The Power of Pictures

This Week in Politics and Business

The world has been a busy place in the past week.  Here's what you need to know to stay informed on current affairs.

1. The nationwide average for gasoline prices rose for the 26th straight day Sunday.

2. Vladimir Putin claims a victory in Russia's presidential election despite allegations of widespread fraud.  In an article for a Russian newspaper, president-elect Putin called for former Soviet states to form a "Eurasian Union" for economic purposes, but denied the move as an attempt to rebuild the Soviet Union.

3. The cleanup in the aftermath of tornadoes that claimed 37 lives continues.  On Friday, a total of 90 tornadoes were reported across Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Georgia, and Ohio. 

4. North Korea agreed to suspend its uranium-enrichment in Yongbyon and further testing of weapons and long-range missiles.  The agreement mark a breakthrough between America and North Korea.  In exchange, the US will provide at least 240,000 tons of food to the impoverished country.  

5. Australian prime minister Julia Gillard easily defeated Kevin Rudd in a Labor Party ballot that contested her leadership. The party has been torn by in-fighting since Ms Gillard’s ousting of Mr Rudd as prime minister in 2010.

6. Egypt will hold presidential elections following pressure from citizens.  The first round will be held on May 23rd and 24th, with run-offs scheduled for mid-June. Final results are expected on June 21st. The election will probably mark the end of military rule.

7. Republican candidate Mitt Romney won the Michigan and Arizona primaries.  Although the margin of victory was narrow over Rick Santorum in Michigan, Romney managed to win his home state.  On March 6th, 10 primaries will be held in what has become known as Super Tuesday. 

8. American's GDP growth rate was revised to 3% for the last three months of 2011, up from an initial estimate of 2.8%. Banks in America expanded their lending by $130 billion in the period, the biggest quarterly increase in four years, while losses from loans fell to their lowest since the start of 2008. The data were taken as more evidence that the American economy is on the rebound.

9. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008 and the NASDAQ reached a new 11-year high.

10. In his annual letter to shareholders, Warren Buffett answered some questions about who would succeed him as boss of Berkshire Hathaway. The 81-year-old investor suggested that a successor has been chosen, as Berkshire-Hathaway's board was “enthusiastic” about “an individual to whom they have had a great deal of exposure”.  He didn’t name the person, keeping people guessing about the candidates.

11.  In the last quarter of 2011, India's economy grew 6.1%.  It was the slowest rate of growth in three years, and put pressure on the Indian Central Bank to lower interest rates.

Interview: Steve de Brun, Co-Founder of StockTouch

Today, I’m proud to publish an interview with a co-founder of a visually dynamic finance application called StockTouch.  Priced at $4.99, StockTouch uses color heatmaps to illustrate fluctuations in price movements.  Unlike the Wall St. Journal listings of NASDAQ and the S&P 500, StockTouch organizes stocks via color-coding into nine sectors--consumer goods, services, healthcare, energy, technology, financial, industrial goods, materials, and utilities.  If you want to read recent news articles or stock charts for a particular a company, you simply press your finger on the ticker symbol.  The app is intuitive, informative, loads quickly over wi-fi and 3G connections.  All things considered, the app blends finance and design fluidly.  To learn more, please visit stocktouch.com.            

1. Can you tell us about your educational and professional background?

Jennifer Johnson, our CEO, has a B.S. in Economics from Wharton and an MBA from Columbia. She is a former investment banker and finance professional who worked at UBS and Merrill Lynch, and is currently an entrepreneur and angel investor.

Steve de Brun, co-founder and VP of User Experience, has a B.A. in Visual Arts from Brown University. He has worked for early digital agency vivid studios, News Corporation, guru.com, and many other venture-funded companies.

John Morris, CTO, is a software developer and mobile game programmer, as well as co-founder of Blue Lava Wireless games, which was sold to JAMDAT, which was sold to Electronic Arts.

2. For our readers, can you describe StockTouch?  Specifically, what differentiates StockTouch from other finance apps in the market?

StockTouch is a dynamic, zoomable heat map of the stock market that gives you a birds-eye view of 900 companies organized by sector, and allows you to zoom in to view individual sectors and specific stocks. It enables you to touch and manipulate the data, and we believe this creates a more powerful experience of the information landscape.

3. What advice do you have for college students interested in starting their own business?

Make sure you develop your critical thinking and problem solving skills, and your social skills. Don't worry too much about specific academic qualifications, but if you're going to be an artist or coder obviously dig in and learn as much as possible. Build pet projects, websites and apps for friends, families and small businesses. Try to get involved with startups as a summer intern - spend time on Crunchbase.com, identify recently funded companies in your area, and approach them.

4. What market(s) are you targeting with StockTouch?

StockTouch is used by retail investors, but we are also finding that finance professionals are using the app as well. StockTouch is focused on equities traded on U.S. exchanges currently (even global companies traded on U.S. exchanges) and we plan on expanding our coverage over time.

5. Is there anything else you’d like to share about StockTouch?  

We believe that StockTouch is in its infancy, and there's a long way to go to expand the capabilities and possibilities with this app. We are entering an age where it will be expected that you can get hands on with data and interact with data visualizations in a more palpable, dynamic and fun way.

