Recession Is Setting In Not

Recession Is Setting In Not - this is my statement.

It was made after reading the following statement - "Malaysia is not in recession and will not go into a recession, he said." says Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcob. He also said that Malaysia's forecast of economic growth will be 5.7% and 5.4% for this year and next year respectively. Just that next year's forecast have to be re-examined.

BUT .................

Gulf Arab states - who have lots of investments in USA and Europe assets, are worried that the continued crisis will certainly cause worldwide recession. Gulf Arab states' stock markets have not been spared either.

Singapore - its Ministry of Trade and Industry has released their third quarter GDP of 2008 which has contracted compared to a year before. Meaning - Singapore has slipped into recession.

Analysts in Singapore have mentioned that retrenchment is expected to happen by December 2008 with the worse setting from April 2009 onwards. A strong economy all this while but couldn't avoid recession.

Japan - with the fall of many banks (as per my previous blog posting), an insurance company by the name of Yamato Life Insurance Co Ltd has declared bankruptcy (now, this is real). Japan's Nikkei closed down on Friday morning to stop the stock market slump of 10%. This is the worst drop for the last twenty years. On average, it has knocked of 24% of the stock values.

Ireland - its economy slipped into the red too, being the first euro-zone country to do so.

Australia - in March 2008, analysts have already predicted that Australia will fall into recession by 2009.

Europe - nearing recession as mentioned by International Monetary Fund.

USA - predicted to be heading into recession as of now .......... as housing sales have dropped, unemployment rate has gone up, fewer jobs available and credits from financial institutions have tighten. Just this year alone, 600,000 people have lost their jobs.

The worst of all - Iceland - the nation could declare bankruptcy. I'm serious on this one. Iceland is a nation and not a company. The Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority has appointed receivership committees into the operations of four main Icelandic banks, namely Kaupthing Bank hf, Landsbanki Islands hf (a new bank has been incorporated to operate - New Landsbanki), Glitnir hf wherelse trading in the shares of Straumur-Burdaras Investment Bank hf, Exista and Spron have been halted.

What happened to the banks? The top four banks' total foreign liabilities have exceeded US$100 billion wherelse the nation's GDP is only US$14 billion. Since income generated in the nation is so much lower, how do you expect the nation to support its liabilities. Therefore, bankruptcy for this nation is there.

For football fans and especially if you are a Chelsea fan, your rich owner as in Roman Abramovich has suffered badly during the last few months. His fortune has been eroded by as much as US$20 billion in recent worldwide stock slump especially the Russia stock exchange. Referring to Forbes' list of billionaires for 2008, Roman's fortune was estimated to be around US$23.5 billion and the stock exchange has made him very poor now.

With Chelsea's current liabilities exceeding US$1 billion in which Roman is accountable for it, that leaves him with only US$2.5 billion. That's still a lot for you and me and our family to spend together for the rest of our life but not him man as Roman purchases assets by the hundreds of millions. All the best to Chelsea.

Will try to find ways to prepare for the forthcoming recession even though my country's finance minister has mentioned that our nation is safe from it. Do you believe that Malaysia will maintain a strong economy when the whole world is heading towards a recession?

Reading: Gulf Arabs: crisis may stoke world recession - Reuters
Reading: Redefining recession - Economist
Tags: Recession, Bankruptcy, Stock Market, Singapore Recession, Yamato Life Insurance Co Ltd, Euro-Zone Country, Iceland Bankrupt, International Monetary Fund, Chelsea, Roman Abramovich, Russia Stock Exchange, Kaupthing Bank hf, Landsbanki Islands hf, Glitnir hf, Straumur-Burdara Investment Bank hf, Exista, Spron, Financial Supervisory Authority

Bad Financial News in Japan

Regrettably, more bad financial news ................

Following the problems in the sub-prime lending market in America that has hit a number of investment banks and the run on Northern Rock in the UK, uncertainty has now hit Japan.

In the last 7 days:-

Origami Bank has folded

Sumo Bank has gone belly up

Tempura Bank is in hot oil

Bonsai Bank announced plans to cut some of its branches

Karaoke Bank is up for sale and will likely go for a song

shares in Kamikaze Bank were suspended after they nose-dived

Samurai Bank are soldiering on following sharp cutbacks

Ninja Bank are reported to have taken a hit, but they remain in the black

500 staff at Karate Bank got the chop

Analysts report that there is something fishy going on at Sushi Bank where it is feared that staff may get a raw deal
Tags: Financial News, Japan, Japanese Bank, Funny, Humour

Food Eaten by the English and French

An Englishman is having breakfast, in Paris, one morning (coffee, croissants, bread, butter and jam) when a Frenchman, chewing bubble-gum, sits down next to him. The Englishman ignores the Frenchman who, nevertheless, starts a conversation.

