| A.
R. Kakhsaz Company
an accountancy corporation
Member
American Institute of
Certified Public Accountants
International associates:
Tavana & Co.
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Canada
Tel.416-229-2221
|
Optimism is natural to the brain.
An optimist has a basic bias for the
bright-side. This sense of hope, boosts
consumer confidence, creates market
bubbles and spurs irrational
exuberance. For the first time, scientists
at New York University and Duke
University have mapped out the upbeat
brain--finding in a cluster of neurons, the
size of a martini olive, the seed of sunny
outlook on life. At its core, the brain is
built for optimism. We don't know
whether optimistic people are dumber or
better than pessimistic people.
Economists have, historically, focused
on optimism as a miscalibration or
distorted view of the future. Despite that,
a little bit of optimism is associated with
a lot of positive economic choices.
"Optimism is a little like red wine. In
moderation, it's good for you, but no one
would suggest you drink two bottles a
day." All in all, optimists tend to do better
in life than their talents alone might
suggest. Except for lawyers. A study of
law students found that pessimists got
better grades and upon graduation,
received better job offers. "In law,
pessimism is considered prudence."
If
con is the opposite of pro,
is Congress the opposite of
progress?
The
IRS received 140.2 million
individual income-tax returns
during 2007. That's up by 3% from
136.1 million for 2006.
Why
is 'abbreviated' such a
long word?
Would it be very hard to
give up
the following devices? Percentage
of people who said yes in 2002
versus 2007:
|
2002 |
2007 |
|
Cell phone |
38% |
51% |
|
Internet |
38% |
45% |
|
Television |
47% |
43% |
|
Landline tel |
63% |
40% |
|
E-mail |
35% |
37% |
Blackberry or
Wireless E-mail
Device |
6% |
36% |
For more of the Generalist,
please visit ARKCPACOM.
|
theGeneralist,
a one-page monthly
publication of the accounting firm of
A. R.
Kakhsaz Company, is in its 14th
year of providing information,
presented
fairly and accurately, from sources we
can depend upon and
trust.
Iran has stopped using dollars
for oil deals as it seeks to reduce
reliance on the U.S.
Market bubbles: How and why
do bubbles form? First came the
tech-stock bubble. Then there
were bubbles in housing and
credit. Chinese stocks took off like
a rocket. Now, as prices soar on
every commodity, from oil to corn,
some suggest there's bubble
there. Here's a consensus by
economists: (1) Bubbles emerge
at times when investors profoundly
disagree about the significance of
a big economic development,
such as the birth of the Internet.
Because it's so much harder to bet
on prices going down than up, the
bullish investors dominate.
(2) Once they get going, financial
bubbles are marked by huge
increases in trading, making them
easier to identify. And (3) Manias
can persist even though many
smart people can suspect a
bubble, because no one of them
can successfully attack it. Only
when skeptical investors act
simultaneously--a moment
impossible to predict--does the
bubble pop.
With euro approaching $1.60
and a cocaine boom in Spain and
Italy, Europe has become a far
more lucrative place to do
business for Latin American drug
cartels than in previous years.
"More
than ever before,
Americans are suffering from back
problems, back taxes, back rent,
back auto payments."
We see more in numbers
- than just numbers...
Ali R. Kakhsaz, CPA, MAcc
www.arkcpa.com
|
