The layoff axe has started swinging.
Real Estate, Leveraged Finance, Sponsors, and Financial Institutions Group have been hit. What's next?
Well, I've been in London for more than 3 weeks and will be returning to the US of A this Saturday. My team is looking forward to my return. And in one of my bosses' own words, "We're having an extraordinarily interesting time." Oh boy. Hope that doesn't mean cleaning up the wreckage of the recent market meltdowns, assuming we're even finished with the bloodbath.
The financial market continues to nosedive. I continue to wonder whether the axe will fall on my own neck. Yum, suspense. Saw images of Times Square... and I must say, I feel an hubristic sense of pleasure with the new decor. I'm still stupidly pleased even though this may cost me my job.
London is horrifically cold now and of course, rainy. But, what a lovely city it is when the sky is bright and clear!
Well, my firm just purchased a failed US investment bank recently (guess which one).
Now I'm just a bit spooked about the upcoming integration. There's some significant overlap between the US divisions of the 2 firms. The redundant workforce is surely going to be wiped out soon. The question is: how long will I get to keep my job?
It felt like the end of the world today.
I landed in London yesterday. This morning, I woke up and walked to Canary Wharf to get my phone a SIM card. The moment I stepped off the footbridge, I saw the giant news ticker flashing the following:
Bank of America bought Merrill. Lehman filed for bankruptcy.
I thought I was hallucinating from jet lag.
I must admit, I'm very very frightened.
It's been 3 days since the opening ceremony. Yet, still no sign of a high quality, full version video of the event online.
I recorded NBC broadcast of the show on my computer. But since the signal wasn't HD, the quality was only moderately decent. While I share the video with friends who have missed the airing, it's really no good as a keepsake for me personally since I'm ultra picky about video quality.
I wish I can get my hands on a good, non-NBC version of the event.
NBC broadcast weaknesses:
- Too much commentary - Explain the significance of each performance in the Chinese cultural context and be done with it, please. And for god's sake, don't talk over the children's choir!
- Too much politics - Can't you just leave politics out of it? I don't want to hear about Tibet, human rights, Sudan, 1989, what-have-you while trying to enjoy the Olympics opening ceremony. I already hear about too much of those outside Olympics. For once, I just want a nice break from politics!
- Heavy footage editing/cutting - NBC cut out the athelete's oath ceremony and the performances in the end. I wanna see Jackie Chan sing, dammit!
- Too much commerical - I think 3 minutes of commercial came on to every 7 minutes of the ceremony. It was such a bitch to cut out the commercial breaks while I was preparing my recording for friends.
Yet, after seeing some clips of other TV stations on YouTube, I noticed that NBC's camera works were vastly superior. My cousin actually IMed me and said, "You guys were seeing the NBC broadcast, right? I just saw some NBC clips, the camera works were fantastic. CCTV version was trash. NBC rocked!"
That just eliminated the CCTV version from my list. I was hoping that the no-commercial, full broadcast by CCTV would be good. But alas, it isn't meant to be.
Supposedly, CBC's broadcast is good. I'll the monitering the net for anything in English or Mandarin that surfaces.
I'll be flying to NYC in 2 days to apartment-hunt. Gaaah, what a pain in the ass!
Size: 3 bedrooms
Max Rent: $4200/month
Neighborhoods: Upper East Side, Roosevelt Island, Midtown East, East Village, Financial District, other areas along the East River
Requirements: on-site laundry, clean carpet/decent floor, decent closet space, deadbolts; easy access to subway, convenience stores, grocery shops, dry cleaners
Optional: doorman, elevator, southern exposure, A/C
Roommate's brother is nice enough to let me stay in his apartment during the search period. So, I get to save 4 nights' hotel expense. I'm trying to get in the habit of cutting down on spending as much as possible especially given my upcoming trip to London. The dollar-to-pound exchange rate is terrible and I'm already foreseeing getting killed by the hefty prices over there.
After getting the apartment leasing business over with, I still have a big list of things to do to get ready for both moving to NYC and staying in London.
1. Purchase British Pound Sterling via my bank
2. E-mail my banker my London dates so my debit and credit cards don't get suspended by the anti-fraud system when I use them overseas
3. Get an international calling card with low rates to UK for my parents
4. Get drug-tested
5. Pack, pack, pack!
6. Call utility companies to turn on gas and electricity for NYC apartment
7. Drive to NYC with my life's possessions
8. Purchase a futon, a desk, a table, and a few chairs
9. Get my driver's license changed to a New York State one
Then, off I go to London, hopefully with no major incidents. I hear London is lovely in September.
Ouch, ouch, ouch!
*sigh* I twitch involuntarily whenever I look at the 4-figure numbers. These numbers also made me realize that I should really consolidate my credit cards since given my budget, there's no need to have many cards. Hopefully, the Capital One MasterCard I just applied will be approved with a decent limit so I can use it overseas with no surcharge. Then, I'm going to consolidate my current cards into one American Express card. Two credit cards should be enough given my financial situation.
For my upcoming stay in London, I bought a cell phone from eBay and it arrived today!
The reviewer guy was so over the top goshing over the "style" and "sleekness" of this phone that it was almost obnoxious. The gold phone was supposed to be a limited edition released exclusively in Hong Kong and specifically targeted female consumers (because it actually came with a voucher for free gold-colored nail polish O_o;;).
But screw all that. I bought mine used so I was able to get it at a substantial discount. The original owner took pretty good care of it so there are barely any cosmetic damage to the phone. The unlocked quad-band GSM feature was really what prompted me to go for this since I needed a good international travel phone.
So welcome, KRZR, to my gadget collection.
From dealbreaker.com:
UBS Exiting Business Of Providing Off-Shore Banking Services To US Clients
Posted by John Carney, Jul 17, 2008, 11:54am
Those famous Swiss bank accounts may become a thing of the past. Testifying before a Congressional hearing on tax fraud, UBS chief financial officer Mark Branson said that the Swiss bank would no longer provide tax advice and private banking services to US customers.
The Senate's subcommittee on investigations issued a report today claiming that tax dodges aided by foreign banks cost the Treasury about $100 billion per year. For the past six months the subcommittee has been investigating the practices of UBS and LGT Bank in Liechtenstein, which is owned by Liechtenstein prince Hans-Adams II.
There goes my plan of opening a Swiss bank account with UBS. Except, I want to have one for the purpose of hedging against a weakening US dollar.
But, what the heck has UBS Compliance been doing with their KYC-type due diligence procedures?
Dude, why didn't I know about this?!
There's a Mitsuwa Marketplace in New Jersey and the supermarket offers shuttle bus service between its NJ location and Manhattan. $3 fare each way. The buses run from approximately 8am to 9pm every day. Can we say freaking awesome?
Oh, and the Japan Credit Bureau issues the Mitsuwa credit card which gives you 10% discount on Mitsuwa purchases made during certain months of the year, Monday to Thursday. It's also got a 1% cash back rewards program and nice travel insurance coverages. Incidentally, JCB is a partner of Discover and is accepted everywhere Discover is. Double awesome.
