Greed

Life is all about greed. Greed for money. Greed for status. Greed for power. Greed for recognition. Greed for love. Greed greed greed. More more more more. I am the king. I am the lord of all I see. I am the master of this universe. The ego becomes larger and larger till it sees nothing but itself. Ultimately it destroys it's creator. It also destroys everyone around it.

It is shocking that the biggest frauds are perpetrated by those who have no need for any of that money.

Lack of confidence

Suggestions to deal with waning confidence in the financial industry.

Finance needs a facelift. A little bit of a nip and a teeny tiny bit of a tuck. Hide some of that oversize nose (very pointy, very long not so very honest ding dong), crinkly wrinkles, saggy forearms, knocky knees, empty chest, drooping shoulders and huge cancerous mole right in the middle of the forehead. A little bit of powder and strategic dusting will do. If it drops dead before the operation is done, we might need a few strings and some paper clips to fix the smile and keep the body parts moving. Nothing feels better than a job well done.

Alternatively, investing can be converted into the mystical spirituality industry. By doing this all expectations of a profit are replaced by warm fuzzy feelings, which is what life is really about. Collateralized Loans can be renamed 'Joy' and Foreclosed Houses can be renamed 'Happiness'. And we all know that one can never put a price on happiness. Banks and investing houses should have scented candles, and suits should be replaced with Mighty Mystic Garments. Deep resonating music should float solemnly down the hallways and the trading floors should be replaced with large cushions, deep carpets and dim focused lighting, all in dark earthy hues full of love, compassion, companionship, caring and sacrifice. Analysts should call themselves 'Sishya' (disciple), VPs 'Guru' and Directors 'Maha-Guru' (great guru). Profits and losses should be replaced by happiness gained and joy restored. Mark-to-market accounting should be abolished as happiness can never be measured, true joy is immeasurable and all encompassing. Continuing on the theme of true joy, in addition to getting ourselves a bit of 'Joy' and 'Happiness', we should contribute freely to the Gurukul (spiritual house), in the form of 'Guru Dakshina' (spiritual offerings), because life is all Maya (the girl), Mayfair (the place) and Maybach (the car).

The Case of the Reverse B

Many of you might have heard of 'The Case of the Reverse B'.

Pittsburgh police say a McCain campaign volunteer made up a story of being robbed, pinned to the ground and having the letter "B" scratched on her face in a politically inspired attack.

Maurita Bryant, the assistant chief of the police department's investigations division, says 20-year-old Ashley Todd is being charged with making a false report to police.

Todd, of College Station, Texas, initially said a black man robbed her at knifepoint Wednesday night and then cut her cheek after seeing a McCain sticker on her car.

Yet another attempt to incite racial tensions based on the commonly held belief that black men make a hobby of molesting white women. What is most amusing in such racial stereotypes is the hypocrisy embedded in them. Reality is the diagonal opposite, and such stereotypes are a means to justify this reality. First there was slavery. Eventually after much pain the blacks found freedom but found themselves completely disenfranchised.

A popular mechanism of disenfranchisement was by poll tax, where a fixed sum needed to be paid for the right to vote. This tax essentially excludes poorer sections of the population. Many of the Southern States employed this technique. It was successfully copied in South Africa as well.

As a result blacks had no political, economic or social leverage whatsoever. Organizations like the Klu Klux Klan routinely lynched them at the slightest lack of subservience. Lack of opportunity lead to poverty, poverty lead to increased crime rates and drug use, and this vicious cycle has in some sense continued to this day.

If one watches a typical Western, one cannot miss the guy with the leather skins and feathers in his head - the American-Indian. He is usually portrayed to be wild, out of control, marauding the nearest gentile town and spreading terror among is denizens. Though there could have been some historical tensions between the two communities, reality couldn't be farther away from this image. Today, American-Indians form a smaller part of the population of the United States than possibly even Indians who have emigrated from Asia. They live in secluded reservations where alchoholism is rife, people are poor and opportunities for education and employment non-existent. It is not entirely clear who marauded whom.

Another incident that comes to my mind is from Indian history. On April 13th 1919, General Reginald Dyer lead a massacre of over a 1000 unarmed Indian civialians over a matter of 10 minutes. This admirable act was performed 'to teach a moral lesson to the Punjab.' After this act, he had to return to the UK, where a 'Sympathy Fund for the Punjab' collected over 26,000 pounds (1919 pounds not 2008 pounts), for his benefit.

