don valley brickworks, fall 2008
new necklace from etsy for fall
a compromise between wide-legged and skinny
September 29, 2008
Saturday, 65k ride with Steven Young from Burlington to Niagara. So relaxing to drink wine and walked between the grape vines.
Fitch projects a significant deterioration in variable annuity results driven by deferred acquisition cost write-downs, declining asset balances, increased reserving for guaranteed benefits, and higher hedging costs.
A select number of life insurers have material liquidity exposures via large debt maturities, reliance on commercial paper, short-term bank letters of credit, securities lending programs, short-term funding agreements or ratings triggers on products such as municipal GICs. These insurers are most susceptible to sudden changes in their creditworthiness and financial strength, as well as multi-notch ratings downgrades, should their liquidity pressures heighten.
However, most life insurers have limited liquidity exposures, which should mitigate the impact of current market illiquidity across the industry. In addition, a vast majority of life insurers avoided investments in collateralized debt obligations backed by residential mortgage backed securities, and most have little or no activity in the credit default swap market.
September 25, 2008
Economist: it seems certain that professional social networks are here to stay as independent entities—something that cannot be said of their mass-market counterparts. As Mr Hoffman, LinkedIn’s founder, puts it: “Most users of social networks have a lot of disposable time, but not much disposable income. With professionals it is the other way around.”
September 22, 2008
Scott McDonald sent out an email today that basically says don't blame ibankers. Despite everything I have said about ibanks in the last five years, I really have nothing against ibanks, just people (a particular coop advisor) that claim it is the best industry to work in without regard for the fact that the best is relative to the environment and the environment can change rapidly.
The last time I visited the New York office, I picked up a copy of the evolution of financial services by Niall Ferguson and Oliver Wyman. It applies neo-darwinian thoughts to the lives/deaths of financial institutions. I definitely agree that diversity is key. The last thing I want to see is a world where every bank is a universal bank.
September 21, 2008
Saturday morning, first meetup meeting in Toronto. Stephen Fung and I joined "Conscious Toronto Discoverers, Adventurers & Travelers" for Canada's first bike-powered dance party at Brickworks. Mandarin/clove coffee. Beautiful place. Lovely people.
Saturday afternoon, revisited Brickworks with Mum + Dad.
September 13, 2008
Tuesday, dinner with Rach at Le Papillon. The duck pate and duck breast was so so. I need to stop obssessing over duck. The curried lamb crepe had wonderful texture and flavor. Apparently, watching the Olympics twelve hours a day is really tiring. After dinner, she took the Greyhound to Waterloo to visit Xi, even though she is leaving for Chicago on Wednesday.
Friday, internal meeting in New York where various consultants presented recent insurance projects. One story goes like this. The marketing department and the pricing department at a client needed external help to resolve a conflict. The marketing department wanted to hire McKinsey and the pricing department wanted to hire an actuarial consulting firm. They compromised and hired OW.
Mike Poulos: new consultants talk a little (because they don't know what to say) while somewhat experienced consultants talk a lot (because they don't know what not to say).
I was happy to hear that since so many college students think that over-confidence is good for consulting. What do you think happens when a 23 year old acts like he knows the client better than the client? Personally, I prefer to manage people that are slightly under-confident because they respond better to feedback. As they learn, their confidence grows and that makes both of us feel great.
Friday 11 pm, Brish + Zoey + Me caught desir at South Street Seaport. Lights floating on water swirling beneath the three bridges (Brooklyn + Manhatten + Williamsberg) is always a mesmerizing sight, but not as mesmerizing as showgirls, soldiers, courtesans and maharajahs, suspended in mid air.
Saturday, Zoey's birthday BBQ. She needs a friend that works in the fashion industry. I'm happily reading the Sartorialist.
September 7, 2008
Friday, chatted with Trevor and Laura, who is writing an article on ERM for Investment Executive. ERM is becoming a hip word for non-financials. Earlier this year, I actually thought about working in corporate risk. However, I imagine that it's a lot easier to convince a financial instituition that risk management is a strategic issue.
Saturday, lunch with Steven Young at Prohibition, who just came back from Laos/Cambodia. He was the fourth person hired by his firm, R^2 Financial. Conversations with college friends often lead to the question, "What would we do if we can do it all over again?" Steven's profession of choice is sniper. I wanted to be a teacher when I was young.
Among analytical people, my people skills are decent but this certainly is not my competitive advantage in a general sense. If I ever get to a point where I feel my people skills are as strong as my analytical skills, maybe I will start a coaching business. Unlike teaching at a school, you have the opportunity to meet new people everyday. Also, since you are working with individuals with plenty of work/life experience, you can learn so much about so much.
I'm reading Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott. It's common sense, but beautifully-written common sense, which makes all the difference in the world. Here is my favorite quote so far.
He wonders, Why are we talking about this again? I thought we settled this. Couldn't we just have one huge conversation about our relationship and then coast for a year or two? Apparently not, because here she is again. Eventually, if he is paying attention, it occurs to him that "the conversation is not about the relationship. The conversation is the relationship".
Watched episode 20 of SATC. Miranda meets Steve. Aww :)
Weird sentence of the day: This time the election was widely expected to be peaceful, and the prospect of renewed conflict is almost certainly nil.
September 4, 2008
Tuesday, Ilya's first day at work. We will be working together for the next five weeks.
Wednesday, pre-planned lunch with Ali at Thai Island, my fav lunch spot right now. He joined the Toronto office earlier this year from Boston, where he was involved with theoretical physics. Since people are out of the office most of the time, I have to schedule lunches with them ahead of time.
Thursday afternoon, project kick-off meeting. Thursday night, dinner with Andrew at Sushi Inn. Flashback: when I worked at Manulife, I used to go there with June all the time. He spent a week in Cuba and is determined to make his post exam life as relaxing as possible.
Economist: This is no time to be striking off in bold new directions. Both Allianz and Commerzbank have decided to keep their business mix focused on what they do best. Dresdner’s investment bank will not be the only one to slim down riskier activities such as proprietary trading. Perhaps most intriguing was the presence of a Chinese bidder, reportedly China Development Bank, in the race for Dresdner. Not long ago, people would have scoffed at that prospect too.
Economist: The ban on speculation means that Islamic transactions must be based on tangible assets, such as commodities, buildings or land. Observers say that exotic derivatives in intangibles such as weather or terrorism risk could not have an Islamic equivalent. But in the Middle East, at least, the supply of assets is limited. “Lots of companies in the Gulf are young and don’t have assets such as buildings to use in transactions,” says Geert Bossuyt of Deutsche Bank. This limits the scope for securitisation, a modern financing technique that is backed by assets and is thus seen by sharia scholars as authentically Islamic. There are not enough properties to bundle into securities.
Oil-rich governments in the Gulf have little need to issue debt when they are flush with cash. That is a problem. Sovereign debt would establish benchmarks off which other issues can be priced. It would also add to the depth of the market, which would help solve another difficulty: liquidity.