I had to do this column. Not because ulips are God’s gift to mankind, but unit linked insurance plan that I bought (circa 2004, much before the media decided that ulips are bad). I bought unit linked insurance (and continue to own them) from Hdfc Standard Life Insurance company. Here are the details for the […]
When we made research reports in the 1990s, we used to have one page on risk factors. One of the risks was ‘Regulatory Risk’ – never bothered about it much.. Now if you are the promoter of a life insurance company, your purse will know what is regulatory risk. Thanks to IRDA’s diktat, all life […]
If all actions are reactions why are Americans hated? Well this is a finance site..so let me stick to what I know. Almost all literature we have read on equity markets is American. The great American investors have written all this literature in the past 50-100 years. This was the time when American companies (fairly […]
If you are a shareholder who started an asset management company and /or a life insurance company hoping to make money, God bless you! For those of us who are shareholders with the Birla, Hdfc, Tata groups – remember we are all funding the insurance and mutual fund businesses indirectly. Kotak bank, Hdfc ltd, […]
For a minute forget what the various parts of the financial services industry is telling you. The profitability of this industry seems to be fantastic. Let us take 4 parts of the industry: a. Banking: Over the years the biggest and the richest fortunes have been made by bankers. No doubt about it. Goldman Sachs, […]
Are the Indian promoters who destroy shareholder wealth the worst in the world? Or are there some who are worse than that? In the American context there were AIG, Citibank, Goldman Sachs, Lehman, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae… or should we talk about the worst environmental disaster by BP? Well well, the list is long is […]
I was reading somewhere (sadly do not remember where) that saving money is very difficult in primitive economies. In one such economy in Africa, the banker CHARGES (yes you read right) charges interest for taking money from you and keeping it safe. And people are used to PAYING interest to have their money safeguarded. There […]