A load of crap from an idle brain

Over the weekend watched a movie, “Inside Job“.  A movie that tracks the collapse of the Wall Street in 2008 which caused the worldwide recession from which the world is yet to recover.  It tracks and interviews many of those responsible for the financial crash.  Many financial behemoths like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers collapsed.  Many were taken over by other financial firms like Merrill Lynch bought over by Bank of America, Wachovia by Wells Fargo, Bear Stearns by JP Morgan etc.

The whole collapse was fueled by the excesses of the financial institutions and the professionals who were a part of them.  Technology ensured that that complex financial products like CDOs were sold to institutions, retail investors.  People with no jobs were given loans to buy property, excessive salaries for brokers, heads of major financial companies only made them greedier leading to more and more desperation in inflating sales so that they could take a bigger and fatter pay packet at the end of the month.

Prostitution, fake bills, consuming cocaine and other forms of drugs, splurging on luxury goods, bay-front properties, casinos etc was the order of the day for the bankers, brokers employed in these institutions on Wall Street.

According to this list provided by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, more than 370 banks have closed down since the beginning of 2008. An estimated $14 trillion was lost because of the crisis.  And that is just a lower estimate.  The true cost of the whole crisis might never be known.  Millions of jobs lost, tens of millions of people pushed back into poverty.

All those responsible for the crime were never brought to justice, nor will they ever be. Some of the ones who violently opposed any form regulation of the financial industry which was the basic cause of this financial crisis are now sitting comfortably in the seats of power.  They are today part of the government.  Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Timothy Geithner; everyone contributed their part to the crisis not to mention Dick Fuld (Lehman Brothers), Angelo Mozelo (Countrywide Finance), Hank Paulson (Goldman Sachs & Treasury Secretary in 2006), George Bush, Bill Clinton etc were in some way or the other responsible for the mess we find the world in.

During the boom years of the 2000s, there were lots of people hectoring the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for taking a conservative stance and blaming the RBI for not opening up the financial markets to the so-called reform that the US was doing. Its that same conservatism that shielded India and its banks from getting smashed up by the tsunami created in the US and world financial markets.

For years, the Wall Street had been my dream place to work.  I loved the whole idea of minting money the way the bankers made.  From the late 90s till the collapse in 2008, i had a rosy idea of these places. In fact, my dream job would have been working with Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch etc.  As i kept reading about the collapse in 2008 and the circumstances that lead to it, it not only crumbled my dreams but also made me think if i could have handled such a life of debauchery & lies that were commonplace in this industry.

Would i be able to mis-sell a product to a retail investor and then go home and sleep peacefully?  The movie raises a lot of questions about morality and your job.  For every parent who wanted their kids to join the financial industry and make tons of money, this movie is an eye opener.  Money is there in abundance, but what we need to realise is if there is the moral compass that can guide us when the excess money flows in.

Are you an investor in real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds etc?  Are you planning to make a career in the financial industry?  Do you know someone who works there?  This movie is a must watch and the book “The end of Wall Street” is a must read.  Roger Lowenstein writes a blow by blow account of the last few days of the collapse of the Wall Street.  Its a riveting read.

And yes, if this doesn’t outrage you, nothing will.  Because in the world of finance, there is something called TBTF (Too Big to Fail).  Just become big by hook or by crook and then the government will ensure that you will never fail.  They will always bail you out no matter how big an asshole you have been.

“If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.” – J Paul Getty

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From Fullhydblogs to Rediffblogs to WordPress to my own hosted domain here, its been 7 years of blogging. From 2-3 posts per week to one post in 2-3 weeks, the speed of blogging has surely gone down, but the interest hasnt waned. With Facebook, twitter and so many books and other sites fighting for attention, i have been guilty of neglecting attention to this site a bit.

Not that many people visit this site. Hardly gets around 100 hits a day unless some troll decides to brighten up an otherwise dull day. When i was with WordPress, the blog used to have thousands of hits daily. Not to mention that i used to blog much more regularly out there.

With the amount of work, i hardly have time to catch up with friends. Blogging has sort of taken a secondary interest in life. But i still cant believe that i could sustain interest for over 7 years. Meanwhile have finished reading some good books. Most of my updates on the blog have been on the Movies and Reading pages. They are the only ones getting updated constantly. Read a book on Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff. Being a history buff, i liked the book. Wish i could find some movie or documentary on the same.

Also finally finished reading “The Warren Buffett Way” which i had been reading on and off while simultaneously reading other books. The other one is the unofficial Dhirubhai Ambani biography “The Polyester Prince” which also have been reading in fits and starts. The only way i seem to be able to finish a book faster is by listening to audio books. E-books and physical books seem to be taking months for me to finish. Its precisely why i have no interest of going in for an iPad or a Kindle. I think i will stick to audio book readers till the time i can improve my reading speed.

Still, have managed to finish about 19 books in the first 6 months of the year which i believe is pretty good enough. The target was to read a book a month. I have far exceeded that target. The next book that iam excited about reading is “Why Men Hate Going To Church – David Murrow“. The title of the book so defines me. My parents tried for more than 30 years and my wife has been trying for the past 3 years. I still cant bring myself to voluntarily go to church on a sunday. Not do do anything with my beliefs. I do pray regularly, but church is one thing that has been unable to keep me hooked. Maybe this book will give me some pointers on this issue.

Have watched some good (Hanna, X-Men, Millenium trilogy of Stieg Larsson) and lots of not so good movies over the past few months. Pyaar Ka Punchnaama as well as Shaitan were good too. As for telugu movies, the lesser said the better.

