The markets kept going down because of circuit breaker in Chinese Markets two days in row. I don't know if Chinese want to show their economics powers or they need me to be their President. I read some comments on WeChat my college buddies posted but didn't join their conversations. Chinese markets are not relevant to me anyway. I am just waiting for the settlement of my property in Cuigezhuang, Beijing I purchased in early 90s they initially owed me two millions bucks and are owing me more than half a million. Though my dad reached that agreement with them one year and a half ago, they have never fulfilled the obligations.
Seahawks' fans are shooting for a win at Vikings. It sounds like it will be cold in Minnesota. However, there will be traveling fans there to root for the team.
I finished reading of Chapter 1 - What Models Do of Economics Rules. In addition to three models widely applied globally, the author illustrates his opinions on Models:
Economic Models can be real experiments both in a social lab and real world; They also can be thought experiments. Both exercises need extrapolation before they can be applied;
Unrealistic Assumptions distort the outcome of the models no matter how accurate are the model designed;
Math on Economics Models are relatively simple compared to physical scientific models, rudiments of multivariate calculus is generally sufficient; Though nonmathematical models become more popular, the author sounds preferring mathematical models because it is easier to explain and for audiences to understand a economic theory or concept. I concur;
Today's computing technologies make large-scale computation possible at much less cost; Arrival of Big Data also drives the outcome of economics models more relevant; However, Large-Scale models become less relevant in having specific issues resolved. Specific models are more efficient. In this regard, economists should prefer simplicity to complexity, though the world is complex. To my understanding, this doesn't mean the smaller scale models are simple, they may still include many variables.
Leaving the office earlier, I was totally rested through the rest of the day. My son texted me to tell he would stay on campus this weekend to study. He assessed that Statistics 311 wasn't very difficult after taking the class for two days but tons of homework had been assigned. I had noticed hundreds of problems being printed at the end of each chapter in his textbook, which indicated that this class would require a lot of practices. I texted back to my son to tell him that it's a good chance to force him to foster a lifetime behavior to deal with computational sciences.
Going to gym to work out, I stopped at Walgreens to buy two drinks. The saleslady asked me to put my cell number in to have my record retrieved, it didn't work. Then, she asked me to put into home phone number, it's so hilarious that I totally forgot the last four digits, which had been implanted into my mind for a long time. Eventually, I had to pull it from my cell number because my dad called me yesterday to ask me what time I would go home to have dinner because I worked late. Dealing with numbers too much in the last couple of days might drive me losing the memory of my home phone number at that moment.
I read the Introduction of Economics Rules - The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science - The Use and Misuse of Economic Ideas. The author used three examples to prove the importances of modeling: Formation of Global Financial Systems in Bretton Woods in 1944; Congestion pricings was implemented in Singapore in 1975 and Welfare was reformed in Mexico in recent history. These examples also support author's insights on why specific models should be built to have specific issues resolved.
I also read a third of Chapter One - What Models Do, will finish it at night on Wednesday. What I picked up from this chapter so far is that models significantly help the people make the right decisions. Three useful models are referred:
Demand & Supply model is applied to the perfect competitions with numerous participants in the markets;
Prisoners' dilemma model is applied to oligopoly, it is my interpretation;
Coordination Model is applied to horizontal collaborations, it's my interpretation too.
The first working day of 2016 didn't start easily. Futures indicated a dramatic low opening driven by the concerns of Chinese economics meltdown, which had dragged down Chinese stock markets earlier. I caught a comment on CNBC I forget who said it that Chinese Real GDP growth would drop to 2%. Wow, it was pretty pessimistic. However, I wouldn't worry about my investments, which is set for long term growth.
It's a long day for me, you can imagine, this probably was the same fact for a lot of people who started the first day of work in the new year. Coming back home to have a late dinner, I had slept without going to gym since half an hour ago. As I shared that I bought several books at Barnes & Noble. Tonight I started thoroughly reading one of them: Economics Rules - The Rights and Wrongs of the Dismal Science written by Dani Rodrik.
