New World Blog

Wine Reviews
Fancy Red Wine:
Le Nain Violet - Grenache 2012

Stock FB and Stock SnapChat

Update January 2018/ October, 2017

FB stock keeps climbing, SNAP not that much!

Update January 2018/ May, 2017

Facebook (FB stock) has had a good ride since May 2013. Initially the stock dropped quite a bit but (in the $20- $40 range) after that it kept going up upto $139 as of March, 2017.
Still a good idea to buy FB?

SNAP Stock
How are they going to make money?

Leonard Paris Ties - Fashion Collection

Shop Leonard Paris

Salvatore Ferragamo Ties 2018 Collection

Also read: Best Tie In The World

Cafes/ Coffee In San Diego
Coffee Shops Reviews

Quick links for famous designer brands:

Ferragamo Ties 2016/ 2017
Hermes Ties/ Scarves SALE
Gene Meyer Online Colorful Socks & Ties

Like to sleep in a crane?

check out this hotel in the Netherlands.

Business Class Deals

How much for a great Business Class Flight, and how many miles do you use for a great deal on First Class and Business Class flights!

Around The World Tickets Under $1000

Yes, it sounds too good to be true! But there are around the world tickets for under $1000 including taxes and other fees.

Visiting Mesa Ruins, Cliff Dwelling in Colorado close to New Mexico. Just 35 minutes form Durango, CO are these amazing cliff dwelling from 700+ years ago of the Pueblo 'Indians' civilization.

Stefano Ricci

Luxury men neckties by Stefano Ricci !

Ski

Let's plan the next ski trip. A short trip to Big Bear Mountain in southern California for 48 hours of fun, A short flight to Mammoth (and having a nice beer in the hotel within 15 minutes after landing on the airport). We also want to see some animals: Jacksonhole, WY it is. Yellowstone National Park is just around the corner (however most roads might be closed in March).

The Jackson Hole
Rendezvous Music Festival

New:
Hermes Scarves

Hotels To Visit:

Palazzo Degli Abati
Near Bari, Italy

www.palazzodegliabati.it

Salvatore Ferragamo Scarves
Women Collection
Save 40% off - Twill Silk Foulards

Salvatore Ferragamo Scarves Online

Kiton Winter Coats
Hand Made In Italy
65% - 70% Off

Shop Gucci Ties 50% Off

Men: Sevenfold Tie

Kiton Tie
Sevenfold Ties - Cashmere Blend - Stripes $295 Now $185

Flight Deals

Reduced Air Fares - International Flights

July 2014

LAX - STOCKHOLM
JUST $705 INCL ALL TAXES

January 2013

Fly during the Olympics in Sochi for under $800 to Moscow from Los Angeles direct.
Flight from Los Angeles, CA (LAX) to Moscow, Russia

November 2013

San Francisco - Copenhagen

SAS $799 in January 2014

View all flight deals

Spring Ski Whistler

Flight to Vancouver, Bellingham, Seattle

Flights from San Diego start at $200 roundtrip.

Ski Winter/ Spring 2015

Going skiing for a couple of days quick becomes a $100+ adventure. Ski rentals are $20 - $40 daily, ski tickets are $70 - $110 daily.

Last years options for flying were limited. Tickets were $350 - $750 to get an 1 hour / 1.5 hour flight from San Diego to Salt Lake or Mammoth.

Skiing Mammoth

Best Deals:
Visit Mammoth during the week as hotels, flights and lift tickets are more affordable.

The Shirt

Tom Ford men dress shirt are made in Switzerland from the best Italian cottons. Available in many french cuffs designs.
Retail $660 Now $330

The Suit

Kiton men suit in navy pinstripe, charcoal gray, wool and wool/ cashmere Kiton suits. Kiton suits are hand made in Italy.
Retail $7795 SALE $2296

Online Shopping

Versace Scarves 67% Off
Incl. Orginal Versace Gift Box

www.tiedeals.com
Men Designer Ties

www.comomilano.com
Women Designer Scarves

Sartorial Blog
Men Fashion Blog for Sartorial Quality Men's Clothing

Silk Designer Scarves Blog
Italian Top Brands, New Designs for Women.

