The Big Short by Michael Lewis

I just finished reading this book. Terrific is the word that I immediately think of. Its been some time since Lewis has written anything that I enjoyed reading and this comes as a breath of fresh air. Of course, Liar's Poker takes some beating, but that belongs to another time.

It was hard for me to understand all the chicanery that has gone on in the subprime, CDO, CDS, ratings and other related markets during the last decade and how that led to the near collapse of the financial system as we knew it. What this book brings home forcefully is how much of all this was plain fraud perpetrated by wall street bankers. Knowingly. And nobody could stop them. When the world exploded around them, American taxpayers (forced to do so by the US government) rescued them and the rest of the world. We need to say a big thank you to them for that.   

It wasn't that long ago that some of my friends, family and me were thinking of pulling all our money from banks like Credit Suisse, UBS, RBS & others just to keep them at home under the proverbial mattress. 

How quickly we forget. The great fall of Q4 2008 & Q1 2009 was led by the great rise and euphoria that led to a 60% retracement of the DJI and the doubling or more of corporate and bank bonds. 

Recent events, especially in Europe have shown that we are not out of the woods yet. How long do we have to be afraid?     

Say again?

We have all seen pictures of signs from China with bad English, but I like the sign on the right for more than just this. I did not quite realise why until later.

Avid (as well as alert) followers of mine on Facebook may have noticed some mind numbingly pointless posts from me when I landed in Shanghai airport on Sunday 16th May. As the driver (finally) whisked me away from the waiting area, I stole a quick look at my news feed on FB. Nothing dramatic.

Upon getting to the wonderful Shangri-la hotel in Pudong, I was happy to find that they have free WIFI (even though I have to agree to their terms each time I power any device on and off). It is a small amount of money relative to the price of the room, and I still don't understand why all of these premium hotels insist on charging for WIFI. The ones who charge individually for each device deserve to have all their guests desert them immediately.

But I stray ...

Having connected to the internet and read my email, I go on to FB. Nothing happens. Try again. Nothing. Twitter? Same result. WTF is going on? I

struggle for a few moments trying before ADD kicks in and I stare at the wonderful view out of my window. Shanghai has wonderful buildings -- the view alongside is of the Jinmao Tower and the World Financial Center. These are the two tallest buildings in China and they are across the street from each other! From my POV, Jinmao looks the taller of the two, but that is not correct. Wikipedia tells me that the WFC is 492 m tall to Jinmao's 421 m. (Not to rest with this achievement, the Shanghi Tower at 632 m is being built at the same crossroads!)

Later that evening, my colleagues tell me over dinner that FB, Twitter, Youtube, Yahoo Taiwan and maybe some other sites are blocked here. Now I know why I was unable to get in earlier that day. Ah well, a few days without social networking was not gonna be a big deal.

Couple days later we drove out to Nantong which lies about 2 hours west of Shanghai by road. I nap a bit, and at a pitstop see an email from my dearly beloved spouse telling me that "BG is in China and he just posted on FB!". Quelle horreur! Outdone in technology! I try to connect via my iPhone app and guess what? I am connected! Uh?

Hongtao is surprised when I tell her this, and then suddenly says "ah, so it must be just blocked in Shanghai". True, that's what seems to be the case. Living in Shanghai, she just did not realise that the ban was local and not national.

Suddenly, the sign at the rear entrance of our office building increases in significance. Whenever a door is "closde", another one opens. I had just found the other entrance.

The grass is greener

There is this old joke about 3 men adrift in a lifeboat with a can of baked beans between them but no can opener. The blue collar worker wants to smash the can with any hard object they can find on the boat. The engineer starts to devise complex algorithms relating to pressure and heat which would snap the top of the can. The economist says "Let's assume a can opener."

Every problem has a solution, but what do you do when you have no clue? The problem is real -- you can't assume a solution. Recently, I had a situation that needed urgent handling.

So we have a piece of grass - 3 pieces actually - around our house and have had a gardener taking care of it over the years. About the only thing I know is how to start the lawnmower and take out the waste. Even starting the lawnmower has been a chore at times - no petrol, too cold to start, choke has flooded the engine, a runaway accelerator and many other situations. When the girls were at school, they knew the occasional young man who would come by and mow the grass for a nominal wage (this was not easy by any means - apparently most kids in our neighbourhood do not feel the necessity to earn some pocket money. Believe me when I say this - we often had to beg!).

Winter is out and the garden needs work, so Roberto comes by and while mowing the grass our lawnmower of 10 seasons just gives up. It has been sick multiple times over the years and needed TLC which only Roberto could provide. But this time, it was time to bury it. Roberto explains the need to buy a new one and makes some recommendations that I listen to carefully. Given my ADD, and my knowledge of the Swiss German tongue, I had forgotten everything he said the next morning.

