I was in Singapore for a few days during my winter vacation. Sandwiched between two weeks in India and a week in Thailand, the contrast between Singapore and these two third world Asian countries could not have been starker. As we all know, a few decades back all three countries were equally under-developed. Today Singapore is an advanced economy and continues to grow (though not in 2009) led by an enlightened government.
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Have a Great 2009!
Been away on some R&R to South-East Asia. Thus the slow blogging (slower than usual, I should say).
The vacation was wonderful. Spent a few days in Singapore, Bangkok and then New Year’s at Koh Samui. Everywhere with friends.
To my readers – all the very best for 2009. May you thrive, or at least, weather the storm well.
May you continue to take chances. Seek out new experiences. Invest time in family and friendships. Giving even when you’re not getting.
Happy New Year!
Wanted: An Indian “Yes We Can”
A couple of weeks after the Mumbai attacks, India and Indians are still fuming. There is this great stirring to action, particularly among the young and the educated, who want to see some change. All this is good, but the big question is how do you take all this energy, this dissatisfaction with the status quo, and convert into constructive action?
The recent US elections had some similar contextual elements to it. A general dissatisfaction with the way the country was being run and a section of the electorate – again, the young and college educated – who were highly motivated to do something about it. But that’s where the similarities with India end. In the US they had in Barack Obama, a leader that they could rally around, who represented that hope for change. In India there is no such leader. Most of the ideas for action that one hears today from the intelligentsia are policy related, rather than politics related. And that is a problem. Real change can’t take place unless governance changes.
ISI Chief Visit – PR Mistake or Oneupmanship
Indian PM, Manmohan Singh talks to Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani President. He is angry. Zardari is trying to placate him. Manmohan Singh asks him to send his ISI Chief over to participate in the investigation. Zardari agrees.
So far so good. Then the Indian side, presumably, announces/leaks it to the press. Headlines in newspapers say “PM summons ISI Chief to India”. Bad mistake. They should have let Pakistan announce it to the world. The headline could have been very different. “Zardari says ‘We will work with India to fight terrorism’. ISI Chief leaving for India.”
Now India looks stupid and Pakistan looks petulant. Not a good way to start working together on what is the biggest challenge facing both countries.
Better Security Takes Money and Willpower
In the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, if there is one thing we take up with seriousness, I hope that is upgrading our internal security – police, NSG, intelligence – and other organizations that contribute to it.
After Mumbai, my friends have been burning the wires online and on the phones. There is anguish, some anger but the overwhelming reaction is that we need to do something. A couple of my friends are IPS officers. Much of this post will be quoting them or channeling them.
This new style of terrorism – sophisticated yet brazen – requires higher levels of sophistication in battling it. The terrorists who are used to finding chinks in the armor of the American security apparatus, are the same terrorists who attacked Mumbai and made it look so easy. Don’t be fooled by the name they gave the media. Laskhar, Taliban, al Qaeda – they are all names given to different parts of a terrorist cooperative that shares weaponry, training, technology and indoctrination.
Mumbai Terror
Got news of the terror attacks while on vacation. Some random thoughts while its still not over.
Never watch an India related news event through the eyes of CNN or any other US TV channel. Thank goodness for NDTV Live which worked surprisingly well from the hotel over broadband. Until, that is other people found out about it and it crashed.
But for print news I found myself going to BBC and New York Times. Why?
Fewer Finance Jobs Isn’t All Bad
While people in the capital markets or selling to it lament the “It’ll never be the same” nature of recent events, there is an emerging meme that says that this is perhaps a good thing.
Fareed Zakaria in a recent column in the Newsweek titled There is a Silver Lining:
Wall Street will also need to change. Paul Volcker has long argued that the recent spate of financial innovation was nothing of the kind: it simply shuffled around existing resources while contributing few real benefits to the economy. Such activity will now be reduced significantly.
Book: No Elevator to the Top
The Future of a Finance Job
Even among economists and finance gurus, there is disagreement about the financial rescue package that the US Congress approved last week. A very well argued viewpoint, which does not agree with the Treasury’s plan, is here. But the one thing everyone agrees upon is that Wall Street is going to change forever.
While legislators and companies look at what this means for the economy and for their businesses, most people, particularly students who are looking at a career in Finance, wonder about what this means for them. What follows in this post applies more to developed markets like the US and Western Europe. In developing markets like India, the same trends will manifest but I expect that the effect of the underlying economic growth on the financial sector can more than compensate for it.
Economist’s Global Elections for US President
The Economist has a global vote running on the US Presidency. Its design matches the US electoral college system. Each country has a number of electoral votes that are roughly proportional to the population of the country. The candidate who wins the country takes all the electoral votes of that country. The electoral votes are not split in proportion of the individual votes.
The vote of course makes no difference to the actual election, if only to bring focus to what the rest of the world thinks about the candidates who are contesting to be the “ruler of the free world”.
The very early results indicate a strong support for Barrack Obama. The screenshot attached was taken at about 9:15PM Pacific. [You can click on the image to see its details.] At 8 PM when I cast my own vote, John McCain had no electoral votes. Since then El Salvador seems to be leaning towards McCain. Most countries I checked – India, Britain, Germany, USA – had Obama polling over 80% of the votes. Even Israel was over 70%.
These are very early results. The poll was announced in the print edition of this week’s economist. With just the weekend gone, I suspect that the results still represent the voting of the core economist reader. This will change as each party’s supporters will be sent to the economist site to register their vote.
You need to create a user id for economist.com which is free, but don’t have to be a subscriber of the print edition.
6 am pacific 