Of course, these incidents cannot hold a candle to the biggest hypocrisy of them all. That of Mr Hitler and his friends Mr Goebbels, Mr Eichmann, Mr Goring who incinerated an entire race while accusing them of a litany of crimes.

My friends, beware of racial sterotypes, and when you encounter one, be very clear who is the oppressor and who is the victim :).

The Man Booker Prize

...should be renamed the 'Colonial Hangover Prize'. Whats up with the never ending obsession with the Indian need to find identity in the midst of religious, caste, regional etc. heterogeneity? Is it 'white guilt' on the part of the jury i.e. a sense of colonial ownership/responsibility/moral obligation for having left behind a teeming poverty stricken country with periodic sectarian violence?

Lets make a short list:

Salman Rushdie - Midnight's Children - Bunch of kids (Hindu/Muslim,Rich/Poor,Male/Female) born at midnight on Aug 15th 1947, grow with the nation.

Kiran Desai - Inheritance of Loss - Story of a judge living out his retirement in Kalimpong.

Arundhati Roy - God of Small Things - Mallu twins return home, and the usual culture clash between East and West.

(nominated) Monica Ali - Brick Lane - Bangladeshi making sense of values and culture while living in Great Britain.

(nominated) Rohinton Mistry - Family Matters. Parsi family living it out in Mumbai. Two of his previous books, 'A Fine Balance' and 'Tales from Ferozeshah Bad', are also along the exact same Parsi theme.

This is just a teeny taste. Head back into the 70's and 80's, and we run smack into V.S. Naipaul and Anita Desai.

And now....as a shocking surprise...the winner of the 2008 Booker is...

Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger - Rural low caste peasant is chauffer to a rich big city Indian.

So, you out there wanting to win a Booker Prize, by writing a heart rending story of religious upheaval in the midst of caste bigotry where rural poverty fights big city wealth, you will generate enough guilt in the British jury that the shortlist if not the prize will be yours.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Again goes to reinforce that the key to a good movie is not the gazillion $s sunk into special effects but soul. Kooky characters tied together in a simple identifiable storyline, dealing with day to day situations in their own kooky way create magic. Its a movie about one NY night in the town, where the average-joe heartbroken guy who got dumped by a high and mighty mean heartless shrew vixen virago, gets the sweet super-nice super-pretty super-rich girl who likes him for who he is. Michael Cera in Arrested Development, Superbad and Juno kicked ass, and he is completely on target here as Mr. Average Joe. He typifies the awkward, nerdy, not-so-much-of-a-megadude guy, the guy that your average joe can identify with, but who eventually gets the nice girl, unlike the average joe who by definition is average, and thus does not get the nice girl but the average girl, as if he did not get the average girl but got the nice girl he would no longer be an average joe but an above-average joe, and which means he would no longer identify with Nick and thus would not be part of this discussion, which concludes my long winded point that never seems to end and keeps going on and on and on, gosh this is a long sentence, if it goes on any longer it might be the longest sentence ever, but shit it just ended.

Great nighttime drive arounds of New York, and the music, love it. Really sets the tone for the movie.

Gameover

Somehow, all the turmoil with the investment banks, and those that lent recklessly with no heed to caution reminds me of my childhood, and the hours I spent in front of my Pentium.

..but let not the backlash kill you.

..and no more space for any more bricks. The Wall is done (for).



..the faery fairy tale has come to an end.

..the battle is lost and there is blood all over.

Kaboom!

Ghostown

Decent movie. More amusingly the entire movie was shot on 4 blocks on the Upper East Side. Central Park, The Met and 5th Ave.

SoCapitalism

Its the All-American style of capitalism. Its the 21st going on 25th century style of capitalism. Bonuses are taken by the CEO while loses are eaten by the taxpayer. You and me, me and you, we subsidize the big bonus.

Oops

Actually Oops, Oops, Ooopss and Shit!!
A.k.a Freddie, Fannie, Lehman and AIG.

Fable of the Bees

Mandeville in his satirical poem 'Fable of the Bees' sums up the attitude of Keynes towards employment, growth and economic policy. The poem came out in the late 17th/early 18th century when any suggestion of violating the Christian virtues of temperance and frugality was frowned upon. Thus, he was not the most popular guy around and did not get any invites to the King's parties. However, he was right. People hate the truth, especially if it is something unsavory about them.

