Regulation

"I'm not a big fan of regulation and bureaucracy. But as normal, greedy human beings, we don't seem to learn from our mistakes and those of others and their fathers. It's not the markets that need to be regulated. It is human greed that needs to be contained. And the notion of easy money. Now, since people make the markets, let's start by regulating the markets."

Balls!

Sen. Jim Bunning, R-KY., scoffed at Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to seek congressional approval to aid Freddie & Fannie. "Where will the money come from if we need to use it?" Bunning asked. "Some of us don't like the idea of an unlimited amount of money. Come January, you will be gone and most of us will be seated here. We have to be responsible to taxpayers for what will be done." !!

Source: The Daily Deal, Wednesday July 16 2008

Little Italy

Little Italy at 8 pm
A 2001 Chardonnay
Smoked Salmon with Champagne sauce and Strawberries
Mousse
Capuccino
Entertaining conversation with the couple at the next table

Wish she were here ...

I opened the Times Of India website after a long time. I rarely read news from there (well, where else??) and needless to say, I was disappointed, which is more often the case these days when I read news. All 5 headlines had to do with death in one form of the other. And there was a 'More' button at the end ... !

Foreclosures

Read this funny quote somewhere ..

"Foreclosures are ruling the headlines. If Britney changed her last name to Foreclosure she may be the single most popular figure on the planet past, present and future."

Shareholder Value

I'm tired of this phrase "create shareholder value". Every TDH from the CEO of BHP Billiton to my friend who runs a 20 employee startup keeps talking about creating value for shareholders, whether by offering to buy Rio Tinto, or in my friend's case, by taking a piss on the sidewalks of San Mateo. I'm not against creating shareholder value. It is the holy grail of our times, which if not followed or at least uttered a dozen times a day, may put your ass in the firing line the next time your board catches a cold. But trust me, you and I have equally grown tired of this bs. What we need is a new phrase, not a new concept. Something novel, striking, easy-to-say, beautiful and fresh! But it has to create shareholder value, got it?!

The Blue Screen

I like Windows. In fact, I love it. Under normal circumstances. But today, as I was going through something really urgent - I can't begin to describe how urgent it was - I got the dreaded blue screen. I've seen the monster at times during the last ten years that I've been using computers, and it is an eerie coincidence that every time it appears, you seem to be doing something important or urgent or both. What was most frustrating was that after I restarted computer - a must in these situations - I got this message on a browser window:

Problem report summary
----------------------

Problem type: Windows stop error

Solution available?: No

What does this problem mean: Windows has encountered a problem it cannot recover from and it needs to be restarted

Cause: Unknown

Additional steps for you to take: Please continue to send problem reports so analysts at Microsoft can study and try to correct the problem as quickly as possible

~~~~~~~~~~~

I mean, what kind of error analysis is that? Solution Available - NO; Cause - Unknown! Additional Steps - please keep telling us and we will fix it asap. I HAVE BEEN TELLING YOU GUYS FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS! WHERE IS THE SOLUTION GUYS?!

A few friends were talking the other day when the topic turned to everybody's favorite - Microsoft Bashing! I have and probably will defend the company for all it has done to help humanity - I really mean it - the last couple of decades. Most of my friends honestly feel that MS is losing out in the market because it is such a slow giant that it is losing out on opportunities that other nimble-footed companies are jumping on. This is definitely true to some extent. While the cash cows of MS - Office and Windows - rake in money, it is very important for MS to reinvent itself and bring in products that will change rtomorrow, not yesterday. Innovation and Change are probably the two words that everybody at MS can learn. And personally I think it is not enough if they learn, the need to live Innovation and Change at MS!

More Scrutiny on Wall St?

About a month ago, when the US Government and the Treasury Secretary, Mr. Henry Paulson, started insisting on greater transparency in Middle and Far Eastern Sovereign Funds, which had lent and in the process averted some part of Wall Street’s collapse, I was ticked off. I understand the motive behind this insistence – to prevent the governments backing these funds to use this as a political weapon or a bargaining tool – but I felt that we were not in a position to dictate terms, not exactly because we were beggars trying to choose, but let’s face it, we were almost there. With nobody at home trusting Wall Street with their money, banks had no other option but to look outside. And look, and lick, they did.

It normally annoys me, and a horde of others who swear by capitalism and the markets’ innate ability to take care of themselves, when the government asks Wall Street to bend over because it deserves a spanking or worse yet … you get the picture. Well, that’s what we are taught day in and day out, or was I dozing in those classes? But then, don’t we also study that kids and minors are not capable of making intelligent decisions and that in the eyes of the law, they aren’t capable of entering into enforceable contracts? Now what do you call a bunch of supposedly well-educated, smart, A+ personalities, who squander away a few hundred billion dollars of investor money? Is it just hard luck or would you call them juvenile idiots? Perhaps for the first time, I am inclined to support Mr. Paulson’s endorsement of more scrutiny of Wall Street’s investment practices. If the government can urge foreign funds to disclose their motives, what prevents them from doing so at home? Especially now, since you and I, US taxpayers, have unwittingly written an insurance policy to these kids playing in their sandboxes?

Senator Obama was right this morning when, speaking on the US economy, he said that instead of encouraging sensible reform that rewarded success and long term sustainable growth, we have too often excused and embraced an ethic of greed and cutting corners. The result is the peril we are seeing today. The government indeed has a role and an obligation to ensure transparency and fair competition, and in times such as these, if that means more scrutiny on Wall St, so be it. The challenge however will be to ensure that the over-enthusiastic lawmakers in Washington don’t take this opportunity to send us back in time to an era of regulation.

One True Love

A picture of the "boy with the beautiful brown eyes" which Anne Frank calls her "one true love" in the diary she wrote while hiding in Nazi-occupied Netherlands is scheduled to go on display in Amsterdam.

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