Time flies. We are almost into the 2nd half of the year. Time for me to take stock of the situation and make some hard choices. Do i still want to continue with what i have been doing all along or take the plunge into the unknown? Maybe the coming few months will give me the answer. Meanwhile what i need desperately is a holiday.

Above picture courtesy: Lifeconnectionchurch

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The Diwali weekend was spent lazing around at home and watching movies.  Caught up on all the ones i had missed.  Inception was really exceptional both concept wise and in the way the director Christopher Nolan shot it.  Was amazed at the way he was able to narrate the movie.

Having read so much about the movie, i thought i would be lost and the movie would be confusing.  But i found it quite engaging and entertaining.  The way the movie races through the different countries, the whole concept of getting into someone’s dreams to steal information or to plant them.  Man, where do they get all these ideas from? 

Avatar on the other hand transfixed me visually.  Its stunning.  No other word comes close.  But nothing great actually when it comes to either acting or the script.  Visually the movie is in its own class and will take a long time for any other director to match it.  Now, James Cameron has announced 2 more sequels to the movie in the years ahead.  Looking at all he has done in this one, the expectations are already quite high.

The Expendables was the usual 80s Rambo kinda movies that Stallone was so good at.  Explosions, bodies getting ripped off, the heroes going to the villain’s den and blowing up the whole place, a sexy woman who is rescued by the hero just as she is about to be raped.  Would have loved to see Arnie and Bruce Willis get their hands dirty though.

Machete was similar to the Expendables.  Mindless action with lots of gore attached.  Its rare to see Steven Seagal and Robert de Nero in the same movie. But was fun.  Another mindless action flick.

Having read so much about the financial meltdown in the US and with so much interest in finance & investing, this movie was a must watch for me for quite some time.  The movie did drag a bit, nevertheless i found it engaging.  Now, it has motivated me to go search for the original that released some 20 odd years ago.

All pictures above courtesy: IMDB

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The wait is over. The complaints built up (courtesy our incompetent media). A few players stayed away.  When the players actually landed, they were astonished at the amount of misinformation and lies told to them by their own media back home.  Which was partly or fully supplied to them by our own homegrown media.

Well, ignore the naysayers.  No matter what we say or do, the first thing the western media likes to portray when it comes to India is a cow standing in the middle of the road.  What they cant seem to understand is how inspite of being the so-called beacons of democracy themselves, the cows of India have so much rights on walking on the roads of India.

Let’s face it.  Poverty sells.  Else the movies of Satyajit Rays and Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s of India wouldn’t be patronised whole-heartedly by the western media / public when they are themselves consigned to the garbage by the Indian public (the world’s biggest patrons).  Of course its not easy for some of the snooty public / media in the western world to understand why and how the games could be awarded to a developing nation.  The same happened with the Australia and English cricket teams.  Today they see that their traditional source of power in cricket has been usurped by the BCCI.  Its not easy to accept the truth that you are not longer relevant in the grander scheme of things.   Wiser people accept the truth and mould themselves accordingly to the changing situation.  Fools are buried in the shifting sands of time screaming and kicking.

The collapsed rainbow bridge is up; courtesy the Indian Army which put it up in 5 days flat.  Eventhough, its a bailey bridge, it still does its job of standing up when people walk over it.   The stadiums are ready, the games village has been praised by officials and players from all across the world.  The food has been simply divine (according to the players), there are regular cultural programs and the players themselves are actively participating in them.

Lets admit it, the city of Delhi and its citizens are the biggest benificiaries of the games.  A new world class metro, many flyovers, bridges, roads, parks, traffic lights; in short great infrastructure for Delhiites.

Of course there will be detractors who will complain of child labour being used for the construction of venues (What else will the child do sitting around when their parents are working at the site?  They will also contribute and earn some money…so what’s wrong with it?). Shanties and slums being demolished (they were all illegaly occupying the government land and they were demolished.  Is that wrong?  Why don’t those bleeding heart liberals take each of the families affected by the demolition and give them shelter in their own homes?).

So ignore all the crappy complaints, rest and relax as the biggest ever carnival on the land of India begins tonight.  The opening ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games gets underway at 1900 hrs IST.  Watch it on TV or at the stadium (if you are lucky to get the tickets).  As for all the ones who complain of human rights abuses and corruption, go and take a hike.  The people of India care two hoots for your complaints.

By yesterday, 6700 players had confirmed their entries to the games making it the biggest Commonwealth Games ever (beating the 5766 athletes and officials who took part in Melbourne four years ago). 71 teams from 54 countries.  Millions of viewers across the world watching the games and a giant alien over the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium for the opening ceremony. 5000 years of civilization and the secular ethos of the country will be a part of the ceremony.  Enjoy.

Come out and Play.

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Prime Focus, the Mumbai based post production company has worked on significant portions of the recent blockbusters, Avatar and The New Moon.

Prime Focus played an essential behind-the-scenes role in two of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters of 2009 — Chris Weitz’s “New Moon” and James Cameron’s “Avatar.” The company established itself as one of the cutting-edge firms in the visual effects business by producing about 10 percent of James Cameron’s path-breaking 3D superhit and a whopping 80 percent of the shots for the second installment of the Twilight franchise.

“’Avatar’ obviously is the biggest of all,” Malhotra said. “We’ve done some exemplary work in ‘GI Joe’ and ‘New Moon’ as well. But when you’re working on ‘Avatar’ as one of the top five vendors you have got to a lot more credible space than working on just any movie.”

The London Stock Exchange-listed company’s portfolio of work runs the gambit from “Avatar” to top Bollywood hits like the Amir Khan starrer “3 Idiots” to Splinter Films’ DVD release of a live performance by Beyonce. The company already owns the lion’s share of the Indian post-production and visual effects market, and the international business is expanding rapidly.

Full article here

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