India ! Prior and Post Independance !

PRIOR INDPENDANCE	POST INDEPENDANCE
We are exploited by politicians and Industrialists. British Mother Fuckers.	We are exploited by politicians and Industrialists. Indian Mother Fuckers
Britishers dominated Indians considering them illiterate and inferior.	Politicians, Neta log, people with high jacks and Cheques dominate the common mass.
Economy in bad shape.	Economy in good shape.
British built the Railways and buildings like the India Gate, Gateway of India, Parliament and other monuments which still stand proud.	We built the Common Wealth Games stadiums and pools which are breaking down even before starting of the Games.
British looted and plundered Indian wealth and manpower.	Today Politicians loot and Plunder the Indian wealth and manpower. They Deposit it in European Banks.
I believe lesser Corruption at that time.	Corruption is the only system that works in India.

Warren Buffet on Derivatives

 

Following are edited excerpts from the Berkshire Hathaway annual report for 2002.

I view derivatives as time bombs, both for the parties that deal in them and the economic system. Basically these instruments call for money to change hands at some future date, with the amount to be determined by one or more reference items, such as interest rates, stock prices, or currency values. For example, if you are either long or short an S&P 500 futures contract, you are a party to a very simple derivatives transaction, with your gain or loss derived from movements in the index. Derivatives contracts are of varying duration, running sometimes to 20 or more years, and their value is often tied to several variables. 

Unless derivatives contracts are collateralized or guaranteed, their ultimate value also depends on the creditworthiness of the counter-parties to them. But before a contract is settled, the counter-parties record profits and losses – often huge in amount – in their current earnings statements without so much as a penny changing hands. Reported earnings on derivatives are often wildly overstated. That’s because today’s earnings are in a significant way based on estimates whose inaccuracy may not be exposed for many years. 

The errors usually reflect the human tendency to take an optimistic view of one’s commitments. But the parties to derivatives also have enormous incentives to cheat in accounting for them. Those who trade derivatives are usually paid, in whole or part, on “earnings” calculated by mark-to-market accounting. But often there is no real market, and “mark-to-model” is utilized. This substitution can bring on large-scale mischief. As a general rule, contracts involving multiple reference items and distant settlement dates increase the opportunities for counter-parties to use fanciful assumptions. The two parties to the contract might well use differing models allowing both to show substantial profits for many years. In extreme cases, mark-to-model degenerates into what I would call mark-to-myth. 

I can assure you that the marking errors in the derivatives business have not been symmetrical. Almost invariably, they have favored either the trader who was eyeing a multi-million dollar bonus or the CEO who wanted to report impressive “earnings” (or both). The bonuses were paid, and the CEO profited from his options. Only much later did shareholders learn that the reported earnings were a sham. 

Another problem about derivatives is that they can exacerbate trouble that a corporation has run into for completely unrelated reasons. This pile-on effect occurs because many derivatives contracts require that a company suffering a credit downgrade immediately supply collateral to counter-parties. Imagine then that a company is downgraded because of general adversity and that its derivatives instantly kick in with their requirement, imposing an unexpected and enormous demand for cash collateral on the company. The need to meet this demand can then throw the company into a liquidity crisis that may, in some cases, trigger still more downgrades. It all becomes a spiral that can lead to a corporate meltdown. 

Derivatives also create a daisy-chain risk that is akin to the risk run by insurers or reinsurers that lay off much of their business with others. In both cases, huge receivables from many counter-parties tend to build up over time. A participant may see himself as prudent, believing his large credit exposures to be diversified and therefore not dangerous. However under certain circumstances, an exogenous event that causes the receivable from Company A to go bad will also affect those from Companies B through Z. 

In banking, the recognition of a “linkage” problem was one of the reasons for the formation of the Federal Reserve System. Before the Fed was established, the failure of weak banks would sometimes put sudden and unanticipated liquidity demands on previously-strong banks, causing them to fail in turn. The Fed now insulates the strong from the troubles of the weak. But there is no central bank assigned to the job of preventing the dominoes toppling in insurance or derivatives. In these industries, firms that are fundamentally solid can become troubled simply because of the travails of other firms further down the chain. 

