"In Bagehot’s day, the credit default swap traveled with the bill, and the entire package was the asset acceptable for lender-of-last-resort discount at the Bank of England. Since Bagehot’s day, we have learned the value of extending discount eligibility to long term bonds—no one today argues “bills only”."
perhaps if we continued trading CDS as a part of a bill rather than a separate instrument, AIG debacle could have been avoided. Click here for an interesting working paper on Credit Default Swaps, and trust me it contains an insight seldom discussed.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Cranes are Flying
When I finished watching this film, I had to go up to the library counter to double check its release date..1957. That too in Soviet Union. It is so well made that I find it unbelievable for it to belong to that time. Cranes are Flying is probably one of the best films I have watched. It is set in World War II period and captures the sentiment of regular soviet people amidst conscription, German air raids, etc. They are ideologically indifferent and detached from the high powered politics yet make unbearable sacrifices in the personal realm. This movie is beautifully made, and feels real - no overdoing of gross and violent war scenes, no pretensions or gratuitous actions that trap box office cinemas into mediocrity. I wonder if many such movies emerged after Stalin died.. perhaps this period of the thaw was the formative period of Russian cinema, which during Stalin's time was little else than a propaganda vehicle. The biggest indication of its redemptive or transformative symbol is the humanistic nature of the film - it is sad love story of two war torn individuals, not some Stalinist fetish for tractors or modern mechanization! In fact the movie hadn't even encroached on the popular hatred of Germany.
After Kruschev shocked congress with his 1956 speech, life in USSR began to change (mostly for the better).The Soviet society was experiencing a cultural revolution - unmasking of previous misdeeds, relaxation of norms, and relative freedom of artistic expression. Films are not merely tools of communist party propaganda any longer.. In such a scenario, Cranes are Flying is bold experiment. It is a step into the future.The best part was the ending scene which has a strong political message (Stepan's speech), and unmistakable optimism that resurfaces from total loss, like a resurrection from the choas and sorrow of war. Ironical because I was close to writing it off as another sad ending - a trait of numerous Russian films.This is the only scene after the first 15 mins of the film do I find Veronica smiling! Click here for the ending scene in the film.
Lastly, Cinematography was incredible and the film consistently kept me in anticipation (a feat not commonly accomplished by old style Black and White cinema). I am sure to watch more of Kalatozov films in the future, in fact here's my wishlist - True Friends, Unsent Letter, I am Cuba.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Blood feuds part II - while we're at it..
we might as well learn more.
Below are two links about the Balkan Blood feuds, especially those triggered by Kanun in Albania. I did not learn about its severity until now..
Here's an interesting paper on Kanun link
and this is a BBC article
I found it peculiar that feuding families hire professional killers to fulfill their vendettas. Kanun (of Lek Dukagjin) is the centuries old law in Albania that amongst other things allows for legal killing of an offender. The victim's family is in turn permitted to exterminate any male from the rival family, and what follows is a vicious circle of killings. By hiring professionals to do the 'job', one is stripping away the supposed dignity that Kanun was designed to restore and it ceases to be the practice of idealistic law of centuries past.. This speaks of a peevish 'sub-culture' - which for petty personal reasons exploits the traditional law - emerging from the ancient institution of honor killing that first of all has no place in modern world. With hiring goons kanun assault would be no more 'honorable' than what the Italian mafia does. Oh well, cultures evolve.. or should I say degenerate?
Below are two links about the Balkan Blood feuds, especially those triggered by Kanun in Albania. I did not learn about its severity until now..
Here's an interesting paper on Kanun link
and this is a BBC article
I found it peculiar that feuding families hire professional killers to fulfill their vendettas. Kanun (of Lek Dukagjin) is the centuries old law in Albania that amongst other things allows for legal killing of an offender. The victim's family is in turn permitted to exterminate any male from the rival family, and what follows is a vicious circle of killings. By hiring professionals to do the 'job', one is stripping away the supposed dignity that Kanun was designed to restore and it ceases to be the practice of idealistic law of centuries past.. This speaks of a peevish 'sub-culture' - which for petty personal reasons exploits the traditional law - emerging from the ancient institution of honor killing that first of all has no place in modern world. With hiring goons kanun assault would be no more 'honorable' than what the Italian mafia does. Oh well, cultures evolve.. or should I say degenerate?