Corporate Governance and Generation Y

One of the core purposes of corporate governance is to maximize shareholder value through the elimination and reduction of conflicts of interest between management, the board of directors, and the shareholders.  It follows from this principle that management should consider the interests of shareholders first.  While shareholder maximization theory has its advantages, the downsides associated with this model are rarely discussed.

Last September, a successful businessman spoke to my business fraternity about the millenial generation, which refers to individuals with birth dates ranging from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s.  In two years, Millennials will account for nearly half the employees in the world.  He characterized us as instant communicators familiar with social networking.  We are more tolerant, expressive, and less religiously observant than our predecessors.  We search for meaning through our professions, viewing work as an inherent part of life, not something we do strictly in exchange for income. 

It will be intriguing to observe how entrenched business practices react as Generation Y climbs the corporate ladder.  The environment, meaningful work, and long-term thinking might conflict with the theory of appeasing grubby shareholders in the short run.  This viewpoint has validity--would you work to maximize value for thousands of remote and impersonal individuals you’ve never met?  Furthermore, what are the implicit costs of shareholder maximization?  

Generation Y has resoundingly expressed that the success of a business should not be measured exclusively by profits.  Innovation and societal development are equally as important as the bottom line.  Businesses that serve society profitably are likely to thrive in a business world run by Generation Y.  An observant person would predict to see a fundamental change how top executives perceive the purpose of business.  Time shall tell.   

Thought Questions

You arrive home after an exhausting day at work or school.  Your mind is preoccupied with that team project that is stuck in the mud or how you are going to pass that economics exam.  You crash on the couch and turn on the tube....

Rarely do we take the time, or have the time, to reflect on the deeper aspects of life.  Self-reflection enables us to learn from experiences of the past and prepare for the future.  Long-term happiness is partially a function of how thoroughly we examine our lives.      

The questions below will help you reflect on your life experience.

-Why do you matter?

-What is missing in your life?

-What do you want to remember forever?

-What are the best decisions you have made?

-When you are 80 years old, what will matter to you the most?

-What fascinates you?

-How would you describe your personality?

-What worries you the most about the future?

-What is the most important lesson you have learned?

-What is your single biggest time waster in your life?

-Where do you find meaning?

-When is the last time you performed a random act of kindness?

-What are you grateful for?

-In five years, how will your life be different?

-What are your best qualities?

-What is something you have that no one can take away?

-What advice would you give to a younger version of yourself?

-What makes you smile?

-What does it mean to be a human being?

S&P Best and Worst Stocks

In 2012, Standard and Poor's 500 index has approached a three-year high, closing at 1,361.23 last Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached 12,949.87, its highest closing level since May 2008.  Optimism over a second bailout of Greece and higher than expected corporate earnings are likely the dual causes of investor confidence.  In earnings season, 60% of companies that have reported have beaten analyst's estimates.  Among S&P 500 stocks, 63% have beaten estimates.  

Below are the 30 best and 30 worst performing S&P 500 stocks on their earnings report days.  Netflix skyrocketed by 22.06% following its report on January 25th. 

 

Charts courtesy of Think BIG

20 Quotes To Get Through Tough Times

Life throws all kinds of curveballs even to the good people.  Focusing on the positive can be difficult when you find yourself in tough times, but sometimes, the best lessons are learned during the rough patches in life.  The optimal course of action is to continue being the best version of yourself, not a second-rate version of someone else.  You never know how strong you are until being strong is your only option.  Regardless of your situation, the sun rises the next day and you have to lace up your shoes each day.  Here are twenty reminders that the toughest of obstacles can be overcome.

1. Tough times never last, but tough people do.

-Robert H Schuller

2. The difference between stumbling blocks and stepping stones is how you use them.

-Unknown

3. Never let your head hang down.  Never give up and sit down and grieve.  Find another way.  And don't when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

-LeRoy Satchel Paige

4. Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity.

-Lou Holtz

5. If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?

-Unknown

6. Adversity is a fact of life.  It can't be controlled.  What we can control is how we react to it.

-Unknown

7. In times of great stress or adversity, it's always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.

-Lee Iacocca

8. You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.

-Walt Disney

9. Inside of a ring or out, ain't nothing wrong with going down.  It's staying down that's wrong.

-Muhammad Ali

10. Life is riding a bicycle, in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.

-Albert Einstein

11. It is not the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog!  The person who is not hungry says the coconut has a hard shell.

-African Proverb

12. I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.

-Louisa May Alcott

13. Whenever there is darkness, there is an extraordinary opportunity for light to burn brighter.

-Bono

14. This too shall pass.

-Unknown

15. You win some, you lose some, and some get rained out, but you gotta suit up for them all.

-J. Askenberg

16. Fall seven times, stand up eight.

-Japanese Proverb

17. I like living.  I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know that just to be alive is a grand thing.

-Agatha Christie

18. Difficult times have helped me understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.

-Isak Dinesen

19. A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships were built for

-Unknown

20. A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor can we be perfected without adversity.

-Unknown