Some more crumbs and bones - World Bank will lend a few billion to microbanks - NYTimes.com

The World Bank and the German government said Thursday that they hoped to inject as much as $600 million into microcredit banks, fledgling institutions in developing countries that are being starved of financing as the credit markets have tightened.

The effort highlights how even small banks in poor countries are getting caught in the financial crisis — and it offers them a chance to get public money to replace rapidly diminishing private capital. (via Microbanks Are Getting a Cash Infusion - NYTimes.com).

Under the plan, the World Bank would initially provide $150 million alongside an additional $130 million from the German government. Mr. Zoellick said the bank was soliciting contributions from other countries and agencies, and hoped to mobilize up to $600 million. That would be enough to help 150 to 200 microfinance banks in 40 developing countries.

Crumbs coming your way …

The US is throwing a few bones, our way, to keep us quiet. While they continue the flooding the world with these depreciating pieces of paper. India is losing 10% of its foreign currency reserves every year due to dollar devaluation. What we are getting from the IMF/WB duo is just 1% of this as debt.

And we have a few preening bureaucrats who think this calls for some self-congratulations!

Europe wants to stay relevant

Europe which has a major say in the IMF and World Bank, after the USA, obviously wants to increase its role - and decrease US importance. To gets its way, it has gone on a major diplomatic offensive - to the extent of restoring diplomatic ties with Cuba.

To placate the Third World, the duopoly and Europe may show some token resistance - and finally give the Third World some minuscule voting rights. The Third World must not waste time on reforming the IMF and World Bank - but instead focus on setting up a system to manage the Third reserve currency.

As an interim measure, to deal with the current liquidity problem, the US Fed, the IMF and World Bank should be pressured to part with some liquidity.

Why flog the IMF and World Bank dead horses.

Interview after G-20 Washington Summit

P.Chidambaram - They will give greater representation and voice to developing countries ... Now whether they will be ready through that I can’t say, they have set the ball rolling now and it would be difficult now to resist any governance reforms on the IMF.(via Moneycontrol >> News >> Economy >> G20 meet sees agreement on common accounting standards: FM)

Describing the G20 summit as “very successful”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh … said that … There was one important significance which is clear that the balance of power is shifting increasingly in favour of emerging economies,

“We were previously also invited for the past couple of years for the G8 meetings. But consultations were merely for the sake of form. For the first time there was a genuine dialogue between many of the developed countries and the emerging economies,” he said. (via PM terms G20 meet as ‘very successful’)

Note the language …

This is the language of recipients, of pleading and impotence. Chidambaram says that ‘they’ will now “give greater representation and voice to developing countries” Manmohan Singh mirrors the sentiment when he says,”consultations were merely for the sake of form”.

The Developing World FTA

Instead of breaking heads with the WTO, the Developing World should declare a 100 country FTA. As Rajat Nag, of the ADB points out,

“East Asia already trades 55% of its output within the region. India’s trade with China, Japan and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) is increasing. That is the structural shift which will have to happen. Our forecasts are not based on any dramatic shift”

Put the Doha round in deep freeze, and turbo charge work on a FTA within the developing world. That can add another 2%-4% to economic growth - especially to the poorest countries.

The Third Global Reserve Currency

To this add the Third Global Reserve Currency option - and junk the Dollar and the Euro. With this, the World economy will have two strong drivers for economic growth - without dependence on the West. The world needs to move away from the Dollar-Euro duopoly to tri-polar currency regime.

This calls for leadership - intellectual and political. Does the developing world have it? Can India provide it?

Casting the U.S. as Parent in a Teenage World - Thomas P. M. Barnett - NYTimes.com

“It took us 89 years to free the slaves and 189 years to guarantee African-Americans the right to vote,” he writes. “Women waited 144 years before earning suffrage. If a mature, multiparty democracy was so darn easy, everybody would have one.” (via Review of Book - ‘Great Powers’ by Thomas P. M. Barnett - Casting the U.S. as Parent in a Teenage World - NYTimes.com).

Maybe, Mr.Barnett, before you build a case for more intervention by the 'adult' US in the lives of immature Rest, he should look at the American record again!

The writer forgets how the disenfranchisement laws still work in the US. The disenfranchisement laws came into effect by the 1890’s - that continue till today. This ensured that the disproportionate numbers of Blacks could not vote - and George Bush became the President of the USA for the 2nd time. After some 60,000 Black Voters were disenfranchised, George Bush technically, won by less than 1000 votes (most of the disenfranchised voters were expected to vote against George Bush).

