Twitter Joining The Stock Market Floatation: Caveat Emptor?

Given that Facebook’s stock value never went higher than its initial floatation, should prospective investors exercise caution when jumping on the Twitter IPO bandwagon? 

By: Ringo Bones 

Even though Twitter’s eagerly awaited IPO / stock market floatation was announced late last Thursday, September 12, 2013, many institutional investors seem to be exercising restraint when it comes to jumping on the Twitter bandwagon after the top brass running the very popular social media site decided plans to monetize their current popularity. Maybe it was because of Facebook IPOs never regaining their initial floatation value since released over a year ago. But will Twitter buck the trend and manage to do a miracle – i.e. be a better social media site IPO than Facebook?

It may seem not that long ago that Twitter founder Jack Dorsey made his first ever Tweet back in 2006 that Twitter became the social media site of choice of alleged pathological narcissists. Mollycoddling excuses aside, when seen for its mere advertisement revenue potential – Twitter is worth about 10 billion US dollars – about a quarter that of Facebook. And with 200 million plus users – a fifth that of Facebook – many wonder if investing in the upcoming Twitter IPO is a genuinely economically viable move. 

Twitter is slated to earn over 528 million US dollars via advertisement revenue this 2013. Many see it as a better investment than Facebook due to the high profile users currently on it. As in US President Barack Obama and the rather somewhat unsavory types like disgraced NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner who Tweeted photos of his privates. But will the resulting IPO money might blunt Twitter’s edginess factor in comparison to Facebook? After all when Facebook got its IPO and tried to “proverbiably” clean up its act by strictly policing posts – i.e. putting sanctions not just on “alleged pornographic posts” but also on “controversial” political posts like Uyghur Statehood Movement posts, Free Liu Xiaobo posts, Tibetan Freedom posts, etc. Might Twitter suddenly become a proverbial “police state” like Facebook once the millions of IPO revenues comes pouring in?  

Spanx: Proof That The American Dream Is Still Alive?

Given the current economic slowdown in the United States, is Spanx the latest proof that with hard work and a brilliant product, one can still achieve great financial success in America?

By: Ringo Bones 

A few years ago, Sara Blakely could have been just another statistical blip in the still ongoing economic slowdown of the American economy, yet she has become the proof that the “American Dream” is still alive and well where anyone willing to work hard to market their brilliant ideas can still make it big in the United States. Sara Blakely recently became the youngest self-made woman billionaire in the world after the company she founded – Spanx, Inc. – became a runaway commercial success despite starting with only 5,000 US dollars in hand. 

Spanx, Inc. – from a 5,000 US dollar start up to a billion-dollar company is indeed proof positive that the American Dream is still alive and well in an America still plagued with mass unemployment despite a healthy stock-market turnover. Sara Blakely’s legless pantyhose idea is born out of noticing rather mundane problems faced by Sara and every woman elsewhere with less-than-perfect figure and visible panty-line concerns when wearing the latest fashions primarily designed for waif-thin fashion models with Madison Avenue ad-men seal of approval. And thanks to Blakely’s never-give-up ethic gained from a young age and during her first day-job working 8-hours a day as a door-to-door fax machine salesperson, fashion-conscious women with rather less than perfect figures and rather limited budgets can now look the part of Madison Avenue ad-men approved fashionistas, as her Spanx is now marketed in over 150 countries around the world. 

Ironically, Sara Blakely never took traditional business classes before and also never worked a single day in the American fashion industry when first she set up her now billion dollar startup company Spanx, Inc. Stranger still, she always wanted to be a lawyer but was taken aback after she failed the LSAT or Law School Admission Test exams. The bulk of her 5,000 US dollar start up was spent on patenting the idea of her legless pantyhose and ultra-flexible body shaping fashion accessory. The proprietary Spandex-Lycra weave of Spanx was then patented with the help of a patent lawyer for between 3,000 to 5,000 US dollars after an on-line research on the US Patent office website by Blakely had revealed that her idea is genuinely unique and no one like it had ever been patented and marketed – which even surprised her.  

As a now "miracle" startup company, virtually no money was spent on advertising when Sara Blakely’s Spanx was first marketed in Sachs Fifth Avenue and Neeman Marcus stores and sales slowly grew by the first batch of satisfied customers’ word of mouth alone. Sara Blakely chose to name her ingenious invention as Spanx primarily after the proprietary Spandex and Lycra mix of her legless pantyhose and also on the runaway commercial success of consumer products with a “hard-K” sound in them – like Kodak and Coca Cola. 

Trump University: Phony University?

Given that it has been recently sued by the Attorney General of the state of New York after numerous complaints of students and graduates, is Trump University a phony business oriented university?

By: Ringo Bones 

Trump University is founded by the flamboyant American billionaire real estate, hotel and casino mogul Donald Trump as a way of “passing on” his secrets of financial success to anyone willing to work and study hard. But despite of the 35-thousand US dollar per student tuition fee, many fresh graduates have now wondered weather they are duped by Donald Trump’s famed university in an America currently suffering from a supposed jobless economic recovery. But should the Attorney General of the state of New York need to intervene in the matter? 