A tiny extract:

The Root of evil, Avarice,
That damn'd ill-natur'd baneful Vice,
Was Slave to Prodigality,
That Noble Sin; whilst Luxury
Employ'd a Million of the Poor,
And odious Pride a Million more."
Envy it self, and Vanity
Were Ministers of Industry

Translating, the pride and ego of those with money motivates them to construct pyramids, churches, yachts and university research labs, hence providing jobs for a good many people. Private vice to the public benefit. If they were to keep those pieces of paper in a safe deposit box, people would starve, and they would end up with a good many pieces of paper, which aren't known to be edible.

Search for Bernard Mandeville / Fable of the Bees on the internet. Very enlightening.

Obama against outsourcing?

It must be campaign rhetoric. If he really means it, chances are he is going to get booed out of his Hyde Park neighbourhood.

Less outsourcing would mean that American firms would face increased costs and decreased competitiveness, at a time when the economy isn't exactly going great guns. It would certainly lead to a backlash in India, with the result that US firms are going to miss out on the Indian growth story. Also, for every dollar that the US gives to an Indian software engineer salary it probably gets a good fraction of it back in the money that he/she eventually spends on Levis jeans and Coke and Dominos Pizza and iPhones. Why anyone would want to mess with that is beyond me, but you gotta do what you gotta do to get voted in.

Buffet on sovereign wealth funds

There’s been much talk recently of sovereign wealth funds and how they are buying large pieces of American businesses. This is our doing, not some nefarious plot by foreign governments. Our trade equation guarantees massive foreign investment in the U.S. When we force-feed $2 billion daily to the rest of the world, they must invest in something here. Why should we complain when they choose stocks over bonds?

Rubaiyat

Life is short.

The worldly hope men set their hearts upon,
Turns ashes - or it prospers; and anon
Like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two - is gone.

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,
Before we too into dust descend;
Dust into dust, and under dust to lie,
Sane wine, sans song, sans singer, and - sans end.

Tis all a chequerboard of nights and days,
Where destiny with men for pieces plays,
Hither and thither moves, and mates and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays.

Life goes the way it goes.

The moving finger writes and having writ,
Moves on, nor all thy piety or wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all thy tears wash out a word of it.

Life is sweet.

Ah, fill the cup, whats boots it to repeat,
How time is slipping underneath our feet,
Unborn to-morrow, and dead yesterday,
Why fret about them if today be sweet.

Drink to it.

How long, how long, in definite pursuit,
Of this and that endeavor and dispute,
Better be merry with the fruitful grape,
Than sadder after none, or bitter, fruit.

The grape that can with logic absolute,
The two and seventy jarring sects confute,
The subtle alchemist that in a trice,
Life's leaden metal to gold transmute.

Live for today,

Some for the glories of this world, and some,
Sign for the prophet's paradise to come,
Ah, take the cash and let the promise go,
Nor heed the music of a distant drum.

Ah, my beloved fill the cup that clears,
Today of past regret and future fears,
Tomorrow! Why tomorrow I may be,
Myself with yesterday's seven thousand years.

And don't let religion get in the way.

Why, all the saints and sages who discussed,
Of the two worlds so learnedly, are thrust,
Like foolish prophets forth, their words to scorn,
Are scattered, and their mouths are stopt with dust.

Oh threats of hell and hopes of paradise,
One thing at least is certain - this life flies,
One thing is certain and the rest is lies,
The flower that once is blown forever dies.

What out of senseless nothing to provoke,
A conscious something to resent the yoke,
Of unpermitted pleasure, under pain,
Of everlasting penalties, if broke!

And when death comes,

Ah, with the grape my fading life provide,
And wash my body whence the life has died,
And in a winding sheet of vine leaf wrapt,
So bury me by some sweet garden side.

I sometimes think that never blows so red,
The rose as where some buried Caeser bled,
The every Hyacinth the garden wears,
Dropt in her lap from some once lovely head.

(Aside - Deflation is bad :) )

What! From his helpless creature be repaid,
Pure gold for what he lent us dross allayed,
Sue for a debt we never did contract,
And cannot answer - oh the sorry trade!

World Energy Production/Consumption

Very nicely presented data showing worldwide production and consumption of energy. Here it is.

Exodus

First, analyst and research jobs. And then senior managers.

In a commodity business, the only way to survive is to have the absolute lowest cost structure, as prices will keep spiraling lower till only the cheapest player survives.

