Its the business! Stupid!

I talked a little with my sis's bf before watching the show Bolt.


I think he wa just making conversation; we talked about how to make money from the internet. (He is a nice guy and he was just making conversation I guess)

And he was sharing about a guy who wrote an e-book and make a million or so from it.


I don't disbelieve that.


But i had a friend trying that while I was still in CHC =)


That was like 2002 or so i think.


I don't think he made it.


Well that conversation when on to tolkien and about how tolkien fought piracy.

(Long story short, he appealed to the emotional side of people, common "decency" to
support him in writing books, essentially to only by official printings... hmm he still got screwed i think... ah well)



...


What was this post about....?




Oh yah. Concept.


The concept that "inspired" me to write this post is that..

Its the business, people.


The whole, "Lets use IT(or internet) to make lotsa munny!!!" is something too often said.


What must be realised, is that it is NEVER about the IT.


But always about the business.


Is your IT really helping your business process or is it just a novelty?


There are examples of IT helping in the business.


For instance, the China Law Blog is a really good way to help the lawyer build up his social network, there are no immediate benefits yes, but it is a support in the business process of the firm.

[edit]
Oh the heavens are with me... this is from one of their posts, where they are recognised by their peers in a journal ;)

The ABA Journal (the official publication of the American Bar Association, the leading group for American lawyers, not tavern owners) recently named China Law Blog as one of the top 100 law blogs in the World. Well actually the world of American lawyer blogs, but as long as George Bush remains President, and he will through the duration of the blog election, I do not think it a stretch to say it is of "the world."
[end edit]

Or when one uses a blog as a blog shop for instance this is an entire listing of trinklets or clothing...

(No I don't shop there... I asked for the example from my sis)

However all too often, we are trying to see how we can use IT to do something strange and new.


I actually studied a module where we looked at internet businesses. I took the module soon after the dotcom bust, so it was rather enlightening. As successes were often better documented than failures. But here we are looking at failure after failure. (The reason being, these companies were originally the dotcom darlings and we were supposed to study them - again a warning that heroes today can be zeroes tomorrow)

So I can probably point out why you will fail, and I will probably be right.
(I have successfully predicted 3 IT failures, then again in any business venture, failures are more likely, so I am banker =D)



audience:So you have blathered this much but have said nothing, are you gonna be like one of those anime for girls (Shojo Anime)???



Me: I'm getting there....



So the point here is you should always consider your business.



Is it going to be workable. Does your marketing vibes tell you it is going to work. Are you overcomed by lust/stupidity for money? Are you looking through rose tinted glasses? I took a recent module on business startups and they were big on the financial report, so... Are making money, or rather when will you break even and start making munny?



Notice.



All the questions have nothing to do with IT.





So it is not about technology. Its about the business. Sure the guy wrote an ebook. But an ebook is easily copied and multiplied. What stopped the author's readers from blatant piracy? Was it some high tech encryption module(unlikely - hey DVD's are STILL getting cracked) or is it a symbiotic relationship the author has with his readers that has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the technology?




Technology is a sword. Wield it.


Its not how powerful the sword is. Its how you wield it.
(This sadly sounds like a reference to male genitals...)



Its a simple concept, from a simple minded person.


So puny investor. Think through your actions and think business! Do your numbers, do your due dilligence.

You owe it to yourself!




Till I am bored enough to write again.


To your success ;)

Site Introduction

This is a site that I found rather useful,


in the previous post you had me rambling about currencies and money and pegging.

The title link above leads you to an article about currency pegging.

Which is also interesting but I will review a little later...

But the site is a plethora of info.


What they say:

"The Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution devoted to the study of international economic policy. Since 1981 the Institute has provided timely and objective analysis of, and concrete solutions to, a wide range of international economic problems. It is one of the very few economics think tanks that are widely regarded as "nonpartisan" by the press and "neutral" by the US Congress, and it is cited by the quality media more than any other such institution."



Still valid or no, you puny investor, must decide for yourself.



