Phantom wealth?

"Wall Street has no concern for the health people, community, or nature except as sources of short-term profit."  By David C. Korten

In his book, Agenda for a new Economy, the author, Korten, compares Wall Street as a cancer that has to be removed in order to heal our economy. I am mostly agree with those points that Korten makes; for example, he argues that the numbers that Wall Street people use create phantom wealth and deceive people by using their "language" such as capital and investment. Although I'm an accounting major student, when I first started studying accounting, I was a bit confused with concepts that were not quite "real" to me. Words like realized, unrealized, allocating, and depreciating are understandable with my head but not with my heart. Now I got used to it and can say I'm pretty good at it, yet I don't agree with those concepts. In that sense, I totally understand why Korten calls it phantom wealth because it is phantom. Those are artificially constructed revenues that are may or may not be realized. I don't believe a thing should be recorded as money only because it has a high "probability" to turn into money in future.

Nevertheless, there are some points that I don't quite relate to. Firstly, Korten frequently compares Wall Street capitalism and the Main Street markets, and he introduces a chart "Wall Street Capitalism verses Main Street Markets" (p. 51). It is easy to understand the point he tries to make, but it is too oversimplified to represent the reality. For example, Korten argues that "Wall Street makes money to make money for those who have money," which isn't really true. It is true that many wealthy people's money is managed by Wall Street people. However, it is also true that many main street people's money is also managed by Wall Street people, such as retirement planning. In addition, many main street people are engaged in investing activities. Plus, those big companies that Wall Street invests were once a small/ medium size companies in main street markets. I don't really agree with the idea that the main street market serves the community and Wall Street doesn't. Simplification is necessary to explain super complicated ideas and show the big picture. Yet, at the same time, it can provide a wrong perception and biased ideas to people without preliminary knowledge.

I'm almost half through the book, but the author hasn't really explained how we should re-design our economy. I'm really looking forward to what the author will suggest in order to eliminate poverty and achieve equality.

5 Tips To be the Best Intern

After experiencing 4 internships during college years, I was able to learn invaluable lessons. For students who are interning or will intern, I thought it would be a good idea to share 5 tips to be the best intern that I learned from my experience.

1. Be Punctual

This is the most basic rule that many people tend to overlook. Punctuality is extremely important in the professional world, regardless of industry. Being on time not only shows your sense of responsibility but also reveals your attitude toward your job. You don't want your boss to think that you don't take this job seriously, especially when you really care about the job. 

2. Smile

Smile makes others happy as well as yourself. It will help you to have a positive attitude and emit happy energy around you. Make people in the office enjoy working with you, not feel awkward around you. 

3. Ask questions

I have noticed that many interns are afraid of asking questions because they don't want the boss to know his/her lack of knowledge. Relax. You are an intern. You are not expected to know everything, and that is why you intern--to learn and gain experiences. Asking questions is always better than making mistakes! Do not arbitrarily make decisions. Ask your boss. You will be loved. 

4. Accuracy-Speed trade-off

Some people try to finish assigned jobs as quickly as they can in order to demonstrate their competence. You may be surprised to hear that in fact, it is much easier to impress your boss with accuracy than with speed. Accuracy is directly related to professionalism. Do not make mistakes such as sending an email without attachment. Check, Check, Double Check!

5. Show interest

Showing interest during internship is vital whether you want to work there full-time or not. Your internship is to gain experience. Then, try your best to get the most out of your internship. If you finished assigned work and have nothing to do, do not go on Facebook. Ask your boss for more work. Or you can specifically ask your boss for what you want to learn. Being engaged and get involved. 

Redesigning our Economy

This book, Agenda for a New Economy, reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Too big to fail. As an accounting major student who has a great interest in finance, I enjoy watching economics documentaries. Every time, after watching it, I couldn't help thinking of the necessity of changes in the structure. In that sense, I agree with the author's argument, which is re-designing our economic assumptions, values, and institutions.

Enlarging Pie

The author, David C. Korten, argues that the way the Wall Street people make money is not actually creating values and the wealth it creates is a phantom wealth. I couldn't agree more with it because what they do is not really enlarging the pie but just playing with the pie. Considering the exploding world population, we need to create the "real wealth" in order to survive.