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
When official institution fails, (un) conventional justice prevails
Blood feuds in Turkey are commonplace. Eye for an eye settlements, revenge, honor thy family, faction families in general… Add a dose of forced marriage or forbidden love, Panchayat Raj, and it is reminiscent of innumerable Telugu film scripts. Blood feuds are indeed common in both extremely underdeveloped, and transition economies. I grew up watching telugu evening news, which never failed to broadcast a murder or few killings that frequently took place in certain districts of Andhra Pradesh. This section of the news is where my father covered my eyes or changed the channel to avoid the consequent all-night long painful expression on my face. Few districts worth noting are Kadapa and Rayalaseema, which are hotbeds of faction feuds – and yes, they are still undeniably favored by Telugu filmmakers for shooting - in movie parlance of course!
The recent shooting of 44 guests at a wedding in Bilge, Turkey, as very tragic as it is, brings to the world’s conscience the state of several thousands of communities – from those in Afghanistan to Balkan states - reeling in disputes due to deficient political and legal institutions. Yet one mustn't forget that faction feuds are embedded in the very sociocultural structure of these regions.. It is common to find killings that still take place over a 200yr old land dispute for instance. What complicates matters is the close ties with religion, customs and traditions that precede any official tenet of legal scriptures. Even the most efficient police headquarters in the community cannot do much without altering the social system, or significantly affecting the way people perceive things. These social systems have evolved through passage of time, and new cultures emerge out of them, constantly. Culture.. is intriguing. It is constantly changing; in my geeky view, culture is like a Taylor series expansion - a sum of infinite terms, which can be expressed in a single term... Assigning a culture a tangible designation is perhaps paradoxical because the elements that make it are constantly changing and have a long history (this is where I can conveniently incorporate my learning from Time Series class but I'll save you the headache). Returning from my calculus-cultural detour to blood feuds, I think that conventional western institutions and their way of enforcing law are ineffective in less developed communities and leave a lot of room for local ideas to handle or settle disputes. Prominent peacemakers in some places fill the gap left behind by useless political systems, such as Sait Sanli
The recent shooting of 44 guests at a wedding in Bilge, Turkey, as very tragic as it is, brings to the world’s conscience the state of several thousands of communities – from those in Afghanistan to Balkan states - reeling in disputes due to deficient political and legal institutions. Yet one mustn't forget that faction feuds are embedded in the very sociocultural structure of these regions.. It is common to find killings that still take place over a 200yr old land dispute for instance. What complicates matters is the close ties with religion, customs and traditions that precede any official tenet of legal scriptures. Even the most efficient police headquarters in the community cannot do much without altering the social system, or significantly affecting the way people perceive things. These social systems have evolved through passage of time, and new cultures emerge out of them, constantly. Culture.. is intriguing. It is constantly changing; in my geeky view, culture is like a Taylor series expansion - a sum of infinite terms, which can be expressed in a single term... Assigning a culture a tangible designation is perhaps paradoxical because the elements that make it are constantly changing and have a long history (this is where I can conveniently incorporate my learning from Time Series class but I'll save you the headache). Returning from my calculus-cultural detour to blood feuds, I think that conventional western institutions and their way of enforcing law are ineffective in less developed communities and leave a lot of room for local ideas to handle or settle disputes. Prominent peacemakers in some places fill the gap left behind by useless political systems, such as Sait Sanli
Monday, May 4, 2009
woe the fiscal stimulus..
Following is an article by Robert Barro on the efficacy of (or lack thereof) Obama's stimulus..old news, yes. Interesting nonetheless.
here's the link http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1527&context=ev
here's the link http://www.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1527&context=ev
Defining Genocide in Ukranian context
Much contention surrounds the issue of Ukrainian man-made famine around 1930s resulting from the soviet requisition of grains as a Stalinist policy. The breadbasket of Soviet Union quickly turned into a mass cemetery of nearly 3-7million people (official records are not open to public). Today several countries around the world recognize it as genocide upon Ukraine's plea, but Russia does not follow suit.
