A Wall Street Pay Puzzle by Robert Samuelson

Washington Post, January 18, 2010 on page A17: A thoughtful article for reader to ponder and reflect the meaning of living.

Why does Wall Street make the big bucks? A nation with 10% unemployment is understandably puzzled and outraged when the very people at the center of the financial crisis seem to be the first to recover and are pulling down fabulous pay package. Are Wall Street's leaders that much smarter and more inidustrious than everyone else?

Lawrence Katz, a Harvard economist the study's co-author found that those who went into finance earned three times the income of other graduates with the same grade point average,demographics and college major. Wall Street may be greedy?

How much should society concentrate on existing wealth as opposed to creating new wealth? Economist Thomas Philippon of NYU said" Wall Street's lavish pay packages may attract too many of America's best and brightest, but it is bad for the rest of the economy. We also need smart brainis outside finance.

Page A12 (Photo):Chinese firm Baidu is set for post-Google era: Internet giant Baidu is a dominant search engine to meet Chinese needs for success despite setbacks.

"Baidu" Pin Yin for two Chinese words(characters) means 100 degrees but was inspired by a Song Dynasty love poem in which it means 100 times. A man is searching for his true love during the traditional Lantern Day Festival. "A hundred times I search for her in the crowd and turn around just to discover she is there where the lantern lights are dim." the man writes in China. I also heard in USA: " the next bus would come if you miss one. (as an analogy of a heart and a pump) Hehehahahoho for fun,indeed!

Page C10 Kidspost with Photo: Burping in public seems rude in Western cultures, but in China,it is reactive echo as the sound of music.(sic) Smile or smirk? Laughter begets longevity. Laugh it off if you would,please?

Francis Shieh aka Xie Shihao,a budget-minded octogenarian humorist-to-be trying to learn distribution of income and wealth and other cultures between the East and the West in the fleeting mundane world with understanding of life span.

Martin Luther King,Jr. Day,January 18, 2010 at 9 a.m.