knocked down once again, not to signify the fall of communism, but to signal the strength of Germany's democracy. I love that these Berlin Wall Dominoes seem to be painted by citizens from a reunified Germany, Europe and world. :D

Even during a worldwide economic crisis it seems that people are capitalizing on this 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Example? For just 99 cents on eBay you can be the proud new owner of a (slightly used) certified chunk of the Berlin Wall. I know that you may be thinking that 99 cents is a bit pricey for a piece of concrete, but I think that if the economy were performing better that these little nuggets of history would be going for at least twice as much. AND of course if you have the money to spend you can get bigger pieces with large sides of intricate graffiti for $150 or more.

But all in all, was really a great thing to see an inspirational event (finally) in the news after a full week of shootings. Especially an event where thousands of people were willing to wait in the rain to see history remembered. Click here to see a video of the Berlin Wall being torn down 20 years ago from BBC News.


Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Photo Contest and Translation Job

Alright, remember last week when I shared all those East Rock Park photos? WELL, this week there's a contest for BEST PARK PHOTOS!!! (score!) This contest is Justin Elicker's doing since he's the President of the Friends of East Rock Park as well as the new Alderman, so once again, Justin rules! AND A special shout out to Chris who took time this afternoon to help me choose my entries. Thanks buddy.

I entered three photos last year but there were 85 entries and only 10 winners so I didn't win. But this year I feel it. I'm gonna totally win. (If you vote for me, link to come)

Also, my scheme of going into chat rooms to give out my resume and look for work has finally worked! I got a translations job from French to English. Best part? Could end up being like a $2000 job! (score #2!) I wonder if I can get them to pay me in Canadian Dollars. That would be like 10% more... stupid dropping dollar.

I win twice today. The American Economy? Not so much.

Speaking of translations, I learned how to say "sexy pants" in Mandarin, which will come in handy if ever I meet a super hot hottie from China! "ku4 zi3 xing4 gan3 de" is the English transliteration. Enjoy that people. Enjoy, and use wisely.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

My Reading List

Today I will talking about my reading list of books mostly because it is piled up on my desk and is in my way. Since I kind of hate reading fiction, and haven't been reading the books piled up next to my bed on my desk, talking about it will push me into actually reading the books.

They are:
Catch-22, which I am 48 pages into. I already know what the Catch-22 IS and therefore don't need to read anymore of this book. But I don't want to skip to another book until I'm done with this one. So it's first on my list.
Out of Africa
The Power Broker
Watership Down
Cinematic Royalty and Dark Hollywood Nights, which was written by a friend of mine from H.S.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
The Master and Margarita... I've read the first 100 pages of this and I got um... distracted that summer... but it's been three years and I'm going to try it again.

I would also like to add that ANX has decided to SUCK today and is down to $0.11, which I am not happy about. I am going to hold, and maybe this whole thing will turn around. OR I will lose my investment capital as it decreases to zero... you know, whatever. Learning experience. Thing of it is, at $0.11 I'm surprised people aren't buying in like mad. Especially because they're getting their act together on that de-listing thing.

Yeah I know. I'm going to lose all my money. But it's cool. It was only a couple thousand shares. I should keep talking about it, now it's at $0.1187! Go fancy interactive blog go!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Melting My Brain

Recently there have been commercials for watching TV on my computer. TV melts my brain, agreed. There is something that melts it faster. Watching green and red numbers swish back and forth rapidly on my screen on my trading platform is both mesmerizing and addicting. For sure, constantly monitoring my portfolio is melting my brain, but I counteract that process by listening to This American Life all day. What's more is that this isn't something I need to be doing. I have a very small amount invested. I have trade triggers set for when I want to sell. Truth is, I really like watching it, it's soothing, and it makes me feel like I have a job, something to do.

Days when the market is closed seem boring and time drags on. Even on days when the Dow and NASDAQ are down are better than days when no trading happens. In the recession, the one thing that has actually been getting better in the last few months are the indexes. People on Wall Street are making money despite people around the country losing their jobs.

Let's keep you all up to date on the "frequently updated website" interactive factor: my ANX stock buy a few days ago. RIGHT NOW it's at $0.14. I bought 1165 shares at $0.13. It goes between 13 and 14 cents everyday. My target sell price is between 18 and 22 cents. It cycles into this range every few weeks.

Keep in mind, even if I sell at my target price, I'll make about 60$. :) Which is just... so much money... Just think of how many boxes of macaroni and cheese can I taste test with that!

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

Google's opinion of me = single anorexic capitalist

The ads on my blog are something of interest to me for more than one reason. It's not merely because I can make a dollar or two during the recession by helping other people make money (yes, economy, you are full of circles). I also feel that the Google ads somewhat define what the website is about. They are geared to my readership, they are representative of the website.

Before today, the only ads I saw were cheerful, successful financial advice ads. I was fine with that. I am trading stocks. I am proud of that fact. I think my trading during the recession and ability to make 15% on 1000$ in two months is capitalistic but also genius. The reinvestment of that gain into ANX was also genius.

Maybe not genius, but we'll see how it plays out. (Yay, fancy interactive blog)

Today, I open up my "frequently updated website" to find a shocking and absurd ad waiting for people to click. This ad mocks me and my macaroni and cheese taste test. This ad makes me feel fat. This ad makes me think I have a problem.

This ad is for eating disorders. One could argue that wanting to eat only Americana traditional food and taste test macaroni and cheese is akin to an eating disorder, but that is not what Google meant. Google called me fat, or worse, Google told me I should stop being so anorexic.

Maybe I shouldn't take it so seriously, but for a company to claim that they will gear their ad content to my page specifically, perhaps something less offensive is in order, like "free kittens and puppies" or ads for my favorite band. I bet Google didn't bother to find out who my favorite band was *sniff* did they?

It's ABBA. *sniff*

...It's not ABBA.

What's next? eHarmony advertisements? Noooooooooooooo! The horror!

Seriously Google, go back to the financial ads. I'm happier with you thinking I'm just a capitalist than an single anorexic capitalist.

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

The most useful advice ever!

I have here, in this blog post the most useful advice you may ever receive.

Now, I could just tell you, but that's not as much fun for me. You could also think you're gonna scroll to the bottom, but that's not fun for me either. SO somewhere in this message about totally random events is a sentence that you should live by. A piece of advice so helpful, you will never need any other piece of advice. Is it "don't ever invest in the stock market" ? No. But I wish I had heard that before I entered into this whole debacle. For the first whole week I traded I dreamed about puts and calls and moving red and green numbers. It was horrifying. I would wake up more stressed than I went to bed.

The problem with trading online is that it is one of the few things you can do where you aren't reliant on another human being to support you. You don't need someone else to cut you a check, you are self-employed in a sense. The problem is that it's so risky and most people have NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING. Lucky for me majoring in economics and living abroad for a large portion of my life has acquainted me with the global market. I have some knowledge of the intricacies of foreign exchanges, the complexities of commodities and manufacturing and the ways in which better performance in dry bulk stock can be an indicator that China is on the rise. But honestly, NEVER move back in with your parents, it is the worst mistake you can ever make in your life.

You like how I did that, huh. Doesn't it just kill you that you kind of could just skipped to the end anyway?

Thanks for reading and best regards,
Alya

P.S. I decided that this post would be more fancy if I added a picture. The photo of the financial district was taken from my old bedroom in Jersey City.