Luxury Lounge

And threads been going way too fast forward I decided not to read whatever I missed
 
I've been assigned to a foreign branch in Indonesia for the next 2 years, never thought moving can be a seriously pain in the neck process (bills, visa, passport, bills... visa... bills... the usual drill)
I'm no fan of this reassignment, but there's good money in it (a healthy 55% raise for 2 years, and permanent 20% raise from the time I go back, owww yeah...)
 
This way I'm sure I can get my hands on the upcoming S5 cabrio when I get home, or perhaps even a 911? Can't wait already
 
Upside? Well, besides the money there's a free apartment and car (a Camry that cost a heart stopping $55k!!!!). Yeah a Camry cost north of 50k here and is considered a quasi-luxo car. What about something like..err BMW 530? Yours for a mere $95k here. Oh and food's darn cheap here, approx. $10-15/day for a full course meal (unless you eat at 5star restaurants 3 times a day).
 
Downside? Internet here is painfully slow, traffic jam's worse than NYC on new year's eve, there's more smog than LA and NY combined, and (gasp...) it floods like hell here. Oh well, I'll bear with it, thnk about the money... think about the money.... just dont think of anything else
 
Anyways, did I miss anything significant???

Replies to this message:
• tagman (Apr 20, 2009 10:26 am)
• circlew (Apr 20, 2009 10:48 am)
• lexusguy (Apr 20, 2009 2:40 pm)
• bmlexus (Apr 20, 2009 3:59 pm)
  • m4d_cow (Apr 26, 2009 11:10 pm)
    • lexusguy (Apr 27, 2009 5:32 pm) and 5 more...
    • bmlexus (Apr 29, 2009 5:28 pm) and 1 more...

Replying to: m4d_cow (Apr 20, 2009 9:35 am)

Anyways, did I miss anything significant???
 
Of course!......... not.
 
Welcome back... and good luck with your assignment.
 
TM

Replying to: jlbl (Apr 19, 2009 12:09 pm)

Replying to: m4d_cow (Apr 20, 2009 9:35 am)

Anyways, did I miss anything significant???

 
You will definitely miss that girl, Dre!
 
Also, a lot of rant regarding the failing GM and C stories surrounding the UAW, et al.
 
Good luck on the other side of the World!
 
Regards,
OW

Replying to: m4d_cow (Apr 20, 2009 9:35 am)

This way I'm sure I can get my hands on the upcoming S5 cabrio when I get home, or perhaps even a 911? Can't wait already
 
Or maybe combine the two and get an R8?
 
Best of luck in your new, albeit temporary, home.

Perhaps we can still look forward to the luxuries we all appreciate and enjoy the next energy bear market in the coming years. This is an interesting bit of info.
 
One idea still has the power to capture imaginations and markets: it is that commodities like oil, copper, grains and gold are all destined to rise over time. Lots of smart people believe that last year's swoon in commodities prices represented a short pause in a long-term bull market.
 
It's a view rooted in powerful and real trends, like the growth of China and India, the decline in global reserves (many of the world's biggest and best oilfields are tapped out), fears over resource nationalization (independent oil firms now control only 20 percent of global reserves) and long-term underinvestment in energy and agriculture, which hampers supply.
 
Yet the fact is that the world has faced all these issues before, and for the past 200 years, commodity prices have been trending downwards, thanks to new technologies, greater efficiency in extraction and the substitution of one commodity for another (which explains the high correlation between commodities prices).
 
Bank Credit Analyst, a research firm based in Montreal, has data showing major industrial commodity prices are 75% below where they were in the year 1800, after adjusting for inflation. Despite all the worries over "peak oil," the fact is that the major bear markets in oil have been demand, rather than supply led. And when demand eventually picks up, there's usually some new alternative (nuclear energy, natural gas, green technologies) waiting to pick up some of the slack.
 
The real price of oil today is now at the same level as in 1976 and, before that, in the 1870s, when oil was first put to mass use in the United States. This long-term price decline is due mainly to the constant discovery of new fields and greater energy efficiency, making nonsense of the idea that the world is rapidly running out of oil. The experience of the 1980s is instructive in the current context as well.
 
Japan and Europe continued to grow strongly in the 1980s, and yet oil consumption remained essentially flat through that decade as both the regions strived to achieve better fuel efficiency and switched to alternative sources of energy, such as nuclear power. Similarly, 90 percent of the growth in new oil capacity since 2004 has come from biofuels, synthetic oil and natural-gas liquids. As countries get richer, their per capita consumption of commodities declines. It's a myth, then, that the boom in China and India will inexorably drive up oil and other commodity prices.
 
At some point, of course, commodities will spike again, but only temporarily. To date, the centuries-old slide in prices has been marked by long bear markets and short bull runs. Data from CSFB shows that the average bull market in oil has lasted from four to nine years, and the average bear market from 11 to 27 years. The bull market that ended last summer saw prices rise tenfold over nine years, mirroring the duration and magnitude of the previous bull market, which ended in 1979 (see chart above). That was followed by a bear market that lasted 20 years. If history is any guide, we're only at the beginning of another long one.


 
Regards,
OW

Replies to this message:
• jimbres (Apr 20, 2009 4:36 pm)
  • circlew (Apr 20, 2009 4:42 pm)
• cyclone4 (Apr 20, 2009 5:16 pm)
  • circlew (Apr 20, 2009 5:36 pm)
  • jimbres (Apr 20, 2009 5:38 pm)

Replying to: m4d_cow (Apr 20, 2009 9:35 am)

Hey, its been a long time, just curious? Are you a Diplomatic?
 
I plan to visit Indonesia, Thai sometime this year.
 
Actually you did miss many things.
 
Dewey still hasn't made up his mind that which will replace his lemon 335i, yet he finds an excuse to keep it
 
Tags 911 is gone.
 
Gary1 got himself a slightly used S550 4matic for $61k I think
 
I remember you were the 1 who had info about X6 twin turbo heating problems, especially for the inline6, well, any new news? You also mentioned that the V8 had a revised turbo, which made me really confused

Replies to this message:
• m4d_cow (Apr 26, 2009 11:10 pm)
  • lexusguy (Apr 27, 2009 5:32 pm)
    • tagman (Apr 27, 2009 7:38 pm) and 4 more...
  • bmlexus (Apr 29, 2009 5:28 pm)
    • lexusguy (Apr 30, 2009 2:21 am)

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• plan_man (Apr 20, 2009 6:11 pm)
  • lexusguy (Apr 20, 2009 9:47 pm)
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Replying to: jlbl (Apr 19, 2009 12:09 pm)

Merry Christmas Jose ! Beautiful photos.

Replying to: circlew (Apr 20, 2009 3:44 pm)

Replies to this message:
• circlew (Apr 20, 2009 4:42 pm)