The Last Days on Lehman Brothers
Barbarians at the Gate
Boiler Room
Trader (Nick Leison)
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Microsoft Outlook: Change delete recurring events appointments without losing history
Google calendar has one very good facility- if you want to change details about any appointment, which is part of recurring event series, it provides options to change a) only that event, b) all events in the series, c) only the future events.
This option c) is not available with Outlook. So for example, if you want to shift all the future events by 1 hour later (lets say to handle winter light saving changes), the timing for all the past instances would also get changed. Also, you would end up losing notes & any other changes you might have put in them.
Solution? Till Microsoft incorporates this feature, a bit complicated procedure is needed. This post gives the details, a little update version would be as the following.
i) Make one temporary Outlook Calendar (Temp).
iii) View your regular Outlook Calendar (Regular) in Category view. This will show all events as a list.
iv) Drag the event-sereis (for which future events need to be changed) to Temp.
v) Open Temp and export it to one MS-Excel file Excel).
vi) Open Excel. It would have all events in the series as separate rows. Change the particular entry (timing for example) for future events. Or better delete all future events and later make a new series for them in Outlook. Save Excel and close it.
vii) Import the Excel into Temp calendar.
viii) View Temp in category view. Drag the events into Regular.
ix) Delete Temp and Excel.
x) Create a new series for future events with changed timing & other details.
x) Create a new series for future events with changed timing & other details.
Note:
1) If you use Calendar in your local PST, then the global Calendar of your exchange account can also be used as Temp- or vice versa. This would save the time of creating another calendar and then later deleting it.
2) The post mentioned above gives almost the same procedure except that it doesn't use Temp calendar. The problem with that method is that all other appointment series also get into Excel and in the process are broken into individual appointments when imported back.
I hope this helps others. If you can find some other less cumbersome process, please let me know in comments. And lets pray that MS makes this change in Outlook, the Net is full of such requests already.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Book: The Perfect Prey ~ Jeroen Smit
Considering so many other behemoths like Lehman went down, the fall of ABN AMRO becomes perhaps less exciting one to read about. But being in Netherlands and specially being ABN AMRO customer makes me specially interested in understanding how it happened.
Jai Arjun Singh says in his post about Wolf Hall 'When we learn about history primarily through cold details set out “objectively” in textbooks, it’s possible to lose sight of the fact that the distant events we take for granted – events that now appear set in stone, almost as if they could have unfolded in no other way – were the accumulated products of the personalities, life experiences and whimsies of human beings who happened to be in a certain place at a certain time: real people with ambitions, weaknesses, dilemmas, biases and prejudices of their own.' I think the story of ABN AMRO is no exception.
This book that describes the people, their egos and the events that they led which eventually resulted in demise of the Dutch financial institution. MORE...
Jai Arjun Singh says in his post about Wolf Hall 'When we learn about history primarily through cold details set out “objectively” in textbooks, it’s possible to lose sight of the fact that the distant events we take for granted – events that now appear set in stone, almost as if they could have unfolded in no other way – were the accumulated products of the personalities, life experiences and whimsies of human beings who happened to be in a certain place at a certain time: real people with ambitions, weaknesses, dilemmas, biases and prejudices of their own.' I think the story of ABN AMRO is no exception.
This book that describes the people, their egos and the events that they led which eventually resulted in demise of the Dutch financial institution. MORE...
The Perfect Prey: The Fall of ABN AMRO, or What Went Wrong in the Banking Industry ~ Jeroen Smit
Considering so many other behemoths like Lehman went down, the fall of ABN AMRO becomes perhaps less exciting one to read about. But being in Netherlands and specially being ABN AMRO customer makes me specially interested in understanding how it happened.
Jai Arjun Singh says in his post about Wolf Hall 'When we learn about history primarily through cold details set out “objectively” in textbooks, it’s possible to lose sight of the fact that the distant events we take for granted – events that now appear set in stone, almost as if they could have unfolded in no other way – were the accumulated products of the personalities, life experiences and whimsies of human beings who happened to be in a certain place at a certain time: real people with ambitions, weaknesses, dilemmas, biases and prejudices of their own.' I think the story of ABN AMRO is no exception.
This book that describes the people, their egos and the events that they led which eventually resulted in demise of the Dutch financial institution. At first the book struck me as providing rather too many details about too distant history, which I thought would not be related to the final event. But slowly, those details got me into the environs, which made me appreciate the clash of the personalities and meaning behind events. Unlike Barbarians, which was mostly focussed on the period & process of LBO process, this book was more focussed on how ABN got to the stage where it became target for acquisition, actual details of how Barkley or the Consortium (RBS, Banco Santander, Fortis) valued or structured the deals are not provided.
A very good summary of the events described in book from the moment Groenink took over till 2004 can be found here. From there till 2007, when the bank was acquired by the consortium is well documented in so many articles, including Wikipedia.
The hunter metaphor (or analogy or is it simile or ...) is used to depict the personality of Rijkman Groenink, the last CEO of ABN AMRO (AA) and the organization that he led for 7 years. By the end of the book there is too much of this hunter became the hunted language- first when AA has been acquired by the Consortium, and then due to financial crisis even the 3 constituent banks of the Consortium, specially Fortis, get into trouble. The start of the book is from one hunting incident years back, when Groenink gets hurt seriously-so bad that doctors say only 1 out of 10 such victims get back to active life. But Groenink is made of different mettle, almost immediately he gets back to office with a resolve that never in his professional life he would complain about physical pain/ difficulty arising from the injuries. He is one macho AMRO guy.
