The trust that we all have on big organisations is dwindling if not reduced to zero. I have shares in 2 groups where I have some contacts with the promoters, top executives, mid level executives and some operational people. The reaction of each of these people to the slow down and the recovery process is [...]
Why is it that in the case of Satyam and in the world wide mess it is largely the equity shareholder who is losing? Welcome to the world of moral hazard. When you lend money to a bank (which may be insolvent even as you are lending) or to a country (which technically cannot become [...]
The markets – capital markets especially is a great teacher. However, the characteristics of this teacher are unique: 1. Takes the fee upfront 2. Lessons are taught the hard way, but students do not remember it long enough 3. Never negotiates fees – the dumber the student the higher the fee, and no mercy is [...]
Thanks to Satyam, now independent directors are all asking for a one-to-one meeting with the statutory auditors. One satutory auditor I know, told the board, sorry “I did not check the cash on hand” – and the board insisted that petty cash (in 47 locations) should be checked immediately. This is what is called being [...]
I must consider my self very, very lucky. During the Harshad Mehta Boom, I bought an office space for personal usage. When the index reached 21000 I had no reason to sell. However just luckily I decided to get out of some very high price earning stocks like Tata Power, L&T, Hdfc, and invest in [...]
About 4 years ago I was offerred the job of an Internal Auditor in a leading life insurance company. I did not seriously consider that option because I realised that the role would be that of a faithful dog. You had to stand in front of the Board and say things are just fine. It [...]