Economic, as well as Social and Environmental Problem

A great part about this book is the author not only talks about the economic issues but the social and environmental problems, resulted from the current structure. Relating it to the social crisis, he claims "The enormous disparities undermine institutional legitimacy, human health, and the social fabric of families and communities and thereby feed violence."

Reasonably practicable? 

The author suggests that we have the means to create an economic system that fulfills 6 criteria of true economic health. Those 6 criteria is:

1. Provide every person with the opportunity for a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life
2. Restore and maintain the vitality of Earth's natural systems
3. Nurture the relationships of strong, caring communities
4. Encourage economic cooperation in service to the public interest and democratically determined priorities
5. Allocate resources equitably to socially and environmentally beneficial uses
6. Root economic power in people -and place-based communities to support the democratic ideal of one-person, on-vote citizen sovereignty

I like his idea about equality and many others. However, there is a question mark over its feasibility. I have only read less than half of the book, so I look forward to seeing how he develops his arguments.



http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681411/we-need-to-redesign-our-economy-to-make-it-work-for-profits-people-and-the-planet

Jurassic world is becoming real?

Comparing to the past, science has been developed enough to change DNA structures of various organism from the plants to the animals. GM foods are dominating the food industry, and some scientists are even trying their hand at changing human’s DNA structures. Some people voice concern over this issue because it could lead to the disturbance of the eco system and results in a terrifying situation like Jurassic World. In the movie, the scientists modify and combine dinosaurs DNA with other animals for commercial reasons. It is definite that what they have done is unethical. However, what are the standards for ethics? Who decides what is right or wrong?

Depending on places and people, the standard of ethics varies. However, I believe the scientists and engineers are not the only ones who should be responsible for the results, but the people who enjoy the benefits of it should also have a moral obligation to care about possible effects. We should make other scientists as well as companies not fear of disclosing the potential danger because of their social images. In addition, we should make social punishments for those who endanger human lives.

Rearing animals

I remember that when I was little, my parents brought a hamster couple to home. My sister and I were very excited to have pets. My mom told us they decided to have pets so that we can learn respect for life. I was too young to understand what that meant but just nodded. 

I frequantly took them out of the cage and play with them. I fed them, petted them, and did everything that I considered as showing my love. My mom warned me saying that my behavior could make them stressful, but I thought playing could never be stressful. Later, the female hamster gave a birth to four little hamsters. I also took those out, fed them and played with them. One day, I found out all little hamsters were gone. Those parent hamsters ate their babies. 

My point is, animals have feeling just like a human being, but it's not the same way as we do. The part where Barbara tries to care for her turkeys reminds me of my hamsters. At first, she thought of buying an incubator to save those eggs, but laster she learned "refraining from these kind of sentimentality." It turned out to be a right choice. The turkey started to sit on her eggs and they hatched. Now I know keeping a moderate distance from them is the best way to take care of them.

MERS outbreak in Korea

Now, in Korea, there is a disease going around, called MERS-CoV. This disease is originated from Middle East and has killed more than 800 people. This deadly virus has a fatality rate of 60% and highly contagious because it is an airborne virus, which means one can be infected without direct contact with a MERS patient. A Korean tourist who visited UAE (United Arab Emirates) got infected and returned to Korea without knowing it--it has a 10 days of the incubation period. Since then, it has killed 9 people and got over 3000 people infected in about a week.

The scary part is, we do not have enough information about this virus. Since Korea has a different environment from Middle East, such as climate and humidity, it is uncertain how it will mutate. So, the best way to avoid any place where the infected people are. However, the Korean government announced that they would not disclose the list of the hospitals where MERS patients were. The reason is if the government makes the list public, those hospitals with MERS patients would try to hide that they had MERS patients because it will adversely affect their earnings. Maybe some hospitals would refuse to take MERS patients, which, the government believes, will make this situation worse. In deed, a hospital that had accused of having a MERS patient experienced all other patients got scared and moved to a different hospital.

This sparked a heated controversy because people believed their right-to-know comes first. The public got angry about the government's response to this emergency situation and felt unsafe to stay in Korea. They argue that if people do not know where to avoid, more people would be exposed to the virus than otherwise, and it would lead to a far worse situation.

