Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, brilliant military strategist of Vietnam dies at 102

From BBC News | October 4, 2013


                       
                            Fidel Castro and Gen Giap


The brilliant military strategist of Vietnam who caused the defeat of France at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu and the withdrawal of US from Vietnam, Gen Vo Nguyen Giap, recently died at age of 102.

For the battle of Dien Bien Phu, he prepared to ambush the French by having cadres drag howitzers piece by piece up the mountain overlooking the French camp.  Who would think, as (Hannibal did that he would attack Rome from the Alps) that he would do that?  And to overcome the air superiority of Franch (with the Mirage bombers) he hid the guns in the caves.

For the defeat of Americans, he masterminded the network of tunnels to negate the superiority of air power the napalm and the carpet bombing of B-52. It is worth noting so that the spy plane and satellites would not detect their supply chain:  he made sure that bridges were under water (the river) and underneath the canopy of trees and rain forest.   Thus the supply chain was (and we know that military runs on a strong supply train as MacArthur, Eishenhower, and Schwarschopff have advocated, was intact most of the time.

He was also known for his famous Tet offensive vs US troops

But Giap did not have formal military training.  (An equivalent of a successful entrepreneur who is college drop out - Mark Zuckerberg perhaps?)

They also made sure that political offensive was carried out in Washington.  The protracted war caused many widows and orphans to dislike the war and thus Washington was left with no choice but to leave the SV allies

Do you think that he is a really brilliant strategist?

Does his work clarify the meaning of strategy?

From NBC news

Twitter co founder Williams may be a billionaire after IPO

From CBS Local | October 4, 2013

Twitter Co Founder Evan Williams may end up a billionaire after Twitter's proposed IPO.  Williams was Twitter CEO for two years until the current Dick Costolo took over in 2010.   Williams 12% holdings amounts to 56.50 million shares and at $20.62 valuation, he might be worth $1.2 billion.  Williams is 41 years old and is creditted for having done Blogger.  (That is why he worked for Google for a while)

Noah Glass, who invented the name twitter, and the other idea men - Jack Dorsey (he had the original idea) and Biz Stone never came up in the disclosure statement.  So what does it take to be a billionaire?

These guys like Zuckerberg are lucky for being there at the right time.

Are they born, made or lucky?

IMF chief worried about US shutdown, and even more on raising the US debt ceiling

I watched last night that IMF chief Chiristine Lagarde is very much worried about the US Govt showdown (now on its fifth day) It may have long term damage not only to US economy but to the entire world as well.  US problems/woes could drag the rest of world economy with it.

It is a "mission critical" in a speech she delivered at George Washington University | October 3, 2013 (from Nation)

If US fails to resolve the budget and raising the debt ceiling, US may default on payment of its debt papers and result in massive default (like your credit card company cancelling your credit card) and US may have to pay in cash.  Will this make life for Americans less gloomy (many dont frequent restaurants and coffee shops as they used to pre October 1, 2013

Japan must also reform its economy;  its debt has reached 250% of its GDP with its per capita debt standing at $90,000 for every Japanese.

Do you agree with Christine?  Earlier, I made a post on the bad shape of Japanese economy.  Is Japan now suffering for its WW II sins?

Many of the Asian markets were lower yesterday due to US shutdown.

Are Asian markets and US related?  Can you see the relevance of US problems and Asian capital markets?