economics – Page 2 – Karthik Shashidhar

business, economics, finance, investment banking arbitrage, downturn, europe, fallout, friends, global economic crisis, gtalk, incentives, india, inefficiencies, interesting stuff, investment bankers, market, plants, productivecity of london, recession, stationery manufacturer, work

Recession notes

March 2, 2009

Over the weekend I spoke to a few friends, over phone and GTalk. And enquired about their business. Some interesting insights: On Saturday, I spoke to this guy who is a banker in the City of London. He says that one major fallout of the global economic crisis is that the financial markets have become…

bangalore, economics, food, general, relationships 1980s, affiliation, attendance, bangalore, BASE, benefit, course weddings, cousins, dessert, excuse, favour, finite probability, food, friends, gurgaon, house, iimb, indian wedding, money, mysore, NED, networking, occurrences, offerings, photographer, proceedings, process, receptions, restaurants, sweets, time travel, train, work

Weddings

February 28, 2009

I’m trying to understand the significance of attending another person’s wedding. It is very unlikely that you are going to add any significant value to the process, since the person who invited you is likely to be extremely busy with the process. Unless you know one of the main people involved in the wedding really…

cricket, economics, finance, football, fundaes, investment banking, ipl, personal, sport coase theorem, excel sheet, franchise owner, franchises, game theory, half a mind, kings xi punjab, mata amrita, mumbai indians, player auctions, preity zinta, ranji, robin uthappa, royal challengers, structuring, team formation, zaheer khan

IPL Structuring

January 29, 2009

I remember that this time, last year, I was eagerly looking forward to the IPL auctions. It also happened to be a time when I was actively looking out for a new job (i wasn’t going to find one till about six months later). And I was secretly hoping that one of the IPL franchises…

business, economics, general bank ceo, feng shui, interior design, investment bank, john thain, million dollars, ml, numerology, painting, profession

Interior Design

January 25, 2009

Recently it has been reported that former ML MD John Thain spent some 1.2 million dollars in decorating his office. And people say that this is very conservative by normal CEO standards. Normal people (like me) might wonder why one needs to spend so much on one’s office. Even if you were to list out…

business, cricket, economics, finance, fundaes, investment banking, sport domestic cricket, financial crisis, investment bankers, laziness, pitches, quants, statisticians, television revenues, test cricket, tv rights, viewership

The Aftermath

January 8, 2009

Baada collaborated on the research leading up to his post. I hereby acknowledge his contribution and condemn his laziness for not blogging it himself. One of the major problems of the financial crisis that has been happening for about two years now is that investment bankers, as a profession, stand discredited. Before this, they used…

arbit, economics, politics baada, china, chinese threat, counterbalance, currencies, current account deficit, downturn, economic crisis, external debt, foreign exchange reserves, fsm, god, hindustan times, india, pakistan, rmb, suicide bomb, terrorism

Thank God for the economic crisis

December 11, 2008

This post is based on my discussion with Baada yesterday. I hereby acknowledge his contribution to this post. One of the hundred thousand random headlines that The HIndustan Times put on their front page during the last couple of weeks was a statement that China won’t hesitate to help out Pakistan in case India were…

economics, personal

Gym pricing

October 11, 2008

Earlier this evening, I went to check out a gym here in Gurgaon. The place itself was fairly nondescript – basic and decent but nothing extraordinary. What wasn’t nondescript was the price chart. Monthly: Rs. 1800 Quarterly: Rs. 3600 Half-yearly: Rs. 5000 Annual: Rs. 7000 The amount of discount you get as you sign up…

economics, finance, fundaes, investment banking

Sorry Vennai. Sorry MJ. Sorry Baal

September 11, 2008

But Lehman has to go. In the “larger interests” of continuing a vibrant, risktaking and efficient worldwide financial system, it is best that the Fed does not bail out Lehman. I had written about this a few months back, in hindsight, after Bear was bailed out by Fed who arranged for a hurried takeover by…

