Mahatma summed it up beautifully when he said "There is enough in this world for every one's need but not enough in this world for even a single man's greed". Such is the power of Man's greed and it is his Insatiable greed for Power which has brought the world to where it is now.
Although the of terrorism is packaged and sold to us in the name of Religion, it has never been not really will be a battle for religion.The foot soldiers might believe in the theory of religion, but those who analyze issues objectively will know that this is all plain struggle for power.
Taliban was never a Non Violent Outfit before, nor were they a religious organization. It was an organization supported by America to make sure that they overturned the Soviet Rule in Afganishtan. The job was done and Taliban would not refuse to stop and listen to America, they have enjoyed the taste of power, killing people ruthlessly and making money out of it. Hence they took to religion this time. Sadaam Hussain was encouraged and he too became a Frankenstien's Monster.
LTTE used the claim of separate state to carry on with its violent activities and run its own government.
I can go on and on with the Rebel groups in countries of Africa and in all of these cases the bottomline is that People's craving for Power has led to this sad state of affairs.
The World now wants to fight terror and you have Media both print and Television minting money by running series of sensational programs on terrorism. The real battle however lies within the Human Being. Unless Man conquers the demon within him, nothing is going to change much, regardless of the laws which might be enacted by State.
I am not against such laws nor am I sympathizing, but until we conquer the demons within, the problems are not going to be solved on a permanent basis and anything else is just a temporary fix.
On a lighter note how about this for a beginning "How about stopping the sale of Arms to Private Parties? How about a Rule that Only Government can procure arms and No Sale of Arms is permitted to any private parties? How about a firm crackdown on Private Procurement?
Will the world countries agree to this? People to me it seems want to have their cake and eat it too :)
At the time of writing, Man U are locked in a battle with Inter in Europe, so close to clinching yet another Premiership crown,a step away from winning the Carling Cup and still alive in the FA Cup.
They might or may not win all or either of the four( although I expect them to easily win the Premiership), but none can deny the fact that they are a true Champion Outfit. People might say,So what is so new about it? They have been a champion Outfit for years now and what is the need to write this at this juncture.
Well the way they have turned this season around, has made me sit up and write this one. Although an Arsenal fan for years now, I cannot but admire the "Champion Material" of Man U. I have never seen any club which plays and plays till the last second to score. All of us would have lost count of the number of times they have snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the dying moments of a game.
Who can forget the 1999 Champions League final when the game looked all but lost. Just when Bayern fans were about to uncork the champagne, Man U sent dagger into the hearts of Bayern fans. Bayern fans are not alone. They have got a lot of company.
There is this "X" factor about Manchester United which is absent in most of the clubs. They seem to have this Uncanny ability to win even when they do not play to their potential. They started off shakily and just when everyone thought that it was going to be a two horse race between Chelsea and Liverpool, Man U hit form and now are looking all set to clinch the title.
This season is not a One off, Seasons back they did this to Arsenal, Chelsea had a taste of it very recently.
Once they get into the lead, they are so so very difficult to catch and more often than not they just run away with it.This season is just another testimonial for the aforementioned trait.
I wish and long that Arsenal get some of these traits to go on and end this Manchester United's hegemony and I salute this Man U team for they are One True Champion Team.
to Free Trade? this is something that has been plaguing my mind. The recent developments taking place in the USA are sending strong signals that Protectionism is back and back in a very big way. The last time that was the case was during New Deal.
Now what do we make out of these measures? To Begin with, One must remember that USA is also a democracy and in any Democracy, Votes are paramount.Developed Country or Developing Country, politicians are always after Votes and Barrack Obama is no different.
A look at his past will clearly reveal that he has always been someone who has been inclined towards rising of barriers to help shield American Companies against competition from the Developing world.Swaminathan Aiyar of Economic Times wrote a wonderful article capturing this beautifully. So these moves do not come as a big surprise.
Obama with this move is sure to make American Voters happy. They will now feel that Obama is out there to protect American Jobs and American Companies. Well, It is a Politically correct decision.
Economically, though it does not augur very well for the Developing world and in the long Run for American companies too. Remember the License Permit Raj Days in India. All that did was to make India Inc complacent and it gave them the luxury to remain without spending money on research and improving their technical capabilities.
Compare that against the Liberalization Era, where Indian Inc has grown tremendously to acquire foreign firms, become super efficient and grow on par with the best in the world.
So, here is the problem for Obama. If he is going to allow liberalization, Stop subsidies and let Merit alone prevail, that might cause More American companies to shut shop and above all dissatisfy the American public or try to follow "Be American Buy American" policy, shutting out the developing world thereby creating a huge problem as most of the Developing countries run a surplus with America and if they start to pressurize for redemption, that will push the USD downwards and will result in the dethroning of America from the Numero Uno Slot, or tread a middle path by following protectionism in a camouflaged form and on looking at what is happening, it seems like he is treading the path of Camouflaged protectionism.
