اخبار 1

Where the mind is maybe with a little fear but the head is held high Where there is no Blogger to corrupt the thoughts Where there is no Facebook to waste time Where there is no Twitter to inform the world that you are brushing your teeth Where there is no YouTube so that you don’t watch Justin Bieber Where there is no Google for you to check what sesquipedalian means Where you can’t get to Dropbox   for the trillions of useless stuff you have stored Where there is no Picasa , you narcissist, for admiring your selfies Where there is no TV, to watch mindless soaps (or football if you prefer) Where there is no bourgeois newspapers to corrupt the mind Into that pure , unpolluted, NSA free heaven, my father, I shall awake tomorrow, and be there for a week !

Caesar's wife must be above suspicion , as the saying goes. It is not just important to be right, you must also appear to be right. This is even more important for very public figures. That is why this post is titled No Tim, No . Timothy Geithner, the former Treasury Secretary (in Indian parlance, Finance Minister) is going to become the President of Warburg Pincus , an investment banking firm. There is nothing legally wrong in what Geithner is doing. He was the Treasury Secretary during Obama's first term.  He left office in January 2013 and has been writing  a book since. Now comes the news that he is to become the head of Warburg. He is perfectly entitled to do whatever he wants once he steps out of pubic office. The problem is the old one of Caesar's wife being above suspicion.The cosy nexus between businessmen and politicians is a significant problem today - especially in the US after Citizens United . The financial sector is in the eye of the storm of government atten...

If you are a Brit, you know Wonga very well. If you aren't, you probably have not heard of them. Ed Miliband, Britain's opposition leader even called the ruling government's philosophy, the "Wonga economy". This post is a continuation of my struggle with moral dilemmas -  its been that sort of a time these days. What was black and white  long ago,  now, appears to be impossible shares of grey - far more than fifty, if you must know ! Who or what is Wonga ?  Wonga is a provider of  something called payday lending - a concept very familiar to those of us who came from humble beginnings. Wonga gives small amounts of credit for extremely short periods - until the next pay day. It helps poor families tide over until the next salary comes. The maximum amount you can borrow is £ 1000 and the maximum period you can borrow upto is 30 days. Loan evaluation and grant is extremely quick (has to be , isn't it) . Sounds very good. So what's the catch ? The catch is th...

Are there "good" jobs and "bad" jobs ? Are some jobs inherently demeaning in nature and therefore to be banned ?  Or is the economic imperative an acceptable argument for any job where there is demand and where people do of their own free will ? Unforced prostitution is one such example. Manual scavenging is another. I find it a difficult moral dilemma, as this post on the "mule women" of Melilla will show. I came to know of this from one of the greatest of radio shows - BBC's From Our Own Correspondent . (starts from 12.25). If you prefer simply the written version rather than hearing it on the radio, it is here . An accident of history has made two small enclaves of Spain (and therefore of the European Union) exist on the north coast of Africa. Melilla and Ceuta are located in what should be Morocco, but they are part of Spain and hence border-less with the European Union and all its goodies. The whole story arises because a) Moroccan residents of Na...

There is nothing more irritating than somebody who pontificates. Even more irritating is if the guy has absolutely no credentials to pontificate on the subject in question. Imagine the Pontiff (if you'll pardon the pun)  lecturing on the merits of Viagra. Or Sarah Palin extolling the merits of Shakespeare. Or even this blogger blogging about Kollywood !! That is how I can best describe the American Treasury's criticism of Germany's economic policy . The criticism is that Germany's current account surplus as a danger to the eurozone and the world economy. Germany runs a current account surplus - that is, it exports far more than it imports. This is , according to the American Treasury, a big danger to the world economy. This blog is not meant to be a technical paper - so I will desist from explaining this , which will make it too technical. Suffice to say some "leading economists" also share this view. First let us play the man rather than the ball - after all...