"The Holodomor, which means death inflicted by hunger, can be considered one of the most successful genocidal policies pursued by Stalin and the Soviet leadership.. Aside from achieving Stalin’s genocidal goals, the Holodomor also helped achieve some of his modernization ambitions." there's more to read here
Russia does not call it genocide because it was not a famine that was targeted on ethnic lines, i.e. targeting Ukrainians due to their nationality, but in accordance of 'state policy' which is collectivization.
How do you officially define genocide?
Wikipedia defines Genocide - deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.
The above definition shines light on certain less popular views-
"Alexander Solzhenitsyn..opined..that Holodomor was no different from the Russian famine of
1921 as both were caused by the ruthless robbery of peasants by Bolshevik grain procurements..The writer cautions that the genocidal claim has its chances to be accepted by the West due to the general western ignorance of Russian and Ukrainian history."
"..the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Zina Kalay-Klaitman, stated that Israel considers only destructions by ethnicity to be genocide. Thus, Israel could not recognize Holodomor as genocide." He follows to state that Isreal nevertheless considers Holodmor a great catastrophe to mankind.
Does labeling the event 'Genocide' mollify the tragedy of Ukraine? definitely not.. Solzhenitsyn makes an insightful statement in that this catastrophe is a result of state policy - the grain requisition, precedence of state over individual, grand experiment of collectivization that led to epic failure. If this is a genocide, so is the event of death of millions of Russians in former USSR that have been sent to concentration camps during Stalinist regime. Genocide or not, both are devastating and ought to be recognized as extreme milestones of cruelty witnessed by humanity..
"The Holodomor, which means death inflicted by hunger, can be considered one of the most successful genocidal policies pursued by Stalin and the Soviet leadership.. Aside from achieving Stalin’s genocidal goals, the Holodomor also helped achieve some of his modernization ambitions." there's more to read here
Russia does not call it genocide because it was not a famine that was targeted on ethnic lines, i.e. targeting Ukrainians due to their nationality, but in accordance of 'state policy' which is collectivization.
How do you officially define genocide?
Wikipedia defines Genocide - deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group.
The above definition shines light on certain less popular views-
"Alexander Solzhenitsyn..opined..that Holodomor was no different from the Russian famine of
1921 as both were caused by the ruthless robbery of peasants by Bolshevik grain procurements..The writer cautions that the genocidal claim has its chances to be accepted by the West due to the general western ignorance of Russian and Ukrainian history.""..the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Zina Kalay-Klaitman, stated that Israel considers only destructions by ethnicity to be genocide. Thus, Israel could not recognize Holodomor as genocide." He follows to state that Isreal nevertheless considers Holodmor a great catastrophe to mankind.
Does labeling the event 'Genocide' mollify the tragedy of Ukraine? definitely not.. Solzhenitsyn makes an insightful statement in that this catastrophe is a result of state policy - the grain requisition, precedence of state over individual, grand experiment of collectivization that led to epic failure. If this is a genocide, so is the event of death of millions of Russians in former USSR that have been sent to concentration camps during Stalinist regime. Genocide or not, both are devastating and ought to be recognized as extreme milestones of cruelty witnessed by humanity..
Sunday, May 3, 2009
A Turkish man's life in former USSR
Lately I have been avidly following certain blogs dedicated to post-Soviet lifestyle and other history blogs. I happened to come across one site called Turkish Invasion in which the self proclaimed provocative writer Dinc Arslan, a Turkish immigrant in Russia, offers entertaining daily commentary on his Russo-Ukrainian experiences and insightful glimpses of post-Soviet history and politics. It certainly offers perspective on mass culture of the region. Check out his blog at http://www.dincarslan.blogspot.com/ and I am afraid that you will be hooked! In particular, read the feeds located on right side while scrolling down the page..his humor could land him in a Siberian camp. My favorite is probably "Russian Media - Finest quality toilet paper delivered to your doorstep everyday"
Saturday, May 2, 2009
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