AMRO and ABN were 2 separate banks. As per Jeroen Smit ABN people were largely good hearted, laid-back bankers, while AMRO guys were aggressive bankers, who considered themselves better. From the moment of merger, somewhere in 1991 the chairmen of the 2 banks led the combination to become a single bank, arising from the merge of equals. After these two, Jan Kalffe took reign and then handed over to Groenink.
I think seeds of the eventual demise of the bank were sown even at this stage, where still the people from 2 parent organizations were not fully working together- the communication within the board was not seamless. Towards the end of the book Smit tells how ABN people were surprised to know that even after roughly 20 years of the merge, there was still separate club of AMRO managers active.
But when Groenink too over, he got seven years before bank came to brink of losing its independence. In that time, he could have saved the bank, and could have made it into world's top ten. In fact, Groenink promised to make it among the top 5 in its peer group. But time after time, he and his team failed to form a good strategy, let alone to execute it.
- First, they formed a special group to form strategy (ARROW), which under time-pressure formulated the strategy for such a behemoth without waiting for complete information. I can't believe they could do that, but they did. And later when they got the complete picture, after a delay of more than a year, they corrected course but again towards the other extreme.
- The ARROW and later few more such highly publicized initiatives and reorganizations were either not based on fully baked thought process, or were not brought to their logical conclusion before being replaced by the next initiative. In this matter, ABN AMRO did exactly as Jim Collins says 'comparison' companies do.
- To grow the bank, Groenink constantly kept looking for next acquisition targets. Internally his own bank was not performing well, the efficiency ratios were pathetic, but he left that to his team and didn't follow-up on that aggressively.
- They kept on investing in the corporate banking division in the hope that they would be counted among the big IBanks. Perhaps the aura of wall-street kept giving them motivation to continue investing in expensive bankers, who didn't have big enough market in NL to justify so big salaries. But first, Groenink & board didn't put effective stop to this, and then the board and the supervisory-board didn't want to fire or limit ambitions of chief of Ibanking group- Jiskot, as he was the only one to provide enough counterweight in managing- board to Groenink. What a logic to keep paying some highly paid guy.
- Concept of managing by Value (Net profit- cost of capital) was indeed a very positive (and radical at that time) change. But it requires a big change in mindset, and to make all understand and buy the idea is a mammoth task. Management should have spent a lot of time on that, employing a consulting agency wouldn't be sufficient to make it happen.
- The new head of the supervisory governing body came to know only at the end that finally he had responsibility and powers to reign in Groenink & the managing board.
- And finally, and mainly (as per the limited understanding that a book can provide about such a complex event) the relationship/ communication between the various board members and the management of ABN AMRO in general was not conducive to bring out best solutions for tactical problems and best strategy for the long term. The personality of Groenink was not such that he would lead the team into one single direction with unity.
But overall, I am in sympathy with Groenink. Surely he didn't succeed in making ABN AMRO among the top-five, but in the end he got the best value for the shareholders. Though personally the acquisition by Consortium was in his best interest, he kept pushing for the merger with Barclays. Still, when going out he got some 20+ million Euros, thats something everyone on the Net keeps focussing about. They don't seem to get that he got the best deal for the shareholders in the end- 14+% CAGR over 7 years of his tenure!
Jai Arjun Singh says in his post about Wolf Hall 'When we learn about history primarily through cold details set out “objectively” in textbooks, it’s possible to lose sight of the fact that the distant events we take for granted – events that now appear set in stone, almost as if they could have unfolded in no other way – were the accumulated products of the personalities, life experiences and whimsies of human beings who happened to be in a certain place at a certain time: real people with ambitions, weaknesses, dilemmas, biases and prejudices of their own.' I think the story of ABN AMRO is no exception.
This book that describes the people, their egos and the events that they led which eventually resulted in demise of the Dutch financial institution. At first the book struck me as providing rather too many details about too distant history, which I thought would not be related to the final event. But slowly, those details got me into the environs, which made me appreciate the clash of the personalities and meaning behind events. Unlike Barbarians, which was mostly focussed on the period & process of LBO process, this book was more focussed on how ABN got to the stage where it became target for acquisition, actual details of how Barkley or the Consortium (RBS, Banco Santander, Fortis) valued or structured the deals are not provided.
A very good summary of the events described in book from the moment Groenink took over till 2004 can be found here. From there till 2007, when the bank was acquired by the consortium is well documented in so many articles, including Wikipedia.
The hunter metaphor (or analogy or is it simile or ...) is used to depict the personality of Rijkman Groenink, the last CEO of ABN AMRO (AA) and the organization that he led for 7 years. By the end of the book there is too much of this hunter became the hunted language- first when AA has been acquired by the Consortium, and then due to financial crisis even the 3 constituent banks of the Consortium, specially Fortis, get into trouble. The start of the book is from one hunting incident years back, when Groenink gets hurt seriously-so bad that doctors say only 1 out of 10 such victims get back to active life. But Groenink is made of different mettle, almost immediately he gets back to office with a resolve that never in his professional life he would complain about physical pain/ difficulty arising from the injuries. He is one macho AMRO guy.
AMRO and ABN were 2 separate banks. As per Jeroen Smit ABN people were largely good hearted, laid-back bankers, while AMRO guys were aggressive bankers, who considered themselves better. From the moment of merger, somewhere in 1991 the chairmen of the 2 banks led the combination to become a single bank, arising from the merge of equals. After these two, Jan Kalffe took reign and then handed over to Groenink.
I think seeds of the eventual demise of the bank were sown even at this stage, where still the people from 2 parent organizations were not fully working together- the communication within the board was not seamless. Towards the end of the book Smit tells how ABN people were surprised to know that even after roughly 20 years of the merge, there was still separate club of AMRO managers active.
