The financial rescue - bail-out plan has been agreed to finally. It may be voted by Congress today and ready to be adopted by Wednesday. It has been quick but has been passed ultimately with lots of compromises. Nobody precisely knows how useful it will be in the final analysis. Basically the Government will buy the mortgages/houses and then later sell it off - hopefully for a profit. Attached please find the bill itself to go through it for yourself. Read more
DK Matai often writes and interacts on events of utmost importance to business and self. He sent me an email on the current economic crisis. I have talked on Credit Default Swaps earlier and thought that was a quantum far beyond our expectations. But nothing could prepare me for the total quantum of Derivatives market. Here is some of the numbers that he gives. Go to his blog for the rest of the story: ***** ******** According to various distinguished sources including the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland -- the central bankers' bank -- the amount of outstanding derivatives worldwide as of December 2007 crossed USD 1.144 Quadrillion, ie, USD 1,144 Trillion. The main categories of the USD 1.144 Quadrillion derivatives market were the following: 1. Listed credit derivatives stood at USD 548 trillion; 2. The Over-The-Counter (OTC) derivatives stood in notional or face value at USD 596 trillion and included: a. Interest Rate Derivatives at about USD 393+ trillion; b. Credit Default Swaps at about USD 58+ trillion; c. Foreign Exchange Derivatives at about USD 56+ trillion; d. Commodity Derivatives at about USD 9 trillion; e. Equity Linked Derivatives at about USD 8.5 trillion; and f. Unallocated Derivatives at about USD 71+ trillion. Quadrillion? That is a number only super computing engineers and astronomers used to use, not economists and bankers! For example, the North star is "just" a couple of quadrillion miles away, ie, a few thousand trillion miles. The new "Roadrunner" supercomputer built by IBM for the US Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory has achieved a peak performance of 1.026 Peta Flop per second -- becoming the first supercomputer ever to reach this milestone. One Quadrillion Floating Point Operations (Flops) per second is 1 Peta Flop/s, ie, 1,000 Trillion Flops per second. It is estimated that all the data found on all the websites and stored on computers across the world totals more than One Exa byte of memory, ie, 1,000 Quadrillion bytes of data. Whilst outstanding derivatives are notional amounts until they are crystallised, actual exposure is measured by the net credit equivalent. This is normally a lower figure unless many variables plot a locus in the wrong direction simultaneously. This could be because of catastrophic unpredictable events, ie, "Black Swans", such as cascades of bankruptcies and nationalisations, when the net exposure can balloon and become considerably larger or indeed because some extremely dislocating geo-political or geo-physical events take place simultaneously. Also, the notional value becomes real value when either counterparty to the OTC derivative goes bankrupt. This means that no large OTC derivative house can be allowed to go broke without falling into the arms of another. Whatever funds within reason are required to rescue failing international investment banks, deposit banks and financial entities ought to be provided on a case by case basis. This is the asymmetric nature of derivatives andhere lies the potential for systemic risk to the global economic system and financial markets if nothing is done. Read more
Here is Sarah Palin in a swimsuit competition for Miss Alaska. When you can't take out other countries' "WMDs" - unleash yours! I am sure Sarah Palin would be a great distraction for most world leaders as our friendly neighborhood President Asif Ali Zardari adequately demo'ed. Read more
McCain and Republicans like to talk to how surge has made US successful in Iraq (which is - to put it mildly and in context of a span of time including 1 year POST elections - a BUNCH of BS - but we will see.. ).. and how Obama was wrong and so doesn't have the judgment! But it was McCain who talked of going to Iraq - and presented utterly confidently: - How easy it will be to win in Iraq - How easy it will be to find WMDs (massive ones actually!) - and How the Iraqis will treat the Americans like liberators - and finally how there was no background/history of Shia and Sunni violence! (now, anyone who has even an IOTA of understanding of the Islamic world knows what a great nonsense this is!!) Here is Obama challenging McCain last night and the evidence of videos where McCain made those statements all woven in! Read more
