tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45378224197396691202024-03-13T17:16:03.319-04:00The AntifitsEverything need not fit.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-4002429882114486562009-10-07T02:49:00.005-04:002009-10-07T03:10:50.379-04:00To Go Back“I am going back,” she said.<br /><br />“Wait, have dinner,” I blurted.<br /><br />“No, I am going home for good. To India, silly,” she said.<br /><br />I could not believe it. My sister wanted to go back to India. She wanted to leave New York.<br /><br />My sister, Neera Dugar, 24, is a Carnegie Mellon graduate. For the past two years, she worked at Goldman Sachs, and as the financial markets collapsed in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008, was one of the few that chose to leave, rather than asked to leave.<br /><br /><br />It was a crisp April evening. Winter was finally on the retreat. Like the weather, the economy was on a rebound too. President Barack Obama had committed $787 billion to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. New York, bruised and battered from its exalted position as the epicenter of American finance, was finally finding its feet. Though unemployment numbers would get worse, the worst was over.<br /><br />“It isn’t just the economy,” she maintained. “It’s not like I have lost my job.”<br /><br />“And I am not alone in this,” she said.<br /><br /><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span>I stared blankly at her for a while. Then it struck me. She was right. She wasn’t alone in this. Why would anyone ever want to trudge back? Wasn’t the miracle, the American dream, in America?<br /><br />This after the United States had served some of it’s finest to her, whether it was her education or the corporation she worked for or the city she lived in. She had the better part of the American dream. And that wasn’t enough.<br /><br />Or was it just that a bigger dream was unfolding back home in India?<br /><br /><br />In the coming months, I seek to understand history as history itself changes course. Anand Giridharadas wrote in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span>, “it is a milestone in any nation’s life when leaving becomes a choice, not a necessity.”<br /><br />But is the moment enough? “Not living in New York after having lived there is living with a vague feeling that you are missing out on a great party somewhere,” Craig Ferguson, host of the “Late Late Show” on CBS wrote in his memoir “American on Purpose.”<br /><br />The stories will be personal, of people having to choose. Migration often gets enveloped in statistics, but it is the human story that needs to be told<br /><br />And New York City is the theatre of this ebb and flow. The city is home to about 600, 000 Indians, the largest such community of any metropolitan area in the United States.<br /><br />While at it, I might just understand how my sister manages to get by back home without the sample Tory Burch sale.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">(Please send your feedback and possible ledes that might develop the story. A similar story on diaspora did for Holding Willey is <a href="http://www.holdingwilley.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=779">here</a>)</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-83656198501463388562009-09-23T12:49:00.004-04:002009-09-23T13:27:24.107-04:00The Diaspora protests the PresidentAt New York City’s Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, <a href="http://voices4iran.org/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Where is My Vote</span></a>- New York kick started its planned protests surrounding the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the 63rd United Nations General Assembly with <span style="font-style: italic;">Iran Alive</span>, an art installation featuring a short film projected on a 300-person human screen.<br /><br />Apart from Iranians from across North America, the evening saw notables like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxana_Saberi">Roxana Saberi</a>, an Iranian- American journalist detained by the administration on 8th April on accounts of espionage but subsequently released, and Mehtab Saharkhiz, son of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isa_Saharkhiz">Isa Saharkhiz</a>, a renowned journalist and human rights activist arrested in Tehran on 4th July.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(Photo Courtesy: Trevre Andrews. Reach him at </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" class="gI" ><span class="go">trevre@gmail.com</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">)</span><br /></span><br /><div style="background:#000;max-width:511px;margin:0 auto;text-align:center;line-height:0"><div style="width:100%;height:341px;padding:0;margin:0"><iframe style="width:100%;height:100%" src="http://picasaweb.google.com/shreshthdugar/IranAlive#slideshow" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></div><a href="http://blogger-templates.blogspot.com/2007/04/picasa-slideshow.html"><img style="border:none;padding:0;margin:0;float:left" src="http://btemplates.googlepages.com/add.gif" title="Add to my blog" alt="Picasa Slideshow" /></a><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com"><img style="border:none;padding:0;margin:0;float:right" src="http://btemplates.googlepages.com/picasa.png" title="Go to Picasa Web Albums" alt="Picasa Web Albums" /></a><a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/shreshthdugar/IranAlive#slideshow" onclick="window.open(this.href,'Slideshow','type=fullWindow,fullscreen,toolbar=no,menubar=no,location=no,resizable=yes,scrollbars=no,status=no');return false"><img style="border:none;padding:0;margin:0" src="http://btemplates.googlepages.com/fullscreen.gif" title="See in fullscreen [Press F11]" alt="Fullscreen" /></a></div><br /><br />President Ahmadinejad is scheduled to address the General Assembly tomorrow afternoon, a first to the international community after his controversial inaugration on 5th August 2009. An address in which, as Mohammad Bazzi, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, reckons in the <a href="http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/worldview/090922/irans-leader-plays-the-pan-muslim-populist"><span style="font-style: italic;">Global Post</span></a>, “his message will be crafted to improve his standing in the Muslim world and bolster his reputation as a Third World hero.”<br /><br /><br />Ali Bahari, an Iranian engineer at Perkins Eastman since 2004 cautioned that with the President so strongly in focus, one must not “loose sight that it is the system that needs to be held accountable. “<br /><br />The President might be the face of this mess, but the Guardian Council, Sepāh and the Ayatollah cannot be ignored,” he said.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Where is My Vote</span> is a grassroots initiative under the <span style="font-style: italic;">Voices For Iran</span>, a broader coalition of Iranian human rights and solidarity organizations. Unlike protests against President Ahmadinejad’s visit in past years which have been fixated on the Iranian nuclear technology program, <span style="font-style: italic;">Voices for Iran</span> prioritizes the well-being and rights of Iranian citizens, much compromised after the June 12, 2009 Iranian elections as the administration sought to control the thousands of Iranians that took to the streets protesting alleged electoral fraud.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Voices for Iran</span> asserts itself as a “new generation of human rights advocates inspired by the brave men and women in the streets of Esfahan, Tehran, Tabriz and Shiraz. “ Polya, a dentist practicing in Lower Manhattan since 2001, calls such an aggregation of intent as “moving beyond the dichotomy of diasporic existence.”<br /><br />“Yes, at night we sit behind our computer screens and we cry with them. Yet we are thousands of miles away and have to switch back to our regular lives here where nothing has changed much, if at all,” he said.<br /><br />“It is an incredible moment to be in Iran. Even if not being in the forefront, but just to be witness to it would have been an honor. Most of the people here wish they were there,” he added.<br /><br />“But it is still amazing the feedback we have gotten from Iranian people. I can hardly overstate how important it is that when they look outside, they feel we are with them in this,” he quipped.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-4271700783930441822009-02-02T16:21:00.006-05:002009-02-02T16:41:32.078-05:00Gordon Brown: The new master of the universeIf anything, the last few days have nailed the point home that Barack Obama is not going to be the one leading us out of the financial crisis.<br /><br />You might call David Brookes a conservative (Read his column <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&hp">here</a>) , but even a liberal like Paul Krugman yesterday in his column <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html">rubbished</a> the Obama administration's response to the financial crisis as one stuck in a "time warp." And why isn't Larry Summers or Tim Geithner or Obama himself in Davos right now.<br /><br />Mr. President, you have to realize that this is an international banking crisis we are dealing with, and not an election that has to be won.