Book Read/Review – India Business Checklists
I got this book as a gift and read this book during my travel-time.
The author has done good research to bring wide variety of topics related to doing business in/with India in a paperback. While you could not expect a depth on each topic (in a paperback), it’s a great starter. The book is a quick-start to know how India and Indians operate and (more importantly) don’t operate.
The reasons i gave it a three (and a half) stars
1. Updated with current knowledge, rules, regulations and tactics
2. A quick overview in checklist format
3. Case studies in some places
I would encourage every manager who outsources work to India to read this book to get best of outsourcing and avoid/mitigate risks.
Two things in my opinion missing…
1. some charts and data
2. next steps
India v/s United states a comaprison
India v/s US economy
source : http://www.mint.com/blog/trends/india-vs-the-us-a-visual-comparison/
So they are worried about deflation
looking @ inflation numbers not so high even after gas has gone up by 40% in last six months, everyone is predicting that it’s going to be deflationary…
Are they sure
If you just look back two years ago, and assume we are in inflation. Now if you go back to times when Dow was 8000ish … look @ where our inflation is..
Conscience of a Liberal
Amazing book …
Paul Krugman, the 2008 Noble Laurette takes us through time from the guilded age to 2007 for reason why america was and why america is today. His whole reason for democrat’s failure is attributed to Regan and the cnservative’s conspiracy to take over america.
While , its hard to believe what he says in entirety, he presents strong conclusive evidences to prove his point. I’m sure there is more to america than conservative movement, but Krugman brings out great points on
1. Inequality in america
2. Failure of USA to be a complete walfare state yet capital state
Woah i did not want this book to finish, while i did not agree everything what Prof. Krugman had to say, his belife arguments and facts for the arguments were so powerful, i wanted more of it.
I’m certainly going to read return of depression economics…
Robert Merton – on financial innovations and markets in general
While i don’t agree with everything he says, Robert Morton is explaining CDSs as put options, how world can benefit from financial regulation and in a question defends why there should not be naked CDS Law (i don’t agree with last one).
Robert Morton’s argument is not all financial innovations live, may be one or two see the light. But my problem is the other 98 are pretty destructive and should not be let out in public. Just as FDA regulates the drugs and FAA regulates airlines, may be there has to be some regulation to make sure we don’t get bullet trains with railway tracks… 
Mark to market at its best …
while mark to market makes sense for everything i wrote … here is an item that how mark to market may be misused…
http://holdingtoaccount.blogspot.com/2009/04/cvas-or-magic-of-your-own-credit-on.html
AAA rating — was it a big game.
By mid-2007, there were 37,000 structured finance issues in the U.S. alone with the top rating (Scholtes and Beales, 2007). According to Fitch Ratings (2007), roughly 60 percent of all global structured products were AAA-rated, in contrast to less than 1 percent of the corporate issues.
….
….
…
For example, 27 of the 30 tranches of asset-backed collateralized debt obligations underwritten by Merrill Lynch in 2007, saw their triple-A ratings downgraded to “junk” (Craig, Smith, and Ng, 2008). Overall, in 2007, Moody’s downgraded 31 percent of all tranches for asset-backed collateralized debt obligations it had rated and 14 percent of those initially rated AAA (Bank of International Settlements, 2008). By mid-2008, structured finance activity was effectively shut down, and the president of Standard & Poor’s, Deven Sharma, expected it to remain so for “years” (“S&P President,” 2008).
source — Hbs working paper
A simplified but straight version of what happened?
So just like every Sunday on my economy reading, i stumbled upon this video. How accurate “Best way to rob a bank is to own one” … I may actually add a line and own the one .. ” thats too big too fail / poses systemtic risks”.
The difference between risk and uncertainty
Risk is an element of randomness in situations where the ultimate outcome is undetermined but the range of potential outcomes is understood and quantifiable.
Uncertainty arises due to incomplete knowledge about the manner in which events occur, a lack of predictability, and the possibility of unprecedented behavior or events. It is not quantifiable.