But when Groenink too over, he got seven years before bank came to brink of losing its independence. In that time, he could have saved the bank, and could have made it into world's top ten. In fact, Groenink promised to make it among the top 5 in its peer group. But time after time, he and his team failed to form a good strategy, let alone to execute it.
- First, they formed a special group to form strategy (ARROW), which under time-pressure formulated the strategy for such a behemoth without waiting for complete information. I can't believe they could do that, but they did. And later when they got the complete picture, after a delay of more than a year, they corrected course but again towards the other extreme.
- The ARROW and later few more such highly publicized initiatives and reorganizations were either not based on fully baked thought process, or were not brought to their logical conclusion before being replaced by the next initiative. In this matter, ABN AMRO did exactly as Jim Collins says 'comparison' companies do.
- To grow the bank, Groenink constantly kept looking for next acquisition targets. Internally his own bank was not performing well, the efficiency ratios were pathetic, but he left that to his team and didn't follow-up on that aggressively.
- They kept on investing in the corporate banking division in the hope that they would be counted among the big IBanks. Perhaps the aura of wall-street kept giving them motivation to continue investing in expensive bankers, who didn't have big enough market in NL to justify so big salaries. But first, Groenink & board didn't put effective stop to this, and then the board and the supervisory-board didn't want to fire or limit ambitions of chief of Ibanking group- Jiskot, as he was the only one to provide enough counterweight in managing- board to Groenink. What a logic to keep paying some highly paid guy.
- Concept of managing by Value (Net profit- cost of capital) was indeed a very positive (and radical at that time) change. But it requires a big change in mindset, and to make all understand and buy the idea is a mammoth task. Management should have spent a lot of time on that, employing a consulting agency wouldn't be sufficient to make it happen.
- The new head of the supervisory governing body came to know only at the end that finally he had responsibility and powers to reign in Groenink & the managing board.
- And finally, and mainly (as per the limited understanding that a book can provide about such a complex event) the relationship/ communication between the various board members and the management of ABN AMRO in general was not conducive to bring out best solutions for tactical problems and best strategy for the long term. The personality of Groenink was not such that he would lead the team into one single direction with unity.
But overall, I am in sympathy with Groenink. Surely he didn't succeed in making ABN AMRO among the top-five, but in the end he got the best value for the shareholders. Though personally the acquisition by Consortium was in his best interest, he kept pushing for the merger with Barclays. Still, when going out he got some 20+ million Euros, thats something everyone on the Net keeps focussing about. They don't seem to get that he got the best deal for the shareholders in the end- 14+% CAGR over 7 years of his tenure!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
"End of IT Outsourcing" ?
Recently an article from ATK is in discussion- "The End of Outsourcing (As We Know It)"
Article itself is here
An interview with one of the authors is here
Summary from my perspective
- Google, Amazon and others are making big inroads in the area of cloud computing and have gathered know-how to provide the benefits of their huge infrastructure to other companies.
- Vendors like these would keep instances of applications on their systems and provide their use to clients as a service- so pay per user, or pay per transaction. I think 'Software as a Service' is someone else' registered term, so the authors invest another term 'Pay as you drink'.
- To say it bluntly, current set of IT outsourcers will die. Some will be acquired, others will starve of clients as all business would go to Amazon, Google etc. In the end, it would be Google, Amazon and IBM who would rule this area.
Its interesting view point, gives quite some points to think about. But not the one I entirely agree with-
1) ATK seems to be assuming that all applications being built and managed by IT outsourcers (lets group them all under this one umbrella term) are so standard that firms can start taking them from service providers.
However, I agree that there is growing trend to move towards SaaS. Already in the payments area companies are providing entire mobile banking platform to banks for use on transaction basis. So such outsourcing from banks to service provides would definitely happen. But I doubt if Googles and Amazons would want to get into these specific (domain specific, or market specific or ...) services.
This in itself could be a pointer towards next steps of the IT outsourcers
a) They can become one of such SaaS providers- a number of product based companies came to be so because they learnt the domain while working for one specific client and then they structured that knowledge in the form of a product to give it to other clients. The IT outsourcers also can take the same route. But this time instead of making a product, they can sell the services hosted on the Cloud.
b) The can start providing man-power (and the delivery capability) to such SaaS providers.
2) A big chunk of all applications (whether made by some Saas provider or proprietary applications from companies themselves) would be hosted on the Cloud. But I am not clear why that would affect work of IT outsourcers. Biggest portion of their work comes from providing man-power and delivery capability to their clients, not from giving infrastructure services to them. So regardless of where the clients' code, data or application is hosted, the outsourcing of application maintenance and building would continue.
We will see how this actually turns out.
Article itself is here
An interview with one of the authors is here
Summary from my perspective
- Google, Amazon and others are making big inroads in the area of cloud computing and have gathered know-how to provide the benefits of their huge infrastructure to other companies.
- Vendors like these would keep instances of applications on their systems and provide their use to clients as a service- so pay per user, or pay per transaction. I think 'Software as a Service' is someone else' registered term, so the authors invest another term 'Pay as you drink'.
- To say it bluntly, current set of IT outsourcers will die. Some will be acquired, others will starve of clients as all business would go to Amazon, Google etc. In the end, it would be Google, Amazon and IBM who would rule this area.
Its interesting view point, gives quite some points to think about. But not the one I entirely agree with-
1) ATK seems to be assuming that all applications being built and managed by IT outsourcers (lets group them all under this one umbrella term) are so standard that firms can start taking them from service providers.
However, I agree that there is growing trend to move towards SaaS. Already in the payments area companies are providing entire mobile banking platform to banks for use on transaction basis. So such outsourcing from banks to service provides would definitely happen. But I doubt if Googles and Amazons would want to get into these specific (domain specific, or market specific or ...) services.
