Forget about your life situation and pay attention to your life...Your life situation is mind-stuff. Your life is real.

-- Eckhart Tolle

Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in action; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character affects our destiny.

-- Unknown

Don't just read the easy stuff. You may be entertained by it, but you will never grow from it.

-- Jim Rohn

Which of these is the most appropriate way to deal with anger?
- Sitting alone in a room, punching a pillow
- Throwing a chair, so that the person who made you angry learns never to do it again
* Talking with the person who made you angry
In studies, respondents have identified talking things over with the offender as the most appropriate way to deal with anger. This form of anger control is more appropriate than holding your anger in or expressing anger outwardly in ways that include physical assault on people or objects.

-- Unknown

There's the gift, there's the spirit, and there's the work ‒ all three have to come together. If one of those things is off, it can stop you from becoming who you were meant to be.

-- Shawn Carter

Thierry, informaticien pour 3917 euros et des actions

http://eco.rue89.com/2009/09/22/thierry-informaticien-pour-3917-euros-et-des-actions

-- Rue89

Nulle fortresse n'est imprenable.

-- Unknown

Act as though it were impossible to fail~ If you have something to do that is worthwhile doing, don't talk about it...do it…

-- Unknown

What we see as wickedness in others we excuse as weakness in ourselves.

-- Unknown

aufeminin.com articles

http://www.aufeminin.com/desir-sexuel/femmes-vierges-d5714x28194.html
http://www.aufeminin.com/desir-sexuel/femmes-vierges-d5714.html

You've got to BE before you can DO, and DO before you can HAVE.

-- Zig Ziglar

Société Générale : chef-d'oeuvre en péril

31 janvier 2008

ISABELLE CHAPERON

Un TGV Méditerranée qui déraille, une défaillance dans la centrale nucléaire de Pierrelatte, du benzène dans le Château Latour. La fraude à 4,9 milliards d'euros essuyée par la Société Générale n'est pas moins que cela. Un drame. Un fleuron tricolore menacé. La classe politique et l'opinion publique s'étaient mobilisées pour sauver Alstom. La banque de la Défense, au contraire, est lynchée, alors même que le contribuable n'est pas sollicité, qu'aucun client n'a été grugé, que la banque n'est même pas en perte. Quant aux actionnaires, cela fait partie du risque lié à l'investissement en actions. Juste un peu de compréhension et de mise en perspective ne nuiraient pas...

Comme le TGV, les dérivés actions de la Socgen devraient être une fierté nationale. Cette affirmation peut choquer ceux qui, en France, considèrent la banque comme un métier peu respectable. « L'argent est le grand crime, plus encore que d'avoir du talent », soupirait Emile Zola. Dérivés actions, cela parle moins qu'un record de vitesse ou que l'épopée de l'atome mais, dans le gotha international de la finance, cette activité a pris valeur de légende. Ou comment les petits crânes d'oeuf français tiennent la dragée haute à l'intelligentsia américaine. Pour tout le reste, Wall Street et la City dament le pion à Paris. Mais sur les options et autres produits innovants, la Société Générale avait réussi depuis vingt ans à maintenir une position de leader mondial. Un tour de force dans un univers où le copyright n'existe pas, qui a tiré toute l'industrie financière française, de BNP Paribas à Calyon.

Petite précision, ce ne sont pas, pour la plupart, des activités de spéculation - le vilain mot. Il s'agit pour les opérateurs de jouer sur des gros volumes afin de capter des petites marges liées à des anomalies de marchés ou encore de structurer des produits financiers pour un assureur ou une entreprise, soucieux de se couvrir contre les catastrophes naturelles ou la baisse du dollar. Cette filière offre des emplois à valeur ajoutée, en France, pour les jeunes diplômés des écoles d'ingénieur et de commerce. Enfin, banques et banquiers sont de bons contribuables pour le Trésor français...

Mais ce succès dépasse nos frontières. A Londres, sur les desks de produits dérivés de Goldman Sachs, de Merrill Lynch ou de Bank of America, on parle anglais avec l'accent français. Des bataillons de polytechniciens et autres normaliens ont la mainmise sur la haute voltige financière de la City. Autant dire que cette enclave gauloise dans le monde anglo-saxon agace prodigieusement. Ce n'est pas pour rien que les médias britanniques et américains se déchaînent contre la Société Générale. « Un style de capitalisme français est maintenant entaché », commente le « New York Times ». Comme si les pertes abyssales des Citigroup et autres Merrill Lynch sur le « subprime » ne ternissaient pas le capitalisme américain...

