RS 2: A Billion-Dollar Bet Against Weight-Loss Shakes

This blog post is an analysis on the economic podcast “A Billion-Dollar Bet Against Weight Loss Shakes.”  This podcast appeared on the planet money website on January 18, 2013. The podcast involves a billion dollar company named Herbalife  and complications that are arising around them. Bill Ackman a hedge fund manager has went against this company and has made his voice heard that he believes this company is a pyramid scheme. He is so confident and wants it to be right, that he has shorted the Herbalife stock which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange "ONE BILLION DOLLARS". 





On this I stand behind Ackman. I also believe the company is a fraud and a pyramid scheme like many others like the make-up door to door companies and similar to Cutco knife sales. Though he has such a strong feeling a billion dollar wager in shorting a stock of a company that has been successful for 30 years is risky. WIth saying that i have never even heard of the products this company sells. Being a four billion dollar company with no advertisement and research and development money being spent, something has to be up. 


After Ackman came out and said that Herbalife is a pyramid scheme in a 300 slide powerpoint on the company the companies stock dropped 14.6 points. This also is what Ackman wants. Shortening the stock he will make money every time it drops and hopes that it will fall to zero. On his part it could be smart that he went to the public and was so outspoken because it will shake the people and the stock up. Who knows where these products are being sold after the venders let other people sell it or who it is going to. The company obviously doesn't care about being a healthy company, but making money being a pyramid scheme. 

RS 1 How to Be a Genius

This blog post is my analysis on the article “How to Be a Genius” by David Dobbs. This article appeared in the September 2006 edition of the New Scientist. People are not made a genius, but it is up to them to become one. Some humans may be born with more talents physically or mentally, but much effort has to be put in to maintain it. Even as a child author David Hobbs could have been set out for greatness says his mother. Hobbs realized later in life that his early gift would soon run out. Only when he put in more work and effort than usual he would see that he was getting somewhere. What is trying to be said is that you have to put work in to succeed. The more work and effort you apply to your work the better or smarter you will be at it. Examples of greats that’s put in effort to become a genius at what they do are Einstein, Hawking, Newton, and even athletically speaking Michael Jordan, Lebron James, Tiger Woods, and Pete Sampras. These people all have in common that they worked extra hours to be a genius at what they do.

Stephen Hawking’s take on IQ is that it has no relations to someone’s ability to be a genius. Hawking was an average student until his mid twenties when his work ethic became more serious. Hawking says, “People who boast about their IQ are losers.” I believe in this statement because anybody can be good at taking a test, but their ability to apply it to something meaningful is a lot tougher. Even as Dobbs says in the article, his co-workers too have talent. It is their work ethic that will set them apart from someone else.

I truly found this article something that I believe in. I can relate to this in ways of when it comes to school. The more I study or put into a class, the better I usually do or understand that material. It can be motivational to some to put more work in and see better results. 

From last reading and writing this I still stand behind what Dobbs says. After last semester I tried to imply what he said and put a better effort in towards my work and ethics that I believed I knew more about what I was studying. I had my best semester yet and hope to stay on the path of to doing more than what I think I need to.