Many people argue that derivatives reduce systemic problems, in that participants who can’t bear certain risks are able to transfer them to stronger hands. These people believe that derivatives act to stabilize the economy, facilitate trade, and eliminate bumps for individual participants. 

On a micro level, what they say is often true. I believe, however, that the macro picture is dangerous and getting more so. Large amounts of risk, particularly credit risk, have become concentrated in the hands of relatively few derivatives dealers, who in addition trade extensively with one other. The troubles of one could quickly infect the others. 

On top of that, these dealers are owed huge amounts by non-dealer counter-parties. Some of these counter-parties, are linked in ways that could cause them to run into a problem because of a single event, such as the implosion of the telecom industry. Linkage, when it suddenly surfaces, can trigger serious systemic problems. 

Indeed, in 1998, the leveraged and derivatives-heavy activities of a single hedge fund, Long-Term Capital Management, caused the Federal Reserve anxieties so severe that it hastily orchestrated a rescue effort. 

In later Congressional testimony, Fed officials acknowledged that, had they not intervened, the outstanding trades of LTCM – a firm unknown to the general public and employing only a few hundred people – could well have posed a serious threat to the stability of American markets. In other words, the Fed acted because its leaders were fearful of what might have happened to other financial institutions had the LTCM domino toppled. And this affair, though it paralyzed many parts of the fixed-income market for weeks, was far from a worst-case scenario. 

One of the derivatives instruments that LTCM used was total-return swaps, contracts that facilitate 100% leverage in various markets, including stocks. For example, Party A to a contract, usually a bank, puts up all of the money for the purchase of a stock while Party B, without putting up any capital, agrees that at a future date it will receive any gain or pay any loss that the bank realizes. 

Total-return swaps of this type make a joke of margin requirements. Beyond that, other types of

derivatives severely curtail the ability of regulators to curb leverage and generally get their arms around the risk profiles of banks, insurers and other financial institutions. Similarly, even experienced investors and analysts encounter major problems in analyzing the financial condition of firms that are heavily involved with derivatives contracts. 

The derivatives genie is now well out of the bottle, and these instruments will almost certainly multiply in variety and number until some event makes their toxicity clear. Central banks and governments have so far found no effective way to control, or even monitor, the risks posed by these contracts. In my view,derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal. 

The Barnyard Basics of Derivatives !

or Interesting ?

When people think of stocks, bonds or Treasury bills, they can usually come up with a clear picture in their minds, and probably some examples as well. When the word is "derivatives", most people are lucky if they can conjure up anything but an indistinct fog.

Derivatives are generally placed in the realm of advanced or technical investing, but there is no reason why they should remain a mystery to common investors. This article will use a simple story of a fictional farm to explore the mechanics of derivatives.

The Definition

Derivatives are financial products with value that stems from an underlying asset or set of assets. These can be stocks, debt issues, or almost anything. A derivative's value is based on an asset, but ownership of a derivative doesn't mean ownership of the asset.

We will look at some examples.

The Future of Healthy Hen Farms 

Gail, the owner of Healthy Hen Farms, is worried about the volatility of the chicken market with all the sporadic reports of bird flu coming out of the east. Gail wants a way to protect her business against another spell of bad news. Gail meets with an investor who enters into a futures contract with her.

The investor agrees to pay $30 per bird when the birds are ready for slaughter, say, in six months time, regardless of the market price. If, at that time, the price is above $30, the investor will get the benefit as he or she will be able to buy the birds for less than market cost and sell them onto the market at a higher price for a gain.

If the price goes below $30, then Gail will be receiving the benefit because she will be able to sell her birds for more than the current market price, or what she would have gotten for the birds in the open market.