E.g. Walmart vs. Sears, KMart, family grocery stores

A similar effect in banking as well, as more routine functions automatically seek out the lowest cost base, especially in the face of hideous market losses.

The only way you can price higher is by possessing specific skill/knowledge that is not easily replaceable or substitutable. Thats why MDs got shipped and not their jobs :).

Spoilsports

Excerpt from the Economist.

Spoilsports
In their eyes, we were not earning money for the bank. Worse, we had the power to say no and therefore prevent business from being done. Traders saw us as obstructive and a hindrance to their ability to earn higher bonuses. They did not take kindly to this. Sometimes the relationship between the risk department and the business lines ended in arguments. I often had calls from my own risk managers forewarning me that a senior trader was about to call me to complain about a declined transaction. Most of the time the business line would simply not take no for an answer, especially if the profits were big enough. We, of course, were suspicious, because bigger margins usually meant higher risk. Criticisms that we were being “non-commercial”, “unconstructive” and “obstinate” were not uncommon. It has to be said that the risk department did not always help its cause. Our risk managers, although they had strong analytical skills, were not necessarily good communicators and salesmen. Tactfully explaining why we said no was not our forte. Traders were often exasperated as much by how they were told as by what they were told.

Why managing risk is hard when traders are pushing for the next big deal and big bonus, regardless of the consequences.

Result : Traders take home big bonus, bank saddled with garbage with shareholders paying the ultimate price.

Vacation!

Out and about for a week and a bit,
A little bit of London, in Stockholm for a bit,
Paris, je t'aime,
And on Chamonix I make my final claim,
Up a hill, down a valley,
And don't worry if the index is going to rally.

ROTW

Read of The Week : Oil! - Upton Sinclair

The High Price of Free Accounts

I knew I was getting ripped off.

http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11750886

In summary:

You earn like 0.5% on your balance in your current account. The bank cooly lends out that money at 3.0% (more when interest rates are higher), and pockets the difference. Makes you want to start your own bank.

Don't you think..

..summer is fun? So stop reading this blog, go out there and do something. Unless, of course you are in the office, in which case you should continue to read this blog and procrastinate on work. Or you are at home, late at night, which means you should go to sleep, get up nice and early, go for a jog in the early morning sun, shower and read the newspaper to piping hot coffee. Or, you might be in the Southern Hemisphere, in which case it really doesn't matter because you have nothing else to do. Actually, you could go skiing.

Does anyone have a job?

Picked it up from Dealbook.

Sam Manekshaw

He was the chief guest at our school day once when I was a kutti boy. He was quite a spritely old man in his 80s. The mustache was imposing and worthy of a Field Marshall. I don't remember what he spoke about but I was in awe of him, and proceeded to read up on the Indo-Pak wars in excruciating detail. I was kicked to find numerous mentions of him, and the occasional photograph. This combined with Biggles filled my head with dreams of flying MIGs and performing Immelman turns.

Failure

J.K Rowling at the Harvard Commencement Address :

What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.
At your age, in spite of a distinct lack of motivation at university, where I had spent far too long in the coffee bar writing stories, and far too little time at lectures, I had a knack for passing examinations, and that, for years, had been the measure of success in my life and that of my peers.
I am not dull enough to suppose that because you are young, gifted and well-educated, you have never known hardship or heartbreak. Talent and intelligence never yet inoculated anyone against the caprice of the Fates, and I do not for a moment suppose that everyone here has enjoyed an existence of unruffled privilege and contentment.
However, the fact that you are graduating from Harvard suggests that you are not very well-acquainted with failure. You might be driven by a fear of failure quite as much as a desire for success. Indeed, your conception of failure might not be too far from the average person's idea of success, so high have you already flown academically.
Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it. So I think it fair to say that by any conventional measure, a mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears my parents had had for me, and that I had had for myself, had both come to pass, and by every usual standard, I was the biggest failure I knew.
Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.
So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.
You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all – in which case, you fail by default.
Failure gave me an inner security that I had never attained by passing examinations. Failure taught me things about myself that I could have learned no other way. I discovered that I had a strong will, and more discipline than I had suspected; I also found out that I had friends whose value was truly above rubies.
The knowledge that you have emerged wiser and stronger from setbacks means that you are, ever after, secure in your ability to survive. You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity. Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned.
Given a time machine or a Time Turner, I would tell my 21-year-old self that personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

You...