I don't know who is right or wrong, but I do know it is not a good time to figure out who to blame. However, would it be too demanding if I want the government to find the way to control this situation while keeping the public feel safe? I am just really worried about my family and friends and wish this would be over soon.



http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/08/world/south-korea-mers-outbreak/

An Epidemic of GMO

Nowadays, we are consciously or unconsciously surrounded by Genetically Modified foods (GM foods), and it became almost inevitable. Like many others, I have been indifferent to "what I eat" everyday although I very much cared about the menu. Anti-GM food campaign looked like a matter of personal preference to me. However, this book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, gave me a whole new perspective on it.

The first devastating fact I learned is "Three-quarters of all human food now comes from just eight species, with the field quickly narrowing down to genetically modified corn, soy, and canola ... We are losing them as fast as we are losing rain forest (p 49)." This means basically everything I consume contains GM ingredients or is GM foods! And there will be lesser and lesser options to avoid them. I suddenly wondered that where those organic food markets such as whole food get their GM free foods?

Here is the second devastating fact: Did you know there are different classes of "Organic" foods? I, who was quite ignorant about this matter, had perceived being organic as being free from anything related to genetic modification. Apparently, 100% organic means the "organic" food I thought--they are completely GMO free. There is USDA organic/Certified organic, which means less than 5% of ingredients are free from GM. Also, there is Made from organic, which means up to 70% of ingredients are free from GM. I should probably go check if those organic food markets only treat 100% organic foods. Maybe it is too late to get away from it since abandoning urban life like Barbara did is not an option for many people--mainly because of jobs and educations. Nevertheless, beware of what you eat because YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT.



http://gmo-awareness.com/2011/05/05/is-organic-always-gmo-free/

Job memo

Tax Assistant

People generally perceive tax assistants to be boring, detail-oriented, and repetitive. I confess that I had had the same stereotype until I interned as a tax assistant last summer. Although it is true that the job requires attention to detail and some repetitive work, I am here to tell you that it is actually a fun job. In order to disprove the stereotype, I would like to describe my role as a tax assistant as well as some interesting tax cases I experienced.

A tax assistant works both independently and in teams. When working in teams, a tax assistant aids professionals with organizing and updating clients’ tax information. This role is basic, but significant since a little mistake can lead to a large difference in tax discrepancies. When working independently, I communicate with clients and government agencies to solve tax related issues. Sometimes, this requires further research and documentation.

Now, I will explain how I perform each duty. A tax assistant’s main responsibilities are:

• Organizing and updating tax information
• Communication
• Research

Organizing and Updating Tax Information

This responsibility entails

• Sorting out expenses into different categories
• Recording accounting information into system
• Preparing bank reconciliation

This part of the job oversees the tax reporting process. Firstly, I receive bank statements from clients. Then, I sort out and record expenses into different categories, such as salary and entertainment expenses. For instance, advertisement expenses are 100% deductible, which means the client pays less taxes for that amount. In case of entertaining expenses, it is only 50% deductible. Therefore, I should be extra careful because my client may pay more taxes than they should, or worse, the IRS could fine the client for paying the incorrect amount. 

Next, I enter checks data from sales and payrolls into my work sheet called “Bank reconciliation.” Finally, I balance cash inflows and outflows. It may sound boring to you, but it gets more interesting if your clients are in fields like the entertainment industry.

Communication

This responsibility entails

• Respond to clients’ inquiries 
•  Cooperate with government agencies to solve tax problems of clients

Another main duty is to respond to emails, usually inquiries about simple tax issues. Sometimes, I get more complicated cases. For example, one day I received an email from a former client saying his company dissolved in 2004. However, he recently received a letter form IRS, which informed him of tax overdue on his dissolved company. What was worse, there were penalties had been piled up on that overdue since 2004. Firstly, I calmed down the client and gathered all related information, in order to contact the IRS and the FTB for review. The client had conflicting assertions with the IRS and the FTB. However, it turned out to be a mistake by an IRS agent, and they revoked all penalties.

Research

This responsibility entails

• Maintaining and updating tax related regulations
• Conducting research for business projects

Unlike other duties, researching is not a daily task. I update tax regulation files when there are changes, such as a minimum wage increase. Also, I conduct research for various business projects. Last summer, there was a client who wanted to expand his embroidery business in Korea. I assisted CPA in researching Korean embroidery market and prepared a draft for business proposal. Since tax assistants get much inside information of clients, maintaining confidentiality is the top priority.