Greece Debt Crisis

I'm not going to lie - the election is this weekend and it's only till today that I took the initiative to try and understand what is going on with the Greece Debt Crisis.

What went wrong?
When Greece joined the European Union in 1981, it benefited from an economic boom when wealthy European and North Americans considered it as a popular tourist destination. Unfortunately, this turned sour when tourists began to feel that the Greeks were overcharging them. While the tourist industry is going downhill, switching to the euro currency did not help in 2001. After the switch, the government sector could not sustain the rapid increase in wages, let alone dish out generous benefits to those retiring. Official retirement age in Greece is 58. Despite all these, the big blow to the Greek economy is mass tax evasion. When the government doesn't get its money from taxation, who does it turn to? European banks. In estimation, Athens is 54 billion euros ($74 billion) in debt  and much of this debt is due in fast approaching months.

What is the world's eyes on right now? Deal or no deal?

Greece takes the deal
Up until the current crisis, the EU and IMF have already provided 110 billion euros of bailout loans in 2010 and another 130 billion euros earlier this year. Private creditors have written off more than half of Athens' debt and decreased the rate of the rest of the loans. Another offer is in place should Greece decides to accept it. European banks are willing to take on about half of whatever is owed. The potential deal-breaker is that Greece must agree to austerity. This includes cut-backs on government spending, which of course decreases pay for public employees, and agreement to stagger repayment of debt. This means that the country will fall into a spiraling debt. It is believed that unemployment will be driven up while shrinking the economy and lowering living standard.

Greece defaults 
To default and drop the euro to return to the drachma (ancient Greek currency), Greek export will benefit from becoming cheap. I could not, however, think of any other reasons to default. Greek banks, which are creditors to the government, will go bankrupt in no time. It takes at least four months to introduce a new currency. While the drachma is trying to settle, inflation will reach sky high.

To conclude, it appears that the outcome of the election on June 17 will hit the rest of the world at a steeper angle than it would at Greece itself. If the election favors the pro-austerity parties, the EU and IMF will put the international economy back in spin for yet another day. If the anti-austerity parties win, Greece will freeze all loan payments. All faith is then lost on the European market. As for Greece, it has already hit rock bottom, unless there is another layer of calamity to it.

Samsung Galaxy 3

Father's day is just around the corner. Have you been scratching your head like I had in trying to get your dad something? My dad's been using this keypad Nokia phone since the beginning of time and could probably take it to an antique shop. Time to upgrade, dad!

I'm currently spending the summer in Hong Kong. Not only am I swamped with the sea of people I see in every shopping mall, but also somewhat brainwashed by the numerous adverts and commercials from the Korean company, Samsung, trying to tell me that we all need a Galaxy 3 if we don't already own a Galaxy Note. Does my dad need a Galaxy 3?

Operating on Android 4.0.4, it gives hands down a top speed internet browsing experience. My dad is a private speculator in the stock exchange and, hence, is immobile from his desk-top computer from when he gets up at 9.30am till four in the afternoon. With the best of luck, I hope Android's stock apps, which are free of charge, will help him battle the current crisis. Here are some apps that may be of use to traders:

• Stock watcher
• Stocks
• Stock alert

How will Galaxy 3 feel in my dad's fat hand? Admittedly, the 133g feels light weight. And the paper thin polycarbonate battery cover makes it seem less robust than what I'm used to: an iPhone. Galaxy 3 has its redeeming qualities though. Its Gorilla Glass front shows off its slick 4.8 inch display and its stubby-finger-friendly interface.

Samsung's pride in the new Galaxy rests primarily upon its ability to react to human gestures. Remember how annoying it gets when your laptop or phone switches to screensaver mode in the middle of you watching a movie? Galaxy fixes this with 'Smart Stay' - the screen remains on as long as you are eye-balling the screen. Another feature is 'Direct Call'. If dad is texting me but decides that he isn't text-messaging-proficient enough, he simply needs to bring the Galaxy 3 up to his ear - it'll dial my number automatically.