Yes that is what i decided to become one, even if that meant I ran the risk of putting in a few extra pounds :) and I was sure of becoming poorer by a few thousand Rupees :D.
Stripes are back in Fashion: Stripes which were previously considered as a design favored by people who were mentally disturbed are now back in Vogue. British designers are busy designing dresses with stripes says a news Item.
Well, believe that Stripes are going to remain in Vogue for at least a couple more years :) , any second opinions ???
Yeah it is an attempt at understanding how important is Understanding Culture in picking up Stocks? Sounds bizzare, doesn't it? I bet we wont feel so, if we were to look at this at a deeper level.
Consider this, Coca Cola, Gillete some of the gems in the crown of Warren Buffet. These are not only good companies but also companies which are a part of American Culture. Put in Simple words, to Americans water and soft drinks are almost similar.Shaving everyday again is a part of their culture. Sounds silly isnt it? Well believe me, it is not so easy and understanding this seemingly easy but rather difficult facet of Investing is in my opinion a key to the monumental success of Warren Buffet. Once you have got this in place, you start zeroing in on the companies which operate in that sector and then all your valuation principles come into play.
Now, this process will help you in picking companies which can give you consistent returns over a long period of time regardless of the economic conditions, thus forming the foundation of your portfolio.
OK now to Indian Context, what are the companies I can think of which form a part of Indian Culture? Too hard as the country is extremely culturally diverse. However if this Organization is made into an Institution, I will be the first person to go ahead and get a stake for myself.
This Organization employs about 14,000 people, runs Universities, manages thousands of acres of assets and rakes in around 100 million US dollars and above all manages the activities of the most temple, which is the most visited in the world. In case if you have still not got it, it is none other than TTD(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirumala_Tirupati_Devasthanams).
If at all anything the recent crisis have made more people to turn to this place with the hope that God(if there is one?) will bail them out of the crisis. Hope TTD is listening :)
Well on a serious note, lets start our homework and hope to hit on something which can form the bedrock of our portfolios. It could be anything from a Beer Company( the changing demographics might make it a reality) to a Hospital ( the amount of Junk Food and Unhealthy life style) to a Fast Food Joint or of all a company which supplies clean drinking water ( don't be surprised if that happens :) )
It has been an amazing story to say the least.Enough and more has been written about in the media. Hence i refrain myself from presenting the numbers again. But i would like to put forward just a doubt that is just killing me.
Mr.Raju says that he has been fudging the accounts to keep the company going and neither he nor his family members have taken a rupee nor derived any benefit out of this fudging process. Ok let us assume this to be true for a minute.
My doubt is that, the company has been and it is still doing the business of providing IT service. The company's workforce is around 50k. The company derives its revenues by billing the clients who are mostly Fortune 500 companies. The billing rates of the company are almost on par with most of the other IT Majors like Infosys, Wipro and TCS. This means that money has been flowing into the coffers of the company.
Now lets look at the expenditure side, the company is half as big as Infosys technologies Ltd, which pays twice as much as employers as Satyam does. Now looking at the Remuneration which Satyam pays to its employees, it is again on par with Industry majors.
Hence based on the aforementioned points we can safely conclude that Satyam has and must have got enough money to keep the cog moving. So the claim of Mr. Raju that he has brought in 1300 crores of his own money to keep the company moving is baffling to say the least. What has happened to the money which the clients must have paid Satyam?
Now let me give my version of what could have happened. Mr.Raju must have siphoned off the money to fund his real estate purchase and other purchases. He must have pledged his shares and obtained money for those activities. As long as the share price remained high and the prices of real estate was moving up he must have been a happy man. Once the Share Price of Satyam started to fall he must have been worried as his borrowing capacity was decided by the price of the Share.
His statement that All his efforts such as dividends and bonuses must have been to infuse confidence in the Investors was to make sure that his borrowing capacity remained intact. Global recession played spoil sport and it took down the price of real estate and the Sensex down.
This meant that he could not sell off the real estate holdings to bring back the money which he has siphoned off and he could not borrow any more and in fact on the contrary needed to pay the lenders for the drop in the share price. Our man was struck in catch 22 situation and then came out with a master plan to purchase stakes in Maytas using Cash that was not there. Had it gone through he would have made Maytas poor but carried on with the game, unfortunately it failed and he decided rather was forced to confess.
Readers let me know if u feel otherwise :)
Mr.Raju has come out with the Joke of 2009 so early in the year when he said that "None of the Board of Directors knew about what was going on in the company"
P.S: Why didn't SEBI remove the Satyam counter from F&O segment? The removal would have meant Satyam could not have fallen by more than 10-20% max in a day. This fall has wiped out millions of Rupees, all of which belong to the average Indian. While I do understand that exit routes needed to be provided for Investors, I believe in this case a freezing at least on temporary basis until the situation was brought under control would have definitely helped the common Investor.
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