On aurait tort de hurler avec les loups. Bien sûr, la Société Générale a fauté. Son image est atteinte. Elle sera peut-être vendue. Mais le modèle économique des dérivés actions n'est pas mort. D'abord, arrêtons les fantasmes collectifs sur le thème « on nous cache tout, on nous dit rien ». Il est impensable que Daniel Bouton, le PDG de la banque, ait cherché à mettre sur le dos d'un trader indélicat des pertes générées ailleurs. Il va y avoir une enquête pénale et aucun dirigeant de la banque, dont la fortune est depuis longtemps établie, n'a envie de terminer en prison pour sauver son job.

Autre point important, le contrôle interne a failli. Mais pas sur son coeur de métier. L'expertise de la Société Générale, c'est de concevoir, valoriser puis vendre des produits financiers sophistiqués, tout en minimisant le risque résiduel sur son bilan. Compte tenu des sommes en jeu, il vaut mieux ne pas se rater. D'autres, comme Natexis, il y a quelques années, ont payé cher l'absence de modèle pertinent de valorisation. La Société Générale, elle, paye cher de n'avoir pas imaginé qu'on pouvait tenter de faire exploser une bombe artisanale dans une centrale nucléaire. Dans l'univers de la sophistication, « il nous l'a fait à l'ancienne », soupire-t-on à la Société Générale. Les systèmes ont forcément livré, semaines après semaines, leur lot d'anomalies, mais les contrôleurs de la banque n'ont pas accordé leur juste importance à une succession de clignotements. Des complicités ? Peut-être. Au final, la perte est énorme, mais cela ne remet pas en cause l'assise de la Générale en termes de modèles mathématiques et de technologie.

Sous couvert d'anonymat, tous les banquiers, à Paris, à Londres ou à New York, avouent que les procédures internes sont loin du zéro-défaut. Oui, les traders dépassent parfois leurs limites, oui, certains petits malins partent avec une partie de la recette de la journée. Ils ne sont pas toujours poursuivis. Le coût du risque fait partie du résultat d'une banque, comme les fraudeurs du métro et les démarques inconnues des grandes surfaces. La seule différence, avec l'affaire de la Générale, c'est l'ampleur de l'erreur.

A aucun moment, la position globale de Jérôme Kerviel - 50 milliards d'euros tout de même -, n'a été détectée par les systèmes. Aberrant. Inacceptable. Une leçon que toutes les banques de marchés vont s'empresser de tirer. Mais, pour la Société Générale, un autre enseignement apparaît en filigrane. L'histoire pathétique du Rastignac de Pont-L'Abbé témoigne de ce déplorable élitisme à la française, de cette arrogance de caste. Quand on n'a fait que la fac, on n'est pas pris au sérieux au royaume des dérivés actions ? Et les contrôleurs seraient une sous-race ? Si le business modèle reste valable, une révolution culturelle s'impose avec la recherche de managers dans cet Etat dans l'Etat dotés d'une réelle dimension humaine. C'est cela qui devrait être sanctionné.

Les dommages, au final, ne sont pas irréparables. Le métier surfe sur les besoins de structuration du risque à travers le monde, et la période troublée qui s'annonce va renforcer cette demande. Reste à savoir si les clients jugeront la Société Générale comme une contrepartie suffisamment solide pour lui confier leurs contrats de swaps et autres produits d'épargne garantis. Le crédit, dans tous les sens du terme, reste le nerf de la guerre. L'augmentation de capital prévue devrait répondre à une partie de ces exigences. Une bonne vieille augmentation de capital à l'ancienne, avec droit préférentiel de souscription, contrairement au renflouement en urgence des UBS, Citigroup et Merrill Lynch, par des pompiers opulents venus d'Asie et du Golfe.

tvguide.com article 2

Friends
Of course "The One with the Prom Video" is the No. 1 fan-voted episode. Not only does it give us
and Phoebe's adorable marine-life-based fate analogy ("He's her lobster!"), more importantly, we
are introduced to Fat Monica and Pre-Rhinoplasty ("I had a deviated septum") Rachel, who are
preserved on tape getting ready for their prom. When Monica tries to explain her larger-than-life
screen presence by asserting that the camera adds 10 pounds, Chandler (who actually should have
seen her like this before, given other flashback episodes in which he is present) responds, "So
how many cameras are actually on you?" Which is damn funny stuff �until I realize the other side
of the coin: If this is true, then these three women are 10 pounds thinner in real life than they
already are on TV. A sobering thought when you consider how skinny Courteney Cox looks; but
somehow an even sadder one when you compare Jennifer Aniston's once curvy physique to her current
wafer-thin existence.

