From the Financial Times,
Bankers fear transatlantic pay split
US financial groups with operations in London are increasingly concerned that British regulators’ tough stance on pay could create a two-tier system in which UK bankers’ bonuses are smaller and spread over a longer period than those of American colleagues.
I welcome this. The US needed some external pressure on this matter. I shan't say more. Guys like George Soros has been more than cogent why these financial types shouldn't be paid like before.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Some wisdom from Soros
I got this from the New Yorker and I have also read the FT articles alluded to.
Soros logic is both simple and compelling. I agree with him.
OCTOBER 27, 2009
THE WISDOM OF SOROS
As a rule, I do not put much store by the statements of billionaires and central-bank chairmen. The former are accorded undue respect because of their wealth, the latter because of the positions they hold. In my experience, neither great riches nor high office are strongly correlated with economic wisdom and common sense. For today, however, I am making an exception: first for George Soros, the veteran speculator and philanthropist, and, in my next post, for Mervyn King, the head of the Bank of England.
Earlier this month, at a conference organized by The Economist, I heard Soros make the elementary but crucial point that rising bank profits, and thus bonuses, are no accident. The Fed, through its zero-interest rate policy and generous lending programs, has deliberately created an environment in which a chimpanzee could run a big bank and make pots of money. Banks can lend from the Fed at zero per cent, buy long-dated Treasury bonds yielding three and a half per cent, and pocket the spread. Rather than nationalizing stricken banks and recapitalizing them that way, Soros said, the U.S. government had opted to help them earn their way back to sound health.
On Friday, in an interview with the Financial Times, Soros elaborated on his theme, declaring, “These earnings are not the achievements of risk takers. They are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think these monies should be used to pay bonuses. There’s a resentment which I think is justified.”
Finally, in an article in yesterday’s FT, Soros called for stricter regulation, endorsing a twenty-first-century version of Glass Steagall in which banks that benefit from the de facto government safety net, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup, would be banned from trading on their own accounts. “This may push proprietary traders out of banks and into hedge funds, where they belong,” Soros noted.
It would also mean that taxpayers were no longer subsidizing “heads I win, tails you lose” bets placed by banks that are too big to fail. Does that not sound like an idea worth exploring?
POSTED BY JOHN CASSIDY
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Soros logic is both simple and compelling. I agree with him.
OCTOBER 27, 2009
THE WISDOM OF SOROS
As a rule, I do not put much store by the statements of billionaires and central-bank chairmen. The former are accorded undue respect because of their wealth, the latter because of the positions they hold. In my experience, neither great riches nor high office are strongly correlated with economic wisdom and common sense. For today, however, I am making an exception: first for George Soros, the veteran speculator and philanthropist, and, in my next post, for Mervyn King, the head of the Bank of England.
Earlier this month, at a conference organized by The Economist, I heard Soros make the elementary but crucial point that rising bank profits, and thus bonuses, are no accident. The Fed, through its zero-interest rate policy and generous lending programs, has deliberately created an environment in which a chimpanzee could run a big bank and make pots of money. Banks can lend from the Fed at zero per cent, buy long-dated Treasury bonds yielding three and a half per cent, and pocket the spread. Rather than nationalizing stricken banks and recapitalizing them that way, Soros said, the U.S. government had opted to help them earn their way back to sound health.
On Friday, in an interview with the Financial Times, Soros elaborated on his theme, declaring, “These earnings are not the achievements of risk takers. They are gifts, hidden gifts, from the government, so I don’t think these monies should be used to pay bonuses. There’s a resentment which I think is justified.”
Finally, in an article in yesterday’s FT, Soros called for stricter regulation, endorsing a twenty-first-century version of Glass Steagall in which banks that benefit from the de facto government safety net, such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Citigroup, would be banned from trading on their own accounts. “This may push proprietary traders out of banks and into hedge funds, where they belong,” Soros noted.
It would also mean that taxpayers were no longer subsidizing “heads I win, tails you lose” bets placed by banks that are too big to fail. Does that not sound like an idea worth exploring?
POSTED BY JOHN CASSIDY
PRINT E-MAIL COMMENTS (0)
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Public Transport Strategy Not Working
The public transport strategy to raise its sare to 79% of all trips by 2020 has suffered a reversal.
From the ST today,
"..public transport's share of the total number of trips made during the morning peak period shrank to 59 per cent last year from 63 per cent in 2004 and 67 per cent in 1997..."
further,
"while public transport journeys increased by 16 per cent, car journeys jumped 31 per cent.
