What hit us? Indians across the globe are wondering what caused this economic mess. The subprime crisis of 2008 created a wave of easy money flowing into countries across the world. We added to this liquidity with our own stimulus. The Indian economy had the power of double steroids backing…
Politics always plays the dampener to good economics. This is how it works everywhere. Taking hard economic decisions is not a politician’s forte. In fact, politicians always look for easy ways. It is only when the cumulative effect of all the easy decisions land them in a soup that politicians…
Imagine 100 companies go on a borrowing binge outside India to invest in Indian operations. They have long gestation periods, no forex incomes and need to import their raw materials. The only reason they borrowed overseas – greed to enjoy lower interest rates. These companies actually speculated on the dollar.…
The past few weeks have seen the banks report soaring NPA’s. What the banks haven’t told us is where these are coming from. Non-performing businesses create non-performing assets. Businesses fail to perform when they take on much more than they can handle. One such business which is slowly but surely…
If some good happens to the Indian economy, it rarely happens by design. It is either by accident or by compulsion. So, what good can one look for in these gloomy times? The dark monsoon skies hovering outside your window is the first harbinger. With the monsoon rains filling dams…
Expectation is the root cause of all heartache. Shakespeare’s words ring true timelessly. We almost always have trouble managing expectations. So, we fault our kids who scored ninety percent because their class mates scored more. We deride performance when we feel that someone else has done better. We don’t measure…
It has been four years since ithought was ideated. To many who know my circumstances, this was a move that wasn’t easily understood. The times were such – 2009 was a year when the infra thematic funds and energy funds had drilled and destroyed investor confidence. The industry had manufactured toxic thematic funds in…
Talking to HNI’s and investors gives one a clear sense of their despair that is set to turn into extreme anger. In the past few years, every asset class has failed them. First, it was equity. Then, gold failed. Now, it is the turn of debt funds. So, the bank…
The TCS results firmly re-established the Tech space as a defensive that the markets could depend upon. With INFY, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HUL, ITC and TCS forming the formidable frontline, we see the indices getting the requisite resilience. What does this mean to sentiment? If we see positive news flows…
There are times when the markets reward excellence and punish under performance. The economy will usually be buoyant at such times. There are also times when the markets look for consistency and pay a premium even for consistency. These are times when finding consistent performers are truly a challenge for…