Dear blog visitors:
Happy Diwali, Happy Deepavali, Happy Lakshmi Puja, Happy Kali Puja, and Happy Bhai Duj.
Since Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, Diwali is really what the stock market needs. 🙂
Here are stories about Bhai Duj (or Bhai Dooj) below the fold. And below that, the details of the Five Days of Diwali.
Continue reading “Happy Diwali”
Finally
India is catching up with the USSR (which does not actually exist anymore) of nearly 50 years ago. The Soviet lunar space mission got off the ground with Luna 1 in Jan 1959. Two days ago India gave a fitting reply to it by launching Chandrayaan-I on its way to the moon. Aside from crash-landing on the moon a probe with the Indian flag in it, Chandrayaan-I will map the surface of the moon for two years. It brings to mind the US Lunar Orbiter Program of 1966-7 which photographed the surface of the moon.
Continue reading “India’s Moon Probe”
Capturing Externalities
It’s an economics truism that generally people respond to incentives. If you truly and deeply understand that, you know a fundamental truth about the world.
Continue reading “Incentives and Policies”
Among recent political leaders, Mandela stands out. You may not agree with him on all matters, but one has to respect what he achieved. Here’s an article in Time magazine which I thought was worth reading and reflecting upon.
India’s telecommunications infrastructure story is remarkable in many respects. It used to be a public sector monopoly not too long ago. Waiting time was measured in years and the service was as poor as the price was high. Things changed rapidly after the sector was liberalized and the private sector was allowed to provide telephone services. As there was practically no wire-line phone system to speak of in the early 90s — around 20 million phone lines for a population close to a billion — the legacy burden was entirely missing. Cellular technology effectively allowed India to leapfrog the older twisted wire landline system. Vigorous competition brought prices that are among the cheapest in the world.
Continue reading “Telecommunications and Rural India”
It’s been a while since I wrote a post on SSRS. To remedy that neglect, here’s something about the man.
Ram Guha wrote a funny entry in his Oslo diary with the title “Nobel Longings.” (Thanks to Sushant for the link.)
Continue reading “Ramachandra Guha on Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s Longings for a Nobel Prize”
In an article in the Business Line titled “Kalam’s PURA will not work,” Lee Kuan Yew makes the case for urbanization of the population for India to develop.
Continue reading “Lee Kuan Yew on PURA”
I am privileged to be on Keith Hudson’s mailing list. He is an English polymath, a Renaissance Man in the strictest sense of the term. With his permission I am quoting from one of his musings on the present financial crisis. He quickly hones in on the systemic trouble at the base of the problem: that those who are in charge are incapable of comprehending the system, and the lag between the institutions of yesterday and today’s technical and scientifically advanced world.
Here, for the record, is an excerpt from Keith’s recent observations.
Continue reading “Keith Hudson’s Lesson on the Present Crisis”
If I were asked to name one national political leader — contemporary or in the past — who is deserving of deep respect I would answer “Mr Lee Kuan Yew.” There is something about him that puts him in the top of the heap, in my opinion. It could be his basic intelligence, his deep insight into politics, his masterly understanding of world affairs, his breadth of vision, his obvious scholarship, his impish wit and his Confucian wisdom. The more I read him — and read of him — the deeper my appreciation of the man and his accomplishments become.
I have one piece of advice to all. Stop wasting so much time on news. If you stop reading the newspapers and watching TV news for a few days, you will not have missed much. Things that matter are not news; they persist. So by not wasting too much time on news, you free up some time to gain some insight into deeper issues. Knowledge of the deeper issues would help you makes sense of the news when you do get around to the news eventually.
Continue reading “Mr Lee Kuan Yew: An Interview”
[This is a repost of a January 2008 post. Even if you have seen the video before, I am sure that you will appreciate it even more now since it rings so true.}
The other day, a BBC producer from London called me up and asked me if I would care to comment on the recent big sell-off in the Indian stock markets. I confessed that I am not fully qualified to do so but added that in all honesty that my guess would be as good as any one else’s. Still I declined. The best we can do is pull out Keynes’s “animal spirits,” which unfortunately is not amenable to rigorous scientific or economic analysis. The essential story of the stock market is well told in this cartoon.
That pretty much sums up how the stock market swings between fear and greed, the abrupt change from panic to irrational exuberance. And here are The Long Johns (John Bird and John Fortune) on turbulence in the financial markets. As one of the Johns so astutely observes, “You have to remember two things about the markets. One is, they are made up of very sharp and sophisticated people. These are the greatest brains in the world. The second thing you have to remember is that financial markets — to use the common word — are driven by sentiment.” I won’t spoil the fun for you. Just watch the video and fall off the chair laughing.
That’s why I don’t mess around in the stock market. 🙂
Atanu Dey : Life is a Random Draw 