<br /><br />So, where is the leadership that is going to take us out of this? It has to be Prime Minister Gordon Brown. More on him soon, but watch this (From 49:53 to 52:21) as he recounts the then-British Treasury secretary in the 1930's responding to John Maynard Keynes proposal to overturn the economy, and makes a valid case for counter-cyclical spending.<br /><br /><object height="295" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/33v7Z0d60D8&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/33v7Z0d60D8&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="295" width="480"></embed></object><br />Is it just me, or Zakaria's face just drip with awe.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-67743633909518574862008-12-07T10:55:00.010-05:002008-12-07T11:19:00.722-05:00Beating Terror in Modern India"Come home ASAP." Ken never kept it that concise.<br /><br />Little did I know I would come home and switch on the TV to a city with blood on its asphalt, holed up and taken hostage. For sixty odd hours in the shock and awe of the unchaste, Bombay would writhe and squat, billowing in smoke as black as the godless sky, and I would watch.<br /><br />Tom Friedman, columnist for the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span>, when asked about India said, "Take a champagne bottle, shake it for an hour and then take the cork off. You don't want to get in the way of that cork. It is an explosion of fifty years of pent-up aspirations. That is how India feels like."<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=mumbai-taj-cp-5904057.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 467px; height: 299px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/mumbai-taj-cp-5904057.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Why bother to come in the way? Just burn it, like those few men of God would do.<br /><br />And the images were relayed across America this thanksgiving weekend. One terrorist repeatedly insisted on American and British passports, and apparently, let an Italian go. The headlines blurted “Americans targeted.”<br /><br />Incredible India, go fish! Convince an American kid now to spend his summer to intern with Morgan Stanley in Bombay, or wait, try holding on to the $ 13.6 billion American businesses poured into India as direct investment in 2007. And why fly the top executive to Bombay from San Francisco when one can videoconference.<br /><br />Couple this with the economic crisis of 2008, which many reckon to be the worst since the Great Depression, and you have a country brought down to ground after years of exuberance, rational and sometimes, irrational.<br /><br />Since the highs of early 2008, the Indian stock indices have collapsed by 60%, as portfolio investors have pulled out $ 12 billion from the capital markets. The Indian Rupee has lost 15% of its value against the United States dollar, and foreign exchange reserves are down to around $ 250 Billion from a record $ 340 billion. Even though the economy grew at a blistering 7.6% this quarter, it is seen flagging considerably compared to the 9% growth of the past three years.<br /><br />According to Sonal Verma, an economist with Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities "There are increasing signs of non-linear economic effects: vicious negative spirals from falling asset prices, sagging confidence, rising job losses, tightening lending standards and weakening demand, as well as increasing multiplier effects on domestic demand from the slump in exports"<br /><br />Nomura cut its estimate for growth in 2008/09 to 6.8 percent from 7.2 percent, and expects 2009/10 GDP growth to slow to 5.3 percent from its earlier estimate of 6.9 percent.<br /><br />Is the Indian story over?<br /><br />On the eve of India's independence that warm August night in 1947, the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, told the nation "long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now at the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance."<br /><br />But the world would have to wait till 2001 to make its tryst with independent India. Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment bank, made India the I in the BRIC and altered our perception of the word “emerging". Danielle Pergament wrote in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span>, "You may not have heard of BRIC -- the acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China -- but you've heard its buzz. These emerging powers are where investors are sending capital, architects are rejiggering skylines and cognoscenti are mining for cultural talent."<br /><br />Cognoscenti in India? The terrorists would have known. Andreas Liveras, the British yachting tycoon, was shot point-blank at the Taj Poolside.<br /><br />--<br />The Taj in South Bombay is an iconic 105- year old flagship property of Indian Hotels, the hospitality subsidiary of the Tata Group and the proprietors of the Taj group of hotels. Jamsedji Tata, the founder, commissioned it himself after he was allegedly denied entry to one of the city's grand hotels, Watson's Hotel. It was restricted for "whites only."<br /><br />Years later in 2006, in what Alison Gregor of the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times </span>called "A Manhattan hotel deal, with foreign accents," Indian Hotels took management of the Pierre Hotel in New York City from Four Seasons Hotels.<br /><br />The terrorists probably wouldn’t have known that the Taj in South Bombay was built as a tribute to the 16th century Islamic architecture in India.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=photo.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 404px; height: 298px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/photo.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Suhel Seth, managing partner of Counselage India, called India the "proverbial bus in today's world." A bus that "no one knows where it is going, no one knows whether there is space on it for them – but no one wants to miss that bus."<br /><br />Keener than most on this bus ride was George W. Bush, who in the most strategic initiative of his second term, signed the India- US nuclear deal onto law on October 4th. This allowed India access to nuclear fuel and technology for its civilian nuclear program, without giving up its nuclear weapons. Throughout the passage of the Hyde Act within Washington and international diplomatic circles, the United States argued for India's status as an ally and a forthcoming economic superpower. Ambivalent countries like New Zealand and Norway reportedly got the call personally from Condoleezza Rice.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> in an editorial on September 9th lambasted the administration for the nuclear agreement that was a "bad idea from the start. They extracted no promise from India to stop producing bomb-making material. No promise not to expand its arsenal. And no promise not to resume nuclear testing."<br /><br />But according to Fareed Zakaria, it is going to "alter the strategic landscape, bringing India firmly and irrevocably onto the world stage as a major player, normalizing its furtive nuclear status and anchoring its partnership with the United States. With China rising and Europe and Japan declining, India is seen as a natural partner."<br /><br />Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister did not mince words at India's exultation. "Mr. President, people of India deeply, deeply love you," he gushed. It was a coup of sorts for India’s foreign policy, but more importantly an affirmation to itself that it had finally gotten up from a slumber party that had lasted way too long.<br /><br />An affirmation that yes, India could build tall buildings, write the next generation of software, have its own breed of privatized financial institutions and global chic, raise money in Bombay like they do in New York and London, show long lingering kisses in movies, have jobs so that kids can graduate out of college and not want to take the first flight out.<br /><br />--<br />But not everybody got on this "proverbial bus". Some reconciled with their fate. Some promised to try harder. But some did not want to be on it. Heck, a few could not see anybody else on it. Such was their fervent antagonism that a hospital for women and children wasn't spared. In the Indian edition of 9/11, 188 were killed, and more than 293 injured.<br /><br />--<br />Amitav Ghosh, author of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sea of Poppies </span>and a visiting professor of literature at Harvard University wrote in his op-ed in the<span style="font-style: italic;"> New York Times</span>, "For if there is any one lesson to be learned from the wave of terrorist attacks that has convulsed the globe over the last decade it is this: Defeat or victory is not determined by the success of the strike itself; it is determined by the response."<br /><br />Hence, whether the Indian story remains intact, is going to come down to how the Indian government reacts. An institutional investor from Greenwich, Ct. needs to read the right news coming out of the country to be confident of putting his money that India's burgeoning economy cannot do without. He needs to get up in the morning to his <span style="font-style: italic;">Wall Street Journal </span>telling him that India is undertaking major police reforms, making its borders safer or working towards a more inclusive society. Terrorism invokes sympathy, but an apathetic and disconcerted response to it disgusts.