I assumed the internet -- et viola! Things started to happen. Do you know how much choice there is in lawnmowers and what are the factors that you need to consider? I knew that I had my work cut out for me.

• Size: Width of cutting blade, weight.
• Engine: Manual, Petrol, Electricity, Battery, Robot.
• Speed: Single or multi-speed
• Push or Ride
• Even one with an air cushion for zero friction movement (but you have to rake the cut grass later)

Uff. So I decided that

• Our garden was less than 500 m2
• I was too old to be pushing the machine
• I wanted the lightest weight in it's class
• Go for the best brand .. which turned out to be a Honda in this case!

I go to the biggest DIY and Garden store in our area and guess what? They have Hondas (which the sales guy called a Mercedes of lawn mowers). Perfect. But there was a catch. They only had the lowest (push for 500 m2 gardens) and highest end of the range (rear wheel drive for 1500 m2) and my request was for a rear wheel drive of the low end version. Next: they said that they "cannot order one" which is not in the shop. The customer service took a leap for the worst. Sometimes this country is just unbelievable!

Back to the internet, Honda Swiss website, hunt for dealers and a week later I am the proud owner of the lawnmower mentioned in my previous post.

Phew, spending money is tiring. Almost more tiring than actually cutting the grass and putting the waste out no later than Thursday morning to ensure it gets taken away. But the garden finally looks nice .. on the few days that I have a chance to enjoy it.

The weekend that wasn't

Avid readers of my whereabouts & activities (such as they are) usually find me writing about my travels, so this is surely an exception.

Those of you who have kids know how important it is for them to have parents attend school functions. Those of you who have a busy work life have a long list of excuses to not go there. Important meetings, slave driving bosses, project deadlines etc.

The time has come to add another excuse to this list.

I am sorry sweetie, I can't make it to your concert because there was a volcanic eruption in Iceland and my flight got cancelled! This is very original. Come one, who could have even thunk this up? Reality is stranger than fiction and all that. This one is right up there with the best.

Ah, but there you go. The ash from Iceland dashed my plans to be in St. Andrews this weekend and watch Kiran participating in Diya and the added bonus of visiting wonderful Scotland again. As Anil said, Iceland is repaying the cash they got from Europe with ash. It's the second time in 2 years that Iceland has screwed Europe. There should be a law against this.

Someone tweeted that all those stranded passengers are now feeling like Salman Khan & Vivek Oberoi. Ash has spoiled their trip. Haha.

Well, with most airports around Europe closed, it aint so funny for everyone. Hedi was to fly to NYC for a vacation yesterday and probably will only fly on Tuesday. Zurich airport is closed ... another first. I have been flying in and out of there for over 20 years and this has never happened before.

Seriously, Kiran & I were both very disappointed but, yet again, man proposes & God disposes (what a terrible cliche). It's outside our control. Fortunately I was able to rebook for 1st week of June when Srishti & I will be there for a week's vacation. Yay!

In the meantime, I watched some IPL, tried to watch Love Khichdi (terrible .. gave up after 15 mins) and went to the city for dinner with Anil. So that was OK. Today's plan to try and start a new aerobic course at the Gym and try to get as far as possible with The girl who kicked the hornets nest. Oh yes, I did order a new lawnmower as well, which should arrive by Wednesday.

By the way, this year's IPL has totally proved the capability India has to put on a global reality show and have a soap opera running on the side. What a carry on and what a cast! If I ever figure out what's going on, I may write about it.

Last but not the least, I think it was about time someone sued Goldman Sachs.

Ashok is back!

It has been some time since I wrote a book or movie review on Facebook ...

But now, your pesky & irregular amateur movie & book reviewer is back! It's not that I stopped reading or watching, it's just that I told myself that no one was interested, including myself. One reason that I wrote was that it helped me to remember what I had seen! Age. Sigh.

The truth also is that I have been spending more time peering at a screen than at a page. Being an avid reader was such a matter of pride for me that I started to feel ashamed of myself for reading less. I think I had started to suffer from ADD, which made it easier to watch TV & movies than read. I still think that to be the case.

To some extent I blame my job. In the past 2 years (almost), I have been overwhelmed by things to do. I think of writing my blog and I end up watching TV. I think of reading the newspaper & I end up checking my email. The hamster is well & truly on the wheel.

I have taken to loving my iPhone. I live in it. I read email & books. I watch TV. I read the news. I take pictures. I track my gym activity. I catalogue my movie & wine collection (why not my book collection?). I make a pest of myself by emailing news articles & pictures to people who have kindly given me their email addresses. I was even sleeping with it next to my pillow (sleep cycle app), but mercifully have de-addicted myself of that. The iPhone now sleeps 2 floors down from me. (It's called the battery charging app)

Oh yes, I also follow the Indian cricket scores and track all my travel & frequent flyer memberships.