Did I pay HK$5580 (US$719, £463) to get the Galaxy 3? I did.

ObamaCare (Part II)

Continuing from "ObamaCare (Part I)": http://student-eyes.blogspot.com/2012/06/obamacare-part-i.html

The first case of mumps in Berkeley's academic year broke out from the house I was living in. This was inevitable for a house, called Cloyne Court Casino Hotel, roofed over 200 hippies. But I'll save the discussion of Cloyne's hygiene, or the lack of it, in another post. Waking up one morning with a sore throat and runny nose, I immediately checked myself in with the health center. I left the center with a dozen paracetamol in a white paper box and with $10 less in my wallet. Five dollars for the consultant and another five for the prescription. 

One would have hoped that the $1626 insurance could tide me over a common cold. What is the cause to such an advance country's bank-breaker healthcare? Later on, I downloaded onto my Kindle "Believe in America: Mitt Romney's Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth" for the price of $0.00. This generosity is currently still available here: http://www.amazon.com/Believe-America-Romneys-Economic-ebook/dp/B005LEY5Q0/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1339491089&sr=1-1

The book says that the Obama administration aimed to 'radically change health insurance and healthcare'. How? Below are the two main objectives of ObamaCare:

1. Insure everyone (legal American citizens, that is). 
2. Impose greater government regulation over insurance policies and medicare. 

So why don't Americans buy into the change? 

To ensure that all Americans are insured, employers are now required to either provide their employees with insurance or pay out to the ObamaCare. Is this mandatory fringe benefit going to encourage employment? The simple answer is no. This increases unemployment rate and  Besides, if the unemployed are also given health insurance, someone must be paying for them. Tax payers are paying for them. The reform is projected to cost about $1000 billion in the next decade. The middle class and small businesses are hurting most when tax in US is higher than majority if not all of Europe. 

What about giving the federal government the power to decide that you take the blue pill instead of the red pill because it's half the price of the red pill and works just as fine? Would you be willing to let the government be the judge of you taking painkiller instead of having surgery? Those rooting for ObamaCare say that a tougher regulation raises competition amongst insurance providers. The only problem is that the White House is the big player and the big ref - another piece of evidence of Barack Obama's skepticism for the private sector. 

So unless you're like the Chinese guy I sat next to in class, you might just have to swallow the ObamaCare pill. 

ObamaCare (Part I)

As a penny-pinching student from the University of Manchester living on the UK government's student loan, expenses at the University of California, Berkeley was breaking my bank. In the third year of my degree, Manchester sent me abroad to America for a year to participant in an exchange program. Berkeley policy states that each student must be covered by health insurance provided by companies with headquarters in the states or, in other words, American companies. I purchased the default UC SHIP (student health insurance plan), drawing US$1626.00 from my account. 

It was the first day of school. Having found my way to all my morning classes, there was only one left to sit through in the afternoon. Sat in a small classroom of twenty or so seats, I engaged in a small talk with a Chinese guy next to me. My small talk was more like a rant of the steep SHIP payment. The Chinese guy agreed and revealed that he didn't purchase SHIP. 

"How much is your insurance plan?" I curiously asked, assuming he's found value with another insurance company.

To my surprise, he didn't. He isn't insured. I pressed on to see if he could enlighten me.

"It can work. But it takes some intuition," he replied without making eye contact with me. 

It seemed all too awkward for me to ask anything else, though I had a great urge to. At that, the lecturer came in and asked if everyone was ready for Algebra One. Damn, I was in the wrong class! Embarrassingly, I stood up to make my way towards the door, which seemed like miles away when the whole class' attention was enough to burn a hole in the back of my head. Neither did what the lecturer said help: "Looks like she's not ready for some algebra." The whole class laughed and the door now seemed light-years away. 

Nonetheless, I made it to my last class of the day, Quantum Mechanics.