"Keep on Truckin'" commercial
Yeah, because so many truck drivers dig disco.

Survivor: All-Stars
Awww. Boston Rob was voted last week's Tylenol Push Through the Pain winner because "Ambuh" ended
up on the opposing team. Excuse me, I'm a little queasy now. Do I qualify for the Pepto Negotiate
the Nausea prize?

Will & Grace
Yes, Jack you must be more involved in your son's life. Elliott needs your support and
encouragement. But mostly, that boy is in desperate need of a haircut. Although that's no big
surprise given that his mom is played by Rosie O'Donnell.

The Apprentice
I'm shocked. Not by Nick and Amy's double ouster (Mom always said, "Don't s--t where you eat"),
not by the Survivor-esque return of the last six castoffs and not by Carolyn's killer golf swing.
No, I'm shocked at myself for being shocked by Omarosa's denial that a phone call she received
during dinner with her team had anything to do with their assigned task. But just when I think it
can't get any more twisted, she out and out lies when she's subsequently called on her actions by
the Trump exec who phoned her with a problem. Omarosa says she never even spoke to the woman the
night before, that she was merely told to get in touch with her. Um, did she not notice the camera
crew that was in her face while she was taking the call? Did that falling piece of cee-ment damage
her eyesight, short-term memory and conscience too? It's all too obvious that she's the ultimate
sore loser �no pun intended �and that she's trying to sabotage Kwame's chances of winning, but
doesn't she realize that lying on national TV isn't going to get her anywhere? Well, she might be
able to find something at the White House...

Stephen King's Kingdom Hospital
Note to self: If I'm ever in a haunted hospital where a creepy little ghost girl keeps a
humongous, disease-eating aardvark-wolverine-looking creature as a pet, don't open any unfamiliar
bowling-ball bags. Didn't that chick see The Sopranos?

ER
I'm still bawling and I'm out of tissues. I'm also royally p----d. Finally, Weaver seemed to have
found personal happiness with Sandy and their son, Henry, and the future looked bright for her
dynamic character to develop a richer inner life than just being the hospital harpy. But then the
writers go and kill off Sandy. And it was gut-wrenching watching Kerry stand by helplessly and
crumble inside as the love of her life and the mother of their child gruesomely died before her
eyes. But that's not enough tragedy for one episode, so the writers have Sandy's grieving family
take Henry from Kerry, leaving her utterly alone in her sorrow. Laura Innes turned in a stellar
performance (I smell an Emmy nod), but can't we torture someone else? Let's see... Chen? No, her
mother just died and her father is an invalid. Gallant? No, looks like he's shipping out to war.
Susan? Nope, she's been ordered to bed rest for the next five weeks. Sam? Alex's dad is back.
Abby? Failed the medical board exam. Neela? Just killed a patient and any hope of a relationship
with Gallant when he falsified a chart to save her butt. Well, Carter's been pretty happy lately.
Maybe we can abuse him for a while. Once he comes back from Africa, of course.

The Tonight Show
Obviously that guy who licked John Melendez's shoe for $5 in Times Square is a tourist. I've only
lived in NYC a month and I always take my shoes off at my apartment door, something I was always
somewhat insulted by prior to moving here but now require of everyone who visits my teeny tiny
abode. Why? Hundreds, probably thousands of dogs �and no grass.

Quote of the night
"How long should that sentence be?!" �The Daily Show's Jon Stewart's response to Condoleezza
Rice's testimony that a memorandum about the presence of al-Qaida cells in the U.S. was expressed
in "only a line or two."

-- TV Guide

tvguide.com article

Friends
Yes, it's another rerun, but it's the No. 2 favorite episode, with "The Kiss." Sure, the
Ross-Rachel liplock was one of the most hyped smooches since Dave and Maddie, Sam and Diane, and
Roseanne Barr and Mariel Hemingway, but I like this installment for another reason �Rachel's
drunken "I'm over you" phone message (c'mon, we've all been there at least once, bottle of
Chardonnay notwithstanding), which she leaves on Ross's answering machine during a dismal date
with a poor guy named Michael (the much-underused Ayre Gross) and elicits one of my favorite bits
of dialogue: "You're over me? When were you under me?" Those few choice words combined with
Rachel's desperate scamper across the room to pounce onto Ross's back to keep him from hearing
said message makes for a classic comedic moment in my book.