Discount Designer Blog
Designer ties, shirts and suits at up to 70% off

Duchamp Ties - NEW

Watch?

Dinner in the Sky

Hang on a huge crane with 22 other people enjoying some great food and having a great view...

www.dinnerinthesky.com

Flight Deals

Reduced Air Fares - International Flights

June 2013

- Boston - San Juan , PR

Flights in September at $238, Direct at $333

- New York - Singapore $999
Singapore Airlines

May 2013

Houston - Johannesburg $960
includes all taxes - United/ Lufthansa

Economic Information

GRPN Stock, 3 Days of 2 Digit Declines

FB, Facebook Stock seems to balance around $28 per share, is it worth $67.8 Billion (Market Cap)? When can we expect significant earnings?

Home Prices
Real estate trends, short sales, foreclosures
San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas

Web Design San Diego
Web Design and Search Engine Optimization

SEO Consultant San Diego
Web Design and Search Engine Optimization

Online Merchants Ecommerce

Remarketing with Google

Adwords with Google PPC Advertising

www.shopify.com
Shopping cart software suing Liquid coding.

www.ordercup.com
Specializes in shipping processing with USPS, UPS ande FEDEX for online stores.

www.authorize.net
Merchant- Credit card Processing

www.paypal.com
Creditcard processing, Merchant services and shoppingcart.

Shopping

Gift Shopping

Save 35% - 65% of fancy designer clothes like Kenzo, Gucci and more...

Fashion Outlet Online

Discount Designer Clothes

Very Exclusive Men Neckties

Leonard Paris

Stunning floral designs, butterflies, Italian printed silks. Leonard Paris Neckties.

Daily Deals?

Dozens of Daily Deals and similar kind of web sites have popped up in the last few months. Are these daily deal web sites any good?

Do you really want to wait for weeks to receive the goods? See a comprehensive list of daily deals web sites.

DECEIVING/ MISLEADING DAILY DEAL WEBSITES?

Is One Park Lane really such a deal?

Fun Rides for Kids in San Diego County: Antique Trains

Weekend only antique locomotive/train rides for the whole family

Gift Shopping

Great Deals?

Men Gift Ideas
Corneliani Scarves Cashmere Blend $395 SALE $99
Designer Men Socks Colorfull - 3 Pack $48.50 SALE $29

Women Gift Ideas
Versace Scarves Silk Square Foulards $375 SALE $149
Missoni Scarves Wool blend zigzag Design $225 SALE $88.97

Other brands are Roberto Cavalli, Chanel and Giorgio Armani.

Black Friday Shopping / Cyber Monday Shopping

There is always a big TV or lap top computer (old models manufacturers want to get rid off) at a great price, late November.

Cruise / Yachting

Seadream - St Baths, Virgin Islands, St. Martin, St. Thomas

Business Class Flights

Around the world business class
Best Deals

Using points or pay cash, looking for a gourmet meal, nice wines and civilized service?

Cleaners

Dry Cleaner San Diego
Margaret's La Jolla
Expensive - Very Good
www.margarets.com/

Business - Financials

Missoni for Target

NASDAQ: GRPN

GRPN, Groupon stock seems to be valued at a ridiculous value, in the end 0f 2011 the stock sold for approx. $26, roughly worth $15 billion.

Why: all Groupon does pretty much is sending out daily emails with 50-60% off deals for local restaurants etc. which might be not the most amazing invention, however, investors seem to always "guess" if-everything-keeps-going-the-way-it-should then it would become a $30 billion company with worldwide offices. However, just in China there are all ready 110 competitors doing almost exactly the same. In the USA, competition is rolling in by the dozen. Read more about GRPN...

