Humble Beginnings

When you take the company Whatsapp into consideration the first thing to probably come about is the 19 billion dollar price tag, but the most remarkable aspect of the business comes from the hidden story of Jan Koum's journey to his wealth. 

Koum was born and raised in the Ukraine until his teenager years of the 1990's to the United States. Although he was forced to live with government assistance to survive, such as welfare and food stamps, the extremely expensive phone calls back home posed a problem to keep in contact with his family. 

Eventually Microsoft's Skype drastically reduced prices of international calls, but Koum's mission was to do the same for text messages on mobile phones. 

In his own perspective he feels he "barely passed" high school in mission Viejo, California. He later studied at San Jose state, but eventually dropped out. He then worked as security at Ernst & young and would later become security and operations engineer at Yahoo. 

In 2009 he created the Whatsapp which gained 450 million users, and is now gaining around 1 million users a day. 

Although his story is extremely remarkable, Koum has been really shy towards the spotlight. He takes few interviews and refuses appearances on shows. His CEO title isn't even listed on his social media accounts. He resorts to calling himself a tester and tweet manager instead of the prestigious title he deserves. 

 

Koum owns 45% of the stock and is valued at 7 billion dollars. His story serves to show that although the government served to help him through everyday life, the possibilities to improve are endless. 

Split Decisions

The United States spoke out boldly Wednesday on the topic of halting the escalating political violence in Ukraine, but analysts hold different opinions, warning that there was little that outside pressure could do, especially if the Ukrainian military gets involved. 

President Barack Obama condemned the unrest that killed 26 on Tuesday and began to spread passed the Ukrainian Capital, Kiev, by Wednesday. Protesters were reported to even seize control of government buildings, thus sparking an almost inevitable urge for their military to want to take action. 

Nevertheless, Obama has warned the government to show restraint against peaceful protesters, and stay cautious of the consequences of excessive action. By allegedly saying the Ukrainian military should stay out of it as it has done so far. 

Shortly after the Ukraine's president and the opposition leaders agreed to a truce and to talk out an agreement. 

nd to fresh talks.Obama stated that he hoped this development will "provide space for the sides to resolve their disagreements peacefully." 

He insisted  that Ukraine isn't a pawn on some "Cold War chessboard" with Russia, Obama said that he hopes a unity government will be formed to pave the way for "fair and free elections."

"The situation that happened in Ukraine has to do with whether or not the people ... can determine their own destiny," he said.

Later on the United States issued visa bans for 20 senior members of the Ukraine, responsible for the crack down in Kiev, or just affiliated with the government. 

The president of the council on foreign relations, Richard Haass state his opinion by saying that the main question would come down to whether the government would support the Ukraine by assisting the military or assist the protestors by staying in the barracks (remaining uninvolved). 

In the concluding perspective, the American government is stuck with the capability to help an ally to restore order to their system or help the opposing force by remaining neutral, but regardless of choice the possibility of and enemy is possible. The consequences remain complex but differ on however the debate between the sides conclude. 

Don't Drink the Water!

 In Charleston, West Virginia health officials tested the water and declared it to be safe to drink. Some residents in virginia reported getting rashes on their body after bathing. When this was reported, on January 9th, the water was tested again and the chemical 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or MCHM, was discovered leaking from a storage tank and was leaked into the water supply. This scared everyone and they decided to do a "do-not-use" order. When residents ran the water on hot there was a licorice odor which worried residents. 300,000 West Virginians were unable to drink or bathe in their water for a week. The chemical is known for helping to wash coal to reduce ash, but other than that, little it known about the chemical and it's effects on a person body if inhaled. "The spill was originally estimated at about 7,500 gallons, but Freedom Industries said late last month that about 10,000 gallons of chemical had escaped. The company also told regulators that a second chemical -- a mix of polyglycol ethers, known as PPH -- was part of the leak." Awhile later, official lifted the "do-not-use" rule after discovering that the chemical only appeared in the water supply are very low levels. This still worried the residents of West Virginia. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventing were hired to do further research on the issue. The chemical MCHM was found in the treated and untreated water from two homes in Charleston Virginia." The amounts ranged from less than 0.5 parts per billion to 1.6 parts per billion, well below the 1 part per million that the CDC has said it considers unlikely to be associated with any adverse health effects." "We stand willing to continue to assist and will be discussing with officials there what additional toxicology and epidemiology studies may be needed," said Laura Bellinger, a CDC spokeswoman."The official agencies are saying (the water is) OK to drink," said Dr. Rahul Gupta, health officer and executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston and Putnam County health departments. Officials are saying that the water is "okay" to drink, but they are not saying that the water is "safe to drink". "Safe" is the word that makes people feel more comfortable. If I lived in West Virginia I would honestly be very skeptical of what the government says. I feel that sometimes they do not have the citizens best interest at heart. Sometimes the temporarily fix things. Things like wondering if the water supply is okay to drink and bathe in is something that we should not have to worry about as citizens of these United States.