I can't spend too much time since it's already 1:24 in the morning on Tuesday and I will be on road to work in five or six hours again. So, I only read Preface & Acknowledgement. It sounds that the author is trying to achieve two goals through this book:
General economics theories, which were set by Adam Smith and Karl Marx who attempted to resolve universal social issues, are being given up. Instead, specific models are having specific issues tackled;
The author is trying to build a bridge between economists and noneconomists:
Economists need to let other understand their world;
Others should appreciate and emulate economists' work.
I feel great that I am wrapping up my diary for today before midnight comes over.
Waking up late, I missed the first goal Oscar scored for Chelsea. However, I did catch the powerful and accurate shot made by Willian and the 3rd one Diego Costa scored. At the end of the match, Crystal Palace subbed a player named Williams to remind me that the spelling I tweeted for Willian be wrong. I never had paid attention how to spell his name in the past.
The following match was between Everton and Tottenham. The latter had dominated the match until Everton's Lennon's beautiful half volley to be plugged into right upper corner of the goal post. However, Tottenham's Alli equalized the match with a chest-volley, which was unsavable for Howard.
My son's Winter Quarter would kick off tomorrow, so I drove him back to his dorm. I planned to go having a brunch because I hadn't had breakfast this morning, then practice soccer at Lynnwood High School before going back home to watch Seahawks challenging Cardinals in Arizona.
Driving on I-5 northbound back to our area, I could view the snow covering the top of the mountain remotely. My original plan was to have a footlong tuna sandwich at Subway, not having eaten at Quiznos for several years, I decided to stop by it on 164th Street close to Walmart. Getting into it, I ordered Italian Classic and Hot Chilli. While I was enjoying the delicious sandwich, two guys walked into the restaurant for some reasons, one guy just walked into the restroom right behind me and another one was standing in front of the counter close to where I sat. My positional disadvantage made me very nervous, so I walked out to my car to finish eating sandwich and chilli. When I left, a van near to mine suddenly started as well as if the couple in the car had been watching me. I followed them to the intersection on 164th Street, they suddenly turned left from the very right lane as if they were trying to get away from me. The people in this area were playing games, who cares?
Stopping by Lynnwood High, I saw a teen wearing a No. 11 shirt practicing shooting by himself. I walked over to join him while another teen had joined right before me. We practiced free kicks for half an hour. Chatting with them, I learned that they were the students at Lynnwood High where my son graduated in 2014. They seemed amazed that I could play by both feet, though I told them that my left foot was generally weaker. We hoped that we could play together again in future whenever we would be there the same time.
Right before the Seahawks regular season finale kicked off, it started snowing. Actually it became stronger gradually, which even caused my concern about the road condition tomorrow morning.
Sherman had broken a catch but got a holding call later.
Palmer threw a careless interception later. Afterwards, Seahawks dominated the game over Cardinals. I fell into sleep in 3rd Quarter, when I woke up, they had already led by 30+ points.
At Sunday Night Football, Packers lost to Vikings, which put Seahawks No. 6 seed at NFC playoff. They will go to play Vikings next weekend.
Pressing the shirts and pants, I am ready to start the first day of my work in 2016 in several hours.
I woke up very early in the morning but wasn't able to watch BPL matches on either NBC Sports Network or USA because the digital signals couldn't be decoded, the pictures were totally messed up. I am not sure if even Comcast got some pressures to manipulate the programs. Thinking about online streaming, I turned onto NBCSN website to watch. It seemed working at the beginning after I accessed my Comcast account, but the connection subsequently was lost. I had to run anti-virus software to fix it. I think either Comcast or hackers did this whole thing.
Going downstairs, I suddenly realized that non-digital channels might still receive analog signals, so they might work. Searching through all those double digits channels, I finally found out Channel 34 for NBCSN and 58 for USA both worked very well. I should have thought about this earlier, at that moment, only 10 minutes was left for Manchester United taking Swansea. I would find later that Rooney had scored an amazing goal earlier in the match after young French passed from the bottom line.
