Gamecock-YT

state owned properties being sold off to oligarch buddies under nefarious measures

the norwegian sovereign wealth fund

press shy but no one wants to turn down the guy that controls the biggest fund in the world. kiss the ring.

I have, November 2019 in fact so right at about 4 years and 50 weeks to the day, right before shit started hitting the fan and I have no interest in ever going back! I found people to be rude, unhelpful, and trying to rip you off at every opportunity. The surveillance apparatus was beyond the pale. We're talking 10-12 cameras on every street corner. You knew you were being watched at every opportunity. Nevermind the chinese firewall. Google maps doesn't work, the only western app that worked was Apple maps, which made me lose a lot of respect for the company. Especially when they like to flout their privacy bonafides. I've also been to Hong Kong post-covid and the city is a shell of its former self. You're welcome.

Can't speak on the CFA but for the GMAT it's good to do it while you're still in 'college study form', those skills start to atrophy pretty quickly once you are in the working world and not using them on a daily basis. Also depending on what you have your undergrad degree in, you could find the MBA programs pretty worthless beyond growing your network and being associated with a 'brand'. I dropped out of mine after 15 hours because one of the prereqs to continue the program was being forced to take a 'business writing' class that was teaching me to write memos. Not to mention a lot of the business classes were pretty remedial to a business undergrad.

Yeah most people visiting for the first time have no idea on burning season, then get there and it's the worst air quality on the planet. Should hopefully be better than the last few years since we're in a La Nina pattern. Only thing I'd say on BKK is stay somewhere close to a MRT/BTS station, less you be stuck in some of the worst traffic you'll ever experience. I usually stay in Phrom Phong but anywhere along the Sukhumvit line is a good place to stay. And if you are trying to avoid the sleaziness in Bangkok, you'll inevitably be catcalled for massages more times than you can count just by being a farang walking on the street. It's part of the experience. Good news is all that goes away unless you plan on visiting Phuket or Pattaya.

That drive to Pai from CNX is apparently an experience. You can get a puddle jumper to Mae Hong Son if you want to avoid part of the drive. I'm planning on going back to Chiang Mai Jan - April depending how bad burning season gets. Good time to be there.

I mean there's a reason Monaco and Andorra are popular with those that can afford to live there....lots of wealthy Norwegians moving to Switzerland to escape the increase in capital gains tax that came into effect a year or two ago. But your average Dane, French, or Austrian moving to Czechia or Slovakia? If they're moving for tax purposes probably nicer places to live more suited for expats. Geo arbitrage seems to be a hard thing for people to get their head around anyway, one only needs to look in the Money required for retirement thread in the personal finance forum to see that for themself.

Greetings from the Alps, nice office view for the month.

Was owned by 2 private equity companies as I recall. Easy to say in theory, but when you're an entry level employee just trying to get some experience on the resume before heading to greener pastures you try to keep your head down. Also forgot we had the CEOs son on the payroll as a sales associate for Australia. He made far and above what the other sales people for the company did. Plus got the same sales commission that the rest of the team did. He also brought in the least amount of business for the company. We paid him a monthly wire and he'd kick and scream if it wasn't paid ahead of time if pay day was over the weekend.

D, would even push for lower - My first job out of college was working as an accounts payable accountant. The amount of grift the CEO did by employing his wife to do tasks such as decorating the office, catering for events, the company even paid her commission for art work, and she paid herself a very handsome hourly rate for her services. Even had her own LLC to keep things appearing on the up and up. My bosses were all powerless to do anything about it. Just run of the mill petty corporate theft. I did manage to get the CFO to draw the line on her accompanying the CEO on his business trips to Europe. He was even wanting us to pay for a couples weekend in Venice that had nothing to do with any company business or was anywhere close to where the business meetings were taking place. And we also managed to ding him for trying to have the company pay for her round trip business class ticket as well. Plus the corporate policy was he, himself, was only allowed to take Premium economy given the length of flight. Needless to say I wasn't very popular with him after that.

nice burner account Monish

CCM for one. Warrior and True maybe lesser known brands but lots of people favor them over Bauer or CCM. Then you get down to Sherwood and Winwell.

Rains almost every day and tough to get to, besides that it's nice. Spectacular views.

2 months before the election, what great timing!

reminds me of hurricane hugo with the speed and intensity. It did a number on towns even inland.

Well the Hanoi airport is currently reporting gusts of 55 mph and it's well inland. I'll leave it up to you to imagine the quality of buildings in Vietnam. If you feel like following along. But funny/ironic to me an article comes out that the Atlantic has been quiet whereas the Pacific has had 2 typhoons make landfall (China & Vietnam, Japan) in the past 2 weeks. https://e.vnexpress.net/evolution/environment/typhoon-yagi-triggers-violent-winds-to-uproot-trees-blow-away-roofs-in-northern-vietnam-4790074.html

I look forward to reading the 50 pages in his annual letter about why it was a bad decision

Well with the typhoon that just hit Northern Vietnam today, BIC probably isn't going to have a good year.

What’s the odds 7-11 gets bought out by a trading house with assistance from Berkshire? Might be a White Knight solution to their quagmire of wanting to keep it ‘Japanese’. One of their Japanese rivals, FamilyMart, is already owned by Itochu which is one of the trading companies BRK has a stake in.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-08-01/exxon-almost-walked-away-from-1-trillion-guyana-oil-discovery Exxon Almost Walked Away From Its $1 Trillion Oil Discovery A few geoscientists pushed a reluctant energy giant to take a chance on Guyana.

Financial Institution titles are always self-inflated. Kids 3-4 years out of college will have VP titles, so I wouldn't take 'Director of Sand Pounding' as anything serious. Rule of thumb is how many hierarchies you are below the CEO that determines how powerful/important the position is. Also having previously worked in a regulatory role at a financial institution, I don't think that career path is heading to your board of director promise land. I've worked with quite a few people that were directors for companies we had various equity stakes in: usually it was either we were a founding shareholder, brought scale and influence to a platform, or came in during a series B-D fundraise and got a board seat (or an observer seat) as part of the funding agreement. So I'd say your best bet is something similar to what Greg is suggesting. Get in with 1 company and take it from there, CEOs talk when it comes to needing new directors. So be a good boy and you might find yourself on a couple.

handouts to their base. At least in India you used to get a toaster or a TV out of the deal.

If I'm Dimon or Fink that would be really tough being the boss for so long only to have to suck up to Trump as Treasury Secretary. I guess getting the immediate options vest and the tax deferred treatment of going into government service might soften the blow but it's not like these guys are hurting for cash. Guess it's the old saying that everyone has a price.