Jack Ma on ambition

People will always have their opinions on what is right and what is wrong. But this one coming from the major headliner of the day will carry some weight. Jack Ma is all about the news given the IPO of his firm Ali Baba that seems to set to break the record books.

http://vulcanpost.com/7702/jack-ma-youre-still-poor-35-deserve/

Reading it reminds me of this speech (Not Safe for Work) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI from Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross.

Or if you want a more recent example the wolf of wall street (Again, Not Safe for Work) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8snbL_kVmXw

The Great Indian Robbery

An interesting thing in the national elections this year is that no one has talked about tax and the common man. A very interesting statistic that the 1 lakh exemption limit is now worth only 47,000 in inflation adjusted terms.

www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyview.asp?str=25012

Investing in art as an asset? - Article for the day 20 Sept

In the last few years there have been a lot of people talking about "diversifying" by "investing" in art. Well how does one find out the fair price of art? Well, you turn to the "experts". Experts who can't seem to distinguish between an original and a fake it seems. Add to that

That art market pretends that great artists are inimitable, and that this inimitability justifies the often absurd prices their work commands. Most famous artists are good: that is not in question. But as forgers like van Meegeren and Pei-Shen Qian, the painter who turned out Ms Rosales’s Rothkos and Pollocks, show, they are very imitable indeed. If they were not, the distinction between original and knock-off would always be obvious. As Ms Rosales’s customers have found, no doubt to their chagrin, it isn’t.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586580-fakes-say-some-interesting-things-about-economics-art-emperors-new-pictures

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Cyclical Nature of business - Article of the day 11 Sept

"A housing slump in India" Sounds impossible? Not really. In fact I have been amazed at how everyone I talked to about real estate in the last two years believed in the never ending rise of housing prices. Even after pointing out to them that this was exactly what happened prior to the US housing bubble, they had enough reasons to believe that India was different. They talked about how India was different from the US in x,y,z ways. Pointing out that they were using the "decoupled" logic which the stock markets used but failed miserably, couldn't move them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/business/global/a-housing-slump-in-india.html?_r=0

This is the cyclical nature of business. What goes up, needs to come down. There will always be boom and bust cycles.

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

The Hidden Hand - Article for the day 9 September

So I had internet issues again (thanks for nothing Reliance). So missed a few days. But coming back to the point at hand. Conspiracy Theories.

I heard quite a few people in my friend circle spout the "India's foreign exchange crisis has been deliberately caused by political parties in preparation of bringing in foreign slush funds in order to fund the elections."

While I didn't take the time to do the research, Value Research has done it. I particularly like the way he explains that we always look for supporting evidence rather than evidence to disprove it. Read and enjoy

http://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=23506

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Facebook is going to die!! Article for the day 30 August

Facebook is in the news with its share price closing above its IPO price of $38 for the first time since May 2012 when it was launched. What is puzzling is the sky high valuations that they seem to be getting. Hi5 died, Orkut died. What makes Facebook so invincible? As the article summarizes -

Because we'll all have to start the stupid cycle over again. Teens find cool, new toy. Parents discover it a few years later. Teens leave. Cool, new toy goes out to pasture.

http://www.adrants.com/2013/08/this-is-how-facebook-is-going-to-die.php

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Rupee falling ? Let's get a new rupee - Article for the day 23 August

This tongue-in-cheek article makes some really interesting points. I especially liked the


A side-benefit: those Pakis sending us fake currency notes will be left with a lot of unbankable notes. And so will our black money holders.

The article is at www.moneycontrol.com/news/rupee/forget-36-re-1-=-15-cents-we-neednew-rupee-for-india_939423.html

Also, this won't be the first time that a new currency is used to stabilize a financial system.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake-money-saved-brazil

 Ghana has also done this in the past
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghana_cedi#Second_cedi_.28GHC.29.2C_1967.E2.80.932007

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

 

Investing for the "Long Term" - Article for the day 22nd August

Given the general pessimistic mood in the country right now and how everyone seems to be talking about the rupee dollar rate as well as the plummeting stock market, this article just made a lot of sense.

To quote 

"You'll be better off invested in equity rather than in fixed income of some kind. At a basic level, one can expect that over time businesses will generate more return than their cost of borrowing, otherwise it doesn't make sense to be in business. Individual businesses will do worse, but as a whole, Indian businesses will deliver a return higher than fixed income returns over time." 

http://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=23198

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post