This in itself could be a pointer towards next steps of the IT outsourcers
a) They can become one of such SaaS providers- a number of product based companies came to be so because they learnt the domain while working for one specific client and then they structured that knowledge in the form of a product to give it to other clients. The IT outsourcers also can take the same route. But this time instead of making a product, they can sell the services hosted on the Cloud.
b) The can start providing man-power (and the delivery capability) to such SaaS providers.
2) A big chunk of all applications (whether made by some Saas provider or proprietary applications from companies themselves) would be hosted on the Cloud. But I am not clear why that would affect work of IT outsourcers. Biggest portion of their work comes from providing man-power and delivery capability to their clients, not from giving infrastructure services to them. So regardless of where the clients' code, data or application is hosted, the outsourcing of application maintenance and building would continue.
We will see how this actually turns out.
Friday, July 30, 2010
How to compare two versions of MS-Word documents
MS-Word has inbuilt facility for this.For Office 2007 or higher, in English, directly refer to this link.
Since a number of my friends use Dutch version of Office 2003, the following can help.
- Open any one of the versions (A) of the document. Typically this would be the initial version, on top of which chagnes are made,
- Go to Tools menu and click on 'Compare & Merge Documents' ('Documenten Vergelijken en Samenvoegen' in Dutch- see picture below),
- In the upcoming dialog box, select the other version (B) of the document, click Ok;
- Another dialog box will open to ask in which version (A or B) we would want to see the changes marked. Choose as per your choice. By default it would be A.
- Click Ok. You would see all changes marked in the chosen document in track-change mode.
Since a number of my friends use Dutch version of Office 2003, the following can help.
- Open any one of the versions (A) of the document. Typically this would be the initial version, on top of which chagnes are made,
- Go to Tools menu and click on 'Compare & Merge Documents' ('Documenten Vergelijken en Samenvoegen' in Dutch- see picture below),
- In the upcoming dialog box, select the other version (B) of the document, click Ok;
- Another dialog box will open to ask in which version (A or B) we would want to see the changes marked. Choose as per your choice. By default it would be A.
- Click Ok. You would see all changes marked in the chosen document in track-change mode.
Wednesday, July 07, 2010
Good to Great ~ Jim Collins
Jim Collins would want to introduce the book as '7 habits of Highly Effective Companies' when 'Effective' means companies that went from usual survival mode to phenomenally outperforming the market consistently. Now, the 7-habits has some real gems, and otherwise a lot of generic gyan, the same is true with this book too.
More ...
More ...
Good to Great ~ Jim Collins
Summary
Jim Collins would want to introduce the book as '7 habits of Highly Effective Companies' when 'Effective' means companies that went from usual survival mode to phenomenally outperforming the market consistently. Now, the 7-habits has some real gems, and otherwise a lot of generic gyan, the same is true with this book too.
From thousands of publically traded companies market-price data Jim Collins (and the research team) came up with 11 companies that showed a Good to Great transition. They had a specific criteria to identify such transition and 'Great' company. Then they studied these 11 companies and their direct comparison companies to come up with common traits. Traits are
1) Level 5 Leader- leaders who have both “personal humility” and “professional will”. Seems arbit idea but they thing to be common quality of CEOs of those 11 companies. Perhaps it works that way, a low-profile, open-to-feedback CEO may get opportunity of invite the brightest ideas and also can get buy-in from all without hurting their egos. But I don't think Jamie Dimon of JPMC, or Sandy Weill of Citi or Jack Welsh .. any other guys fit this critieria and still they made their companies great.
2) Get the right people in team. Don't worry about what to do, that's for later. First who, then what.
3) The “Hedgehog concept”: One simple idea about what you can best in the world at, make money from and like doing it. Each of them separately and together are different from what is your core-competence.
4) Culture of self-discipline- so that you just make systems and norms and team follows it. You dont have to spend time on managing/ motivation etc. This comes from step 2.
5) Pioneering use of technology as accelerator, but as a source of transition
6) Flywheel- all these things together, very slowly build-up momentum and like fly-wheel sustain it. Then the company breaks through.
My view of the book
A lot of gas. Perhaps the points he is making are correct, but after reading the book who are no wiser as to how to make it happen- how can be a level-5 guy, how you identify who are right people, how you actually come to Hedgehog concept etc.
Biggest point can be that perhaps his criteria to decide on these G2G companies was not the correct one and so these 6 common traits of publicly traded old (atleast 50 years old to have that much history) are not relevant for the remaining companies and organizations.
But overall still there were quite some good pointers. Biggest of them was that while doing budgeting G2G companies don't reduce allocation for their non-main-focus areas, they simply stop allocation for them- they have a stop-doing list (as opposed to to-do list).
Read this article on vary good analysis of the book.
Jim Collins would want to introduce the book as '7 habits of Highly Effective Companies' when 'Effective' means companies that went from usual survival mode to phenomenally outperforming the market consistently. Now, the 7-habits has some real gems, and otherwise a lot of generic gyan, the same is true with this book too.
From thousands of publically traded companies market-price data Jim Collins (and the research team) came up with 11 companies that showed a Good to Great transition. They had a specific criteria to identify such transition and 'Great' company. Then they studied these 11 companies and their direct comparison companies to come up with common traits. Traits are
1) Level 5 Leader- leaders who have both “personal humility” and “professional will”. Seems arbit idea but they thing to be common quality of CEOs of those 11 companies. Perhaps it works that way, a low-profile, open-to-feedback CEO may get opportunity of invite the brightest ideas and also can get buy-in from all without hurting their egos. But I don't think Jamie Dimon of JPMC, or Sandy Weill of Citi or Jack Welsh .. any other guys fit this critieria and still they made their companies great.