By entering into a futures contract, Gail is protected from price changes in the market, as she has locked in a price of $30 per bird. She may lose out if the price flies up to $50 per bird on a mad cow scare, but she will be protected if the price falls to $10 on news of a bird flu outbreak.

By hedging with a futures contract, Gail is able to focus on her business and limit her worry about price fluctuations. (For related reading, see A Beginner's Guide To Hedging.)

Swapping

Gail has decided that it's time to take Healthy Hen Farms to the next level. She has already acquired all the smaller farms near her and is looking at opening her own processing plant. She tries to get more financing, but the lender, Lenny, rejects her.

The reason is that Gail financed her takeovers of the other farms through a massive variable-rate loan and the lender is worried that, if interest rates rise, Gail won't be able to pay her debts. He tells Gail that he will only lend to her if she can convert the loan to a fixed-rate. Unfortunately, her other lenders refuse to change her current loan terms because they are hoping interest rates will increase too.

Gail gets a lucky break when she meets Sam, the owner of a chain of restaurants. Sam has a fixed-rate loan about the same size as Gail's and he wants to convert it to a variable-rate loan because he hopes interest rates will decline in the future.

For similar reasons, Sam's lenders won't change the terms of the loan. Gail and Sam decide to swap loans. They work out a deal by which Gail's payments go toward Sam's loan and his go toward Gail's loan. Although the names on the loans haven't changed, their contract allows them both to get the type of loan they want. (To learn more, read An Introduction To Swaps.)

This is a bit risky for both of them because if one of them defaults or goes bankrupt, the other will be snapped back into his or her old loan, which may require a payment for which either Gail of Sam may be unprepared. But it allows for them to modify their loans to meet their individual needs.

Buying Debt

Lenny, Gail's financier, ponies up the additional capital at a favorable interest rate and Gail goes away happy. Lenny is pleased as well because his money is out there getting a return, but he is also a little worried that Sam or Gail may fail in their business.

To make matters worse, Lenny's friend Dale comes to him asking for money to start his own film company. Lenny knows Dale has a lot of collateral and that the loan would be at a higher interest rate because of the more volatile nature of the movie industry, so he's kicking himself for loaning all his capital to Gail.

Fortunately for Lenny, derivatives offer another solution. Lenny spins Gail's loan into a credit derivative and sells it to a speculator at a discount to the true value. Although Lenny doesn't see the full return on the loan, he gets his capital back and can issue it out again to his friend Dale.

Lenny likes this system so much that he continues to spin out his loans as credit derivatives, taking modest returns in exchange for less risk of default and more liquidity.

Options

Years later, Healthy Hen Farms is a publicly traded corporation (the ticker symbol is (obviously) HEN) and is America's largest poultry producer. Gail and Sam are both looking forward to retirement.

Over the years, Sam bought quite a few shares of HEN. In fact, he has more than $100,000 invested in the company. Sam is getting nervous because he is worried that some shock, another case of bird flu for example, might wipe out a huge chunk of his retirement money. Sam starts looking for someone to take the risk off his shoulders. Lenny, financier extraordinaire and an active writer of options, agrees to give him a hand.

Lenny outlines a deal in which Sam pays Lenny a fee to for the right (but not the obligation) to sell Lenny the HEN shares in a year's time at their current price of $25 per share. If the share prices plummet, Lenny protects Sam from the loss of his retirement savings.

Lenny is OK because he has been collecting the fees and can handle the risk. This is called a put option, but it can be done in reverse by someone agreeing to buy a stock in the future at a fixed price (called a call option). (For more insight, read the Options Basics tutorial.)

The Happy Ending

Healthy Hen Farms remains stable until Sam and Gail have both pulled their money out for retirement. Lenny profits from the fees and his booming trade as a financier.

