US new tax proposal by Rick Perry

Rick Perry, republican Governor of Texas who aim for US president, proposed a new tax plan for US. According to his plan, the tax rate will be flat, everyone pays 20%. Most people have doubt on it because the middle class could be affected, and the rich people will definitely benefit from it; rich people can save up to 15%. This new tax plan requires a huge cut on US' budget, will it be realizable? "pledged to not cut any benefits of current Social Security retirees or those about to tap into the system. But to do that, and cut the budget to 18 percent of G.D.P., would mean cutting at least one third of the remaining federal budget, said James Horney, the vice president for federal fiscal policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research group in Washington." (New York Times) Everyone knows that US' debt is so much that we can make a mountain higher than Everest. At this difficult period of time, the treat of economic crisis, of the terrorist attack, and of the huge debt, the plan is unlikely to be possible.

Ref:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/us/politics/perry-plan-would-grant-big-tax-break-to-wealthiest.html

Apple TV review

Just got Apple TV second generation two days ago. I thought it would be a great machine; however, it is just so so. It can actually stream 1080pi movies through iTunes, so don't worry if all your movies are 1080pi. The image looks great, but the player (iTunes) can only accept a small percentage of movie format. It limits the amount of the content can be played. Of course, it is possible to solve the problem by using a video converter converts other format videos into mp4, but it cost a lot of time. If you have a iPad, then you can explore the whole potential of the Apple TV. As publicized, the mirror play is one of the main feature. It expand the utility of Apple TV. Don't worry, the new Apple TV will not be out within at least one year. Apple TV has just been introduced into euro market, so it is our insurance. It is also possible to jailbreak Apple TV, and it can turn it into a browser. Even more powerful, there are apps that can allow you watch online TV/Movies for free. Who needs NetFlix anymore? By the way, NetFlix Canada is not as good as what we learned in class, the selection is so few. Maybe its long tail effect is way too long.

Threat of Kindle Fire on iPad

The official release date of kindle fire would be 15 Nov. This device costs only 40% of the cost of an iPad. Amazon has a 10$ loss on each device they sell, they except to use subsidize product adoption strategy to occupy the market. Amazon expect to earn this loss back by selling more e-products. Amazon officials forecast they could sell 5M devices in Q4. If it was true, and Apple's iPad sell has been impacted, it would be a good news for Apple fans. The competition will always be with customers. If the sales of iPad declined in Q4, then Apple will definitely drop the price of iPad. CNET estimate each iPad has a production cost at 330$. Apple had to give a huge jump in response of Kindle Fire at March 2012. So far, Tim Cook do not consider Amazon as a viable competitor for Apple, but who knows what is going to happens since the price of new kindle is so attractive.


Ref:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-20120294-64/kindle-fire-forecast-bumped-to-5m-units-in-q4/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/17/bloomberg_articlesLT7PXA0YHQ0X.DTL

International Business

Oh s**t , the new recession is coming. The markets are crushing. Today, Canadian Government published the inflation rate of 1.9%, which according to them was not bad. However, the gas price is still high. Don't forget, everything is about the energy. If the oil price keep up in Canada, the market is going to respond greatly in the near future due to the fear of the economic crisis in our south neighbour country. Two years ago, the market was unstable, US government secretly "help" major banks within US and Canada. It is different this time, they are now in debt, of course the decrease of their credit rating will not affect them to borrow more money, but if President Obama do not have a plan to reduce the expense, which may include all kind of financial aids to foreign countries (they will save their own ship before saving other people's ship), he may have troubles to find a job at 2013. We are still one year away from the election, but the US debt will not have a significant change until 2012. Consequently, US may not have the power to "bail" Canada out this time. Point is this recession is going to be hell worse than last one. Don't believe me, go to http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/ and check US, Europe, and Asia stock market, and tell me how much have been evaporated since May 2011.