Or that in the Police Republic of The US has the largest number of people in prisons - disproportionately African Americans. USA, with a population of 30 crores (300 million), has a criminal population of 70 lakhs (7 million) - behind bars, on probation or on parole. US Government estimates a figure of 20 lakhs (2 million) people serving prison sentences.

Though US women have the vote, they cannot elect their own. Where is the US woman as a President?

Though, maybe the reviewer may be right, when the reviewer claims in the closing line, “it is hard to disagree with his ... observation that “the world desperately wants America back.”

Especially looking at the Middle East, that US propaganda may be working. Maybe, the Middle East does want its Unca Sam fix.

Or that Indians may want 'freedom' - US style.

Pregnancies and media reactions!

The public relations group that has represented octuplets mother Nadya Suleman is stepping down because of death threats, its president said Saturday.

Joann Killeen also said the mother now has an agent: Wes Yoder, the same man who arranged book and music deals for the McCaughey septuplets a decade ago and publicity for controversial pastor Rick Warren. (via The Associated Press: Octuplets mother now has agent but no publicist).

and then came the other story.

A British schoolboy who has grabbed headlines by becoming a father at 13 ... amid calls for a crackdown on the trend towards “children having children” as Tory leader David Cameron put it ... Prime Minister Brown call(ed) to avoid teenage pregnancies as figures showed that Britain had the highest teenage pregnancy in Western Europe ... pro-life campaigners praised the young couple for their “courage” in deciding against abortion ... experts called for better sex-education in schools ... Police said it was “not in anyone’s interest” to prosecute the couple. (via Teenage dad not to be prosecuted).

After so much media attention, I have only two questions - What if Nadya Suleman was a White, Anglo Saxon Protestant - instead of a Muslim?

And what if 13 year old Alfie Patten and his 15-year-old girlfriend Chantelle Stedman were Hindus in India?

My fear is that the most two-faced reaction would actually come from Indian media - especially, the Indian-English media?

Robert McNamara and the Ghosts of Vietnam

he was so impressed by the logic of statistics that he tried to calculate how many deaths it would take to bring North Vietnam to the bargaining table … (later) he wanted to know why his reckoning had been wrong, why the huge casualties that he had helped inflict had failed to break the will of the men in Hanoi …

His ruminations about this began at the Americans’ April meeting in Washington, where he, Cooper and General Vesser agreed that casualties did not seem to weigh heavily with North Vietnam …. “Was there any consideration of the human cost in Hanoi as they made these decisions?” McNamara asked. “Is the loss of life ever a factor?” He noted that while 58,000 Americans had been killed, the most authoritative estimate — in a September 1995 article by General Uoc — put the number of Vietnamese deaths at 3.6 million. “It’s equivalent to 27 million Americans!” McNamara exclaimed.

To explain this to himself, he remembered … There were some people to whom life was not the same as to us, he reasoned as he stood one evening in the hotel lobby. (via Robert McNamara and the Ghosts of Vietnam).

McNamara’s unique contribution to the Vietnam War was ‘body count’. He was right. Only he could have killed an equivalent of 27 million Americans - and still talk about the value of human life, with a straight face. For American neo-colonial objectives.

Demonize, Genocide - and Apologize

Lovely cartoon.

This made me think ...

About, the ritual of regret and apology about their role in the genocidal past. Since, the “Jewish Problem” was solved by Hitler (there are hardly 1 million Jews left in Europe and 5 million in USA), the West and USA has no problems, anymore with the Jews. Australia, Canada and France have tendered their ritualistic apologies - and start demonizing someone else.

Australia struggled for more than 5 years - before they agreed to apologize. I presume, US (to the Native Americans and the Blacks), Belgium (to Congo), Britain (to Kenya), France (to Vietnam), Spain (to the Native Americans), et al will all apologize.

A book, The New Rulers of the World, examines the denial of the genocide. Linked to this is the fact at the end of WW2, the Anglo Saxon Bloc controlled 90% of gold production and reserves. The largest private gold reserve in the world, India was still a British colony.

Modern day demonization

The Western campaign aimed at the demonisation of Islam has replaced the Jewish demonisation (Shakespeare joined in with his anti-Semitic Merchant Of Venice). Without taking responsibility for the destabilisation of the Islamic World by the liquidation of the Ottoman Empire after WW1 - perpetrated by Anglo Saxon countries and the French.

