I hope there is nobody out there with a gun to lynch me. Let me tell you about 2 contrarian calls that I had over the last 15-20 months, and which made me money. One was gambling that the dollar will strengthen – the world was willing to write it off. Moneycontrol carried the story […]

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When we do a class on debt markets one important class is that of Debt Rating. There we say the highest and the best borrower is rated AAA. However we do not even ask – the Sovereign debt is not rated. It is supposed to be above default. When the Japenese companies were running huge […]

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Bankers in Europe did not behave like this when they were paid moderate salaries. By the time they were in their 50s and could retire they still had to worry about their partnership in the bank to be sold. Indian, Japanese and some other East Asian bankers are not in the same set as the […]

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Once you start writing, talking, hosting a program about finance you become a finance expert. So without naming anybody you now know who are the financial experts to whom this country turns to. For example all channels now know what is wrong with Indian cricket – though of course none of them knew before the […]

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The year 2007 was perhaps the last year of the madness cycle – with Ninja and all kinds of excesses. However the market corrected in 2008 and recovered very fast in 2009. The sad part is that the persons responsible in Eurpoe and in USA were not even brought to book – the Banking Regulators. […]

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For a minute forget what the various parts of the financial services industry is telling you. The profitability of this industry seems to be fantastic. Let us take 4 parts of the industry: a. Banking: Over the years the biggest and the richest fortunes have been made by bankers. No doubt about it. Goldman Sachs, […]

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If you have seen all the news items about ULIPs, other life insurance products, etc. you might have suddenly thought that life insurance business is not profitable. Banish that thought. It is very profitable – why do you think all foreign players are trying to get in? So here is the reason: Cost effective distribution […]

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