Buffett and Gates

Was listening to the audio book - the Snowball - autobiography of Warren Buffet and the thought that came out listening of a talk between Buffet and Gates is that the thing in life which makes the most difference is "Focus" - indeed i have suffered from the lack of it ------- lived life like the meandering waters of a a river - is there some fu!kin method in this madness ?

Silly thoughts..

Jo sukh lena nanaka,
Buddhu ban ke jee !

The saying means that if you really have to live life in a bliss, dont appear too wise to the world !

Dubai's rout is GBP's gain

With Dubai announcing the First Sovereign Default of the current financial crisis, the world has been again gripped by fear psychology with further defaults being priced in probably from the eastern european countries - but in all this the gainer might be as remote as GBP. With Dubai loosing the sheen off its property and real estate , money would again flow to the centre of the world i.e. London. With property flows hitting London, and the development being backed by 2012 London Olympics, going Long GBP/USD makes a good trade

Dubai rattles financial markets

The decision of Dubai World, a government investment company overseeing investments in Dubai to delay payment of most of its debt of about $59 bn , has rattled the financial markets. Credit Default Swaps linked to Gulf investments rose as much as 131 points today, and USD slumped to a 14 year low against the Yen. This is the first sovereign default after Argentina in 2001. The markets have been spooked by this data, and investors are demanding a higher returns from EM economies.

Elsewhere, oil was slightly down, and Gold touched new highs. Dollar was mostly sold across the board and GBP was sold off heavily.

Market update 24.11.09

Oil was hammered on the back of GDP nos. from the US. The QoQ growth came at 2.8% but the previous no. was revised lower from the one reported earlier. US economy's slower expansion has caused concern whether the recovery is strong enough. The weakness in the labour market, high unemployment rates (10%) is keeping Fed reserve Chairman to keep interest rates low to near zero levels, and with lame inflation nos. - there is very little chance that we might see an upward move in interest rates in the near future. With zero interest rates, the carry trade is further fuelling dollar weakness and causing EM economies to rise - stocks are rallying less on fundamentals and more because of lack of alternatives for capital to flow

Parentage

I think the best gift parents can give to their children is to allow them to gamble and take chances and make sure that they feel protected if the bets go off....there is a sense of security in knowing that if sh!t hits the fan, one can still go home to ones parents and have nice food and good night's sleep.

Ambedkar

Undoubtedly the architects of our constitution are the only people who can claim success for the running of this country. Ambedkar, not only was he champion of the downtrodden, and contributed a great deal for their upliftment, but what he did even more noteworthy was create a constitution, a system - that runs - whatever come may on the ground. We have a country where utmost chaos prevail in every walk of life, and there is little feeling of nationality in the common man, and yet it runs ! it is a miracle, not of God but of constitution, which prevails upon every citizen, and the system is greater than the self. Any progress if it has come anywhere in the world has come through creation of systems. Walmart, reliance, are all products of successful systems, and dhirubhai is great for the system that he has created

Is saying truth a suckers game in our country

Doing business in India is funny business. People will say they will come in 10 minutes, and you can wait till infinity. They will say bus ho gaya , and it will never get done. I wonder whether sticking to the rules is a suckers game. Because, India only seems to be rewarding those who can are either large enough to break the rules, or small enough to creep through them. Had a small business with a friend, where neither he nor me is going to make any money out of the transaction ( so there are no interests involved) - but still people are so busy that they have no time for such transactions. Is it ignoring the other person, or it is selfishly being involved in one's own pursuits.

Plight of Indian students in Australia

SM Krishna visits Australia

August 10, 2009 by foreignstudies

With the recent spat of violence against Indian students, Indian Foreign Minister S M Krishna visited Australia and had discussions with his australian counterparts to check the growth of colleges with no facilities and poor educational infrastructure who are cheating indian students, in the name of foreign education. A case in point is Sterling College which has recently gone into receivership. New rules are coming up and we hope things get more streamlined and students dont get a raw deal.

Proactive in news

http://www.iimaalumni.org/n/front/home/pdffeb08/Alumni%20News.pdf

http://www.iimaalumni.org/n/front/home/pdffeb08/Reunions.pdf

Morning Commentary 30.07.09

Japan's factory output climbs, taking quarterly gains to fastest in 56 years. Such spurt in manufacturing production and economy expansion is the highest post war and can be a very positive sign that things are improving. elsewhere, the slump in commodity prices let to a reversal in asian stocks led by china. However, major stock exchanges have been buoyed by the more than expected earning figures, and showing signs of an upward move. We are probably entering a V shape recovery mode. Elsewhere dollar traded higher, with German unemployment nos. due today and expected to show a rise in unemployment.