Gosh, I have been rambling. Let's go back to the start and start reviewing again! Feel free to debate with me (Arvind Vijh and I had a lively one on "My name is Khan" in Twitter size bytes back in Feb), or ignore me; but remember that this is my review and my opinion is final!

I am sure by now our girls and my wife are thoroughly embarassed and can't wish me far enough ...

By the way, this note/blog has been written on an iPhone on a Continental Airlines plane between New York & Houston. It's a bit noisy to watch Season 2 of Damages on the iPhone and I don't have episode 13 of Season 8 of 24. Waiting impatiently for the next episode of Fringe Season 2 be aired. Kinda lost interest in Lost sometime early in Season 2. (Gosh, I have to watch less TV!)

Treacherous Territory Part 2

So it's been about 13 months since I wrote Part 1. I have been thinking of writing a follow up blog for a month now, so in my head it feels like a year has passed (and not 13 months). It's been an eventful year.

There is a problem. I am not an extrovert by nature, and even if I was, I cannot write everything that is on my mind without revealing company "secrets". I have to balance. I have to weigh. Who is my audience?

Well, we did decide to hire people and open an office in Singapore. We did decide to replace Patrick Cox when he quit. We did see Paul Brunner retire. And we managed to get office space in Singapore at the bottom of the market. If you had known the company 1.5 years ago, gone to sleep and then come back today, you will find it looking completely different. Even in the (now) outpost of Darien, CT there are changes (says he, tongue firmly in cheek).

I am now officially the oldest person in the company after Jim Amaroso (Gina does not count as we have officially agreed that she stopped growing in 1999). I am the problem solver. That is perhaps my main job now. The Board gives me an amazing amount of rope to hang myself with. I still have some customers but for the main part have stopped being involved in direct day trading.

All of the traders are weighing in and doing a wonderful job. We are all talking to each other. We are often on the same wavelength. We are young and react quickly to events. We are teaching each other to overcome emotions in trading. We have firmly re-established the Trammochem name. People call in and admire what we have done this year.

When I look at the performance data, I cannot but help feeling exhilarated. There has been a lot of sweat and sleepless nights and air miles gone into this; but the end result fills all of us with pride. I called RPS last night and congratulated him on the results so far.

But you know the saying: A trader is only as good as his next trade. We need to go on. We need to build further on the success of this year. We need to avoid hubris. A man's work is never done (to misquote the old saying). The decade is about to end and a new one beckons.

What's in a name - said the bard

Indians have the tendency to put other Indians in a box. The moment we meet another Indian and hear the name, our gray cells start to agitate a la Hercule Poirot. Rakesh Khurana, must be Punjabi. Aditya Mhatre, zaroor ghati hoga. Debasis Basu, eta to Bangali. Suresh Patel, hello gujjubhai! You can further believe that once we decide that the person next to us is a Punjabi or Maharashtrian or Bengali or Gujarati, a further slew of thoughts and pre-determined judgements of that community take over. Welcome to multiple "blink" moments of the Indian character. (Debasis must be eating fish every day)

I have tried hard to think, but cannot figure out why this is so. The only brainwave I had was that we are seeking to find comfort by having knowledge of the person we are talking to without asking any questions. If you read this and feel the urge to contribute, be my guest.

Did you know that hundreds of years ago, commoners did not have any family names? The ruling class prevented them from having one to stop them from banding together. Imagine that a bunch of Agarwals got together and staged a coup against the Gandhis? Well, there were no Agarwals at that time. Only Rakesh, Anil, Maya and others. Then they started getting names from their professions. Consider a village in England where there were 3 Johns. One had to become John Carpenter, one John Smith and the last John Taylor?

I have been living abroad for over 20 years and spared these blink moments when I meet non-Indians (I meet more of these than Indians). Indians that I meet tend to get foxed by my name. I guess Abhishek Kumar would have the same problem. It is hard to put me in a box on the basis of my name alone. Over the years, I have heard different types of questions as well as assumptions about my origin and "box".

Let me try and put this to rest. My name is Ashok Kishore. Kishore is my family name and I am the 3rd generation of Kishores in my line (Perhaps there were more, but we don't know any further back). My children will be the 4th. (If they continue to live in the West, they will not be faced with this question from other Indians.) My father's family comes from a town called Rampur in UP. My mother's family comes from Meerut in UP. Now, all you guys and girls, please put away your "blink" hat!

By the way, I am susceptible to this disease as well, even with Westerners. I know my Dutch from the Germans from the Spanish and so on. Tomorrow I may meet John Taylor and start to think: Hmm .. American, English, Aussie, Canadian (visualise me scratching my head)?

P.S. : Last week in Singapore, my nephew asked me why so many Indian first names started with A. His teacher had asked him. Obviously, I have a theory about this. I am full of theories. But lets hear yours first.