turar

One factor could be just the internal market. China has been export-oriented for the whole world, but as their population gets richer, they would be the consumers of their own manufacturing capacity?

For one Putin there are hundreds lower-level officials in his court and protection, for whom they won't be too small.

Well, I don't think they had reality TV back when Bolsheviks got their hands on Romanov family and shot them all.

I think too much inequality is destabilizing for a society as a whole. That's when you get into high crime and actual violence and riots, where the 1% lose their lives, not just a portion of their wealth. And on the other side, redistribution is a feature of a civilized society, where orphans and elderly and disabled don't have to beg on the streets and die quietly in the alleys. Like many things, neither extreme works well here, but a "golden middle" is also difficult to figure out.

It seems like the majority of Crimean population support the Russian invasion so far. Here are some pics from on-the-ground in Crimea. http://4strongman.livejournal.com/115758.html Locals with orange+black bands and blue+white+red banners are Russia supporters. Also, as a history backgrounder, it's illuminating to realize how deep Russian history in Ukraine goes into the ages. One of the first Russian/Slavic states was Kievan Rus' (Kievan Russia), with a capital in Kiev. Moscow didn't even exist at the time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27

Saw this comment on Reddit today, thought some here might like it:

A library should have access to Compustat.

Right. By consulting, I more meant corp-to-corp (i.e. incorporated individual), or just individual contractor. I haven't seen rates above $100/hr for your average run-of-the-mill software dev contracts, say programming in Java. But it looks like people were talking about billing rates as part of a larger consulting shop. Then I agree, if you're working for IBM and they contract you out, they can probably easily charge $300/hr, but my point is it, it doesn't make a difference to you, since you're an employee making your fixed salary of $100K. And if you decide to go off on your own and starting independent contracting, good luck finding that $300/hr gig. So it's apples to oranges, I guess. And again, this is just my understanding, which could be wrong.

I must be out of sync with the latest rates then. Muscleman, where can I check up on these opportunities in Seattle or Bay Area? I have a number of friends across the West Coast in software dev, they are usually quoting much lower rates, per my post above.

Oh, OK. Even so, consulting rates are usually only about 30% or so higher than salaried rates, from my understanding. So $100/hr is probably a "good" consulting rate for the majority of software engineers. I'm talking about an independent person doing consulting. If you're a part of a "brand-name" consulting shop, you can get billed at a higher rate, but you're not getting that rate into your pocket.

There are websites with pay information for all kinds of professions, and $150-200/hr for software engineers, (which is what, about $300-400K/year?) is not common at all. Silicon Valley usually has the highest paid software engineers, and the going rate for a mid-to-senior level engineer is about $150K base, from what I understand. Midwest, a lot less, probably 100K or so.

http://www.propublica.org/article/message-from-mexico-u.s.-is-polluting-water-it-may-someday-need-to-drink

A very interesting article, I thought I should share here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/29/opinion/capitalism-vs-democracy.html?src=me&ref=general&_r=0

Software engineer here as well. What's interesting is that it seems there are more tech guys here than finance guys. Could it be possible that finance guys don't "grok" value investing as intuitively as tech guys? Another possibility is that if you're working 12 hour days at an IB, you probably don't want to spend your free time reading more finance stuff.

He only ended up in Russia because the US cancelled his passport while he was en route to Latin America. Regarding going the official routes to blow the whistle -- it's been tried and didn't work before: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/06/16/snowden-whistleblower-nsa-officials-roundtable/2428809/

Just a nitpick, but there's 150K gap between <100 and >250.

Yes, it's a de-facto dictatorship -- single party rule since 1959, one guy in office for 30 years, and now his son is in office. And just to clarify what I meant by Chinese vs American leadership. If you look at the biographies of Obama, Biden, Pelosi, etc., they're all lawyers with not much experience outside politics. I'd say the majority of Congress are lawyers or career politicians as well. All of Supreme Court are obviously lawyers. If you look at biographies of Chinese Politburo members, there are career chemical engineers, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, other technical guys, economists, PhDs of all sorts, etc. They do have people from "political dynasties" too, but it's a pretty healthy looking mix overall. If I were to run a country, I would prefer the latter to a bunch of lawyers.

That is probably true in the long term. I was specifically talking about the current situation.

I never said I admired them. All I'm saying is that current Chinese government seems more effective and rational than the current US government, which is utterly dysfunctional. It's somewhat similar to the difference between CEOs who have long-term plans and an outlook decades out, as opposed to CEOs who are driven by quarterly results. As for your rosy view of the history of US military aggression over the years, and your desire to execute Snowden, let's just say I disagree, but I don't want to debate any of that here.

In geopolitics, there are no "friends". The US has no friends, neither does China. There are allies that are expendable if needed. Just ask Europeans in the wake of NSA scandals. Same for Russia and Iran. Russia simply needs to continue asserting its zone of influence, which includes Iran. And same for China. China will be getting stronger and stronger in the coming decades, that is inevitable. They will keep asserting their power more and more aggressively, but slowly and in small steps. They have passed the US in many areas, or are equals, and are not stopping at that. The US will need to get used to that, or risk economical pressure, or WW3 as the worst outcome. Fortunately, Chinese are not led by populists the way the US is, and I believe their leadership is more rational.

Exactly, imagine China complaining that the US "harassed" Chinese military ships that were merely conducting "surveillance" of US aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Mexico.

Haha, second Y combinator link in one post. Read the first comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6845002

Thanks for the timber recommendations guys.

How are you investing in timber?

See Yukos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukos