Mattijs Naus

nothing

The following article does a great job explaining the current mess in the United States (be warned, it ain’t pretty folks):

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2008/11/the-shallowest-generation/

Thank you Matt Maroon!

The U.S. monkey-for-a-president Bush did a great job giving confidence to the world yesterday. After the United States pretty much borrowed and lend itself into it’s own grave, Bush finds the common sense the make the following statement:

When money flows freely between banks, it will make it easy for Americans to borrow money for homes and cars.

At times when the average American family is struggling to make their monthly mortgage payments, the volume of foreclosures is rising daily and people are killing themselves and their families because they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, the “leader of the free world” is encouraging people to borrow money to buy houses and cars.

“Don’t fear people, don’t shoot your dog just yet. We have the answer for all your problems: come and get another loan and keep on following the American dream!”

This ought to confirm what many people around the globe have been suspecting the last few years, G.W. Bush is actually retarded!

With the financial world falling apart as we speak (Nikkei is down by over 10%, another day for the books), I felt the need to share this great site with pics of poor traders around the globe.

Gigaom.com is reporting a somewhat secretive meeting arranged by Sequoia Capital, one of the larger Venture firms in Silicon Valley. Apparently, the world’s greatest “innovators” are, bit by bit, getting used to the idea that, after all, Silicon Valley and its ridiculous me-too-get-rich-quick innovative mentality are not save in their bubble.

Face it: you’re gonna be dealing with the storm of the century just like everybody else! But seriously, if you’re running a business and you need your investors to tell you to buckle up and cut down as many costs as possible because hard times are ahead, you’re a moron and you should get out asap…

If even America’s best bud Germany is done with the United States and their monkey-for-a-president, some storm must be ahead…

One of the best articles Der Spiegel has produced in my opninion: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,581502,00.html

But then again, what do I know…

For the past weeks, Silicon Valley did what they do best: stick their heads in the dirt and flat-out deny that hard times are ahead.

The fact that there were no IPO’s at alll in the second quarter didn’t seem relevant, and neither did the fact that M&A deals hit a record low. People seemed oblivious to fact that these are the only ways Venture firms make their money; and since making money is the only reason they invest in world-changing innovative ideas (Youtube for documents, Twitter for the homeless, etc), well … I guess you feel where this is going!

Thank God, innovation evangalist Arrington finally breaks it down for all the innovaters living in the parallel universe that is the Valley: shit is hitting the fan and some splatters are definitely coming your way.

To be honest, I have been waiting for shit to fly into the direction of the valley for a long time. The huge pool of money burning, utterly useless, ad-supported me-too startups is in desperate need of some natural selection and a reality check. For those of us who are are living in parts of the world where universal laws do apply; get your popcorn, open up a beer, feet on the table and enjoy! For those of you living in the Valley and working on the next Google-killer, keep your eyes on the horizon and be on the lookout for shit coming your way!

Success isn’t simply a matter of money, power, or prestige. You could gain all of those and still feel that you have fallen short of what you wanted; or you could gain none of them and be blissfully happy and fulfilled. What constitutes personal success is mostly in your mind. It has much less to do with finding the best career in other peoples’ eyes, creating a killer business, or holding down a fancy job with a big salary than with achieving what really matters to you. Many people find this out too late. They struggle for years to get where other people said they should go, only to find it does little or nothing for them. Sadly, it’s often too late by then to do anything else.