In this ideal tale, you can see how derivatives can move risk (and the accompanying rewards) from the risk averse to the risk seekers. Although Warren Buffett once called derivatives, "financial weapons of mass destruction", derivatives can be very useful tools, provided they are used properly. Like all other financial instruments, derivatives have their own set of pros and cons, but they also hold unique potential to enhance the functionality of the the overall financial system.



by Andrew Beattie

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/basics/07/derivatives_basics.asp

Get Normal ! Here's How ! (P.S. You Can Leave out the EPL Stuff) *C.A.

Tips For Young People To Become Normal Again

(blundering language ahead, you have been warned)

Young people don’t know how good they have it. They live in an increasingly inter-connected, exciting world where Sreesanth is a role model, an iPad is considered useful and Pepsi decides to name an entire country after them. Nonetheless, most young people nowadays are illiterate, pretentious, horny and largely clueless. In short, like Tusshar Kapoor. Thus, here is a list of steps they can take to be considered normal or at least come close to Normalcy

Also, If You Just might be doing at least 2 of the below given things; Then Fuck you for doing it. You are a Douche!

Now, Lets Get Started !

Stop using “Ma”: I don’t know if you’re fans of Shashi Kapoor movies, but the next time you use “MA” in your sentence, I will shove your teeth so far up your own fucking ass that even a Japanese whaler’s harpoon won’t go deep enough to be able to fish it out. Yes, after the started having smaller Dicks, they started making Larger Harpoons. Seriously, is this some faux attempt at proving your love for your mother or did your priest make you miss grammar classes during kindergarten? The word is “my”. Repeat after me. Say 'My' : Pronounced : Maie!

“My name is Khan, and I’m a lameass actor”

NOT

“Ma name izz Khan, I’m a rockstarrrrr”

And while we’re on the subject, when did “Killer Shit” and “That’s gangster” become part of the lingo to express approval? What the fuck is killer shit anyway? Do you suffer from advanced colitis? Anal cancer? And gangster? You’re telling me this happened because of Shiney Ahuja’s film of the same name? What time between the release of his movie and raping his maid did he bless us all with this ridiculous verbal concoction? Even Inzamam Ul Haq would cringe at such Anand Jon-ification of the language.

Stop LOLing: If you take a walk down some parks early in the morning, you might come across groups of senior citizens holding their stomachs and making loud gratuitous noises. I want you to observe this act very closely. It’s called LAUGHING. NOT LOLing. LAUGHING. Why the fuck cant you laugh at a joke? Why do you have to say “LOL” in a conversation? It’s not a chat room where you’re trying to impress a spambot so that it turns the webcam on for you to jack off. I’m standing IN FRONT OF YOU! Don’t you dare bloody LOL me you son of a bitch! If you want to smile, smile! Don’t say tee hee. If you want to laugh, laugh! Because if you don’t I’m going to rip your tongue out, wipe it down Navjot Sidhu’s asscrack and smack you across the face with it like Xena warrior princess. And stop LOLing at your own jokes. If you have to end your own sentence with a LOL, your shit ain’t funny to begin with. LOL this you stupid SOB.

Stop reading Paulo Coelho: When the hell did Paulo Coelho become the must read author to prove your intellectual chops? Is it the graphic love scenes in Eleven Minutes that turn your nuts to momos? Do you think reading “The Alchemist” is a short cut to become a pharmacist? Don’t stick your stupid Facebook and twitter profiles with Paulo Coelho as your favourite author. It just tells me you don’t really read and just bought one at a train station because everyone seemed to have one and you felt more generous than buying a copy of “Who moved my cheese?”

Stop showing me your boxers: Seriously brother, pull those freaking pants up. I DON’T want to see your boxers. And I certainly don’t want to see your Grand Canyon cuz I’m sure as hell not Kobe Bryant looking for some practice free throws. I don’t care if you’re wearing Rupa or Jockey’s. I don’t care if it messes with the chain that you’re hanging across the left side of your parachute pants. I also don’t give a flying Jatayu’s patootie whether it messes with your frumpled hair, your goatee, your black t-shirt and finger sleeves. What the fuck are finger sleeves anyway? Were you trying to measure the perfect condom size or are you a professional kite flyer? Pull those goddamn jeans up and stop showing me your hairy lower back before I call the tow truck and get your ass impounded for indecent exposure.