2) Get the right people in team. Don't worry about what to do, that's for later. First who, then what.
3) The “Hedgehog concept”: One simple idea about what you can best in the world at, make money from and like doing it. Each of them separately and together are different from what is your core-competence.
4) Culture of self-discipline- so that you just make systems and norms and team follows it. You dont have to spend time on managing/ motivation etc. This comes from step 2.
5) Pioneering use of technology as accelerator, but as a source of transition
6) Flywheel- all these things together, very slowly build-up momentum and like fly-wheel sustain it. Then the company breaks through.
My view of the book
A lot of gas. Perhaps the points he is making are correct, but after reading the book who are no wiser as to how to make it happen- how can be a level-5 guy, how you identify who are right people, how you actually come to Hedgehog concept etc.
Biggest point can be that perhaps his criteria to decide on these G2G companies was not the correct one and so these 6 common traits of publicly traded old (atleast 50 years old to have that much history) are not relevant for the remaining companies and organizations.
But overall still there were quite some good pointers. Biggest of them was that while doing budgeting G2G companies don't reduce allocation for their non-main-focus areas, they simply stop allocation for them- they have a stop-doing list (as opposed to to-do list).
Read this article on vary good analysis of the book.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown ~ Simon Johnson, James Kwak
What the book is about
For the past 3 decades Wall Street has become too entrenched within Washington power corridors. Under their influence an increasingly de-regulatory regime has overseen (or failed to oversee) American financial system. Current financial crisis (2007-2009), which is the main subject for the book, has resulted from these circumstances. Bankers'approach has resulted in situation that privatizes the profits, while socializes the losses. Solution in short: Too big to fail is too big- cut them to size.
13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown ~ Simon Johnson, James Kwak
What the book is about
For the past 3 decades Wall Street has become too entrenched within Washington power corridors. Under their influence an increasingly de-regulatory regime has overseen (or failed to oversee) American financial system. Current financial crisis (2007-2009), which is the main subject for the book, has resulted from these circumstances. Bankers'approach has resulted in situation that privatizes the profits, while socializes the losses. Solution in short: Too big to fail is too big- cut them to size.
Why this name:
2009- 13 bankers came to meet President Obama to discuss how the deal with the finacnail crisis of 2007-2009. And after the meeting there message was 'we are in this together'.
1997- Brooksley Born, then head of Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) proposed to issue a “concept paper”. Her concern was that 'lack of oversight allowed the proliferation of fraud, and lack of transparency made it difficult to see what risks might be building in this metastasizing sector'. Larry Summers, Deputy Treasury Secretary at that time, is supposed to have called her saying "I have thirteen bankers in my office, and they say if you go forward with this you will cause the worst financial crisis since World War II." NYTimes so aptly alliterates Credit Crisis Cassandra.
These two event, coincidently involving 13 bankers, symbolize the power of Wall Street; the new financial oligarchy within US.
Very apt quote from The Great Gatsby
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Referring to big banks, who brought global economy to the brink of failure, caused millions to lose their savings of life-time and then left it for the governments to salvage the situation using taxpayers money.
How Wall Street became so powerful
Election campaign contributions, 'revolving door' between private sector and government services' and finally but most importantly their idealogical power that convinced people to the extent that pro-Wall Street sentiments were taken for granted.
Comparison with the Asian crisis of 90s
They dissect the financial crisis of South-East Asia (starting from Mexico, and that extended to Korea, Russia...). They show that in each emerging economy one common factor was crony-capitalism- close relationship between some oligarchs with the government (other factors were high levels of debt, cozy and dependence on volatile inflows of capital from the rest of the world).
And in each of these economies US and IMF pushed for taking long term stance (instead of bailout), even when it meant making few big companies bankrupt.
Later, when the similar situations came up in US (thats 2007-09 crisis), government took just the opposite route. This time, instead of huge money of taxpayers was spent to bailout the financial institutions.
I wonder why India was not mentioned. We didnt have this crony-capitalism problem, or because we were not affected directly by this crisis?
Further
The book is a good read. A lot of further readings can be obtained from the blog of the authors. One post by another expert provides a very good summary (in fact more than that) of their last chapters. Book's site also provides very good information.
For the past 3 decades Wall Street has become too entrenched within Washington power corridors. Under their influence an increasingly de-regulatory regime has overseen (or failed to oversee) American financial system. Current financial crisis (2007-2009), which is the main subject for the book, has resulted from these circumstances. Bankers'approach has resulted in situation that privatizes the profits, while socializes the losses. Solution in short: Too big to fail is too big- cut them to size.
Why this name:
2009- 13 bankers came to meet President Obama to discuss how the deal with the finacnail crisis of 2007-2009. And after the meeting there message was 'we are in this together'.
1997- Brooksley Born, then head of Commodity Futures Trading Corporation (CFTC) proposed to issue a “concept paper”. Her concern was that 'lack of oversight allowed the proliferation of fraud, and lack of transparency made it difficult to see what risks might be building in this metastasizing sector'. Larry Summers, Deputy Treasury Secretary at that time, is supposed to have called her saying "I have thirteen bankers in my office, and they say if you go forward with this you will cause the worst financial crisis since World War II." NYTimes so aptly alliterates Credit Crisis Cassandra.
These two event, coincidently involving 13 bankers, symbolize the power of Wall Street; the new financial oligarchy within US.
Very apt quote from The Great Gatsby
"They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made."
—F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Referring to big banks, who brought global economy to the brink of failure, caused millions to lose their savings of life-time and then left it for the governments to salvage the situation using taxpayers money.