Ecommerce / Shopping carts

Shopify Shopping cart Blog
http://www.shopify.com/blog

Music

Jason Mraz at Java Joes, San Diego, 2002
Live for 50 people drinking coffee.

http://www.youtube.com/jmraz

Email Marketing Companies

Ratepoint www.ratepoint.com/
Constant Contact www.constantcontact.com

Wyland Cabernet Sauvignon

Châteauneuf-du-Pape Kirkland
Costco

Designer Update
Brand Name Fashion
www.designerupdate.com

Designer Sunglasses
Tom Ford, Gucci, Armani
Tom Ford Sunglasses Sale

Van Bommel Shoes Online
Van Bommel Noble Blue
Floris Van Bommel

Shipping

Usps Tracking
www.usps.com

Usps Pick Up for Merchants
www.usps.com/

Support Phone Numbers

Acer Support
Calling after bought new laptop, simple question to connect to printer, they told me they do not support that, i had to pay for support!!

Adobe Dreamweaver
800-585-0774
800-833-6687 (Dreamweaver Support on hold for 40+ minutes - November 29, 2010), note I paid top dollar for full software version.

Canon
800-645-6687

Sprint Phone Support
Interestingly, when very clearly emphasizing the problem in the first minute, also here the second rep has the nerves to rephrase the problem differently after 20 minutes, conclusion after 42 minutes and 2 reps nobody does even no the exact problem (tip: write down problem in first 20 seconds of conversation....).

San Diego Real Estate

Home Loan Rates - Even Lower?

Conform Loan Limits 2010

Conforming Home Loan Rates
Home Loans < $417.000
30-Year Fixed 4.250% - APR 4.433%

Conforming - Larger Amounts
30-Year Fixed 4.375% - APR 4.508%

Jumbo Home Loan Rates
Loans 625,500 and up
30-Year Fixed 4.875% - APR 5.012%

Dataquick
October 2010 - San Diego
Sales Volume Median Price All homes
Sep-09 Sep-10
$325,000 $330,500

http://www.homebuyersandiego.info/homeloanRates.html

Mortgage rates hit record low, existing home sales fall

July 2010
The Washington post reports; Mortgage rates fell percent to a record low on Thursday, but the declining rates haven't been enough to get the home sales up, in a housing market struggling with high unemployment, tightened lending and rising foreclosures. This is the fourth time in five weeks that mortgage rates have fallen.

the lowest interest rates since Freddie Mac began tracking the numbers in 1971

The average for 30-year fixed loans was 4.56%, down from 4.57% last week., the lowest since Freddie Mac began tracking the numbers in 1971. For 15-year fixed loans, the average was 4.03%.

Read more about home financing rates: home loan rates

Southern California home sales dip, median price rises from ’09
May 18, 2010

San Diego , Median Priced Homes: increase 12.20%

• April 2009 $290,000
• April 2010 $325,250

Home Prices in Phoenix Area
May, 2010

The total decline in prices from the mid-2006 peak is now approximately 48 percent, which breaks down to 57 and 40 percent declines for lower and higher priced houses, respectively. The overall median price for sales that were included in the February index was $127,000 but the preliminary figure for April is $135,000, almost back to the level last seen in December 2008.

Home Prices in Phoenix Area

Home price declines may be slowing
May 18th, 2009

Phoenix, AZ

The Phoenix Business Journal, May 18, 2009:
“Home price declines may be slowing”

Phoenix Home Values and House Prices as mentioned by zillow.com shows these number:

2000 : $105.000
2003 : $130.000
2006 : $249.000
2009 : $140.000 (April 2009)

The ASU-Repeat Sales Index, which measures changes in year-to-year average home prices, shows a record drop of 37 percent in the index from February 2008 to February 2009.

According to the ASU-RSI report, declining prices from February 2008 to February 2009 were ranged from 40 percent in Glendale to 16 percent in Tempe.

Home Prices in San Diego County

San Diego County home prices, sales numbers rise in April

More sales means higher or lower home prices?

January 2009: $280.000
April 2009: $290.000
The April median was still 27.5 percent below year-ago levels and off 44 percent from the all-time high of $517,500 in November 2005.