Stop watching Shah Rukh Khan Movies: No. He is not the greatest actor of our generation and will never be. But then again, your probably believe he drives around Mumbai in a Hyundai i10 as well. Stop crying about him feeling bad that Kolkata lost. Stop telling me My Name is Khan was the greatest bloody movie you ever saw. It only goes to show you have the same IQ as girls who scream in the movie hall every time Bobby Deol makes an appearance.

Stop believing what Arundhati Roy says: Seriously, that bitch will get you shot. If following socialist hotties is your thing, go with Brinda Karat. The worst that might happen then is you will have no friends left. Who is Brinda Karat anyways ?

Stop giving a fuck about the EPL: I’ve said this before and ill say it again. NO ONE gives a fuck about whether you support Man U or Barca. They’re not YOUR team and their success doesn’t mean that YOU won. No matter how many jersey’s you buy from a trip to Thailand or Colaba Causeway or Funkies, no matter how many soccer shoes you buy and wear at inappropriate places, NO ONE gives a fuck. Find some other goddamn purpose in life than tweet about players whose names you can’t pronounce and who you’ve only been exposed to in FIFA 2009. And don’t you dare rattle off Fabregas’s statistics if you can’t supplement those with Sunil Chhetri’s either.
P.S. Fabregas does Rule ! (I am an Arsenal Fan)

Stop pretending to be into hip-hop music: Just because your car has a bass tube and you listen to 50 Cent and Afro Man does not mean you love “Rap music”. Go and learn atleast 7 rhymes of Biggie Smalls or Tupac before I bust a cap in yo ass. Stick to rock, its easier to pull off being a fan of Nirvana.

Stop wearing Che Guevera T-Shirts: If the only thing you know is “he was the dude from Motorcycle Diaries”.

Stop wearing tight t-shirts after a week of gymming: Just because you go to the gym and your bicep increased by half an inch doesn’t mean you start wearing body-hugging nipple busting t-shirts and walking like a scarecrow. And take those fucking sunglasses off. Its 8 in the bloody evening and no one will judge you for walking around with a hooker as arm candy anyway!

Stop putting obscure quotes and pictures as your status messages: Seriously, you’re trying to tell me your low attention span excuse for a hamster’s brain was up reading Dante and Nietzsche? Stop faking and pretending to be an intellectual. We all know you just Google quotes on love, success, friendship to try and make sense of your life and give yourself some comfort when the milkshake hits the desert cooler. And for fucks sake, stop quoting people like the CEO of General Motors and other crazy right-wingers. I know language isn’t your thing, but you might want to check the dictionary for “context”. Also, don’t forget to check “Dumbfuck”. You might find your picture next to Shivraj Patil’s.

PEACE ! 

LOST SEASON FINALE

My gut reaction at the end of the 2 1/2 hour series finale was; WHAT THE HELL IS THIS? But then I started thinking (obsessing) about it as I went to the Gym, and then I Decided :

1. The initial island stuff really happened. The plane crash happened, the survivors happened, all of that was real. Boone's death was real, and Shannon's. The magical healing powers of the island for Locke and Rose happened. The polar bear stuff and the weird stuff; it all happened.

2. The flashbacks were all real. Jack with the broken marriage; Kate on the run; Sayid the torturer; Hurley and the bad luck. 

3. The flash forwards were all real. All the post-island stuff really happened. Jack the alcoholic who needs to go back, Kate the mom, Sun the revenge-seeking single mother. 

4. The Dharma stuff happened. There were a group of scientists on the island who were trying to tap into "the source," the same source that Jacob spent centuries protecting. For the scientists, it was a source of energy. For Jacob (and those who came before him and after him), it was the source of good on earth. 