<br /><br />India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is a partnership of the Ministry of Commerce in India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the top industrial lobby is New Delhi. It seeks to build positive economic perceptions of India globally. At the <span style="font-style: italic;">World Economic Forum</span> in Davos in 2006, it splurged $ 5 million to promote itself as the next economic superstar in an extraordinary charm offensive. Mark Landler in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times </span>wrote "there were few places one could go, on this first day of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting here, without seeing, hearing, drinking, or tasting something Indian."<br /><br />Even they could not have dreamt to garner a fraction of the eyeballs the events of 26/11 have. India will do well to recall that the same press that told the world of its prowess now has its eyes firmly on it. "If India can react with dispassionate but determined resolve, then 2008 may yet be remembered as a moment when the tide turned. A crisis is also an opportunity," continued Ghosh. Sounds perverse, but here’s a shot at showcasing India’s character. While the eyes remain glued to the TV Sets.<br /><br />In her November 29th column, Dean Singleton, the chairman of the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Associated Press </span>tells Maureen Dowd, “If you need to offshore it, offshore it. In today’s world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn’t matter.” Apparently, the promoters of <span style="font-style: italic;">Pasadena Now</span>, a Pasadena community newspaper, outsource local news to “Indians, who are writing about everything, a 1000 words for $ 7.50, from the Pasadena Christmas tree-lighting ceremony to kitchen remodeling to city debates about eliminating plastic shopping bags.”<br /><br />Macpherson, the promoter of <span style="font-style: italic;">Pasadena Now</span>, is the scourge of American journalism, and Dowd calls this the “General Motors” moment for the newspaper industry. The story is itself a trifle trite. Macpherson has been on it for more than a year now, and with the elections over, outsourcing is an exhortation a month too late. This is her first column since the attacks in India, and it has nothing to do with them. Though it has everything to do with India.<br /><br />As the world looked elsewhere, India did the dirty work of the developed world, and sneaked in literally through the back-office. At one-tenth the cost. In fledging suburbs of its cities, young men and women learnt to tell between Kansas and Kentucky, and some learnt the hard way that in the world of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Yankees</span>, there is a quiet <span style="font-style: italic;">Mets </span>fan somewhere too. Better stick to the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Knicks</span> when selling a credit card to someone in New York. But they didn’t just sell them in New York, nor was a credit card the only thing they would sell. India became indispensable to the West, as the world underwent the greatest economic boom in recent history. Someone just had to be on the other line.<br /><br />Indians soon learnt the possibility of the human life, and means to it in the new flat world. What took years in the West was transplanted to this exciting new playground. While some ran away from it, some denied it, and some just did not see it coming, India crashed headlong in this level-playing field. The terrorists don’t like this. But let them know that India remains open to Pasadena Christmas tree-lighting. These bastards won’t win.<br /><br />Or as Suketu Mehta, Professor of Journalism at the <span>New York University</span>, in his op-ed in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> puts, "The best answer to the terrorists is to dream bigger, make even more money, and visit Bombay more than ever. Make a killing not in God's name but in the stock market, and then turn up the forbidden music and dance; work hard and party harder."<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Lbo0YW09G5c&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Lbo0YW09G5c&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />On the morning of November 27th, The Taj website read, "We will rebuild every inch that has been damaged in this attack, and bring back to its full glory." Hostages spoke of unstinting courtesy, courage and calm of the Taj staff, sometimes to the very peril of their own lives. These are standards Indians across the board should strive for, whether in public or private enterprise. The Taj, standing for 105 long years as a testament to the indomitable character of the city of Bombay, must have rankled them awfully hard. Let it stand for another 105.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-83815421321292024862008-11-06T23:18:00.033-05:002008-11-27T00:47:26.613-05:00Give W. a chance<span style="font-style: italic;">"We have one country, one Constitution and one future that binds us. And when we come together and work together, there is no limit to the greatness of America."</span><br /><br />This was George W. Bush in his 2004 victory speech over John Kerry. Sounds awfully like Obama, doesn't he?<br /><br />Fast forward to 2008. 12, 000 people in San Francisco voted a proposition to name a local sewage plant after the incumbent President.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=2005-10-2-george-bush.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 400px; height: 290px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/2005-10-2-george-bush.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Jeffery Scott Shapiro in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Wall Street Journal </span>writes<span style="font-style: italic;">, "</span>the president's original Supreme Court choice of Harriet Miers alarmed Republicans, while his final nomination of Samuel Alito angered Democrats. His solutions to reform the immigration system alienated traditional conservatives, while his refusal to retreat in Iraq has enraged liberals who have unrealistic expectations about the challenges we face there."<br /><br />It really stopped mattering what W. did. People had given their verdict, and he was too good for John Stewart to let go.<br /><br />W. today addressed his White House staff urging them to smoothen the transition for the President-elect Barack Obama . How unprecedented the smoothening of the transition has been can be seen in contrast to the transition he himself got from the Clinton White House. Ben Feller in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Huffington Post</span> writes, "when W. took office in 2001, some aides found their computer keyboards were missing the W key - a nod to the middle initial in George W. Bush. Staff members of outgoing President Bill Clinton were suspected and criticized for acting immaturely."<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ICsD6ouK0Hg&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ICsD6ouK0Hg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />W. faced extraordinary challenges during his Presidency. Americans, on the other hand, jumped on to conclusions far too quickly. Let history give its verdict on the President, not Oliver Stone. But as a people, we were to indulge in crass slander, not informed criticism. How many times did we hear, "the guy is an idiot." First things first, he could not have been an idiot to win the American vote in 2000 and 2004.<br /><br />Yes, the same America that would vote for Barack Obama in 2008.<br /><br />It is an imperative that the new President is not treated as callously as the old one. Because when late night television dictates how we see our Presidents, the joke is pretty much on us.<br /><br />In case you were wondering, read the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Antifits</span> endorsement of Barack Obama <a href="http://everythingneednotfit.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-barack-obama.html">here</a>. (2/1/2008)Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-85405044037555929142008-11-05T02:14:00.004-05:002008-11-05T02:22:31.311-05:00Barack Obama is the next PresidentOf all the places in the world, Thank God I am in America. And I will let Barack again do the talking. Watch his victory speech from Grant Park in Chicago, IL.<br /><br /><iframe src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22425001/vp/27546437#27546437" frameborder="0" height="339" scrolling="no" width="425"></iframe><br /><br />From the world, from the ones who couldn't exercise the vote, we needn't have worried. America, you rocked the vote!Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-20920761820447210412008-11-04T15:08:00.009-05:002008-11-04T15:28:26.512-05:00(FiveThirtyEight.com) Obama: 349 McCain: 189Four hours before numbers from Virginia start streaming in, and minutes before you awaken to a bombardment of a strange phenomenon called the <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/11/ten-reasons-why-you-should-ignore-exit.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">exit poll</span></a>, here are the final numbers drawn from a composite of 14 polls from folks at <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/">FiveThirtyEight.com</a>.<br /><br />Scroll down the page for some beautifully drawn up scenarios from these numbers.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Obama: 348.6 McCain: 189.4</span><br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=3003361762_817d144b95_o.png" target="_blank"><img style="width: 355px; height: 1235px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/3003361762_817d144b95_o.png" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=ScenarioAnalysis.