You are depressive when on a beautiful Thursday evening, on the way to a nice restaurant for dinner, you say - "Shit! I cannot believe it is Thursday! The week is only 4/5th over!".

You have no choice but to become an underachiever when your father is a lawyer who went to school with "Bill", mother a playwright and brother a trader, all from Yale, and all you could do was Vanderbilt.

Score!

REM concert on Friday evening. Liked a couple of songs but most of it was lost on me. That dude is seriously depressive. Who wants to pay up cash to get depressed?

Ethopian food at Demera on Saturday evening. Love it! It is suspiciously like South Indian food. The Ingera tastes like Dosa, the Sambussa is the Samosa and the Dor Wat tastes like Chettinad Chicken. And they eat with hands! Ethopians have a strange look - not African, not Aryan, a little North African, trim and athletic, complete with Cleopatra-esque noses and frizzy hair. I must say that this combination of genetic factors made the waitresses pretty pretty. To think about it , I can swear I know some Malayalee types who share 70% of the look. Strange. The effects of ancient trade routes persist many a thousand years.

Went to the Printers Row Book Fair on Sunday evening. Picked up these 7 books:

Keep The Aspidistra Flying - George Orwell
The Rubaiyat - Omar Khayyam
The Beautiful and Damned - Scott Fitzgerald
Norton's Book of Personal Essays
Feynman's Rainbow - Leonard Mlodinow
Macroeconomics - Richard Froyen
The Intelligent Investor - Benjamin Graham

Guess how I paid for them? 28$!! I actually bought the Macroeconomics book for 1$ (obviously sold by someone who was totally lost on it's real economic value or just didn't care).

Then went across the street to the Chicago Blues Festival. Music was great but rain + mud + lots and lots of people = not fun.

Love this song!

Love the lyrics and melody. A little touchy-feely but touchy feely in a good way ;) . (This reminds me of a trader at work who lost money, and when asked replied , "Yeah I lost money, but I lost money in a good way.")

Enron Redux

200,000 emails sent by Enron employees from 1999-2003. Quite interesting to browse. Never know what you might find ;).

Enron Explorer.

Le Smoking

..has gone up in smoke.

Ai ai ai yoo..

Been plagued with recurrent knee pain :(. I think its the new running shoe I have been running with for the last 4 weeks, as the knee has steadily deteriorated over the period. My old shoes were brilliantly left at my friend's place in London. My advice to you is to avoid like the plague these colorful new fangled shoes that claim to do all these crazy things. All the techno messes up your natural balance and cranks up your injury risk. The worst ones are those with a raised heel that leave you feeling tall, pumped and bouncy - they increase the pressure on the front of your foot which then levers into your knee. Given this, I don't understand why women wear high heels! It can so easily turn into a nightmare, where a heel slips, ankle twists or worse still a ligament tears. (The sacrifices people make and risks people take to look good ;) ). Moral of the story : stick to simple shoes for athletic activity. Wear the fancy shoes (heels for example) if you want to look good.

'tis the season to be married!

More precisely, it appears to be the weekend to be married. The city seems to be overflowing at the gills with couples getting hitched. Every hotel I walked past had at least 3 marriage receptions going on. Michigan Avenue and Grant Park had like 20,000 couples looking to frame their greatest moment most beootifully. Limos everywhere, from sedate black Lincoln town cars to out and out outrageous stretch Humvees with screaming inhabitants. Every other passerby on the street was either a bridesmaid in flowing primary colors or a black suited best-man. For a little bit I wondered if I was having a delusional hallucination of deep hidden issues that really have no other way to find the light of day, but my friends corroborated my observations. Either they are having similar hallucinations as well, or it is indeed true that everyone everywhere has decided to get married at the same time.

One for the road

Urbana-Champaign
The Blind Pig

Chicago
The Grill Room
Pepper Canister

London
The Volunteer
The Long Acre

The Oil Drum

The Oil Drum.

Guess who?

Was walking past a theater back entrance on State and Lake on my way home from work and a cop stopped me on the sidewalk to let someone pass. Guess who ? Dolly Parton!

Joke of the day

What is the easiest way to launder money?

Throw a banker into a washing machine.

123$ Oil

Fun times. (Photo courtesy NYTimes)

Funny

I find it amusing that both "The Dark Knight", the new dark and angst ridden Batman movie, and "Wanted", the new Angelina Jolie movie about a band of assassins, are both centered in Chicago. Whatever happened to fun happy jazzy "Blues Brothers" Chicago?