5. The post-nuclear-bomb island stuff happened. Desmond did pop the cork, and Jack did put the cork back in, and Locke and Jack did have their final showdown between good and evil and the island did start to fall apart, and Sawyer and Kate and Miles and Richard and Lapidus all did take off. And then, Jack did die on the island (although it was the longest-lasting mortal wound ever), in exactly the same spot where he first woke up on the island, with Vincent by his side. He finally "let go." Jack, ever the searcher for his inner peace, found it at last. 

6. The key to the flash sideways is when Christian told Jack at the end "there is no now." I do think that everyone who was gathered in that church is dead, but I don't think they all died at the same time, in the crash. I think they lived their lives however they were meant to, and they died when they were supposed to. I think the flash forward was the "gathering spot" they had all subconsciously agreed to when they were together on the island. It explains why things turned out well for everyone in the forward — Sun and Jin happy ever after with their baby; Jack with the son he always wanted; Hurley successful; Locke putting his father in a vegetative state; Sayid able to "save" Nadia. The reason why Ben stays outside the church is because he's not dead yet (to steal from Monty Python). But he got his redemption, and his forgiveness from Locke, and who, five years ago, would ever have imagined Benjamin Linus becoming the character he became?

So, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it (I think; I haven't read anything else on the Internet yet). As far as the episode itself goes, I thought it was epic. The epiphanies that we witnessed were lovely and moving (Charlie and Claire win, hands down), the dramatic tension between Locke and Jack was set at just the right pitch, the way that Richard embraced his new-found mortality was terrific. 

Most of all, however, the emotion that ran among the cast, Jack and Kate's island farewell, Jack and Hurley's "deal," the look on Sawyer's face when he "found Juliet," Hurley and Ben in the aftermath, Hurley and Ben at the church ("you were a great number 2" — bawled my eyes out at that), it was all so ... true. So even if there was a ton of stuff that happened in the last six years that drove us crazy and then turned out to literally mean nothing, it doesn't matter. In the topsy-turvy world of Lost that we came to love and obsess over, in the end, it was all about the love.

India's Urban Future

McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) believes India is on the verge of the second-greatest urban migration the world has ever seen. In their new report India’s Urban Awakening, MGI says India’s urban population could balloon to 590 million—nearly twice the size of the United States—by 2030.

MGI says India will have “68 cities with populations of more than 1 million, 13 cities with more than 4 million people and 6 megacities with populations of 10 million or more.”

MGI says the Indian economy is expected to be five times greater by 2030, with urban centers being the key driver of this growth. It projects India’s labor force to increase by 270 million—70 percent of that coming from urban jobs.

This new labor force will also be relatively young compared to other BRIC countries. The median age for the Indian population is 25.3 years—lower than Brazil (28.6 years) and well below China (34.1 years) and Russia (38.4).

In order to meet the needs of this urban class, MGI estimates India will need:

• $1.2 trillion in capital investment
• 2.5 billion square meters of roads to be paved
• 700-900 million square meters of commercial and residential space
• 7,400 kilometers of subways and transportation to be constructed

To put these figures into perspective, the investment amount needed is about one-third of India’s total GDP in 2009. And if 700-900 million square meters of real estate sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. India would need to build a city the size of Chicago every year for the next 20 years in order to create enough commercial/residential space.

While these numbers are staggering, perhaps the most important figure for commodity demand is MGI’s projections on the growth of India’s middle class. MGI estimates that India will have 91 million middle class households by 2030, that’s more than a 300 percent increase from the 22 million they have today.

As we’ve said many times before, the growth of the middle class in the developing world, especially in Asia, is a key driver of demand for oil, steel, copper, cement and countless other resources because the wealthier these people are, the more they will consume.

This mass of people will likely demand better housing, better roads, better goods— in all, a higher quality of life than what’s been available to them in the past. The resulting pressure this could have on commodity demand is the X-factor that we believe makes this cycle different than anything we’ve experienced in the past.

by Frank Holmes, CEO, U.S. Global Investors

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

                          -William Ernest Henley