economics, general

The stamp paper market

August 5, 2008

Following the Telgi scandal the Karnataka government had a great brainwave. They decided that one of the reasons duplicate stamp papers were in circulation was that stamp paper was available freely. The only remedy to this, it was decided, was to restrict sales of stamp paper. So now the street corner guy doesn’t sell the…

arbit, economics, fundaes, religion

On Caste and the Gentleman Class

July 18, 2008

Some 3-4 days back, I wrote a post in the Indian Economy Blog with a conjecture as to why India never got an overwhelming “gentleman class” in the way that European countries did. I forgot to cross post it here back then, so I’m doing it now.

descriptive, economics, general

The economics of motorcycle maintenance

July 16, 2008

Yesterday I gave my old bike for servicing. It was in such bad shape that for a while I was worried that the cost of servicing would be greater than the salvage value of the bike. This morning, when I went to pick it up, I was pleased to see that the bill came up…

books, economics, personal, randomness

The difference between Taleb and McKenzie

July 14, 2008

A few minutes back I finished reading Richard McKenzie’s Why popcorn costs so much at the movies and other pricing puzzles. Since the book is not available in India, I managed to procure an online pirated version through a friend. And since the book isn’t released in India, I didn’t feel guilty about reading the…

arbit, computer science, economics

Computer Science and Economics

July 13, 2008

Left-wing economics is idealistic, and the basic assumption is that everyone is a good guy, and he will work in the best interests of the system. On the other hand, the basic assumption behind right-wing economics is that everyone is inherently a bad guy, and will work only for his own benefit. Hence, systems have…

business, economics, Uncategorized

Billing rates

July 9, 2008

When I got my house painted three months back, the head painter suggested a new method of calculating his fees. Instead of charging by the man hour, which is how usually painters are charged, this guy proposed that we pay him by the square foot. Once all the work was done, he and I together…

economics, infrastructure, Uncategorized

Munger on urban transportation

July 8, 2008

The latest podcast on Econtalk has Duke economist Mike Munger talking about public transport, and how things have changed for the worse in Santiago after public transport was nationalized. One of the points mentioned in the podcast talks about homogeneity in services after nationalization. Munger talks about how usage of the public transport system dropped…

economics, Uncategorized

Just wondering

July 2, 2008

Can Country A do something to Country B at the WTO because the latter is not passing on full fuel price to the customer, leading to no decline in supply? demand and consequently high prices of oil for Country A? How do these kind of things work? Is it possible for one country to destroy…

bangalore, business, economics, food, fundaes

Why fine dining costs so much in Bangalore

June 30, 2008

Blame the Bangarappa government of 1993, which took a decision to stop issuing more liquor licenses, a decision that still continues today.? According to themadman ?(who runs the excellent Shiok, currently temproarily closed), the only way one can start a restaurant serving liquor in Bangalore is to buy a permit from someone who is shutting…

books, economics, general

Indian editions

June 27, 2008

For the last one year or so, I’ve been relying on bloggers such as Tyler Cowen for my books recommendations. Basically I read about a book on a blog, or say Marginal Revolution does a book forum on the book, and I soon get interested in the book, and go out to buy it. And…

economics, fundaes, infrastructure, Uncategorized

Water Privatization revisited

June 20, 2008

I first wrote about water privatization on this blog back in 2006. I had written that bit as part of a term paper for an infrastructure course at IIMB, and it seemed like we didn’t do too well as far as the term paper went. I revisited the topic sometime last year when i talked…

arbit, economics, finance, general, politics

The GS Report

June 19, 2008

I’m in the process of reading the Goldman Sachs report about what India should do to become a superpower by 2050. Have read some 4 pages of it so far.

economics, fundaes, religion

In the name of equality

June 17, 2008

In temple towns such as Horanadu and Sringeri, the temple has a virtual monopoly over accommodation for tourists. There have been a few private lodges springing up in both places of late, but indifferent quality means these are places of last resort for tourists. The temple accommodation, however, is well maintained and clean, and most…