The forgotten lot is that that of the Romani Gypsies. This one segment based in Europe and USA continues to remain on the fringes and discriminated. They have been hunted (like forest animals), their children kidnapped (to end their race and social system), they have been gassed (by Hitler along with the Jews), they have been galley slaves, In fact there was a time when they could be killed, if found alive!

The Creation Of Client Sates

Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait, most of South America - have been reduced to the situation of client states. The basic position is Uncle Sam knows best - or else! These states have become production centres for the USA, cheap labour will be given an ‘opportunity’ to serve the ‘master’ states.

All these states also have significant military presence of the Anglo Saxon Bloc -which is a matter of concern.

Coming back to the apologies? I have always wondered, why this Western resistance to apologies? I also wonder what difference does an apology make to the victims, as though, the apology is worth anything.

Would an apology from Hitler be worth anything?

Breaking News - Dinosaurs Still Exist …

The result will be that spurious and substandard drugs will continue to be widely sold in the market, affecting the poor the most. These drugs, which have poor brand positioning, are usually sold over the counter (sometimes even prescription drugs are so sold) by pharmacists who push them (spurious drugs) because their sale earns a hefty trade margin. State-approved drugs with less than the required efficacy, often manufactured by small-scale units, get included in state procurement programmes and form the staple of medicines distributed through the public healthcare system. No wonder that there is a widespread notion that sarkari medicines do not work and if you want medicines which will then go and buy them from private shops. (via Subir Roy: Let a hundred spurious medicines thrive - underlined text mine).

A contradiction within the same paragraph. A dinosaur who cannot differentiate between his pet peeves and propaganda.

This dinosaur alleges at the start that ‘pharmacists’ are selling spurious drugs - and at the end of the paragraph, he ends up claiming that genuine drugs can only be got at ‘private shops’!

Though he does make a good point on abdication by the Indian regulator.

Four ways to fight depression-The Economic Times

the government borrow and spend, thereby pulling people out of unemployment and pushing up capacity utilisation to normal levels. There are drawbacks: the subsequent deadweight loss of financing all the extra government debt that has been incurred, and the fear that too rapid a run-up in debt may discourage private investors from building physical assets, which form the tax base for future governments that will have to amortise the extra debt.

But when you have only two tools left, neither of which is perfect for the job, the rational thing is to try both — credit policy and fiscal policy — at the same time. That is what the Obama administration is attempting to do right now. (via Four ways to fight depression- Comments & Analysis-Opinion-The Economic Times).

How about a fifth way, Mr.Delong!

How about reducing the compliance overload on small businesses. Small businesses typically spend between 30%-300% of the profits on compliance. In a country like India, this finally results in either non-compliance or worse, in corruption.

And how about a sixth way!

What about expanding liability, instead of limited liability. While LLCs can have limited outward liability, they can create unlimited inward liabilities - in the way of debt, bonds, debentures, notes, paper, et al.

I can similarly point out many other ways - which are inconvenient - but then that is what needs to be done.

There is economics and there is fraud. With people like Delong & Co. around, one doesn't know where economics stops and fraud begins.

India needs 10,000 more courts: Supreme Court-The Times of India

To tackle the pendency of nearly 2.5 crore cases, there was an urgent need for an additional 10,000 courts, the CJI said. “But, establishing these courts alone will not give the desired result. To approach these courts for grievance redressal, there has to be awareness, which will come only when there is a rise in the education level among people,” he said.

The CJI does not view the large number of cases in courts, popularly referred to as `docket explosion’, as a major problem before the judiciary. But he feels `docket exclusion’, meaning that needy have no knowledge of how to approach courts, could only be tackled through proper education. (via India needs 10,000 more courts: Supreme Court-India-The Times of India).

Your Honour, here is someone who would like to point out three aspects which Your Lordships have not considered.

More courts and faster justice will also create greater case load. At least 50 percent prospective litigants do not approach the courts due to the time and money implications. So, more courts, more judges will create more litigation.

The second thing Your Lordships have missed out is how linguistics politics is keeping out non-English speaking people from the court systems. While there has been some movement towards using Indian languages in courts, the higher courts still use English and all laws are written in English. Are the Courts and the Government trying to make us a nation of English speaking people?