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/ScenarioAnalysis.png" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3205/3003361526_5fafb2c277_o.png">Here</a> is how <span style="font-style: italic;">FiveThirtyEight</span> got at these numbers.<br /><br />An <span style="font-style: italic;">Antifits</span> Prediction: Who takes Virginia, wins the election.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-24977482172627013102008-10-29T22:52:00.007-04:002008-10-29T23:12:49.204-04:00American Stories, American SolutionsI will just let Barack make his case. He's apparently good at it.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GtREqAmLsoA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GtREqAmLsoA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />With only six days to the elections, am I going to miss this election or what! More on that in a post coming soon.<br /><br />Read the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Antifits</span> endorsement of Barack Obama <a href="http://everythingneednotfit.blogspot.com/2008/02/why-barack-obama.html">here</a>. (2/1/2008)Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-34332518077527515192008-10-29T16:03:00.011-04:002008-10-29T16:31:23.107-04:00The 'betrayal' of London, unheard in New YorkAs the world more than acquainted itself with Lehman Brothers Midtown Manhattan headquarters when news of the collapse of the financial giant started streaming in, it was easy to forget that Lehman Brothers had an overseas operation, and one that is more profitable.<br /><br />The top executives at Lehman Brothers in New York did not.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=255966908_c23996307e.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 428px; height: 267px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/255966908_c23996307e.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Around 1230 in the morning of 15th September, Lehman announced in a press release that the 158-year-old investment bank would file for bankruptcy protection. In the hours and days leading up to Lehman’s collapse and Chapter 11 filing, $8.07 billion was mysteriously transferred from Lehman’s London subsidiary at Canary Wharf to its Midtown headquarters in New York. Canary Wharf is where Lehman ran its operations in Europe employing around 4, 000 people.<br /><br />At the opening of Lehman’s new European headquarters in London on 5th April 2004, Gordon Brown, the then Chancellor told Lehman employees, “I would like to pay tribute to the contribution you and your company make to the prosperity of Britain. During its 150 year story, Lehman Brothers has always been an innovator, financing new ideas and inventions before many things even began to realize their potential.”<br /><br />On 20th September 2008, Gordon Brown stated its support to Lehman Europe’s claim that Lehman New York return its $8 billion.<br /><br />The British tabloids called this repatriation of $8 billion to New York as the “betrayal” of London. <span style="font-style: italic;">Times Online</span> quoted one executive saying, “We were basically told ‘London, you’re on your own’.” Another E-Mail by an angry executive to Bart McDade, the President of Lehman, quoted by the newspaper read, “Come on guys. Show some respect for the rest of the world who carried your flag and believed in the ‘one firm’ culture. There is a thing called ‘appreciation and class’ even after the war is lost.” Lehman Europe and its employees in London were literally left in the lurch, under the administration of Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) that was called for the dissolution of Lehman Europe.<br /><br />All this as Lehman New York was raising a toast to Bob Diamond, the President of Barclays, on the orchestration of a $1.75 billion takeover of Lehman’s American investment-banking and capital-markets division, securing 10, 000 jobs and $2.5 billion in bonuses for the staff at the New York office.<br /><br />In the United States, one could have gone oblivious to this. The <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> covered the story as reported by Julia Werdigier of The <span style="font-style: italic;">International Herald Tribune</span> in <span style="font-style: italic;">DealBook</span>, its daily filing of mergers, acquisitions and other market movers. Not exactly the headlines.<br /><br />Werdigier explicitly states “the money was moved to New York from London as part of the usual flow of the firm’s cash between the two financial centers just before the bank collapsed Monday morning.”<br /><br /><span>Usual flow of money? </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Evening Standard</span> ran a story by David Cohen on this “betrayal” of London. In this story, Robert Daniels, a director at Lehman’s Canary Wharf office, explains what this ‘usual’ flow of money was. On Fridays, Lehman London would transfer billions of dollars to the New York headquarters, and is given a portfolio of assets in return. On Mondays, this trade is reversed in what is a standard inter-bank transfer. But this transaction leading up to Lehman’s collapse was different.<br /><br />“The money was not returned to our bank account from the US and all we were left with was a bunch of useless assets. Nobody can tell us where it has gone. What we do know is that the money disappeared on Friday night and did not come back into our account on Monday morning. That is why the administrators came in on Monday and found no cash and said they probably can't pay our September salaries.”<br /><br />In the story that appeared in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span>, Werdigier goes on to discusses a beleaguered Gordon Brown and the criticism he faces from within and outside the Labour Party on his handling of the British economy amidst difficult times. Why would Werdigier do that? Is Werdigier implying in a very subtle way that it is just Brown trying to be seen as doing something?<br /><br />More so, it reports PWC sending a letter to Lehman New York “requesting that the money be returned to London, where it is needed to pay the bank’s creditors, employees, bills and some daily expenses.”<br /><br />On 19th September, PWC filed an 83-page motion disputing the $8.2 Billion taken from London.<br /><br />Was it the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times </span>and the American media deliberately underplaying this story, or the British sensationalizing it too much?<br /><br />“It goes beyond who gets paid their September salaries. It could be a huge legal issue, setting Lehman London employees against their New York colleagues. This is billions we're talking about, billions that have been moved overnight out of the UK to the US to the detriment of the British economy” says Daniels.<br /><br />After Lehman’s collapse, much of the financial world continues to undergo an ugly restructuring in the last fortnight. But what hasn’t changed is this strange denial and ignorance of the new global reality the American media, at least in this financial crisis, seems to be catering to.<br /><br />Maybe the holding company is entitled to ring fence bonuses and ensure employment for its preferred employees when it negotiates takeover bids. It could be well within its right to talk about a unified corporate culture, and then leave your overseas divisions with literally empty vending machines and a lack of basic information that borders on complete apathy.<br /><br />But there is a slight alteration to the narrative now. It is the British financial services provider, Barclays, that has taken over Lehman’s profitable American assets. And if ever things go down, they might not have to hesitate to play it dirty.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Lehman: You are on your own, London, Danny Fortson, <a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4794898.ece">Times Online- 09/21</a><br />Lehmans’ $5 Bn ‘betrayal’ of London, David Cohen, <a href="http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23556537-details/My+anger+over+Lehmans%E2%80%99+$5++billion+%E2%80%98betrayal%E2%80%99+of+London/article.do">Evening Standard- 09/17</a><br />Fury at $2.5 Bn Lehman Bonus, John Waples, <a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4795072.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1ash">Times Online- 09/21</a><br />UK’s Brown wants Lehman Cash returned, Julia Werdigier, <a href="http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/uks-brown-wants-lehman-cash-returned/?scp=6&sq=Gordon%20brown%20lehman&st=cse">NYTimes- 09/22</a></span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-1866414804687712672008-10-22T14:16:00.012-04:002008-10-23T13:29:58.618-04:00On Cricket, and being away from itI don't think I am going to get any work done the next three weeks.<br /><br />I have been sleeping at 6- 7 in the morning, missing morning lectures and reading the reaction of the press the first thing whenever I get up. Even a New York autumn cannot appease this quirk of mine, and get me moving around.<br /><br />It's the cricket, stupid.<br /><br />India won the last Test in Mohali the other day. Some have rushed to call it the tipping point, equivalent to the napoleonic Waterloo of the great Australian side of the late 90's and most of this decade.