How Wall Street became so powerful
Election campaign contributions, 'revolving door' between private sector and government services' and finally but most importantly their idealogical power that convinced people to the extent that pro-Wall Street sentiments were taken for granted.
Comparison with the Asian crisis of 90s
They dissect the financial crisis of South-East Asia (starting from Mexico, and that extended to Korea, Russia...). They show that in each emerging economy one common factor was crony-capitalism- close relationship between some oligarchs with the government (other factors were high levels of debt, cozy and dependence on volatile inflows of capital from the rest of the world).
And in each of these economies US and IMF pushed for taking long term stance (instead of bailout), even when it meant making few big companies bankrupt.
Later, when the similar situations came up in US (thats 2007-09 crisis), government took just the opposite route. This time, instead of huge money of taxpayers was spent to bailout the financial institutions.
I wonder why India was not mentioned. We didnt have this crony-capitalism problem, or because we were not affected directly by this crisis?
Further
The book is a good read. A lot of further readings can be obtained from the blog of the authors. One post by another expert provides a very good summary (in fact more than that) of their last chapters. Book's site also provides very good information.
Baudolino~ Umberto Eco
A wonderful adventure of a lovable liar.
Year 1204, place Constantinople, person Nicetas Choniates a historian at Eastern Roman Imperial court. The city is being sacked by the pilgrims on their way to the 4th Crusade. Nicetas (Niketas in the book) is saved 'from the fury of the invaders' by a knight, who "appeared as handsome as Saladin, on a bedecked horse, a great Red cross on his chest, sword drawn, shouting "Gods belly!...". That's our hero Baudolino, who later flatly informs Niketas that he had the horse and the knights attire are actually stolen. Perhaps this is the only truth he tells, as after this there is no limit to the wonderful tales of Baudolino.
Baudolino~ Umberto Eco
A wonderful adventure of a lovable liar.
Year 1204, place Constantinople, person Nicetas Choniates a historian at Eastern Roman Imperial court. The city is being sacked by the pilgrims on their way to the 4th Crusade. Nicetas (Niketas in the book) is saved 'from the fury of the invaders' by a knight, who "appeared as handsome as Saladin, on a bedecked horse, a great Red cross on his chest, sword drawn, shouting "Gods belly!...". That's our hero Baudolino, who later flatly informs Niketas that he had the horse and the knights attire are actually stolen. Perhaps this is the only truth he tells, as after this there is no limit to the wonderful tales of Baudolino.
Niketas is a court historian, and living at Byzantine court has taught him to evaluate people with calm distrust. But what to do of a man, who flatly admits that he is an inveterate liar, possesses likable personality, has got wonderful tales to tell and most of all who is also ones savior? While the city burns and later when he is on the run with family, Niketas can not keep himself from constantly listening to the amazing account of Baudolino's life.
Towards the very beginning of the book Baudolino gives himself out candidly-
"Whether or not I saw him is another question. Master Niketas, the problem of my life is that I've always confused what I saw with what I wanted to see. ...with me, whenever I said I saw this, or I found this letter that say thus and so (and may be I'd written it myself), other people seemed to have been waiting for that very thing. You know, Master Nikatas, when you say something you've imagined, and other they say that's exactly how it is, you end up believing it yourself."
But still, there are things that keep Niketas half convinced that he is listening to a true account of life- Baudolino's knowledge of the thing that are known only to most widely read savants, his confidence in narrating stories and of course his evident fluency with so many languages (an ability possessed only by the apostles). Baudolino tells about how he came to be the adopted son of the Holy Roman Emperor himself (Frederik I Barbarossa), the story of founding of city of Alessandria, how he was instrumental in brokering peace between the Italian cities and the Emperor and how he falls in love with his adopted mother and end up even kissing the Empress! Taking a number of personalities, events and even the legends of the era as raw material, Eco spins out an entertaining adventure of Baudolino. Over the course, he shows how a number of legends (holy grail, wealth of Pretor John's kingdom, so many holy relics, myriad mythic creatures like Unicorn etc.) might have become part of popular legends. Checkout the fantastic world map that Baudolino used in his quest for Prestor John's kingdom.
After Tom Holland's scholarly account of European life around the first Millennium, I could appreciate this romance from Eco even more- depiction of roughly the same era, portrayal of a number of events and personalities from the and events from the same period, but in more fun-filled, and imaginative way. In an interview Eco had said about the book 'There are no advances in philology here – ... These are not pages or erudition, they are pages of comedy'. But that doesn't mean he takes it lightly. He says further 'it is an apology for utopia, for those inventions that move the world. Columbus discovered America by mistake: he thought that the earth was much smaller... A continent is conquered following a myth.' And towards the end of the book Eco uses one of the mythic creatures to explain Gnostic creation beliefs.
But why is it we never hear of this superhero, this Baudolino, in our history books? Its because, when Nicetas wrote his history, he omitted Baudolino's name deliberately. Otherwise he would 'have to tell about the relics they fabricated (and so many other irreverent things.)... And the readers would lose faith in the most sacred things'. Niketas is comforted by his mentor that the beautiful story of Baudolino would still not be lost- 'sooner or later, someone- a greater liar than Baudolino- will tell it.' Thus referring to himself, Eco closes the enchanting story of Baudolino.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Second hand shop in Utrecht:Stichting Kringloop Centrum Utrecht
Stichting Kringloop Centrum Utrecht
Bus no. 6 from central station
Bus stop Kastelenplantsoen
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman ~ Louis de Bernières
Magic realism. Need to read at least one book of Gabriel García Márquez's books to check it out from the master himself. Someone mentioned in Wikipedia that Louis de Bernières was paying homage to the style that came from Latin America by employing the Magic Realism style that was born there (?). And, intelligent as I am, further thought that he was paying specific tribute to Garcia by naming one of the characters after him. It might be that Garcia is fairly common name in Latin America and that this style (or even way of thinking) was usual for de Bernieres in his initial years as author; and so homage or no homage, perhaps he had no choice in these matters.