Thirdly, Your Honour, the courts, overlook the fact that more laws also create more litigation. I am tempted to point an excellent and recent example. Mumbai police decided to use an irrelevant and impractical law to create litigation and case load.

They (Mumbai police) decided to raid a birthday party. After the raid, they booked some teen-agers for alcohol consumption - without a permit. As one of the accussed teenager, pointed out, ‘what does the law mean by saying people below 21 cannot drink (without a permit)? So you are wise enough to elect a government, old enough to drive but not fit to make personal lifestyle choices?’ (underlines text, mine). Why does it take a teenager to make such a simple point to our law-makers and courts?

India has the lowest prison population, the lowest police-to-population ratio in the world with the largest number of poor in the world and the second largest gun population in the world - and a crime rate which ranges between low-to-average. This is further interesting, as most of the guns in India, are illegally obtained.

Excess laws are like road space. More roads will create more demand for more cars - and more traffic will soon choke the roads. Like you correctly pointed out, Your Honour, more courts are not the answer.

The answer, My Lord, is in reducing the number of laws itself.

And may I remind your Lordships, that India also has the largest number of the poor in the world - and our judicial system must deliver justice to the poor - first!

Archaic drinking law lands youths in spot-Mumbai-Cities-The Times of India

The police entered … (a) pub … cordoned it off, stopped the music and forced youngsters to take the breathalyser test. At the end of it all, however, only 11 of the 100 youths were found to be drinking.

The cops then slapped the charge-of drinking without permits-on all 11. Officials admitted they were “forced to press some charge” as they had been “fooled”; they were tipped off that youngsters were doing drugs in the party and “had to press some charge” so that the raid was not “entirely fruitless”.

Four out of the 11 were also found to be too young to drink. “What was the point of the whole exercise? How many people drink with permits in Mumbai?” a college student, present at the party, asked. “And what does the law mean by saying people below 21 cannot drink? So you are wise enough to elect a government, old enough to drive but not fit to make personal lifestyle choices?” he added. (via Archaic drinking law lands youths in spot-Mumbai-Cities-The Times of India).

One of the accussed teenager, pointed out, ‘what does the law mean by saying people below 21 cannot drink (without a permit)? So you are wise enough to elect a government, old enough to drive but not fit to make personal lifestyle choices?’ (underlines text, mine). Why does it take a teenager to make such a simple point to our police, law-makers and courts?

Excess laws are like road space. More roads will create more demand for more cars - and more traffic will soon choke the roads. More laws also create more litigation. This is an excellent example. Mumbai police decided to use an irrelevant and impractical law to create litigation and case load for an overworked judiciary - and possibly an ‘opportunity’ for corruption.

More police also similarly creates more crime. Police will find a larger spectrum of actions to criminalize - which will engender more crime, which will create more laws, leading to more litigation and crime.

India has the lowest prison population, the lowest police-to-population ratio in the world with the largest number of poor in the world and the second largest gun population in the world - and a crime rate which ranges between low-to-average. This is further interesting, as most of the guns in India, are illegally obtained.

The way to increase effectiveness of our police force is to reduce his work load - and not by having outdated, malevolent colonial laws on our statute books.

Empty Andy (or is it hundi) has foot in mouth ...

When it comes to distributing their profits, even Chinese companies, which aren’t exactly paragons of corporate governance, are doing a lot better than their Indian counterparts. There are some important lessons here.

Consider a stock that has a future dividend yield — expected annual payout divided by the share price — of 5%. If there was no secondary market in this stock, one would need to hold the shares for 20 years just to get back one’s investment.

A 20-year equity ‘payback’ period is no big deal in a bull market. In a report last year, Citigroup Inc equity strategist Markus Rosgen calculated the payback period for someone investing in the MSCI India Index in January 2008 as 113 years. (via Can you spare a dividend cheque?- Comments & Analysis-Opinion-The Economic Times).

Empty Andy (rhymes with empty hundi) is at it again.

Does he understand what he is writing about?

Dividend yield has nothing to do with dividend payout by the companies. In fact, increased dividend payouts may lower dividend yield - as that may make the stock more attractive. The PE multiple for the stock may increase thereby decreasing the dividend yield further.

Is Empty Andy's greatest trip in life to find fault where none exists? But tragically, why does Economic Times print such trash? A business columnist and any sub-editor at Economic Times should know this.

Am I unreasonable in expecting that people will know what they are writing about?