<br /><br />Obviously still being haunted by that Ricky Ponting century in the 2003 Jo' Burg Word Cup final or Damien Martyn taking the test to a draw in Chennai in 2004/05 and the series with it, I would hesitate to give my verdict till the Tests at New Delhi and Nagpur happen. And ask the English about the wounded Aussie. That 5- 0 drubbing in Australia must still rankle hard.<br /><br />But it's difficult to be in New York. Nobody just gets it here. My Los Angeles roommate struggles to understand how I can follow sport without live broadcast, but still sit through the entire night staring at the computer screen, the cursor always on the refresh button.<br /><br />And worse, I am addicted to this over- by- over coverage. Reality can be sometimes ugly, but the written word is open for manipulation. Because unlike live broadcast nothing is shown to you, in your mind the ugly gets edited, and the beautiful reinforced. Sachin Tendulkar can be forever 24. And even though Harbhajan might have got someone bowled someone out with an uncharacteristically flat one, you can imagine his fingers ripping through a nice loopy delivery drifting in through the gate beating the batsman in his drive. For example:<br /><br /><strong>21:13:</strong> <span style="font-style: italic;">The pitch is like a minefield at the moment. Well, the Indian bowlers are making it look like one. Mishra and Singh turning the ball prodigiously.</span><br /><br />(My mind lets the imagination loose. A fourth day subcontinent track, complete with puffing dust and widening cracks. Harbhajan landing them right outside the off with a rookie Haddin. Vicious turn, ooh's and aah's from Dravid in the slip cordon..)<br /><br /><strong>21:15: FOUR.</strong> <span style="font-style: italic;">At last, Haddin finds the middle of the bat and his cover drive finds the boundary. It's 5-81 at drinks.</span><br /><br />(Fuck Harbhajan. Must have let one slip too straight and flat for his own damn good)<br /><br />If staying up all night ain't enough, getting up the next afternoon only to find myself browsing through the morning press world over for the reaction to the days play can literally be a bit much. But why does it have to be the <span style="font-style: italic;">Sydney Morning Herald</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">The Guardian</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">Hindustan Times</span> telling me the same thing. Maybe a li'l much, but Cricket allows you that.<br /><br />No, Cricket needs that. And I ain't even starting on <span style="font-style: italic;">Cricinfo</span>.<br /><br />One day we will grow up and be able to afford the Cricket beamed live to our TV sets in Manhattan, or wherever we might be. But nothing like to sit in a lecture when the Professor is talking about the Battle of Stalingrad for the sixth lecture in a row and the rest of your generation relegated to something as mundane as <span style="font-style: italic;">Facebook</span>, knowing that you are far away, in fields afar, in that little world that is forever going to be yours.<br /><br />If you make it to the lecture though.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-68382820102368686222008-10-18T22:15:00.019-04:002008-10-22T14:16:25.365-04:00Is it our tryst with destiny?The financial crisis bothers me. Why should it?<br /><br />I have been asking myself that over the past few days. Is it the paucity of jobs once I graduate? Or is it hurting me financially? Or is it a very intelligent concern that I have for the world around me? Not really.<br /><br />I think I figured it out.<br /><br />Amidst rising oil prices during the Gulf War in 1991, India found itself in a balance-of-payments crisis and the prospect of defaulting on its loans. The IMF mandated a liberalization of the Indian economy; a coming out of sorts for what was a closed and to a certain extent, an unproductive economy.<br /><br />I was two then.<br /><br />Today, a liberalized India with fewer and fairer taxes, less regulation, a relatively smaller government is the second fastest growing economy in the world.<br /><br />A liberalized India is all I ever knew.<br /><br />After a couple of hundred years of British Imperialism, India in 1947, in its first Prime Minister’s words, “had made a tryst with destiny” and had won independence.<br /><br />Instead it saw a post-war Europe and Japan reemerge from the debris. United States was well, the United States. They were calling it the boomer years. Even a lot of Asia followed.<br /><br />India wasn’t communist. Nor was it comfortable enough with itself to embrace the free market. But give the Government a li’l leeway, it will kick open the door. Government grew bigger, corruption got endemic in its system and epidemic in proportions. As the world took the next leap forward, we found ourselves tucked in an ugly li’l corner that we had carved out for ourselves stagnating.<br /><br />It was still waiting for its <span style="font-style: italic;">tryst with destiny</span>.<br /><br />In 1989, the wall finally fell. <span>Literally</span><span style="font-style: italic;">. </span><br /><br />Post-liberalization, it was India itself that India needed to conquer. Three hundred years stuck in an abyss, India was in the waiting room for so long that it had almost forgotten what it was waiting for.<br /><br />Yes, India could build tall buildings, write the next generation of software, have its own breed privatized financial institutions and multinationals, raise money in Bombay like they did in New York and London, show long lingering kisses in movies, have jobs so that we could graduate out of college and not take the first flight out. And of course, beat Australia in cricket.<br /><br />Never was private wealth and enterprise celebrated with such ferocity. It mattered that an Indian ran the biggest steel conglomerate in the world, and an Indian publicly- held company would one day drive home Jaguar from Ford.<br /><br />They say we are in global financial meltdown.<br /><br />The Bombay Sensitive Index, India’s equivalent to the Dow Industrial Average, has plummeted to 9,975 from a 52Wk High of 21,206.77. The Foreign Institutional Investors (FII’s), who happened to be more often than not the big banks that find themselves in a spot, have liquidated $ 9 billion worth holdings in India.<br /><br />It is apparent that India will get hurt too.<br /><br />World over, there is a growing call for more regulated markets and bigger government intervention.<br /><br />Wasn’t Regulation what got India there in 1991? Wasn’t it the all-encompassing evil that kept India back as the world moved forward? Now they tell us to learn otherwise.<br /><br />It is like getting up one morning and realizing that your neighbor is your actual father.<br /><br />But a funny thing has happened. The years post-liberalization, even if kicked off by creative investors who couldn’t make returns big enough and the excessive liquidity that characterized all these years, India has somewhere realized that if a billion people get up every morning, brush their teeth and go to work, the economy would prevail.<br /><br />But this financial crisis, unlike 1991, the IMF and the ‘ostensible’ free markets needn’t dictate anything. India has $300 Billion worth of foreign exchange lying around, and an economy that even by the most conservative estimate, will continue to grow at 6.5 %.<br /><br />Things will get ugly. But wasn’t this where India wanted to be all along? The era of easy foreign liquidity might be over, but it is an India that finally could do without it. This is our tryst with destiny. And now that we have almost made it, let us not let it slip away.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >The credit crisis hits India, but it may profit [<a href="http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12411151">The Economist- 10/14/2008</a>]</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-33146666488851280032008-10-17T05:12:00.007-04:002008-10-17T05:25:55.413-04:00Before we get back to tax cutsDid anybody see Barack Obama be more than funny at the Al Smith dinner at the Waldorf today? Sample this.<br /><br /><span class="quote"> <span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >"I’m glad we’re over John depicting me as some celebrity. I’m serious. I was sad. In fact, I was so sad that I punched a paparazzo on the way out of Spago. It was horrible. Really, I spilled my soy chai latte all over my shoe."</span></span><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v5SWQJWm6Tg&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/v5SWQJWm6Tg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-72351455933040908732008-10-16T03:55:00.009-04:002008-10-16T04:39:54.774-04:00Oh! Apple.Apple, the favorite whipping boy of the markets this past month, released the new MacBook October 14th, leaving me scrambling for 1500 odd bucks and my black Mac stale.<br /><br />Is it just me or Jony Ive, VP Design at Apple Inc., sounds a tad too absorbed by the new MacBook? It is almost funny. Watch the video.<br /><br />And we really must be in a recession. Even this could not excite investors with the Apple stock loosing as much as 5.89% of the stock's value, closing the day at $ 97. 95.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JSj1MW2Uulw&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JSj1MW2Uulw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-11317941483672126512008-10-13T19:53:00.010-04:002008-10-16T03:25:28.516-04:0025 reasons why I will miss the financial crisis (Update: If it ever gets over)It really seems that the $ 2546 Billion European bailout is the beginning of the end of the Financial Crisis and the subsequent rally across financial markets. I think I will miss the financial crisis. <span style="font-style: italic;">Really. </span><br /><br />1- It bummed Sarah Palin out of the front page.