'The heavier car usage has led to an overall drop in the public transport mode share last year,' said the minister.
Between 2004 and last year, car numbers grew by 32 per cent to 550,500."
What this means is simple. Cost of owning a car would have to go up. Car use charges will also be creeping up. The current transportation trend is not tenable.
From the ST today,
"..public transport's share of the total number of trips made during the morning peak period shrank to 59 per cent last year from 63 per cent in 2004 and 67 per cent in 1997..."
further,
"while public transport journeys increased by 16 per cent, car journeys jumped 31 per cent.
'The heavier car usage has led to an overall drop in the public transport mode share last year,' said the minister.
Between 2004 and last year, car numbers grew by 32 per cent to 550,500."
What this means is simple. Cost of owning a car would have to go up. Car use charges will also be creeping up. The current transportation trend is not tenable.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Prawn fritters
Look at the prawn fritter standing tall in the middle of the plate. My daughter spotted it and wanted to honor it. In the end we honor it by eating it last. She got it.
This entry was made because she wanted me to. Guess our vain attempt to immortalise it.
iPod Touch
This iPod Touch which I got with the intention of using it as an e-reader and kindle reader has done far more for me. It has reshaped how I use computers.
I am looking forward to what Apple is offering with their tablet device.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
I am looking forward to what Apple is offering with their tablet device.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Singapore: One of the great cities in history
Singapore is listed as one of the great cities of modern times.
As I understand about this government, Singapore no longer belongs to Singaporeans because some believe that is the way to lose it. Singapore now belongs to the world and along the way they will carve a niche for Singaporeans.
In the same way, NY cannot be for New Yorkers only. It is part of America. Ditto Shanghai for China. Therefore Singapore for the world but we have to navigate the politics of sovereignty riding on the economic imperative, i.e., Globalization.
Nothing is worth trading our intangibles for except survival. Not sure if this is the right thing to do.
Excerpt from it: Note Singapore is one of the cities.
And so we reach the Age of the Modern City. It opens – for the purposes of this book – around 1800 though all the cities are hard to confine within a chronological compartment, spreading across centuries, defying our attempts to arrange them neatly in sections. By now, the industrial revolution was well under way, resulting in mass immigration from the countryside to the towns and the appearance of the megalopolis. London and Paris are here for the second time, since both are undergoing a dramatic change: London with its tremendous population explosion – made possible largely by improvements in sanitation – and Paris with the radical surgery of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann. North America –which has not up to this moment put in an appearance – now looms large: in Canada we look at Montreal, in the United States at New York and Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. Here too we witness another astonishing innovation – the skyscraper, which in turn owes its existence to the invention of the electric elevator. South of the isthmus of Panama, we cast an eye on Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Europe – apart from London and Paris – is represented by Barcelona, Berlin and Budapest; Asia by New Delhi and Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo: and Australasia by Sydney.
As I understand about this government, Singapore no longer belongs to Singaporeans because some believe that is the way to lose it. Singapore now belongs to the world and along the way they will carve a niche for Singaporeans.
In the same way, NY cannot be for New Yorkers only. It is part of America. Ditto Shanghai for China. Therefore Singapore for the world but we have to navigate the politics of sovereignty riding on the economic imperative, i.e., Globalization.
Nothing is worth trading our intangibles for except survival. Not sure if this is the right thing to do.
And so we reach the Age of the Modern City. It opens – for the purposes of this book – around 1800 though all the cities are hard to confine within a chronological compartment, spreading across centuries, defying our attempts to arrange them neatly in sections. By now, the industrial revolution was well under way, resulting in mass immigration from the countryside to the towns and the appearance of the megalopolis. London and Paris are here for the second time, since both are undergoing a dramatic change: London with its tremendous population explosion – made possible largely by improvements in sanitation – and Paris with the radical surgery of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann. North America –which has not up to this moment put in an appearance – now looms large: in Canada we look at Montreal, in the United States at New York and Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles. Here too we witness another astonishing innovation – the skyscraper, which in turn owes its existence to the invention of the electric elevator. South of the isthmus of Panama, we cast an eye on Buenos Aires and São Paulo. Europe – apart from London and Paris – is represented by Barcelona, Berlin and Budapest; Asia by New Delhi and Singapore, Shanghai and Tokyo: and Australasia by Sydney.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Windows 7
This is a CNet video of the new Windows 7. Quite neat user interface but I wouldn't be upgrading to it any time soon. One of our Notebooks will get a free upgrade. When it arrives we will install and try it. The rest of our machines, I imagine we will only make the switch when we need to replace them.
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