David Xia

Category Archives: Economy

David Foster Wallace on American Consumer Culture

2012-03-20T20:49:44+00:00 | By

I recently watched some interviews of David Foster Wallace. It’s fascinating to hear him speak. He’s a deeply intelligent, neurotic, and sentimental man.

My favorite parts are when DFW talks about American consumer culture. He describes the US as “one enormous engine and temple of self-gratification,” which works very well in growing the economy but doesn’t nourish other parts of people.

For young people in America, there are very mixed messages from the culture. There’s a streak of moralism in American life that extols the virtues… more

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Light a Fire Under Politicians’ Asses

2011-10-15T11:18:16+00:00 | By

The inner populist in me is heartened to see the Occupy Wall Street movement grow and even spread to other countries. It’s about time the penny-wise-pound-foolish policies of careerist politicians and hamstrung governments came back to bite them in the ass.

I want to see the Occupy Wall Street movement not only gain more steam but also to become more organized and remain vigilantly peaceful. Right now I’m not sure what it stands for besides general malaise. The movement is not a response to the financial crisis or Wall Street barons as supporters might say. If Wall… more

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My Privileged and Precarious Life

2012-02-11T10:45:06+00:00 | By

I’m always painfully aware of how privileged my life is. I grew up in New England’s affluent suburbs as part of the upper middle class. I attended college at Columbia University with generous financial aid. And now I’m working in one of the few industries that’s aggressively hiring in a job position that’s seeing growth. There’s a stark contrast between my situation and those less fortunate around me. New York City’s current unemployment rate of 8% remains unchanged since a year ago. U.S. unemployment is 9.1%.

Right now there’s so much more demand for technical… more

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How to Make Money When the Market Tanks

2011-08-04T18:03:57+00:00 | By

Yesterday morning I bet over 95% of my 401k savings into a 3x leveraged inverse ETF based on mid cap companies (UltraPro Short Mid Cap 400 – SMDD). And then I tweeted,

“I Hope the Economy Tanks Because I Just Bought a 3x Leveraged Inverse ETF”

Today the market dropped over 4% in its biggest percentage drop since February 2009. But I also open my portfolio to see this:

I hedged my long positions in equity and made off with a bit extra.

Now another funny picture. My blog post… more

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From Individualism to Collectivism: The American Nowadays

2011-05-05T22:34:56+00:00 | By

An essay I wrote for United States history class in my junior year of high school. My prose can definitely be tightened, but the kernel of my idea is still intriguing.

David Xia
AP2 US
Jan. 11, ’05

From Individualism to Collectivism: The American Nowadays

Americans have always been proud of their “rugged individuality.”  The roots of this sentiment originated in the conditions of the establishment of the country.  From proclaiming their independence from England in 1776 to the gradual settling of the Great West, self-autonomy was trumpeted as the defining characteristic of the American. However, when one now examines the current trend in

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I So Called It

2011-03-30T19:28:56+00:00 | By

Three days ago, I wrote about the current housing slump. A day ago, Standard & Poor’s published the latest Case-Shiller Index showing the US housing market has only gotten worse. Interestingly, Dallas has fared the best out of the 20 cities in the CSI-20 composite index followed by Denver.

US Case-Shiller house-price index

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Vote With Your Wallet

2012-02-10T02:31:04+00:00 | By

We pay a lot of attention to elections where we voice our opinions by voting. But there’s a more important form of voting that happens everyday. When I spend money, whether I know it or not, I’m often supporting not only a good or service but also a set of principles and values.

One example is grocery shopping. Michael Pollan writes in his book Omnivore’s Dilemma, “Shopping in the organic supermarket underwrites important values on the farm; shopping locally underwrites a whole set of other values as well.”1. Buying a dollar of organic produce means one less… more

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What’s So Special About Owning a House?

2011-03-27T17:05:51+00:00 | By

The more I think about it, the more I dread ever owning a house. A recent article in The Economist talked about how real estate is a more volatile asset than most people think. Just look at the recent housing bubble as shown by the Case-Shiller Index:

Case-Shiller Index

That looks like a bubble to me.

How did this happen? Economist Paul Krugman says that part of the housing mania came from “ketchup economists:”

In the case of housing, buyers… more

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Know Thy Neighbor and the Car He Drives

2012-02-10T02:34:00+00:00 | By

Keeping up with the Joneses requires that you know who they are. What better way to find out than by looking up their demographic data by simply typing your zip code into this website? Here you’ll find out your area’s top five lifestyles as defined by Claritas, which was acquired by The Nielsen Company, one of the world’s largest market research firms. Claritas’ PRIZM system categorizes the US into 66 demographically and behaviorally distinct types, or “segments” to help marketers sell you more stuff you don’t need. more

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Economy Still Jittery, Lack of Job Growth

2012-02-11T10:45:47+00:00 | By

Krugman’s at it again in his latest Times op-ed – criticizing policy makers pushing for fiscal contraction these days. The economy does seem pretty weak at this point. The US just lost jobs for the first time in half a year according to MSNBC and the Times. The markets are down and home sales plummeted due to the expiration of federal tax credits for homebuyers. more

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