The final match for Saturday was televised on NBC flagship channel on which the pictures were clear, actually, the other two were fixed too but they were no longer relevant, so I decided to go back to my bedroom to watch Manchester City playing Watford. Watson seemed with good footwork, he made a curved free kick in front of big box of Man City in the first half but drove it too high. In second half, his corner kick was curved perfectly hitting Man City's player's head to cause an own goal. However, in the last 10 minutes, Toure scored a beautiful volley and Aguero made a header at a dead angle.
It was the last day for College Bowl Mania if National Championship wasn't counted. The first one was Taxslayer Bowl in which Penn State lost to Georgia. Later in the game, Nittany Lions caught up a little bit but was too late.
During this holiday break, I had been going to gym in the morning everyday but switched to the afternoon from today because I normally work out at night on weekdays. Catching Alamo Bowl on TV gym turned on, I figured Oregon dominating the game.
Working out was more important, I had felt so fulfilled during this break because I was able to do it everyday.
My dad actually drafted a book by himself. His point was that the world can be analysed, managed through three aspects: Science, Humanity or Religions. Possibly influenced by some of my opinions and comments, he becomes interested in economics theories recently, so asked me yesterday if I could get some books written by Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. I told him that I could order these old books through Amazon. However, his inquiry triggered my desire to go to Barnes & Noble after the workout.
Arriving at the bookstore, I found bargaining prices for some novels but those were not my focus. I was looking for all those economics books I had searched online. The sections were reshuffled at this store close to Alderwood Mall, I walked around the entire store to eventually come to the business section. I could have asked the staff but did want to take a tour because I hadn't come to this store for a year and a half.
Grabbing four books from the shelves in addition to a novel I had grabbed earlier, I walked to Starbucks inside the store. Ordering a grande latte, I started glancing all these books. Capital in 21st Century was a must read and I was already too late. But I wanted to compare it with Karl Marx's Das Kapital, so would buy both on Amazon in 2nd half of 2016. I always prefer reading these books in original but I had to learn much more German and French before I could do it. Saving Capitalism seemed not fitting my tastes very much at this moment. The background of the novel was traced back to 1920s, which I wasn't interested in. Eventually, I picked the other two: Economics Rules and The Courage to Act. Sitting at the table to sip coffee while sorting out the books was very comfortable and enjoyable, I really hope Amazon and Barnes & Noble coexist forever.
Passing the presenting table of those novels, I snapped two of them as the appetizers for my reading in the next two months. 6 bucks for each hardcover book was really a great deal and the stories seemed fascinating.
Coming back home, I noticed Alamo Bowl still being played and surprisingly TCU was catching up. Eventually the game went into triple overtime and TCU won at the end. As I tweeted, TCU was the first ever US college issuing I-20 to me in late 1986. On my mind now, I still can recall their purpled abbreviations on the letter I received back then. This one I downloaded from their website seems not exactly as the one on my mind though. It was not as dimensional as this one.
I wrapped up my day by watching Cactus Bowl to the end. Unfortunately Arizona State lost to West Virginia in Phoenix.
I told my dad that I would like to buy Das Kapital as well because I figured many economists start paying their attentions to Marx's theories and Marx's contributions as an economist and social scientist might be more significant than what we thought. My dad always thinks Marx didn't create valuable theories by himself because as he said to me, he didn't really know much about Marx's true theories. I doubt even the leaders in those communist parties really understand Marx at all. However, my dad recommended a summarized Das Kapital in Chinese translation he didn't read through to me. I will buy an English version anyway. I am sure English translation is much closer to German than Chinese.
In my opinion, Marx is right that the world has been progressed from Primitivism to Slavism to Feudalism to Capitalism, the next stage is Socialism. However, his theory in revolutionary is wrong because in a modern Capitalism, majority of the populations are middle class who have the ownership of assets, very few people desire to make personal gains through revolutions.
I embraced the first day of 2016 at gym to work out, though college bowl game wasn't presented on TV. I had come here everyday during the holiday break and felt very fulfilled.
Stopping at the interaction of Thrasher's Corner on my way home from gym, I enjoyed the sunshine going through the windshield.