Survivor: All-Stars
In this season's most boring episode yet (even the clip show was more compelling), an attempted
team reshuffle results in only Amber switching sides, separating her from bed buddy Boston Rob. "I
feel like I'm the only one who got screwed," lamented the suddenly single swizzle stick. Well,
duh. That was pretty obvious the moment you started bunking with that bully from Beantown. Even
Jerri's expulsion was a snore. Like so many worn-out reality-show contestants, she wanted her
suffering to end. I just want to know when mine will.

Toys "R" Us Easter commercial
I love the singing bunnies! Although somewhat reminiscent of those annoying singing chipmunks,
these high-pitched little balls of fluff never fail to make me grin. "Here comes Peter
Cottontail/hoppin' down the bunny trail...." Everybody!

Wonderfalls
Since everyone's been yapping about this quirky new series, I thought I'd check it out in its
death-sentence, er, new Thursday-night timeslot against CSI and The Apprentice. So much of the
buzz around this show about a young woman who gets instructions from inanimate objects has been
centered on comparisons to Joan of Arcadia, about a teen who talks to God, that the stellar
supporting cast has been largely overlooked. Jaye's dad is played by William Sadler (Dan's
somewhat simple pal Dwight on Roseanne); the sublime Katie Finneran (station manager Kenny's loopy
daughter Poppy on Frasier) plays Jaye's closeted sister. And that's Diana Scarwid playing Jaye's
mom, gang. Please tell me you remember her as the grown-up Christina Crawford from that classic
ode to motherhood, Mommie Dearest ("I am not one of your fans!"). I dare say she might even be
channeling dear Joan here...

The Apprentice
Trump said it best tonight: "Wow." Troy got the ax over Kwame. Despite genial self-made
real-estate broker Troy's unfailing enthusiasm and creative approach to business, Trump decided to
keep underperformer Kwame because of his educational background and current employer (he's a
Harvard MBA who works for Goldman Sachs). And although I love country-boy Troy, I have to side
with Trump, but for a different reason: He picked his pal to accompany him to the boardroom over
Bill. Huh? Did he think that decision would win points with someone who values loyalty as much as
Trump does?

ER
Thank you, writers, for finally fleshing out Neela's character and allowing Parminder Nagra the
chance to display her acting chops. For most of the season, Neela has been the star pupil, spewing
forth medical-textbook facts like an espresso machine at Starbucks. Tonight she starts to unravel
under the extreme demands of her chosen profession and the expectations of others after Carter
instructs her to be more assertive in a misguided attempt to improve her self-confidence.
Meanwhile, the ER explodes around her. She's pushed and pulled in too many directions at once, and
her desire to please everyone by proving herself worthy of their praise and confidence causes her
to make a fatal mistake. Overwhelmed, she breaks down in the supply closet, unable to keep her
emotions in check. I have to admit that I've starred in my own version of that scene before, when
no matter what you do or how well you do it, it's never enough and you wonder what the hell you're
doing there in the first place. Only I usually make it to the ladies room before losing it.

Without a Trace
This solid episode featuring guest star Tony Goldwyn as a pair of murder-suspect twins �one takes
the rap for the other, just as the other expected him to �confirms something I've long suspected
(and I'm sure to catch heat for, from a certain twin in particular, but I'm entitled to my
opinion): Double Trouble and The Patty Duke Show (yeah, I know they're cousins, identical cousins)
aside, twins are a wee bit... creepy. Just look at Mary-Kate and Ashley.

The Daily Show
My Lord �no pun intended �the writers for this show are brilliant.. Probably going to hell for
their brilliance, but so what? In a razor-sharp sendup of the recent proliferation of
religion-related TV topics and coverage, Stephen Colbert hosts "This Week in God," a Press Your
Luck-esque recap of various religious goings on around the world that includes a "Cast Ye from the
Garden" segment sponsored by the Olive Garden, where "every supper is good enough to be your
last."

The Tonight Show
The Good Sport of the Night Award goes to American Idol ouster Amy Adams, who gamely makes the
most of a backhanded compliment that Simon Cowell recently gave her �he said she reminded him of
Jay Leno the night before she got the boot �by showing up here to sing on "Daddy's" show.

The Late Show
Meanwhile, still basking in the glow of the recent �and unprecedented �apology CNN issued to him
after the network erroneously alleged that he faked some footage featured on his show, Dave gives
us the "Top 10 Questions You're Afraid to Ask Condoleezza Rice." Topping the list: "What kind of
job will you and Bush be looking for in January 2005?" My personal fave? "At cabinet meetings, who
besides you and Cheney wears lipstick?" (It was a tie between that and "Have you ever tried the
Condoleezza rice at Chi-Chis?" but my shame at having to Google Halliburton forced me to feign a
modicum of maturity.)

-- TV Guide