Real estate prices are rarely rational! It is just that there is not enough information available in a well organized manner, and people are resistant to change. Take a city like Mumbai. It is impossible to set up a barber shop, an inexpensive eatery (I mean selling dosa at Rs. 50), a general practice or […]
A few of the industries that a common man deals with are in dire need of a Regulator. One of them is Real Estate. There is no common definition of words like built up, loading, super-built-up, charging for parking, brokerage for renting, brokerage for buying and selling. A builder does not have to tell the […]
How people love a rising market! So one good day and the world wants to announce that the worst is behind us. My foot. Remember it took a long time for the world to recover from the Lehman collapse – a company who had an audited balance sheet. When it comes to countries, you […]
I recently met a 85 year old man who has all his investments in bank deposits and post office deposits. This is a good portfolio – and he has about Rs. 12 lakhs. As his income is below taxable level he does not pay Income tax, nor does he file his IT return. He had […]
Most economists you meet or read tell you that the US problem is worse – much worse- than the Euro problem. Many of us think that the Americans have pushed the dollar too far and it has to fail. The American debt, the American bank’s date and the NINJA credit cards, NINJA educational loans, […]
Why do I find so many attractive targets to write about? Just found an article on Rediff.com saying ‘Six reasons why property prices WILL NOT FALL in your city’. Let us look at it reason by reason? “Property prices across the country are unlikely to see significant price corrections of more than 10 per […]
Which is the highest rated debt paper in the world? Well it is AAA. However a country does not get its debt paper rated. When I ask my class ‘why does a country not get its debt rated?’ I normally get a wrong answer….well not normally it is always! Let us see why sovereign […]