Let's blame it on Eve

Now we have all heard, read or been told about Adam and Eve and how they were made an offer they could have refused!

We are living in historical times as far as the global economy is concerned. We are re-learning the ills of high risk finance deals, outcome of wrong valuations and the ills of greed.

Now who causes such crisis? If you do a root-cause analysis, this is what you’ll get (assuming ofcourse, that you have the same twisted logic as I do):

Financial crisis (loan defaults, credit crisis, asset bubbles, market collapse) – are possible because we have these glamorously named entities called Financial Institutions. In the ancient days when these institutions did not exist in such scale, such crisis would not have extended beyond the one village.

Financial institutions act as intermediary between people who have excess money and hence want to invest and people who need money, hence want to borrow.

People who have excess money – the want to invest only because they know there are others who are ready to borrow and pay interest on it, had such people not been there, the people with excess money would have simply stashed the cash in their pillow.

So who do we have left as the root of all evil? People who borrow and who taught us to borrow? Gotcha Eve!!! QED.

Whoa!! What was that? Well here’s why:

In the Garden of Eden, the snake offered Eve a fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, an apple if we believe Milton. Now was this offer a 1. Gift? 2. Offer for outright sale? 3. A financed sale?

• Considering the heavy price that has been paid, it certainly was not a gift.
• If it was an outright sale, it would have been a bullet or one shot payment. Not exactly the case here as we continue to pay the price. Now when the price is paid over a long period of time and the payout amount fluctuates based on systemic changes eg: times of war, disease, famine (you know same way how changes in PLR caused by repo rate changes, changes your EMI), it was certainly not an outright sale.
• If you ask me, it was a financed deal, financed by the snake itself (Satan in an appropriate disguise).

The book of Genesis makes it clear that Eve had no idea of the valuation of this item she was financing. In-fact it was not even an asset, it was more a consumable, so at best it would have qualified for short-term WIP financing. However, what Eve got, appears to be to involve regular payout of only the interest accrued amount, floating rate, till perpetuity.

Such payment terms appear very attractive as the periodic payout is very low (no principal component) but if you see the cumulative payout over a period of time, you’ll realise how you big a ride you have been taken on....all your payout has not reduced your principal liability one bit.

So Eve was the first person to be offered and avail a credit…and she did pay a heavy price…and all mankind is paying till today!!! What’s worse, we are continuing to do similar deals. .

We are buying or financing assets whose valuations are in question at interest rates that increase regularly but with terms and conditions that appear attractive initially but bleed us for a long time to come!!!

Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it.

By the way, the various pictures you see in this post are totally unnecessary, but I am hoping the nudity will attract more visitors!!!

Mera Joota Hai Iraqi!!!

Now I am not exactly pro-US or pro-Arab, but I certainly consider George Bush’s Iraq policy all wrong. When one undertakes a noble act (deposing a despot like Saddam) for the wrong reasons (control of Iraq’s oil reserves)…the outcome….is what the US is facing in Iraq today.

I also agree that decorum and protocol is important especially in the world of global politics.

However, I cannot but find comrade reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi's action of throwing a shoe at the US President most entertaining. The fact that it is Bush Jr at whom he aimed his shoe somehow makes it appear ok. Read full report.

Even as Bush learns where the shoe pinches, the Arab world…in their usual distorted sense of priorities, hails the attack. That is so wrong! These acts give your country a bad name, don’t you know. Bombs, bullets and now shoes!!! What next, smelly socks?

Incidentally, lest people think this was a spontaneous outburst the reporter made it amply clear that he had been planning it for a long time. Attaboy Zaidi!!

Five signs that you are growing old!!

I vividly remember a conversation I had with one of my long time friends when I was 27 years old.

Me -“Imagine J, it seems like we were in school in just a few years back, and now we are 27”

J – “True. Somehow 27 does not seem so old, but 30….man that will really mean death!!”

Well, much water has flown since that conversation….30 has come and gone and it has not yet been a disaster. Yet, the other day when I spent sometime in café Coffee Day with some colleagues from a former employer, I could not but feel old looking at the milieu around me.

So here’s a truly depressing game you may want to play…..list 5 things that you have noticed of late that tells you that you are growing old….do not mention your age, it is for the reader to guess, within a range of 5 years (eg: 15-20, 21-25, 26-30 years etc).

No matter which age range you are in, the truth is, you are growing older….can you guess my age from the list below:-

My top five:

1. You go to café Coffee Day and feel out of place

2. You no longer like loud music and would rather go to a bar than a pub

3. New entrants to the Indian cricket team are way older than you, benefit matches are being held for the cricketers you used to idolise earlier.

4. You cannot name any of the Grammy winners in the last five years but remember the lyrics of a couple of hits from your school days.

5. You read the business page in the newspapers before you read the sports page.


Incidentally, I do not know how to tag, if I did , I would have done it with this post (maybe I should add it to my list)!!

How to get rid of the google Ads on top?

[UPDATE] Self-help is the best help, as I learnt to my glee in college....I have managed to get rid of the ads on top. Thanks to those who would have helped otherwise!!!
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As you can see I have tried to give my blog a makeover.

I went about it in the truly original way. Downloaded a free template, then with my scant knowledge of HTML (or is it XTML?) tried to delete what Idid not want.....

However, I just could not get rid of those ads on top....I would not have bothered if they were on the side bar....but where they are now...those boys need to move.

Any geeks who can help?

The oldest profession - Proprietary business or in employment

I came across this article in The Economist - Britain has a proposal to make buying sex liable to criminal charges if it subsequently emerges that the prostitute was controlled for another person’s gain. Read full report.

C’mon, give the guy a break…engaging an escort is fraught with so many risks already – from STD to harassment by thugs to embarrassment to fear of getting caught by your wife, getting secretly videotaped or the usual fear for all men during any act of copulation – inability to measure up or rise to the occassion…and now this!!

Also, I wonder if the Brits have really thought this through. Just how does a person, seeking gratification of the horizontal kind find out whether the professional before him is in employment or in proprietary business?

Does he just ask and expect an honest answer from a lady of the night. Is the defence “She lied your Lordship” going to hold up in court? Does he sign a certificate for himself and keeps it in his pocket before commencing the act…you know, the kind of certificate that says, “…above information is true to the best of my knowledge and belief”

I mean after negotiating the rates, does he ask…"ahem, you are doing this for yourself right…."
Lady: - “Hey you really think you are that hot!! I am doing it for the money”
Customer – “Yes offcourse, but what I really mean is….”
It can become a pretty long conversation in a business where time is money like little else.

In fact the comic situations can be numerous, how many can you think?

PS: I simplistically assumed the client to be a guy and the service provider to be a lady...we can of course consider the three combinations of the sexes separately.