Bloody Inflation

My Starbucks Grande Latte used to cost $3.30. It now costs $3.70. Bloody agro-inflation and weak dollar.

I will stop sounding like a spoilt whiny child and point you to this excellent article. Major oil exporting countries (Saudi Arabia and other Opec members) have always subsidized internal supply while making up for it by yanking up export prices (by not producing enough essentially). This is now happening in food as well, thanks to the sky high prices and rioting. India has imposed steep duties on exported rice. Argentina has hiked tarrifs on exported beef. I think this is a good thing especially if consumers in the major importing countries (United Kingdom for e.g.) can afford to pay the additional cost of food at little cost to their lifestyles, while for consumers in the exporting countries the cost of a bag of rice decides whether they are to have a square meal or go hungry. Some of the poor sub-Saharan African countries which import food worry me though. But all in all, Mr. James spends 40 cents more on a Latte, so that Ganesh back in Central Madhya Pradesh can afford to feed his family. The world should not always be flat.

Suggestions

I am soliciting suggestions for the following things.

- Good books to read over the summer.

- Good 3-4 day vacation ideas which are relatively easy to plan, fun but different. Trekking maybe? Or a roadtrip?

- Good things to do over the summer that would aid my overall development and growth into a wonderful human being.

In turn I am going to suggest to you what you should not do:

- Do not try to read Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. It is a bollywood style gangsta movie written as a book - gangsters, smugglers, pimps, prostitutes, murder, money, more money put into the usual set of semi-predictable plot scenes. It starts off promisingly but 100 pages in starts meandering, sounding cliched and contrived. It has another 900 pages after that, which I haven't been able to get myself to trudge through. If he had cut it down to about 500 pages and done away with the 25 side stories, I would probably want to finish it.

- A healthy sense of paranoia and circumspectness would go a long way in pushing up the mean and reducing variance on your life's happiness function. In non nerdy english, you would be happier if you did choose to follow my advice. This does not mean going crazy, but has more to do with keeping a langorous, relaxed but watchful and wary eye. Thus you should not be non-circumspect.

- In addition to not being non-circumspect, you should also not not maintain information assymetry. As a trader, information assymetry is all you want (in your favour obviously), but even otherwise it has its benefits. Information should be released on a purely need to know basis. Believe me or not but it leads to solutions that are more optimal for everyone. In Economics, the fancy word given for changes that make no one any worse off is "Pareto improvement" (you learnt something new today, but then you probably knew it).

Windy City

Re-structuring ( ;) , synonyms being cost-cutting, rationalization, re-alignment of business objectives, streamlining). New group. Back to the US!

Do you know why babies are adorable?

I think its because of how they look at you. Blankly, unblinkingly, without fear, anger or malice, completely trusting and vulnerable. I realized it when I was riding down an elevator with a baby in a pram next to me. I was quite uncomfortable, as I was almost automatically trying to figure out what the real deal was ! But, once I get over that initial phase of distrust, it was quite nice and caused much satisfaction and feel goodness. The problems start when they grow older and start talking back to you, or at least thats what my mother says!

Developments

- Summer is here.
- Winter is gone. Gone gone gone. Till November.
- 5 months in London have gone by most rapidly and have been most enjoyable.
- Where am I going to be in a month? London? Chicago? Elsewhere? I do not know. I cannot say. I am not trying to answer the broader meta-physical question by the way.
- Most importantly, I need to start making summer plans. Any ideas?
- Quite interestingly, today I spoke to one of the sharpest guys I have spoken to in a long time. British guy, from Oxford I think, Math, one of those people that make you question if you have really been doing anything useful with your life.

Update on life

I am sooo bored right now. One more hour to get out of the office and to freedom. I think worse than having too much to do, is having too little to do or having something to do and not feeling like doing it!

A general update on life for the sake of posterity:

- Last 5 months or so in London have been quite nice. Work was not torturous, hours were kind, made new friends and drank some wine. Traveled around Europe, went to Stuttgart, took a train down to Paris and looked at some art.