Goldman results better than expected

Goldman Sachs Group Inc said quarterly earnings surged 33 percent on strong trading results, trouncing expectations and continuing an extraordinary rebound from the near meltdown of the U.S. banking industry last fall.
Just nine months after the U.S. Treasury bailed out the nation's largest banks with $125 billion of taxpayer money, Wall Street's biggest surviving securities firm easily topped analysts' estimates thanks to savvy trading in improving markets.
Goldman also blew the lid off compensation. The bank set aside $6.65 billion for salary, bonuses and benefits in the quarter, up by nearly half from the quarter ended in May last year. That puts the average Goldman employee on pace to earn more than $900,000 this year.
Goldman on Tuesday reported net income for common shareholders of $2.7 billion, or $4.93 a share. That compares with $2.05 billion, or $4.58, in the quarter ended May 30, 2008, before the bank switched to a calendar-year reporting schedule.
Analysts on average had forecast earnings of $3.49 a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
Goldman shares were up 1.3 percent in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange after rising 2 percent on Monday. The shares are up nearly 80 percent this year, compared with a 24 percent rise in the NYSE Arca Securities Broker/Dealer index.
Goldman, the first major U.S. bank to report second-quarter results, said trading income nearly doubled from a year ago, while its equity underwriting business produced record revenue of $736 million. Goldman's traders thrived in an environment of wider price swings and fewer rivals.
The competition is less on the wall street since the financial crisis wreaked havoc on Wall Street last year, collapsing Bear Stearns, sending Lehman Brothers into bankruptcy, and forcing Merrill Lynch into a shotgun wedding with Bank of America Corp.
Goldman's second-quarter investment banking revenue of $1.44 billion was down 15 percent from a year ago, but rose 75 percent from the first quarter.
Goldman has come under fire for its government connections and fat-cat profits, seemingly sailing through a deep recession shortly after accepting $10 billion of taxpayer bailout money and benefiting from a host of other government programs.
Second-quarter results were tempered by a one-time $426 million charge related to Goldman's repayment of the $10 billion government bailout. Viniar told reporters there was "no timeline" for the bank to buy back stock warrants issued to the government under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

Essential thing

Essential thing about life is health, health & health.
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Bright day today, lovely sleep feeling rockin inside. Ready to take on the world. Working on some new IT projects things r lookin promising
Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Another day.

It is fun to update blog via blackberry. It also makes sure that u have now even lesser time on ur hand than before. Its another slow day of nothingness and god knows where this road is going.

Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

11.03.2009

Markets world over saw a relief rally as banking stocks surged amidst news that Citi made operating profits in the first two months of 2009. USD was sold off across the board, as demand for safety lowered, and investors came back into the markets. In UK housing and economic activity plunged to 28 year lows, dragging the pound back to 1.3750. Euro was upbeat before ECB's Weber hinted further rate cut, which acted to soften Euro. Elsewhere, S&P saw one of its biggest rallies since November, and risk appetite seems to be returning into the market. Fed's Bernanke came out with positive comments which helped market rally - he said that the government would ensure that banks are sufficiently capitalized and moving forward banking system and financial institutions as a whole better.

The main driver in FX remains overall investor sentiment, with stock market movements as the primary barometer of risk appetites. When stocks are up and sentiment is positive, the USD, the JPY and gold are typically sold, and when shares start falling, the USD, JPY and gold are all bought. The rally in shares that started this past week was echoed in EUR/USD strength and JPY-cross strength, but sentiment quickly turned on the surfeit of bad news, whether it was weak earnings, dismal data, or dire prognostications

The rationale for the yen’s haven status lies in the carry trade.
For years the low-yielding yen was used as funding for investments in a wide range of higher-yielding assets across the globe. This sent it down to multi-year lows against a number of currencies. But as the financial crisis swept global asset markets, many of those investments were liquidated. The resulting deleveraging pushed the yen sharply higher across the board.