This was my third book by de Bernières. In each of his earlier two books that I read (Corelli's Mandolin & Birds without Wings) I had observed a method- an arrangement of events to get to the heart of the reader. First, he would depict an idyllic picture of a community and slowly get you in love with them. When doing so, he would give so many details for each setting, each character and each event that you would find the whole situation funnily real, and also would find yourself living those moments. And then in the second half, he would disrupt the whole way of living for the village/ small town, uproot them from their homes and would show one by one, how life turned sour for the individuals. And once again, like he had done with the good days, here also you would not be spared the gruesome and melancholy details.
I was suspecting the same treatment in this book, and was already dreading reaching the 2nd half of the book. But this time the end was not so bad. While for Colombia (or whichever country it was he was describing) the nature of the governance doesn't change much by the end of the book just becasue of regime change; the little town of Cochadebajo de los Gatos is spared the destruction and the townsfolk end the novel with a long fiesta, like in Asterix.
The long named town is the setting for the novel. And is home to funny, strange but lovable characters. While they are living their lovely-lovely life their with their million idiosyncrasies and hundreds of wild cats; a dishonest cardinal unwittingly starts an inquisition with an over-zealous priest in command. Unimaginable atrocities depicted with horrifying details make you wonder if really man is capable of doing all that. But the wonder should rather be reserved for the funny ghosts of the town who not only refuse to marry, but also fall in love in their afterlife, have kids and even get killed from their ghost-hood and transported back to life with a rebirth :)
Eventually the inquisition reaches the town, but is defeated in a fantastic battle fought by army, townsfolk and ghosts. The modern day Torquemada, El Innocente, is taken by St. Thomas Aquinas himself with a promise that he will go naked forever.
Millennium ~Tom Holland
Subtitle of the book reads "The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom", that should give some idea about the book. Focus of the book is roughly the 100 year span of European history around the first Millennium (10th & 11th century). During that time...
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Millennium, by Tom Holland
Subtitle of the book reads "The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom", that should give some idea about the book. Focus of the book is roughly the 100 year span of European history around the first Millennium (10th & 11th century). During that time, a lot of political and religious movements happened the way they happened, as people were waiting for the anti-Christ and then Christ to come once the thousandth year after the Savior was over. While no one exactly knew whether those thousand years were to be counted from the moment of His birth or Passion, or if those years were to be taken literally as 1000 years or even if those years were already gone by. And so even when the years kept going by, the people continued with their games out of fear, despair and hopes of the Millennium and the arrival of the Christ.
The tussle between the Papacy and rulers, Holland explains, first made Church getting too strong (with much fun and at length, he describes how even a emperor was forced to wait on a Pope for three days, standing outside the Pope's castle in snowy winter). And then, this same struggle made rulers to assert themselves more sternly, which made the state more independent and separate from the Church. He says that this would have paved way for secular democratic states ruled by modern ideas (allowing gay marriages etc.), however, the evolution of this modern state is not the focus of the book. So I find it funny that this is exactly what The Independent wants to highlight the most, perhaps because its so catchy- 'A pact between an obscure Pope and a Dark Ages emperor led to gay weddings and Voltaire' :)
Holland also describes at a very high level also the major events since the death of Constantine that led to the momentous years around the Millennium. The evolution of Lord-serf relation, Knights, Castles, Peace of God and so many other things that I used to read about became even more clear. I think best part was the chapter on events that finally resulted in Norman conquest of England. True to his style, Holland named that chapter '1066 and all that'.
Another masterpiece of Tom Holland that matched my expectations after Rubicon and Persian Fire. Just today finished the book. Unlike other books, and like any of Tom Holland's, this one was required you to really focus due to its over-complicated sentence structure; but was still so much enjoyable, interesting and hence a fast read.
The tussle between the Papacy and rulers, Holland explains, first made Church getting too strong (with much fun and at length, he describes how even a emperor was forced to wait on a Pope for three days, standing outside the Pope's castle in snowy winter). And then, this same struggle made rulers to assert themselves more sternly, which made the state more independent and separate from the Church. He says that this would have paved way for secular democratic states ruled by modern ideas (allowing gay marriages etc.), however, the evolution of this modern state is not the focus of the book. So I find it funny that this is exactly what The Independent wants to highlight the most, perhaps because its so catchy- 'A pact between an obscure Pope and a Dark Ages emperor led to gay weddings and Voltaire' :)
Holland also describes at a very high level also the major events since the death of Constantine that led to the momentous years around the Millennium. The evolution of Lord-serf relation, Knights, Castles, Peace of God and so many other things that I used to read about became even more clear. I think best part was the chapter on events that finally resulted in Norman conquest of England. True to his style, Holland named that chapter '1066 and all that'.
Another masterpiece of Tom Holland that matched my expectations after Rubicon and Persian Fire. Just today finished the book. Unlike other books, and like any of Tom Holland's, this one was required you to really focus due to its over-complicated sentence structure; but was still so much enjoyable, interesting and hence a fast read.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Office worries
Woke up after thinking (dreaming?) whole night about office matters. For past few days have been worried that my whole days goes in office work or thinking about it. Then I was struck with a comforting thought-
Maturity to think over life's real problems or the discipline to leave office worries to office itself will come later. But till then, I can be happy that biggest worries in life are about office matters and not something to do with my family, friends, health or other personal matters.