- Last trip was to Interlaken for the Easter weekend. Graduated from the baby slopes to some long blues and reds. No Blacks anytime now though! Maybe in a year or two! The apartment was awesome. Great views of the triumphant trio - Eiger, Munch and Jungfrau, which mean Ogre, Monk and Virgin. Company was good fun too. We got stuck in a snowstorm on Friday evening (trip was from Thursday March 20th to Monday March 24th), and the car refused to move up a hill. I insisted on trying, even though we might be dying, making frequent references to the video game Need For Speed 3, and driving everyone else up a tree. I thus earned for myself the moniker "NFS".

- Going to Chicago next week for an extended weekend. Haven't been there in almost 6 months now. Meet up with the Chicago and UIUC crowd.

- I will be knowing about my permanent placement quite soon. I need to do 3 6 month rotations before they put me in a permanent role. I am about to finish with my 3rd in a few weeks, so the day of reckoning has arrived. It is somewhat likely I will stay in London but things tend to change quite frequently around here, and its very dangerous to jump to conclusions in my particular line of work! :)

- More generally things have been quite volatile on the market front. Most banks are cleaning headcount and that does tend to make things tighter for everyone. A lot of people are out there looking for a job, which means, if you lose yours, its quite unlikely you will find a good position. Unlike in my previous group, this time around I have been quite insulated from the big market moves. When the whole credit saga started in July/August, I literally had to at times work 24/7, through the weekend and everything! Thank god for small mercies.

- I have taken up running with some enthusiasm over the last few months. I run about 12 miles on the weekend, and 6 miles during the week. I have found it quite addictive, if I might use that word. It is some kind of natural feel good drug, you feel completely refreshed, clear and peaceful after a good run!

- As for reading, I completely recommend that you read "The English Teacher" by R.K.Narayan. It is one of the most unpretentious, genuine and touching books I have read in a long time. One doesn't have to show off with fancy word play or complex story constructs to captivate the reader!

Ok. Thats it for now. I shall promise to blog more often.

PS: Which brings up the question - will I?

I have made this promise many a time,

But have failed almost to a crime

It is not that I cannot,

But I just will not.

Stupid rhyme you have read through,

Don't you have anything else to do?

Go read "The Golden Gate"

By our good friend Vikram Seth.

Long overdue :)

Madame BBB (pronouned Bey Bey Bey, as the French might) has tagged me. I believe in doing everything in the fullness of time, and thus have taken my time to respond.

So here are the rules:

First, the rules:Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given (family, friend, yourself, your love, anything you like).Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.

Family: No idea why I don't really write about my family! But I did once or twice. Here it is.

Friends: This isn't exactly about a friend, but more about high school and things past.

Me: This isn't going to be that hard. Most of the blog is about me and my rantings and whinings. For example.

Love: Some of my famed analytical skill has extended to this subject as well.

Anything I Like: This is pretty much my blog, and I write as I please about myself and my life. You really need to visit the Artic! Aren't you totally taken by this? Remember OTG?

PS: I think this tag come out over 2 months ago. I doub't if anyone even remembers.

Who do I tag? Everyone who comments on this post. Ha ha just kidding. That would drive away even my 2 commenters. No one I say. No one.

Funding Priorities

US'09 Budget

Keeps the U.S. the most innovative nation in the world by implementing the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI).
$12.2 billion total for the National Science Foundation, DoE's Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an overall funding increase of $1.6 billion, or 15 percent, above the 2008 enacted total of $10.6 billion.
The President's FY 2009 Budget returns ACI research to a doubling path to ensure this consensus national priority objective is realized.
Increases energy security by focusing on renewables, accelerating technological breakthroughs, and expanding traditional sources to reduce our reliance on foreign oil.
$400 million as the first installment of a three-year, $2 billion U.S. commitment to an international clean energy technology fund that will increase and accelerate the deployment of clean technologies in developing nations to help confront climate change.
Doubles the capacity of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to 1.5 billion barrels.
Nuclear power: $242 million for Nuclear Power 2010 to promote the licensing of new nuclear plants through an industry cost-shared effort with streamlined regulatory processes. $302 million for Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative research and development.
Coal: $648 million for research, development, and demonstration of advanced coal technologies. This represents a $197 million increase from the President's FY2008 request and is the largest amount requested for DOE's coal program in more than 25 years. With private sector match, this budget represents an approximate $1 billion investment in advanced technologies that can produce power from coal with significantly lower carbon emissions.
Keeps America Safe
Supports the national defense and funding for America's troops.
$515 billion for the Department of Defense base budget – a nearly 74 percent increase since the President took office – to support military readiness and continue the transformation of our military to meet twenty-first century threats.
$70 billion for an emergency allowance to support activities related to the Global War on Terror that help achieve the strategic goal of creating free, democratic, and self-governed ally nations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defence Spending / Scientific Research Funding = 585/12.2 = 48. In other words, the defense department blows through a years worth of scientific funding in a week. Worth thinking about...