<br /><br />2- Bristol Palin too.<br /><br />3- Nancy Pelosi and House Republicans.<br /><br />4- I could get by without knowing who <span style="font-style: italic;">Gossip Girls</span> were:<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Someone else:</span> "Oh my god! Blake Lively!"<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Me: </span>Man, the economy is soo fucked up, dudee!<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"> Someone else:</span> I know. I feel so bad that I even brought up <span style="font-style: italic;">Gossip Girls</span>. How shallow am I?<br /><br />5- Hank Paulson, apart from other things, having a perspective on 15 seconds of fame.<br /><br />6- The John McCain way to make you a star. Ask Chris Cox.<br /><br />7- You could not get by with thinking that Freddie Mac was a McDonald's burger.<br /><br />8- On Lehman Monday, I wanted to call Dad.<br />"Dad, You were wrong!<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span>" Look at these bankers with boxes outside Lehman's midtown headquarters. They look silly. And that is how you wanted your son to look when you insisted on me going to business school!" <br /><br />9- Oil under $80 a barrell. Exactly the change folks in Ohio, Michigan and Main Street want.<br /><br />10- Random conversations at the bar that went something like this<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me</span>: The economy is so fucked upp, dudee. Can I buy you a drink?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blonde</span>:<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">(Looking puzzled) </span>Yeah sure.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blonde</span>: (<span style="font-style: italic;">After a few drinks</span>) Intelligent guys really turn me on.<br /><br />11- The Socialists at NYU finally having an audience that stayed, <span style="font-style: italic;">even</span> after the free pizza, coffee, soda, cookies and tons of other freebies ran out.<br /><br />12- Learning how to plot Iceland on a map.<br /><br />13- More so, imagining flustered British people learning how to plot Iceland on a map after <a href="http://www.icesave.co.uk/">losing their deposits</a> with Icesave.<br /><br />14- "Oh bilmey! He had thinnngs on his mind!" The British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, finally found a reason for the bags underneath his eyes.<br /><br />15- But the man with bags underneath his eyes, Gordon Brown, would eventually become the <a href="http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/harry_de_quetteville/blog/2008/10/13/gordon_brown_european_superhero">European Superhero</a> with a bailout plan that will become the <span style="font-style: italic;">status quo</span> for more bailouts. So all you kids who don't make the cool cut, there is a happy ending.<br /><br />16- Finding a banker or a guy dressed like one <span style="font-style: italic;">literally</span> at Taco Bell days ago.<br /><br />17- It just wasn't the Mets screwing up bad this year.<br /><br />18- <a href="http://sadguysontradingfloors.tumblr.com/">Sad guys on the trading floor</a>.<br /><br />19- Germany getting mad at Ireland over bank guarantees. Then Germany doing the same thing a few days later. Moral of the story: The Irish know their shit.<br /><br />20- A corollary to the above: Drinking can't be all that bad.<br /><br />21- <span style="font-style: italic;">Playboy</span> and <span style="font-style: italic;">BusinessWeek</span> together in the toilet magazine rack in a room shared by four guys between the ages 18- 20. And the BusinessWeek looking more used.<br /><br />22- Financial lingo having a poetic rhyme to it.<br /><br />"Dow."<br />"Holy Cow!"<br />"How?"<br /><br />23- <span style="font-weight: bold;">CIA guy</span>: We know where the weapons of mass destruction are, chief.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">W.</span>: Where?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cheney</span>: They are not in Iraq? I knew it was Iran.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">John McCain</span>: No stupid. They are in Spain.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">W.</span>: Let the guy talk for a change.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CIA guy</span>: It's in the derivative market right in downtown Manhattan in a street called Wall Street.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cheney</span>: How do you know?<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CIA guy</span>: Warren Buffet in 2003 <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/2817995.stm">talked about it</a>, and we now have intelligence for it. My credit card is good for shit.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">John McCain</span>: I think I found my treasury secretary. I am going to make a press release.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">W.</span>: I thought you had suspended your campaign.<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">John McCain</span>: My friends, Country First.<br /><br />24- Even though he was on the phone with Hank Paulson throughout the financial crisis and pleading Main Street's case, Barack Obama still finding time to go to the gym.<br /><br />25- And finally, coming home at 4 AM, switching Bloomberg on and know that you weren't the only one having a rough day. People do screw up. And so do we. Funnily enough, we were in it together. And that felt good.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-47294416432039209182008-10-07T23:25:00.007-04:002008-10-14T00:15:23.050-04:00What an incredible world this isMan, there is so much cynicism going around. But we do live in an incredible world. But the world in which we live is pretty incredible.<span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1XBwjQsOEeg&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1XBwjQsOEeg&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />This is global air traffic stimulated over 24 hours. Wait for the day in Europe, and you will know this Ryan Air business is serious.<br /><br />Courtesy: <a href="http://radar.zhaw.ch/">The AirTraffic Team</a>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-62140436353004105552008-10-07T22:50:00.007-04:002008-10-07T23:33:34.131-04:00We called itWe will be full of ourselves for a minute or so. Midnight today, the ban on Short Selling would expire. Now you might ask what is the reason why we at <span style="font-style: italic;">The Antifits </span>would have a reason to feel even better than we do about ourselves?<br /><br />We called it. We knew it was temporary.<br /><br />On 09/19/2008, The <span style="font-style: italic;">Antifits</span> <a href="http://everythingneednotfit.blogspot.com/2008/09/somethings-wrong-and-not-just-on-wall.html">wrote</a>:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"I don't necessarily agree with the backlash against, say, short selling. And I would have markets deregulated than the other way round."</span><br /><br />On 09/25/2008, The<span style="font-style: italic;"> Antifits </span><a href="http://everythingneednotfit.blogspot.com/2008/09/oh-w.html">wrote</a>:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"And apart from a certain executive pay clause and the <span style="font-weight: bold;">temporary ban on short selling</span>, it will be all on his terms." </span><br /><br />And at times when it was politically incorrect to do so, around the time when a visceral McCain was suspending campaigns and Barack Obama was on the phone with Hank Paulson.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Moral of the story</span><span>:</span> Read the <span style="font-style: italic;">Antifits</span> and be ahead of the Times.<br /><br />No pun intended on the Times thing.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Ban on Short Selling ends - Did it make any difference [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/business/08short.html?hp">NYTimes- 10/07/08</a>]</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-73599358549461120402008-10-02T17:27:00.009-04:002008-10-07T23:33:04.584-04:00Your skin needs a bailoutA couple of weeks or so ago, yours truly had a serious bout of acne. And like Investment Bankers who have to learn to deal with less than six-digit bonuses, this was a completely new world that was opening up to me.<br /><br />The world of solicited and sometimes, unsolicited <span style="font-style: italic;">advice</span>, and of greedy capitalist companies promising a Zach Effron- me.<br /><br />Dermatologists were recommended. I was expected to know Cate Blanchett's skin regimen. And how the hell could I even consider Proactiv. I needed to sleep better, run more, sweat lesser and drink more water.<br /><br />Well, I ordered Proactive. The next day a flier made its way to my mailbox. And the fucking spam filters did not catch it. Tell me it is not a conspiracy.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=proactive.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 385px; height: 84px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/proactive.