Just saw this unconventional “Recession Index” on NY Magazine’s Intelligencer. Some of the more interesting YOY figures:

• # of people spending $2k+ per night @ Marquee: -50% (bottle sales down 10%)
• Average daily late-night subway ridership, midnight to 6 am: +4% (people still fighting for black car vouchers?)
• Average rent for studio apartment in Murray Hill doorman building: -7% (anyone remember the last time rent decreased in NYC?)
• Cost of a standard room at Glassy New Cooper Square Hotel: -35% (also everywhere else, kind of nice for traveling actually)

I wonder what the correlation of these figures and S&P 500 is? Perhaps we need yet another niche ETF…

But apparently “Wall Street” won’t surrender on bonuses despite the meltdown as there will be at least $20b+ to go around this Season.

So, bottle?

NY Magazine via BankersBall

Gotta love Excelsior & Grand!

Trader Joe’s Will Remove All Single-Ingredient Food From China From Their Stores By April 1

Photo by Payton Chung

*Updated, now cloned 20+ times and way too complicated to fit in a screenshot*

Yahoo Pipes page

RSS feed

First Dow Kim, head of GMI, now Stan O’Neal, CEO, Merrill Lynch is dismissing its top execs left and right. I’ve been a big fan of both, especially O’Neal, being the first non-caucasian CEO of a bulge-bracket and his drastic changes when he took the lead at Merrill in 2002. He was one of the top reasons I chose the firm to start my career.

But that’s not the end of the story: layoffs are happening everywhere, bulge-bracket or not, thanks to subprime. I don’t have any friends affected yet. Best of luck to those that are.

Analyst: I think that this maker of ball bearings is quite attractive because of its strong operating momentum, $500mm net cash position, and dirt cheap valuation of 6x fully-loaded FCF.

PM: WHAT IS THEIR SUBPRIME EXPOSURE?!?

Analyst: They don’t own subprime. Or sell houses. Or sell into housing-related markets. Or have variable rate debt.

PM: OK BUT ARE THEY EXPOSUDED TO THE SUBPRIME PRESSURE ON YIELDS?

Analyst: No

PM: I LIKE THE NAME BUT WANT TO OWN IT 10% CHEAPER

Analyst: They’re buying back 10% of shares outstanding this year.

PM: WHAT ABOUT SUBPRIME? ANY EXPOSURE THERE?

Analyst is now offline.

(Am I the only one that don’t think subprime is that bad? Look at how much GS made by shorting subprime for their proprietary trading)

Best of luck to those who are affected by the bridge collapse in Minneapolis.

• Before the flight:
  • Cheapest tickets can be found on Tuesday afternoon or Wednesday mornings
  • Book 2 weeks (ideally a month) in advance so you can get cheap tickets, even for holidays
  • Use sites like Expedia/Travelocity to find best prices, but book with airline websites to avoid $5~$10 booking fees (this is in the process of being eliminated)
  • Pack light, don’t bring liquids over 3 onces, check in online a day ahead, then you can avoid the long check-in lines and go straight to the security checkpoint (free/paper tickets cannot be checked in online)
  • If possible, wear comfy clothes (e.g. sweatpants); if you have to bring a suit, wear it so it doesn’t get wrinkled in luggage
  • If your flight gets delayed/canceled, there’s probably a long line at customer service at the airport with angry flyers; call the airline 1-800 number instead to get quicker service (although if you want to get on a different airline’s flight you’ll have to take to someone at the airport)
  • Get aisle seats if you want to get up often, get window seats if you want to sleep
  • If you want free WIFI and airport doesn’t offer any, ask another flyer that looks like a business traveler with a laptop to create an ad-hoc laptop-to-laptop network with internet sharing so you can mooch off his company-sponsored EVDO/EDGE wireless internet; takes 2 minutes
• During the flight:
  • Ever noticed all the people standing on the back of the plane just chilling? They aren’t weirdos, but rather may have back/leg problems; walk around often if you do
  • Don’t drink things with sugar and eat the salted peanuts, always ask for water instead to stay hydrated
  • You can use your ipod headphones for satellite radio/TV (found on AirTran, JetBlue, etc.), they sound MUCH better and helps to save the environment
  • If there aren’t many flyers and you flirt with the flight attendant you may get a business-class seat for free, or at least get a whole row for yourself to sleep on

Cheat sheet is mainly geared towards investment banking and financial services interviews. It also includes links to some good articles (will feature more in future). Cheat sheet will be periodically updated but please feel free to email me with suggestions.

Interviewee’s.Cheat.Sheet-Ray.Shan.doc

And BTW, I still don’t think we are heading for a recession. As a matter of fact, inflation-combating rate hikes are still more of a concern for me.

More updates to follow…