Frenchman: 'You English folk eat the whole bread??'
Englishman (in a bad mood): 'Of course.'
Frenchman: (after blowing a huge bubble) 'We don't. In France, we only eat what's inside. The crusts we collect in a container, recycle it, transform them into croissants and sell them to England.'

The Frenchman has a smirk on his face. The Englishman listens in silence.

The Frenchman persists: 'Do you eat jam with the bread??'
Englishman: 'Of Course.'
Frenchman: (cracking his bubble-gum between his teeth and chuckling) 'We don't. In France we eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels, seeds, and leftovers in containers, recycle them, transform them into jam, and sell the jam to England.'

After a moment of silence, the Englishman then asks: 'Do you have sex in France?'
Frenchman: 'Why of course we do', he says with a big smirk.
Englishman: 'And what do you do with the condoms once you've used them?'
Frenchman: 'We throw them away, of course.'
Englishman: 'We don't. In England, we put them in a container, recycle them, melt them down into bubble-gum, and sell them to France.'
Tags: English Man, French Man, Paris, Bread, Croissant, Fresh Fruit, Jam, Condom, Bubble Gum

Condom for Goats

Not only men has to wear condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancies but goats too.

The condom device, yeah a device and not the usual one that envelopes around a male specie's penis, is put in through the goat''s head and two front legs. The device is called olor by the Maasai tribe in Kenya.

This olor will prevent or make it impossible for the goats to mate. As you knew how animals mate, that olor is really an obstruction.

Reason for the usage of this condom is to prevent unwanted birth at the wrong season. As Kenya do face drought season, the herdsmen try to 'plan' the mating season so that a kid will be given birth at the right season where vegetation are plentiful for feeding purposes.

I would it's hard to control those 'hungry' male goats that roams around freely. If your goat has pregnated another female goat of that belongs to another herder, you will be fined heavily. So, implementing the olor is advisable.

As for humans, olor is useless. In order to prevent humans from mating, chastity belt will have to be used instead. I'm saying preventing here.

Reading: Goat 'condoms' save Kenyan herds - BBC News/Africa
Tags: Condom, Maasai Herdsmen, Kenya, Olor, Mating Season, Chastity Belt, Goat

Sudden Fear of Melamine

The subject of the melamine issue is ringing throughout the world besides the worry on the world financial market (not the wet market of course).

Singapore's effective AgriFood & Veterinary Authority has detected eight more food products that have excessive melamine ingredient:-
* Dutch Lady - Banana Flavoured Milk
* Dutch Lady - Honeydew Flavoured Milk
* Silang - House of Steamed Potato - Potato Cracker
* Silang - House of Steamed Potato - Potato & Tomato Cracker
* 徐福记 - Puffed Rice Rolls with Butter Corn Flavour
* 徐福记 - Puffed Rice Rolls with Cheese Flavour
* New Sshmallows Mallow Dippers-Strawberry Flavour

Even if you have consumed such food products, it will only affect your health if you had consumed large quantities of the contaminated products over a prolonged period of time. So, now you can rest easily (hopefully not rest in peace).

In Thailand, their Food and Drug Administration discovered that a new batch of 100 tonnes of powdered milk shipped from China are contaminated. That's really scary. It exceeded the melamine limit of 1mg/kg. The contaminated powdered milk was containing 1.10 to 1.32 parts per million (ppm)/kg. The powdered milk was manufactured by Beijing Shuangwa Dairy Company Ltd in China and imported by a local Thai dairy product manufacturer Dairy Plus Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Dutch Mill Co.

A Malaysian company was implicated in a melamine scare in Taiwan. The food product by the name of Regimen House Cheese Cracker Sandwich and sold by Golden Kestrel Co Ltd was said to have been withdrawn from the Taiwanese market because Taipei Branch of National Health Bureau detected a melamine level of 29.818 ppm. This food product was packaged in Malaysia for the Taiwan market only on a one-off contract and not sold in Malaysia. Even though it was packaged in Malaysia, it was claimed that the milk powder and cheese powder were supplied by Golden Kestrel Co Ltd.

On another issue implicating a Malaysian company as highlighted in The Earth Times, Pizza Hut Taiwan has rejected the cheese powder packets. Said to be containing 70 ppm, 28 times higher than the permittled level in Taiwan.