Going home to catch the former BCS Bowl games starting from Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State seemed dominating the game and eventually won big. The interesting scene was that Urban Meyer held his player who tried to escape before Gatorade poured down very tightly, as a result, both of them were soaked.
Rose Bowl is always between Pac-12 and Big-10. Michigan State got into playoff, so Iowa represented Big-10 to meet Pac-12 Champion Stanford. Stanford won the coin toss and opted to receive.
I only watched 1st Quarter and had to drive my son to Apple Store at Alderwood Mall for his appointment of having his IPad repaired. However, I would catch the majority of the 2nd half after we came back home. The game went into garbage time pretty early, but Hawkeyes didn't give up. I think their fans must have a lot of fun even they lost by a big margin at the end.
My son didn't have his IPad repaired because it wasn't worth and he didn't want to buy a new one. It still functions very well. The only issue is the earphone can't be plugged into the IPad.
He asked me to take photos for him at Alderwood Mall, one of them was in one of the courts outside:
Another was inside the mall in front of Macy's:
We bought a pair of leather gloves for each of us at JC Penny. The deal was pretty good. Before leaving the parking lot, I filmed a clip. It had been very nice in Seattle during this holiday break.
Sugar Bowl was held in New Orleans as usual. Ole Miss crashed Texas Tech. Yes, just like several people tweeted: there had been so many blowouts during this Bowl Mania.
After the game, I started dry cleaning my pants. The process I created was:
Blend Tide powder into warm water to form detergent;
Apply the detergent to the pants;
Press the pants
It had worked very well for the first two, but caused stains on the third one, which was very light color. I stopped doing it and planned to resume on Sunday night.
It was the last day of 2015. I stopped by McDonald's to have McMuffin, Hashbrown and Large Coffee. While eating, I noticed Bloomberg TV channel being turned on and Stock Markets news being broadcast. My trading account was losing money but my IRA account gained significantly and my 401K account kept growing due to employer's contributions. As I tweeted, my pension is not significant and the contributions will be stopped pretty soon due to the change of company's policy. However, at age of 65, I will still be able to cash out to support my monthly expenses till I die. I can foresee my humble lifestyle of my retirement with a new car to cover another 20 years of my life till 85 without car loan, definitely I won't have mortgage then either:
Combining my pension/IRA/401k, I think this can be covered for the rest of my life.
I do have ability of earning $40 an hour for any consulting assignment with my lifelong professional skills in Finance/Accounting/Economics easily. If I work 20 hours a week, I can make $3,600 a month, $36,000 a year given 10 months of working, then I will use the extra money to dine out, buy new clothes/shoes, watch movies/game/shows and travel.
After working out at gym, I drove to Safeway to get my medications refilled while buying chips, salsa and other snacks. The gals at pharmacy were very busy, I had to wait for an hour. However, their waiting room was very comfortable, so I even took a nap there.
Coming back home, I caught the last minute on Peach Bowl in which Houston won the bowl.
I was so excited to start watching Orange Bowl. As I shared, I have been trying to watch every bowl game since 15 years ago, especially during mid-2000 before my parents and son moved to State to live with me. Clemson wasn't one of the top teams then, so you couldn't find them in BCS games. Oklahoma was a frequent participant in those years. In the first half, two teams matched up pretty closely, Clemson was very competitive anyway.
Sooners played very well during a period of time.
At the end of 1st half, Oklahoma actually led the game after intercepting a ball in their red zone.
I fell into sleep in most of the 3rd Quarter in which Clemson seemed overtaking the game and made a big margin. After an interception in front of Clemson's end zone, Oklahoma gave the game up. As far as I could view, Clemson's fans were probably the most enthusiastic in these college football playoffs, they deserved going to National Championship.
The other playoff game was between Alabama and Michigan State in Cotton Bowl. Even Bama wasn't a BCS team 10 years ago. At the beginning, Bama got a Pass Interference call.
Offenses of both teams hadn't been effective until late 1st half when Bama started performing. However, Michigan State struggled through the end of the game. Bama eventually shut them out.
Ok, another year would come and I felt pretty calm without any emotions.