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />All this for a guy that used shower gel on his face. </span><br /><br />I use <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://usa.lush.com/cgi-bin/lushdb/index.html?lang=en_US&dlang=en">Lush</a> </span>now. What sold me was the sweet lady in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Lush</span> store at Union Square. I walk into the store, and she goes like "What can I do for you, honey?"<br /><br />"I have developed acne. I never had it before. I am terrified."<br /><br />"People say I am going to die now."<br /><br />No, I did not say that.<br /><br />"Ohh sweetheart. Don't worry. All your skin needs is a<span style="font-style: italic;"> bailout</span>." She quipped.<br /><br />So, Washington, Wall Street and John McCain, you ain't alone in this bailout business. I feel you.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Skin Deep- Buying Face Cream. Grab a Glossary? [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/fashion/02skin.html?pagewanted=2&ref=style"><span style="font-style: italic;">NYTimes- 10/01/2008</span>] </a></span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/fashion/02skin.html?pagewanted=2&ref=style"><br /></a>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-72542823177524553032008-10-01T02:11:00.007-04:002008-10-01T02:37:59.661-04:00The French gaze across the AtlanticSteven Erlanger of the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span> tries to decipher the French perception of the American Presidential elections. <span>Hilarity ensues.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"From the French perspective, Americans are reckless optimists, incurably blind to the tragedy of life, to the weary convolutions of history and thus to the need for lengthy August vacations and financial regulations. While the French see themselves as the heirs of urban revolutionaries, with a strong distaste for politicized religion, the American revolutionary spirit seems to them these days to come like a hurricane from the uncosmopolitan right — from the dry, dull flatlands of Texas ranch country or the emptiness of Vice President </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/dick_cheney/index.html?inline=nyt-per" title="More articles about Dick Cheney.">Dick Cheney</a><span style="font-style: italic;">’s Wyoming, and now from the odd sunset communities of Arizona and the bizarre bars, churches and hockey rinks of Alaska.</span></span>"<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=610x.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 401px; height: 264px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/610x.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />He quotes Bernard-Henri Lévy of the <span style="font-style: italic;">Le Point who says </span>of Barack Obama:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><br />“Obama is, certainly, black, but not black like Jesse Jackson</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >; not black like Al Sharpton; not black like the blacks born in Alabama or in Tennessee and who, when they appear, bring out in Americans the memories of slavery, lynchings and the Ku Klux Klan — no; a black from Africa; a black descending not from a slave but from a Kenyan; a black who, consequently, has the incomparable merit of not reminding middle America of the shameful pages of its history.”</span><br /><br />Well, Lévy has to be French to get away with that.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span>Memo from Paris- Steven Erlanger [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/europe/01france.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">New York Times- 09/20/2008</a>]</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-70499232924215503382008-09-30T23:52:00.008-04:002008-10-01T00:36:07.285-04:00The world as we knew itSomehow this haunts me. Here are some relics of the past, two of which have been obliterated into the past amidst the financial turmoil of the past two weeks. Hear top executives talk about how Lehman succeeds, with its <span style="font-style: italic;">four pillars</span> stratgey.<br /><br /><embed src="http://www.lehman.com/webcasts/US/flashplayer/FlowPlayerLight.swf?config=%7Bembedded%3Atrue%2CplayList%3A%5B%7BoverlayId%3A%27play%27%2Curl%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elehman%2Ecom%2Fwebcasts%2FUS%2F00185%2Fpreviews%2F005803%5F320x240%2Ejpg%27%7D%2C%7Burl%3A%27recruiting%2F005803%5Frecruiting%5FA%27%7D%5D%2CconfigFileName%3A%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Elehman%2Ecom%2Fwebcasts%2FUS%2Fflashplayer%2Fjs%2Flehman%5Fconfig%2Ejs%27%7D" scale="noscale" bgcolor="111111" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" width="320" height="263"></embed><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><a href="http://careers.ml.com/images/careers/campus/flash/WEFCareers.html">Here</a> is a Merrill recruitment video. I just could not embed it, so you will have to follow the link. <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span><br />We have lost a bit in the past three weeks. <span style="font-style: italic;">And a lot of the world as we knew it.</span></span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-11397375944804596462008-09-29T17:41:00.012-04:002008-10-02T02:43:30.796-04:00The cost of indecisionCost of the Proposed Bailout to the taxpayer= - $ 700 Billion<br /><br />Bailout rejection by Congressional Republicans=- 777 points on the Dow= - $ 1.2 Trillion<br /><br />Cost of inaction today= - $ 700 Billion + (- $ 1.2 Trillion)<br /> = - $ 500 Billion<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">I did the Math. You say God bless America.</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">House rejects bailout package, 228- 205; Stocks plunge <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/30/business/30bailout.html?hp"><span style="font-style: italic;">[New York Times]</span></a><br />Talent Flight Feared by City Firms [<a href="http://www.nysun.com/business/talent-flight-feared-by-city-firms/86785/"><span style="font-style: italic;">New York Sun]</span></a><br />Why did the rescue bill fail [<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/09/why_did_the_rescue_bill_fail.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">NYMag- Daily Intel</span></a>]<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">Lehmann's demise triggered Cash Crunch Around Globe</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" > [<a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122266132599384845.html?mod=testMod">WSJ Online</a>] </span><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Why Main Street needs to support the bailout [</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" ><a href="http://accruedint.blogspot.com/2008/09/why-main-street-should-support-this.html">Accrued Interest</a>]</span><br /></span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-45522393838236865482008-09-27T15:12:00.006-04:002008-09-27T15:25:45.283-04:00Why I think Barack Obama is the next President of the U.S.?At last night's debate who looked more Presidential?<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/9EsYbhpmjLA&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/9EsYbhpmjLA&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />At the <span style="font-style: italic;">Antifits</span>, we thought it was Barack. Even Fox <a href="http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/27/snapshot-polls-give-obama-edge-over-mccain-in-debate/">agreed</a>. Apparently, smears don't help a presidential candidate.Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-90285203452905188452008-09-25T16:11:00.018-04:002008-09-27T15:24:18.965-04:00Oh! W.<span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 85%;">Updated on 09/26/2008:</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-size: 85%;">Apparently, President Bush's bailout did go through a lot of bottleneck on the floor of the Congress on Thursday. And now, Washington is working over the weekend to come to a consensus by Monday. Read the New York Times story <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26bailout.html?pagewanted=2&hp">here</a>. </span></span><br />___________________________________________<br /><br />Did anyone watch W. address the nation last night? First things first, with this being dubbed as the "greatest depression", W. could not have kicked things off on a more positive binge.<br /><br />Didn't anyone else get it? <span style="font-style: italic;">The red tie</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=w0924169A.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 399px; height: 276px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/w0924169A.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Face it America, he will again get what he wants. Even though if it takes a bipartisan frenzy, no John McCain on the campaign trail and Senator Christopher Dodd looking as someone more important in Washington than he really is. And apart from a certain executive pay clause and the temporary ban on short selling, it will be all on his terms.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:85%;">"Once this crisis is resolved, there will be time to update our financial regulatory structures. Our 21st-century global economy remains regulated largely by outdated 20th-century laws."