Guys,

I suggest you either buy gold or start raising livestock and poultry...no kidding. There's probably gonna be a short-term rebound in stocks, but no bull in even a decade. 2009 is gonna be way harder than some of those pros advocate. Foremost crisis would be unemployment rate reaching devastating level...everyone in foreign companies should be prepared to get sacked, and those in state-owned or public sector should expect salary cut at best. In another word, try not to lead a luxury life conditional on uneducated optimism about future, just save as much as possible.

Luckily, we are still in better shape than US,UK...hereby my last suggestion, don't ever think about living in these "developed" countries in long-term, specially US and UK whose currencies will crash along with the global depression ahead of us. Sounds unbelievable? Just check their unbelievable foreign debts among other factors. Yup, it's late and it's done. Have you noticed that Obama is not that confident in the inauguration speech as opposed to his powerful if not fascistic style throughout the campaign，simply to deaden unreasonable exccess expectation.

How will China and the rest of the world do when US, EU meltdown? Screwed badly. One wild guess of the solution that could drag the world out of the mess is WWIII that basically eliminates the weak, redistributes the wealth, and boosts future productivity via military R&D.

Sad Sad Sad on one hand, but it's been extremely fascinating and challenging to study finance and economics in this hard time...I guess people already in the industry would feel the same sort of mixed feelings.

Happy Niu Year, dear all. I guess we do not need trivial things like wealth to be happy, Life is about how we see it more than how we actually live:) Gonna be in Edinburgh for my lunar new year, ciaociao~

cheers,

Sean

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I was gonna write my year end resolution at the start, but ended up warning all of my friends to expect the unexpected particularly 12 to 18 months down the way. Plz ignore if you find it disturbing in festival mood:P otherwise further discussion welcomed.

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Previously have updated pics in Oxford, London, Marseille, Avignon, Montpellier, Paris, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, Salzburg, and Prague. Great trips! just no mood on travel journals...sorry about that. But if I would recommend one country and only one, that's Austria:) cheers

Johann Strauss Momument - Vienna City Park

Salzburg

Donau River - Budapest

Hot Spring - Budapest

The Castle - Pargue

Where I live - Green Templeton College, Oxford

Rowing at Oxford

Marseille

Budapest Night Scene

Prague Night Scene

Museum of Natural History - Vienna