As of late, the Attorney General of the state of New York is currently suing Trump University for 40-million US dollars after numerous complaints from students and fresh graduates accused Donald Trump of defrauding them of their hard-earned money via the 35-thousand US dollar tuition fee citing irregularities that seem to make Donald Trump’s famed university as something less than credible – even fraudulent. The raison d’être of the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit centers on the extra fees paid for useless seminars that never made students the next financial whiz. Even recent threads on on-line message boards and leading social media networks are calling Trump University a greater fraud and even more phony than Pornstar University and/or Slut Academy. And there are even some conspiracy theorists that say that the New York Attorney General’s lawsuit against Donald Trump only gained credence and credibility due to the on-going feud between billionaire Donald Trump and US President Barack Obama. 

The students and recent graduates of Trump University allegations that they had been fleeced is more than just mere idle accusations because authorities working for the New York Attorney General had gathered enough evidence to show that Trump University is nothing more than a scam. There are no handpicked instructors famed for their financial acumen like Donald Trump promised. Donald Trump’s famed university’s promise that you can be as financially successful as him seem to ring hollow as most of the recent graduates and those who graduated a few years ago, haven’t yet paid off their student loans – never mind now on a fast track in becoming the next American billionaire. Virtually all graduates end up have their picture taken with a cardboard cut-out of Donald Trump while receiving their diploma. Given that Trump Casinos are planning to include a Strip Bar as standard in their establishment in the US and across the world – this recent move by flamboyant American billionaire Donald Trump could be a way of securing employment of the recent women graduates of Trump University, albeit a not so politically correct one. 

Did The U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Send The Stock Market On A Wild Ride?

Given the 48-hour long global stock sell-off hitherto unseen since the September 2008 global credit crunch, did FED Chairman Bernanke’s announcement to ease off the US economic stimulus caused it?

By: Ringo Bones 

The only thing that’s being proved by the 48-hour over 500-point plunge in the global stock prices is that the global stock market hates uncertainty. Sure, it can handsomely make profits in either wartime or peace, but the rather uncertain announcement of U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke back in Wednesday, June 19, 2013 of “taking the foot off the gas” on the U.S. economy’s 85-billion US dollar a month stimulus package if signs show that the U.S. economy shows signs of improvement near the end of 2013 had sent the global stock marketplace in a 48-hour sell-off – a global stock market plunge if you will. Not until did Friday came that the global markets started to stabilize after a two-day freefall. Given the market being spooked by such “economic stimulus ending announcement”, one wonders if our global economy is currently heavily dependent on the Obama administration’s rather liberal economic stimulus program. But doesn’t it, really? 

Every hedge fund manager who had either profited or had drastically minimized their loses during the September 2008 global credit crunch via the use of complex derivatives in hedging their investment portfolios have been since the start of 2013 started to advise their clients to be careful on their stock market investments since it is very likely that the Dow Jones Industrial Average could return to the 10,000 point mark around the end of 2013. Though despite such “scare mongering” the DJIA did manage to cruise well a little above the 15,000 point mark for much of May 2013 before it was sent on a volatile wild ride by June. 

While the June 19 announcement of FED Chairman Bernanke caused a global bond market sell-off that made the S&P 500 the worse it had been since 2011, many experienced and institutional investors had been quite busy snapping up safe haven commodities investments like gold and other precious metals that has since become “cheaper” since the 48-hour wild ride. But given the still high unemployment rates in the United States and the recent economic data showing the recent slowing down of the Mainland Chinese manufacturing sector, may now wonder if the rather artificially high stock market prices are just probably due to the Obama administration’s rather quite liberal 85-billion US dollar a month economic stimulus package / quantitative easing program. 

Liberty Reserve: The Criminal Underworld’s Online Bank of Choice?

As probably one of this year’s biggest money laundering cases, has the online digital currency and money transfer firm Liberty Reserve now became the criminal underworld’s online bank of choice? 

By: Ringo Bones 

With the arrest of the firm’s Ukrainian born founder, Arthur Budovsky - who was en route to his digital currency and money transfer firm’s base of operation in Costa Rica, by the U.S. Department of Justice authorities, Liberty Reserve was shut down by the U.S. D.O.J., the U.S. Secret Service as the ongoing investigation by federal prosecutors in New York proceeds. With a massive 6-billion US dollar money laundering scheme that could be the biggest uncovered for this year, does Liberty Reserve made an error of corporate due diligence for the firm to be embroiled in criminal money laundering? Or is the firm actually has outright complicity in such a criminal act? 

Though the outcome of the investigation is still pending, the U.S. Department of Justice in conjunction with the US Secret Service made arrests of Liberty Reserve’s upper echelon personnel in 17 countries over the weekend of May 25, 2013 while freezing its online domain name and 45 bank accounts used by the digital currency and money transfer firm elsewhere in the world. Based on the preliminary investigation uncovered by the New York Federal Prosecutor’s office, it was found out that Liberty Reserve became during the past few months as the money laundering destination of choice for the world’s criminal groups currently engaged in identity theft, illegal arms trading and running illegal online pornography sites, and transnational narcotics smuggling  just to name a few of the criminal enterprise uncovered whose profits were allegedly laundered by Liberty Reserve.  

Even though digital currency schemes like Bitcoin had been actively used by transnational illegal arms traders and narcotics traffickers since it was introduced, police authorities around the world has had a rather Quixotic task in their hand when it comes to arresting “online enablers” of such criminal activity due to a lack of established brick and mortar institutions. Given that Liberty Reserve has a real bricks and mortar office located in a rather “infamous” tax-haven destination called Costa Rica in which authorities could conduct raids and make arrests, this could be the primary reason that over the years this is the first time that such criminal activity has finally been “tangibly” clamped down.