Single-family resale homes rose from a low of $319,000 in March to $325,000 in April. The latest median was 24.4 percent below April 2008’s $430,000.

Resale condos were up $2,000 to $182,000 from their low, also set in March, and down 39.3 percent from a year ago, when the median stood at $300,000.

A week earlier Roger Showley, Staff Writer for the Union-Tribune had this headline:

San Diego home prices drop at quick pace

San Diego County home prices dropped 29.6 percent over the last year, twice the national rate, the National Association of Realtors reported Tuesday.

His statement is not really clear. The prices have dropped significantly could have been a better statement as the last few months the market is even up a 0.5%. Anyway nice how they tweak the numbers for you.

Statements/ conclusions

1. Who are you listing to now. The same “realtors” and other specialist who were (95% + of them) totally wrong with their forecast for home prices in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. Ask for arguments, assumptions and 80% has no clue, guessing that is what they like.

2. The house prices in San Diego have dropped to a level where:
rent - buy a house starts making sense again (instead of paying 220% the price for owner a house compared with renting in early 206)

Income: not positive

Jobs/ new companies: not positive

People looking for a deal: yes, 5 ARM at 3.875% this week (conforming loan) makes it attractive to buy a home for 605 of the price it was in 2006.

Slow market?: Yes, I assume that currently lots of home owner with very limited or no or negative equity will stay in their house for longer than planned, especially when interest might be up to 7% - 8% in a few years (it does not make sense to move when the cost of the loan increase with 40% + due to higher interest rates.

The amount of home buyers will likely not extremely increase, as relatively many people bought already homes (see also how more people bought cars every 2.5 year instead of every 4 year….). Yes, and of course the lovely interest rate also mean 20% + down. So, no 20% cash means no 4- 5% loan.

more discussion and information about San Diego Home Prices.

Home Prices in 2009
May 18th, 2009

The Phoenix Business Journal, May 18, 2009:
Home price declines may be slowing

Economic Growth: Halliburton
May 11th, 2009

March 24th, 2006

Halliburton stock soared after 9-11 but since went up 800% (approx $10 to $80), The war (war in Iraq) did them pretty well, also Katrina might have had positive impact on the stock.

Do we want a vice -president still owning stock in a company were he was involved with.

Most countries have very strict rules for the president and ministers. No involvement with any companies…

A president/ vice-president should be a very hard working job which should only pay reasonable and does not allow “extras” and stock/ involvement in companies….

Some companies make/made a lot of money with very well (over) paid jobs provided by the government. Companies like Halliburton often got projects without bidding (with other competitors). That is were your tax money went.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Economic Growth USA ?
May 11th, 2009

March 24th, 2006 - re-listed

Economic growth?

The US economy is still growing? But what really grows. The GDP was in 2005 (estimated)
3.5% (compared with 2004). Tasking in account the GDP growth in 2001- 2004 also 1-4% average a year (source: www.bea.gov): has the average American 10% more to spend. What does economic growth mean. When “we” spend $120,000,000,000 a year in Iraq and Haliburton makes 4+ billion with contracts, does that mean GDP/ economic growth. Yes/No is the answer. In my opinion, technically it does. Is this a good measure of economic growth? I do not think so.

Economic growth has been good for Haliburton, Military Services/ goods provider, Companies related to George Bush “helping” Katrina (for 700% of the market price).
Is there Economic Growth for me, paying double the price for the same home, significant higher gas prices, less jobs, lower wages/ equal wages.
No, zero growth for the normal guy. Not even taking in account the level of the quality of life.
Shoes of at the airport, there is no money for infrastructure, there is no money for pensions….

They have done this by a combination of historic low interest rates, rates only seen before in times of war or depression, and by stimulating the economy by record budget deficit spending, issuing government bonds to finance it. The world has been flooded with cheap dollars as a result.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
US household Income
May 10th, 2009

US household Income

Since 1975, practically all the gains in household income have gone to the top 20% of households.
Source: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html