Which companies are involved here? Here goes:-
* Pizza Hut cheese powder - supplied by Pick Food and Machinery Corp, Taiwan
* Pick Food creamer - supplied by Fonterra Brands Pte Ltd, New Zealand
* Pick Food cheese powder - supplied by Persnam Corp, Taiwan
* Fonterra cheese powder - came from New Zealand
* Persnam Corp creamer - supplied by Eonlipids Sdn Bhd, Malaysia who has claimed that their product is melamine free.

Interestingly, the Sanlu Group that is implicated in the tainted milk scandal in China is 43% owned by Fonterra Co-operative Group, New Zealand. This co-operative is owned by 11,000 farmer shareholders in New Zealand. Really huge.

Malaysia has one serious case where the White Rabbit Creamy Candy imported from China contained 135 ppm compared with permitted level of 2.5 ppm. The melamine scare has the consumers questioning the safety of using plastic bags, polystyrene boxes and cling wrap to package their take-away meals.

Further updates about melamine issue in Malaysia could now be found in website of the Food Safety and Quality Division of the Ministry of Health.

A list of melamine contaminated food products (for Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, UK, Canada and USA) is found in The Sun Chair Critic blog.

Related post - Melamine Poisoning in Children
Tags: Melamine, Melamine Poisoning, Melamine Free, Milk Product, Dairy Product, AgriFood & Veterinary Authority, Dutch Lady, Silang House, Thailand, Food and Drug Administration, Beijing Shuangwa Dairy Company Ltd, Dairy Plus Co Ltd , Dutch Mill Co, Taiwan, Regimen House Cheese Cracker Sandwich, Golden Kestrel Co Ltd, Taipei Branch of National Health Bureau, Pizza Hut Taiwan, Cheese Powder, Pick Food and Machinery Corp, Fonterra Brands Pte Ltd, Persnam Corp, Fonterra Co-operative Group, Eonlipids Sdn Bhd, White Rabbit Creamy Candy, Food Safety and Quality Division

Liquid Assets

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for recycling refund, you will have received a $214.00.

Based on the above, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg. A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year. Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.

That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Now this will make an American feel a little bit better about life!
Tags: American, Delta Airlines, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Beer, Funny, Humour, 401-Keg

I’m Going Silent this Halloween with Nokia XpressMusic

Nuffnang, my blog advertising company, has creatively thought of another themed night event for bloggers. This time it's known as the Nuffnang Nokia Silent Halloween. What a long name for the event. Who cares anyway ...... as long as you get to go.

No doubt Nokia is the official sponsor this time with Universal Music Malaysia ("UMM") joining the fray as the official music sponsor. The venue - Borneo Baruk Club yet again ..... fantastic place indeed.
When I read about the event, I was curious about the words "Silent Halloween". How in the world is it going to be silent when all this frightening 'monsters' are supposed to frighten you out of your daylight ....... night in this case. They are going to have the first ever Silent Dance Party????!!!!?!?!?!?!?! When you have the UMM coming in as the official music sponsor, how can it be silent? Something wrong somewhere ...........

I think I have to fly over to Hawaii to learn more about the Silent Dance thingy. There is this centre by the name of Silent Dance Center. They better teach me the right silent moves.

When we are invited (hopefully I'll be invited. not easy lah in order to get the invitation as need to blog interestingly), we'll be given some music tracks to be downloaded into our mobile phone or any other mobile music devices. So, I suspect we have to bring along that gadget that has those downloaded songs for the night event. And we will, individually, dance according to those music that has been downloaded????? What if each person gets a different song? We could see mayhem on the dance floor.

Better still if I have one of those Nokia XpressMusic mobile phones. I knew that it will be given away as prizes but would be good if it was used to downloaded those music for the event as it's manufactured for such purpose as well. Perhaps my body will move according to the downloaded scary music or eerie sound.

Not only you get to attend the event but Nuffnang will be preparing prizes for the Best Dressed in Silent Halloween and Best Silent Dancer Prize. I think I could think of the dressing easily this time. It will be extraordinary, different from the rest hahahahahaha ........ in the halloween arena, that character is the most feared ..... supposedly lah.

As for the dancing part, we'll see.
Tags: Nuffnang, Nokia, Nuffnang Nokia, Nokia XpressMusic, Silent Halloween, Trick Or Treat, Event, Borneo Baruk Club, Universal Music Malaysia, Silent Dance Party, Nokia IAC Bands, Independent Artists Club