Maturity to think over life's real problems or the discipline to leave office worries to office itself will come later. But till then, I can be happy that biggest worries in life are about office matters and not something to do with my family, friends, health or other personal matters.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Utrecht Taxis
RIBOTAX
Phone 030-2441474
Mobile 06-50275019
van Egmondkade 92
3553 JL Utrecht
----------------------
Prestige
0302875050
----------------------
Schipholl Taxi
0302300400
Good option to go to Schiphol airport. For 55 Euros you can reach there from any ONE point within Utrecht. If you have to go to 2-3 houses within Utrecht to get all friends, then those costs are extra, @ normal charges.
Phone 030-2441474
Mobile 06-50275019
van Egmondkade 92
3553 JL Utrecht
----------------------
Prestige
0302875050
----------------------
Schipholl Taxi
0302300400
Good option to go to Schiphol airport. For 55 Euros you can reach there from any ONE point within Utrecht. If you have to go to 2-3 houses within Utrecht to get all friends, then those costs are extra, @ normal charges.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Death. By choice.
Got to know of sad demise of one of my colleagues' mother. Sometimes the Grim Reaper comes as a shock and almost always he comes uninvited. But this time, he was one sought out visitor (though still I feel an unwelcome one, when finally he would have arrived)- the departed was one weary fighter after long battle with pain.
I remember how few days back my colleague had told of her mother's situation- "my mother is dying". Not as an event, but as an action- not as in 'this is happening to her', but more as 'she is doing it'. Indeed then she explained that too much pain caused by cancer has made her to decide to end her life. In the Netherlands this is allowed (euthanasia).At that time, she was looking for an appointment with the specialist doctor to make this happen. Appointment! To die?!!
I know of my own family members, who in last few days, were forced to wish for death due to pain. Also, I remember my friend Gert, who when he got to know that he had cancer, decided not not to go for chemo. His was a choice for better quality of life though for fewer days- he reasoned that chemo would make him live an extra few months, but would make his health deteriorate so badly that those would not be days worth living. And now, now I hear of this lady, who consciously took an appointment to end her world. How much strength and rational thinking is needed to make such a decision, and how much will power is needed to stick to it? Because life would start tempting you again towards her, the moment you return to occasional lucid moments from your morphine induced slumbers!!
Farewell o departed, though we know not where you go. And I wish strength to all those you leave behind. In life, I hope I can someday be as resolute as you showed yourself to be in death. And may your tale make me and my loved ones and your loved ones, live life more fully.
पश्येम शरदः शतं|
जीवेम शरदः शतं|
श्रुणुयाम शरदः शतं||
As for death, I think I can just pray as so many have done before me
अनायासेन मरणं, विना दैन्यें जीवनं!!
I remember how few days back my colleague had told of her mother's situation- "my mother is dying". Not as an event, but as an action- not as in 'this is happening to her', but more as 'she is doing it'. Indeed then she explained that too much pain caused by cancer has made her to decide to end her life. In the Netherlands this is allowed (euthanasia).At that time, she was looking for an appointment with the specialist doctor to make this happen. Appointment! To die?!!
I know of my own family members, who in last few days, were forced to wish for death due to pain. Also, I remember my friend Gert, who when he got to know that he had cancer, decided not not to go for chemo. His was a choice for better quality of life though for fewer days- he reasoned that chemo would make him live an extra few months, but would make his health deteriorate so badly that those would not be days worth living. And now, now I hear of this lady, who consciously took an appointment to end her world. How much strength and rational thinking is needed to make such a decision, and how much will power is needed to stick to it? Because life would start tempting you again towards her, the moment you return to occasional lucid moments from your morphine induced slumbers!!
Farewell o departed, though we know not where you go. And I wish strength to all those you leave behind. In life, I hope I can someday be as resolute as you showed yourself to be in death. And may your tale make me and my loved ones and your loved ones, live life more fully.
पश्येम शरदः शतं|
जीवेम शरदः शतं|
श्रुणुयाम शरदः शतं||
As for death, I think I can just pray as so many have done before me
अनायासेन मरणं, विना दैन्यें जीवनं!!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Putting inline comments in mails
Usually we need to put inline comments while replying to mails. Its always useful to put our name in the beginning of such remarks, with special font so that the remark stands out.
Microsoft Outlook can do it automatically for us, as given below
Microsoft Outlook can do it automatically for us, as given below
The outlook setting is fairly simple.
Go to Tools --> Options --> Click on Emailoptions
(my screenshots are for Dutch version of MS Office).
In the two drop-downs asking for options on inline comments, make proper choice. Also indicate how you would want your name to be marked before the comments.
Click Ok. Done!
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Secure print using MS-Office
It usually happens in office that I need to print some confidential document. For such cases, the only option with me is to click the Print button and then run to the printer.
Recently I got to know from my colleague Alex that a very useful facility for this is available in Office suite for quite some time.
It's very simple- while printing you can provide a one-time password. The printer would print the document only when you have provided that password on the printer itself. Of course, you can use this only if the printer in your office/ home has option to input password, but most modern printers come with this facility.
For step by step instructions
Click File --> Print. Then on the pop-up window, click Properties button, select 'Page Setup' tab, and then select 'Secure Print' from the Output Method drop-dpwn.
Recently I got to know from my colleague Alex that a very useful facility for this is available in Office suite for quite some time.
It's very simple- while printing you can provide a one-time password. The printer would print the document only when you have provided that password on the printer itself. Of course, you can use this only if the printer in your office/ home has option to input password, but most modern printers come with this facility.
For step by step instructions
Click File --> Print. Then on the pop-up window, click Properties button, select 'Page Setup' tab, and then select 'Secure Print' from the Output Method drop-dpwn.
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