23.02.2009

Key data and events to watch this week would be from the US. Tuesday starts it off with consumer confidence and multiple home price reports. Wednesday has existing home sales and the weekly oil inventory numbers, which have seen contributing to oil volatility lately. Thursday has Durable goods orders, initial jobless claims and new home sales . Friday rounds out the week with GDP, the Chicago PMI and University of Michigan consumer sentiment. Fed Chairman Bernanke's semi-annual testimony before the Senate is on Tuesday and the House on Wednesday which might be watched by the markets. Europe also sizzles with numbers this week with French consumer confidence, French Housing starts and German IFO surveys. Pretty light in the UK, which probably is a good thing, considering what the Pound has had to face in the last few weeks with a string of bad numbers. Japan has Bank of Japan minutes on Monday and trade balance report on Tuesday. With the Yen making new highs, it looks like more a case of unwinding of carry trade as the world interest rates converge instead of Yen as a safe haven as being reported by many. How can Yen be a safe haven when Japan has huge debts on its balance sheet and is rated as AA by two of the three rating agencies that count. With US set to pass the stimulus, we might see return of some risk appetite in the near weeks. With the global stocks meltdown, Gold has taken the status of second reserve currency. Coupled with the fact that the demand for physical gold is also very high, we might see further strengthening of Gold.

20.02.2009

Euro was bid and closed at 1.2814 coming down from the highs of 1.2875, with ECB officials remark saying zero rates were neither desirable nor required and sterling was also well bid with closing more than 1% at 1.4412. With BoE rates at a historic low of 1% (lowest since Bank of England was constituted in the 17th century to look at international trade) - carry trade is clearly not in favour of sterling. Dow plunged to its more than 12 year low - after trading 7249.47 intraday, the index closed down 1.3% to 7366. With investor sentiment at its all time low, gold demand as a safe heaven is peaking with gold rallying back to $1000 per ounce and treasuries continue to rally even after concerns about a bond bubble. The concern is that those nearing retirement would run for cover in gold only to be whipsawed once again, when the tide inevitably turns.

Barrack Hussein Obama- b vs s

Barrack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, heralding a new chapter in the history of the world. Obama is the first black president of US, which until 50 years ago was struggling with race issues. Obama is an example of what can be achieved if one sets ones has the aim and the grit. Funny how close are the name Obama and Osama, and yet Obama was able to win the support of that very nation, which swears to be enemy no. 1 to the latter.

Corbett National Park-30th Dec 08 to 1st Jan 09

We started around 3 from Noida to Corbett, but it was one big big wrong decision. By the time we hit garhmukteshwar, and had our evening meal at Bhajan restaurant, which is supposed to be the good one on this highway, it was already dark. However, the spirits were high, and we were looking forward for the 31st evening at Corbett. This is by far , the worst highway I have ever traveled. The only consistent thing about this highway is the complete takeover of Mayawati and how people are falling over themselves congratulating her as their leader. The high way is marked by small towns and villages very characteristic of U.P. with their muslim names, and mosques dotting the country side. By the time we reached Moradabad, it was very dark, and extreme, dense fog. The ride became very slow, almost painful, and visibility got reduced to barely 2 to 3 meters. Thank fully we started following a vehicle, which seemed to be a local and well acquainted with the highway. By the time we reached it was 11:30 PM in the night. We found our hotel , Wild Crest without much difficulty. It is about 8 kms before dikhala gate and a nice place. The room rent of 5000 was inclusive of food. But the quality of rooms were not commensurate with the price. However, we had a good night’s sleep after dinner ,as early next morning we were planned for the safari. The safari was from the Jhirna gate , and our driver took us on his gypsy early in the morning to the Corbett National park. Now the way the park is organized, there is a core area of about 400 sq km and then there is a buffer area of about 700 sq km. 30 vehicles are allowed from the jhirna gate in the morning from 6 to 10 AM, and from the incept the way it was organized with so many vehicles, the chance of seeing a tiger looked remote. All the driver did to impress us was stopped the vehicle and carefully watched the animal foot on the soil and tried to predict where the animal could be which was loads of bullsh!t So, there was no tiger to be seen and we were back in our hotel at 10. After breakfast, and an hour of rest, we decided to go to dikala gate, and saw the museum there. I think the way we Indians maintain our museum is pathetic. Not even dust was cleared from the animal exhibits. Came back, went to Ram nagar which is a small town next to Corbett. Returned to our hotel and had a good sleep before the evening party. Happy New Year 2009 !