Chennai, London and other things

A week back, I did write this witty, sarcastic and amazingly funny blog post that just vapourized when I tried to post it because I had got disconnected in the meantime. Yes people, I was in India, like I currently am. Though some things like terrible internet connections never really seem to change, a lot else has.

• Privatized airlines. Jet Airways from London to Mumbai was great to say the least. On time. Good Indian food. Desi in-flight entertainment . A lot better than the American carriers (Delta, United, AA) that actually expect you to pay cash for your food on a 14 hour flight. Heard a lot about Kingfisher as well, from friends. Looks like Mr Mallya personally selected all the air hostesses.
• Cell phones. Everyone has a cell phone, some have two, and ads are everywhere. Whoever would have imagined?
• Construction. Everywhere. Flyovers, commercial complexes, residential flats … Lots of lending. Banks are competing hard to sell home loans. Many people are going to be very broke if demand slows.
• Prices. I think the official government inflation number of 6% is inaccurate to put it very mildly. If I were to not put it mildly, I will call it a blatant lie propagated by the political parties to keep the populace quiet. I would put the number close to 35% a year for someone living in a metropolitan city. A roadside meal that used to cost about 30Rs now costs 100Rs. An average restaurant dinner ends up running to around 400Rs PP. Auto fares have double over the last 2-3 years. Let us not even speak about real estate prices. It isn’t surprising that the IT companies have had to ramp up salaries by 20% a year to keep turnover in check. What used to be a 1.5 lakh a year job in 2003 now pays about 4.0 lakh. I shudder to think how the median Indian (rhymes doesn’t it) is coping.
• The traffic. I don’t know if it is just me, but the whole city appears to crawl during the morning and evening rush hours. A good alternative to driving down from Kalakshetra to Nungambakkam is to shut yourself in your garage with your car, turn on the engine, honk repeatedly to yourself, and wait for the end.

I have another week to go before I am back to my good old SSDD lifestyle. (Same Shit Different Day)

I shall now backtrack, and fill you in on the numerous splendors that have bedecked my life since I landed in the land of our colonial masters on the 19th of November, in the 2007th year of the lord, but before I descended upon the land of the sacred cow.

I think the biggest problem with London is the Colonial Hangover Premium (CHP) that debilitates it. Now, not many of you read random finance papers that proselytize on risk premia and investor utility, so I need to explain.

See growing up, in whichever city you might have, you had a Hyde Park or Connaught Place or Victoria Terminus or (insert name of dead British guy) Road. Or, if you are that type, you had visited a bar/pub that pilfered alcohol in the name of some person/place/thing from that exalted pile of mud (it keeps raining) in the Atlantic. When you finally grow up, you finally want to go and see what the fuss is all about, and pay the price. Ouch!

• 5 pounds for a tube ride in a system that is perennially delayed, overcrowded and closes at 12:30 am. Now that is better than spending 30 pounds on a cab ride.
• Tourists everywhere. I made the mistake of going near Harrods around Christmas. It took me 25 minutes to walk the 100 yards from the west exit to the tube stop.
• 400 pounds a week in rent for a studio convertible.
• 10 pounds for dinner on the wayside (60 pounds to make a meal of show and pretension)
• 40% taxes. What?! Where is my wage?! Government! Give me back my money!

Setting all the cribbin aside, London is a fun city. Firstly, unlike Chicago, it is a focal point for DLA’s (Desis Living Abroad), which means that there is a large contingent from university infesting the city. The museums look delectable, though I still haven’t done full justice to them. However, in all modesty, I am forced to admit that nothing can beat having, on a cool summer eve, for your perusal, a couple of wings of Picasso at the Art Institute. Desi food is plentiful and cheap, which keeps me happy and sated. However, the most important point that should guide any decision making process is that none of the bartenders have heard of (or would like to hear of) Miller, Budweiser or Coors.

Now, astute readers would note that this sporadic periodical was started on a blustery January evening, in the dank depths of a computer lab in Lyon, way back in 2004. It is now 2008, and I am back to Europa, though I always thought I had got dumped for good the first time around.