</span><br /></span><br />Wow<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span>. Anyone who can read between the lines, there would not be anything drastic with regulation after all. So W. calls the democrats for a trillion bucks, gives a certain few like Sen. Christopher Dodd and Sen. Harry Reid a few soundbite on TV, but in real terms, ignores their cherished call for a more stringent regulatory framework. <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><br />Though this bailout business did put us through a lot of stress. Specially with an angry Sen. Dodd on TV. Let us give it to him. It is his 15 seconds of fame.<br /><br />And we thought we would not see him much after the most inconsequntial presidential campaign. Ah! well, these are uncertain times.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >"Many borrowers took out loans larger than they could afford, assuming that they could sell or refinance their homes at a higher price later on."</span><br /><br />Even if it was a couple of lines camouflaged somewhere in W.'s speech, I cannot help applaud a President, who in a world of John McCain and Barack Obama, can literally tell the Americans that like Wall Street, they fucked up.<br /><br />Or Wall Street fucked up because the American people fucked up. <span style="font-style: italic;">First. </span><br /><br />And this Presidential Election; call it a clusterfuck, or a cute Daniel Radcliffe turning into a naked Daniel Radcliffe. There is only as much as we can take. Asked about whether he would go to Washington, Sen. Obama said:<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >“If we get consensus and everybody is popping Champagne in Wahington, then I’ll probably go back to campaign with folks who are having a tough time in Ohio and Michigan.”</span><br /><br />Spare a minute for folks in Michigan and Ohio. Gail Collins writes of them in the <span style="font-style: italic;">New York Times</span>:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >"Since the people of Ohio and Michigan have been visited by a presidential candidate virtually every hour for the last six months, it would seem that they could get by on their own for a day or two."</span><br /><br />If the last two weeks on Wall Street should teach you something, just remember that the President matters. Even if just for the next four months. Well, add more than a bit of Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke.<br /><br />After which with the debt ceiling of the United States at $ 11. 3 trillion, I don't think either President Obama or President Palin in Washington would be wielding much stick.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">But with them in Washington, for folks in Michigan and Ohio "change" shall prevail. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Transcript- President Bush's speech on the economy on 09.25.2008 [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/24/business/economy/24text-bush.html?pagewanted=1&sq=George%20Bush&st=cse&scp=2">NY Times</a>] </span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><span><span style="font-size:85%;">Bring on the Rubber Chickens- Gail Collins [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/opinion/25collins.html?hp">NYTimes</a>]</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-42081977697207206622008-09-23T17:15:00.004-04:002008-09-23T17:36:37.522-04:00Movie Review: To Die in JerusalemTo think that Hilla Medalia was in school in Southern Illinois when she conceptualized and shot <span style="font-style: italic;">Daughters of Abraham</span>, the prequel to this feature film <span style="font-style: italic;">To Die in Jerusalem</span>, you have someone enormously brilliant on hand. This is the story of Ayat and Rachel, who not only are the microcosm of the Israeli- Palestine, but also a testament to the aggressive pursuit of this young director as she seeks to understand her world.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“I’m not trying to compare; all I’m trying to do is to give the stage to two mothers; to get a glimpse of their world.”* </span><br /><br />Hilla realizes that she has something so powerful, stunning and provocative on her hands that the best she can do is sitting back and letting it unfold. It is fluid. It just plays out. In a world where communication does not happen, her film is a conversation; with the mothers, between the mothers, but never does the reality of the either side get shortchanged. In the most crucial of moments, never does anything look forced. And therein lies the beauty of <span style="font-style: italic;">To Die in Jerusalem</span>.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=todieinjerusalem.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 352px; height: 421px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/todieinjerusalem.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Apparently, HBO sent two established American producers to make a feature on the same issue. They failed. And to think that a young Israeli woman just out of graduate school in Southern Illinois succeeded.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> “Documentary filmmaking is essentially endurance, and more endurance.”</span>*<br /><br />Listening to her talk about the film was an absolute lesson in persistence. She waited for four years to shoot the scene between the two mothers. In between, the crew got arrested. Finally they made the mothers talk it out via satellite. Add cultural animosity, being behind the enemy lines and navigating between two countries amidst one of the bloodiest conflicts of our times. For example, she, as an Israeli Jewish, spent time in the Palestine ghetto with the family. She invested in an intangible element called the “cultural bridge”. The fact that whether it was Ayat or Avigail talking, you sense candor. This is not a coincidence. It is a comfort zone that Hilla has created.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“You actually feel in your heart the conflict.”* </span><br /><br />Her film deals with something that is larger than life, a conflict that has now gone for half a century and has enough blood on it for objectivity on either sides. As the director, when she lets her characters talk to each other, she is lets countries talk. And civilizations talk. A conversation for which four miles has been too much, and five decades too less.<br /><br />An <span style="font-style: italic;">Antifits</span> recommendation.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:85%;" >*The italicized quotes are directly from the Director at the after screening Q & A.</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-781836874982273302008-09-22T22:01:00.011-04:002008-09-22T23:08:20.832-04:00Wait, someone was making money.How does a Hedge Fund make a staggering $ 28 Billion in an economy that has Wall Street orgasming at the prospect of a Fed bailout? How do your managed credit funds grow 590% and 350% respectively? How do you take home a $3- 4 Billion paycheck home?<br /><br />And all of this in 2007, a year that would not go down in books as year for such numbers.<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">[Photo Illustration: Everett Bogue; Getty Images/ Reuters]</span></span><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=15_greenspan_lgl.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 375px; height: 250px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/15_greenspan_lgl.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />You do. If you are John Paulson. And you have the balls to sell short, while the world plays it long.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sell short what?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sub- Prime mortgages</span>. Go figure that. And well, to be a bit of a downer, he reckons "it still ain't too late" to invest in economic troubles.<br /><br />As the mainstream turns it's back on Alan Greenspan, Paulson calls him over to his advisory board. Another reason why he made money, and the mainstream didn't.<br /><br />And he went to New York University.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Paulson acquires an Alan Greenspan [<a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2008/01/john_paulson_aquires_an_alan_g.html">Daily Intel- 1/15/08</a>]<br />Trader made billions on Sub- Prime [<a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120036645057290423.html?mod=blog">WSJ Online- 1/15/08</a>]</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4537822419739669120.post-55479471519368943702008-09-22T01:07:00.012-04:002008-09-22T01:39:35.841-04:00I have a baseball team nowI think I know that I am a Yankees fan now. I flirted a bit with the New York Mets. Now I know better. And it took a certain Derek Jeter addressing the crowd at the last Yankees game to hit the final nail on the head.<br /><br /><a href="http://s266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/?action=view&current=MuckCU1.jpg" target="_blank"><img style="width: 299px; height: 307px;" src="http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii269/sd1222/MuckCU1.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Now we are set for a showdown. Kenny and Alex, apart from our new Sharp LCD, are responsible for me getting into baseball, and they happen to be for the Mets.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Fascination for the underdog. Cute maybe, but that is about it. </span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><br />Echoes in the Bronx- Paul Simon [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/sports/baseball/21simon.html">NY Times- 09/19/2008</a>]</span>Shrekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14003656969659253090noreply@blogger.com3