Now that the government has approved FDI in multi-brand retail, it has paved the way for the likes of Walmart and Amazon to set up shop in India. Predictably, there have been protests from shopkeepers and Bharat Bandhs from political parties. Street vendors are saying the government is ignoring the working class, while others are…
Henry Paulson’s insider account of the financial crisis “On the Brink” is a fascinating story. Paulson, of course, presided over the demise of Lehman Brothers and Wachovia and others as Treasury Secy. This book is supposed to be a day-to-day account of the crisis unfolded and how Paulson and others (Ben Bernanke, Tim Geithner)…
The FDIC publishes a list of failed banks in its website. These are banks that have failed since Oct. 2000 and for which the FDIC has been appointed as a receiver. Some of these banks have since been acquired by other banks. It is interesting (and ironic) to see how often the words “Security” and…
One wouldn’t expect this ill-written an article from the New York Times. In how many ways can you catalog the errors here? You can start by wondering whether someone who cannot even spell “Gandhi” correctly is qualified to write about India. But we are inured to mis-spellings of Gandhi, so I shall pass that by.…
The two headlines in today’s Wall Street Journal said it all. They brought out the history of women in the workforce in two short sentences. The first headline read “Recession Drives More Women to Work“. Below it, the second headline read “Returning Workers Face Big Pay Cuts“. And so the cycle continues. Women flood into…
I don’t understand why so many people who should know better are demanding that AIG stop paying out $165 million in bonuses. In particular, I am rather disapointed that President Obama chose to speak out more like a grand-standing politician than view the issue with the perspective of the lawyer that he is (or was).…
If someone had spent hours writing it as a comedy script, they couldn’t have done better. Not that it is funny exactly, it seems more like tragedy today, but I am sure it will all seem very funny someday. Isn’t that how true comedy works? The jokes that seem funny right away are just slapstick,…
Okay, so the Senate has just passed the bailout bill Economic Rescue Plan 74-25.? The bill is a 451 page document, and contains pages and pages of stuff that are designed to put the most chronic insomniac to sleep in seconds. Nevertheless, I actually tried reading through the bill today.? (It’s available here, if you…
The gnawing sensation I feel in the pit of my stomach is not hunger, I know. It’s dread – of the immediate future, of what’s going to happen next, and the frightening realization that those who are best placed to avoid this crisis are doing nothing to help, but may in fact be worsening it.…
After reading the comments on my previous post, I realized that many readers don’t seem to fully understand the broader implications of the crisis on Wall Street, and how it can affect Main Street, or the average person. We cannot afford to gloat on the collapse of the i-banks, because their loss is our loss…
Park Place Station, New York City. It was late in the evening and I was returning from work. As I rushed through the desolate station to catch my 3 train, I noticed a young man sitting near the steps. His briefcase lay a foot away from him, his tie hung loosely and his face was…
Do people spend more on movies when there is a recession? If they do, why is it so? The New York Times had this interesting observation about the box office collections last week: Overall the Top 10 films took in $134.4 million, according to Screenline. That is about 10 percent higher than the $122 million…
I want the right to buy counterfeit goods. I will launch into a detailed argument shortly, but first, I will tell you why this post came about. The NYT?s blog had an article about a recent ad campaign on NYC pay phones, which tells you why buying counterfeit goods is bad. Apparently, it?s because you…
Black Friday is just a memory now. What is left is the smoke from all the shopping frenzy. (You can read about it here and here). Like every year, we have had mile-long lines, huge crowds and super-sized elbows. Especially the elbows. For instance, here is how one buys a digital picture frame on Black…
The Imagined Universe 