The US government is pouring out AID this week to a number of financial companies under several of its recently instituted ‘support’ programs. Citigroup, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo, and GE Capital are now in various stages of selling bonds backed by the government, thus lowering the rates they would have […]
Governments have two major advantages. One they have an unlimited scope for income – agricultural tax, excise duty, service tax, income tax, estate duty, etc. The more worrisome advantage is their ability to print currency notes. Ask Ben Bernanke – he converts coniferous trees into billions of dollars! The worry is for people who lend […]
Understanding mean, median, mode, standard deviation, regression, reversion to the mean – is a pre-requisite to understand financial markets. Let us see some simple examples: It rained 90mm in Mumbai on 22nd July. If it rains like this for 6 months continuously, Mumbai will be drowned. It was 43* C in Lucknow on 23rd May. […]
If you read what John Templeton says, you will believe that you need to create a diversified portfolio – a little of Japanese stocks, lots of American, some emerging markets, etc. in equity alone. Apart from this some debt – short term, long term, etc. Warren Buffet on the other hand says you should concentrate […]
There are many companies which have given fantastic, scorching returns. Microsoft, GE, Berkshire Hathway….are some examples. Berkshire Hathway, well er is a fund..or so you thought. Let me tell you, it is not. Mr. Buffet is a brilliant businessman, fantastic stock picker, (fantastic bargain picker – look at the recent offer to pick good bonds […]
Immaterial of whether you are in your 20’s or in your 50’s and you are looking at an investment you should know some of the basics of investing, so here it is. By and large at some stage you must have been approached by some investment advisor. He (increasingly she) must have offered you mutual […]