Infinite Borrowing

 Americans have substantially increased their borrowing in October, due to big increases in auto and student loans, and the largest rise in credit card debt in five months.

Consumers have increased their borrowing by 18.2 billion dollar since October to a seasonally adjusted $3.08 trillion, accordion to the Federal Reserves Friday reports, which happens to be a record level and follows up a September increase of $16.3 billion.

$13.9 billion rose in borrowing from auto loans and student loans, But  borrowing in the credit cards category has rose $4.3 billion dollars, following a decline of $218 million in September. One of the possible reasons for this could include Black Friday shopping but Christmas coming around the corner a slight increase could be expected. Another possible contributor is society's encouragement to go back to school and learn new trades in a time where wages increase very minimally. Since student loans account for the biggest increase in borrowing debt since the recession that ended in June 2009, controlling that could but a dent in this increasing issue. 

The only problem is that the Fed's borrowing report tracks credit card debt, auto loans and student loans but not mortgages, home equity loans and other loans. Meaning that there is still a cause of a the rising debt that is unaccounted for, but will have to be analyzed further to ensure our economy takes yet another step in the right direction. 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/08/teen-dies-aboard-delta-airlines-flight-from-seattle-to-atlanta/?intcmp=trending

Fading Unemployement

In obamas second (and obviously last term) the U.S. unemployment rate fell to a 5-year low of 7 percent. November was the fourth straight month of solid hiring, this glimpse of hope shines bright for our economy. 

The Labor Department estimated that employers across the nation added about 203,000 jobs, nearly matching October's revised gain of 200,000. The jobs gained dramatically helped lower the unemployment rate from 7.3 percent in October to the flat 7 percent rate it's is recorded at today with hope of lowering even further. 

The rejuvenating job market is likely to create speculation that the Federal Reserve may start to revise their bond purchases in their next scheduled meeting. 

The economy has now generated an average of 204,000 jobs from August through November. In contrast to the average of 159,000 from April to July. 

An extremely surprising fact is that many of the November jobs acquired were in higher-paying industries. Manufacturers are reported to have added around 27,000 positions, (the most since March 2012), while, construction firms gained about 17,000.

In a year containing horrific murders, suicides, immense poverty, and an generic struggle embedded within the common American's life this serves as an empowering symbol that gives just enough strength into our economy's pale, weak hands to hold us together a little longer for a bigger and better change. The change Obama 1st campaign consisted of, but until then those trapped in fates cruel side must hang on with the this new glimpse of hope. 

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/12/06/us-unemployment-rate-falls-to-5-year-low-7-percent-as-employers-add-203000-jobs/

Controlling The Thirsties.

 There is a major crisis on the rise, there is a wine shortage around the world. The industry is experiencing an under supply of almost 300 billion cases a year.  There are a total of 2.8 billion cases produced globally each year, which Europe is 50% responsible for. In the last year the global production of wine fell almost 5%, which is the lowest production has ever been since the 1960's. What's causing the wine shortage you may ask? Well, the best grapes are harvested in Argentina and France which are both having some severe weather. When it's extremely cold outside and the ground freezes the crops die from lack of nutrition. 

 Production is just the European states alone has dropped a full 10% in 2012! In 2012 the consumption of wine rose by 1% also. Imagine that, the supply of the necessary things that are needed to make wine are down, which makes the demand even greater.

 The French are the top consumers of wine, followed my Americans, leaving the Chinese as the third largest consumers in the world. Wine has become very popular in China because if you could afford it you were considered to have a higher standard of living. China is trying to help solve the problem by beginning to produce their own wine. 

 America only produces about 8% of the worlds wine, yet consumes around 12% and consumption has risen by 2% in the last year alone. America is also trying to get the wine industry booming by creating "wine boutiques", but it still isn't enough to satisfy the rest of the worlds wants. 

NObamacare!!

  After three weeks of the Obamacare websites being open to the public there have been many negative complaints. Many people are having difficulties signing into healthcare.gov. When the site was first launched there was an error that wouldn't let you sign into the network and kept you on a page that appeared to be loading. But, as of now applicants are sent an error message. Maura Grady, from Florida, expressed to CNNMoney her frustration about the network flaws. When asked if she would try it again she replied "2, maybe 3 years! When I'm in the mood for some aggravation." I thought that was hilarious, but at the same time unfortunate that a problem caused her so much stressing which is going to make her miss out on a great opportunity. But, hey, can we blame her?

   Another great issue is that when isurers are getting the applicants forms sometimes very important information is missing like their full name, address or email address. Since the Obamacare plan is starting out to be a major busy it looks like the economy is going to suffer (as if the government shut down wasn't already bad enough). Obamacare care was made to help people, not to add stress. These issues need to be fixed immediately if the website is going to be effective for applicants because they are not going to waste there time on it.