Chris Christie's Prisoner's Dilemma

(1/31/2014) The GWB closure scandal has been surfaces for a month, we all know it smells very fishy. It just needs time waiting for the evidence to show that Christie was involved, or at least not as "unaware" as he claimed. Now the new evidence just come up: “Mr. Wildstein (a high school friend of Mr. Christie’s who was appointed with the governor’s blessing at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey) contests the accuracy of various statements that the governor made about him, and he can prove the inaccuracy of some,...”.

Christie's GWB closure will be one of greatest example of Prisoner's dilemma (囚犯困境，a famous economic game theory) in the future.

Step 1 to make prisoner's dilemma: let them don't trust each other, and betrayal will prevail. (讓囚犯陷入困境的第一步：讓囚犯們彼此猜疑對方的背叛！)

One of the prisoners in Christie's GWB scandal: Mr. David Wildstein. 

Wii U Is Selling Badly

(1/30/2013) Another example of tough forecasting for style goods. Nintendo Wii U's sales has been 'terrible.' Compared to Sony' PS4 and Microsoft's XBox One, Nintendo's Wii U seems to be out of the game already. After the success of Wii, Nintendo has lost 80% of its market value.

Uber's Rough Road Ahead

(1/27/2014) Although I agree that Uber (uber.com) provides a good alternative for cab services for cities that Taxis are difficult to get, I personally am not optimistic about Uber's future. The registered drivers have access to Uber customer's personal information (home address, phone, names, travel schedule, ...), it will be hard to filter the quality drivers and monitor potential crime history of them. Besides, driver accidents like the one in the article will bring endless lawsuits to the company (maybe even to the customers). This NPR report has a more detailed analysis about Uber's driver issue.

McDonald's Menu Issue

(1/27/2014) When I walked with my friend on the street in a night market in Taipei, there are plenty of food vendors. My friend commented: "If a restaurant serves good foods, it only needs to be good in a few items. When a food vendor tries to sell everything, it means it is no good in any." This is very true especially for Taiwanese, which eating is very important in its culture.
       When we look at McDonald's recent performance, we see the exact problem: McDonald offers too many options to its customers. Extensive menu can be destructive for fast food restaurant, in which the service speed is critical for its fast-speed customers. The more options customers have, the longer time it takes to make a decision, then the more slowly it can finish an order. A minor increase in the service time can trigger significant performance downgrade in customer's perception if you analyze the queuing problem. So it is not surprising to see McDonald's lackluster performance in recent quarters.

McDonald's recent dollar menu.

The famous "阿桐阿寶四神湯" in Taipei. It's famous of its soup, fishballs, Siu-mai, ... It has 6 items on its menu.  

Will Panama Canal Expansion Be Halted?

(1/3/2014) When your house remodeling cost more than you have expected, you still have to pay for the over-run. The Panama canal expansion might be halted as the builders are not 'paid enough for project overrun' and threat to work further. Panama government just has to find other investors to sponsor this project.