For your success ;)

Fiat Money and other ramblings

Been a while ... =)


Anyways here is a link to fiat money.


I think it is interesting, if a little sensational and doomsaying.

Still take into account our current system is no older than a century or two and given the short livespans and relative "inexperience" of experts such as buffet greenspan etc...

Hey.. all I am saying is that it is YOUR money and you should take responsibility. Because when it all crashes...

All the expert/oracle will tell you is "sorry"

Oh yah, that already happened with Greenspan. BTW Green span and many others actually said the propert crash is not likely or impossible to happen.


So be responsible for your money and if you must coat tail, do it with great awareness and agility.

Thats what this game is about ;)




Anyways...


FIAT Money.


From my understanding, the basic concept is when a government issues money that it can no longer back.

Now I find this rather intriguing, because not too long ago i asked myself. Where does money come from?


Yes people earn them. I earn it from my parent org. My parent org gets it from the govenment. Where does the government get the moeny.


Yeah sure taxes.

but thats jumping the cycle by a step.


Somewhere the government must have printed money.

Sure by the power and authority vested in them, is that enough?


historically no. =)



Oh this is so amusing, but I just recalled that i watch this show about pirates on Octo??? or channel5 ??? i cannot remember.


Being a horny healthy male, i was attracted by the relatively attractive female narrater/showhost who was acting all air headish....


But still the show was about pirates, their rise, their fall, and their eventually weeding out (oh recently pirates were in the news some somali things .. amazing (or perhaps not) that this still happens today ;))

Did you know that pirates were commision by governments???

Except that their official title was Privateer =)


To their government, Privateers were military seamen, sent to gather loot for the government, all privateers of other nations were pirates!!!


Spain/Britain was one of the largest nations actively having pirates.. oops privateers. =)


Oh but more to the point of this post.


What was the loot in those days????



Spice


Silk


Porcelain

GOLD!!



In short things of actual value!


No where in history had paper EVER had value


except to REPRESENT something of value!


a dollar note is legally, legal tender. A promise of a certain value.

Most people do not even know what the value is!


I know I don't!


Upon investigation, all I could find was that the Singapore Dollar is pegged to a basket of currency.


What this means is that it is a promise of the govenment, based on promises by other governments.

Stay with me and think of recursion if you are a programmer.

At the very end of the recursion, there must be a return value.


I am not too sure, but an example of the return value is the US dollar. The value is currently (I think), 1/35th of an ounce of GOLD


So thats it. GOLD is the item of absolute value.


Or so we think.


The point is GOLD could one day become valueless. Just as the value of the dollar was arbitarily pegged to the GOLD as 1/35th of an ounce. The value of GOLD is hugely determine by people.

So one could argue that the system is ultimately not workable.


My guess is that, for the system to work it must be pegged to the most stable item of value. At this moment, very likely GOLD.



I think overall the system is workable.




That is until the US dollar cannot deliver its value or put another way is no longer really worth the 1/35th of an ounce of GOLD



For the local Singaporeans, remember banana money. That is fiat money. Money based purely on the promises of a government.

Note: the pegging of the USD to gold is a promised backed by gold. Not purely the government. There is a BIG difference.



There is another interesting concept : Petroleum Dollars . It sounds really sensationalistic. But economically speaking, it is scarily plausible.


But I think the takeaway here are the concepts. both of fiat money and petroleum money (which I did'nt really elaborate but you could google you know ;)).

My personal belief is that the systems are so large that it would take time for them to crash, possibly not in our lifetimes (which was probably what Greenspan was hoping). And you! puny investor must protect yourself from the vagarities of the economic climate. Because, the big boys are not going to take care of you. Just as the relationship between a Whale and plankton, or more controversially between a pastor and his church, the reigning idea is that plankton or one's tithe is miniscule. Oh you are important. But when things fall apart, don't expect to be protected by those who depended on you. You are, in a word, expendable.


Go on weep ;)


To your success!