The first US Presedential debate was held last night. I did not see the full debate but whatever I saw I thought of the two - only Obama made sense! But those VERY issues where I think Obama makes more sense... most of the American analysts gave that point to McCain! And they call that "Mainstream American" position! So, either I am totally off.. or the "Mainstream America" has no freaking idea of the central issues in the world! 1. Veteran's issue: - Obama said clearly that the country needs to spend less on a useless war like Iraq.. and spend more on Iraq! McCain? He said he will "take care of veterans". They know him.. he knows them.. they know he will take care of them. I was thinking last night... what was McCain's greatest glory in war? That he was a Prisoner of War? And that he came back alive? Ok... so what was HIS accomplishment in that? There are discussions either way. 2. Georgia/Russia: McCain and other testestorone-fed Americans would like to talk tough on Russia - and bring up Cold War! Nothing could be MORE STUPID than that! Russia is NOT Soviet Union! During those times if you hurt Poland it was an attack on USSR. No more. But even today if Russia hits a NATO country it is an attack on USA. So, if at all USA is vulnerable! What can USA do if Russia decides that it will throw 10 nukes (pocket change for them) on Poland and Georgia tomorrow? Bomb Russia? That USA can just not do! So what? The reality is that USA needs to STOP talking Cold War rhetoric RIGHT AWAY and ENGAGE with Putin rather than pissing him off and calling names! Read more
The politicians are generally lecherous and very prone to sexual gratification - see Bill Clinton. But it takes a politician from South Asia - specially Pakistan - to flirt and do things openly that only spoilt goons in bad neighborhoods would do in open day light. Here is a video of the Pakistani President Zardari having a little tête-à-tête with the new babe on the US politics scene - Sarah Palin. He starts with saying that she is more gorgeous in real life than on TV and then says "now I know why the Americans are crazy about you". If that was not enough, his staff member asks him to shake her hand again for extended time.. and he suggests that he might hug her! So, that was the President.. now here is the Prime Minister.. the lady in pink was later appointed as the Minister for Information and Broadcasting by this same guy - Prime Minister Gilani... probably she wasn't so offended by some pressing her in open public in camera! 🙂 Read more
Here is a cartoon on the debate suspension. Just a reality check - the debate is ONLY 90 minutes long! And anyone who knows even an IOTA about the financial crisis... knows that it has been brewing and happening for last several years! If the ENTIRE Government machinery could NOT do a THING about it and it came to such a state... to think that McCain - the incorrigible Economics stud - could spend 90 minutes and straighten things out.. is just incredulous! He just cracks me up! Read more
This elections and the conduct of McCain and Palin has been the most weird. It is surprising that such acts by them can even be accepted and go on without challenge! First Palin stopped interacting with media (Q&A types) because she felt that media wasn't treating her well... she wanted to be sheltered basically! So much for women emancipation! What an amazing hypocrisy. Now, she is refusing to even open up her accounts and finances. But nothing could astonish me than what McCain did yesterday! He suspended the campaign and also wanted to duck the debates with Obama because of the "financial crisis". Obama came back with the correct reply - a US President needs to deal with multiple things and crisis at ONE time! And a President who has to SUSPEND everything else to deal with ONE thing is either a scary and compulsive micro-manager or just plain inadequate! Worse, one could understand if McCain was the greatest economy stud out there and without HIS divine wisdom no one could find his/her way out of this crisis! The fact is that my FOUR year old can talk as intelligently about the economy as McCain can! So, he might as just stay out of this mess! President is NOT supposed to be the subject matter expert (SME) on everything. All one needs to do as a leader is to place the BEST people to solve an issue! In fact if McCain had to "sound" and "look" Presidential, he should admit he is not the best mind on economics and is sending this Nobel Prize winning economics and finance stud on his behalf to help the committee! Read more
Came across this very interesting study on "Out of Body" experiences. This study will formally study subjects that experience Near Death Experiences. The study is being led by Dr. Sam Parnia, who wrote What Happens When We Die. He says and correctly that death is NOT an off/on switch. All the cells do not die right away. The brain may have stopped functioning and maybe even the heart would have gone phut, but that does not mean that chemical interactions within individual cells have completely stopped. Now, what has intrigued the docs is that those whose brain is medically dead.. are finally revived and have uncannily described what was happening IN THE ROOM while the brain was not working! Now, if the brain was working, one could argue that at the subconscious level at least the brain could monitor stuff through various senses. But if brain was dead and the patient could still "absorb" the events around him/her, then WHAT was at work?? Is then, brain the ONLY "instrument" of recording memory/cognition? Or is there something that is different or over and above brain? Read more
When we’ve been lucky enough to have access to reliable sources regarding self-development instructions our goal is already half way accomplished. Why do I consider this a fact? Read more
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