Mint Expense Account 20/3/2013 Money laundering by people next door

Cobrapost.com, in a sting operation, showed how the bank branching system in being used to launder money. My column this week is about how the institutionalization of corruption has turned the average 'service-class' person into a criminal in India. Either you play the game or the system spits you out. You can read the column here:

launderernextdoor

Expense Account 13/3/2013 Jairam’s ‘maneaters’ need a strong consumer movement

Growing up in the 70s and 80s in urban middle India was to know what shortages are. The state strangled enterprise and everything from a scooter to a phone to butter, milk and grain was scarce. The civics and history textbooks stank of double standards as they spoke about an India that was far away from the life of the person for whom that English textbook was written. I call it the Manoj (Bharat) Kumar movies phase of India—we were losers but were brainwashed into looking back at a glorious past. A past that was distant enough in its historical dividend not to matter to people struggling to find an average “service class” livelihood. Of course, “business class” then meant not an airline seat but something totally different.
My column in Mint

The problems of long-run data results and medium-term living

I like to talk about the efficacy of having equity in the portfolio because that is an asset class, I have been led to believe, which gives an inflation-plus return. But equity’s image as a super asset class beating the stuffing out of inflation has been under attack for a long time, specially so since 2008. Then last week a colleague sent across some disturbing news. The Economist has a story (http://econ.st/VqMcNA) which says that global bonds have outperformed equities since the start of the 1980s. The story is based on a book, “Triumph of the Optimists: 101 Years of Global Investment Returns,” written by London Business School professors Elroy Dimson, Paul Marsh and Mike Staunton. The colleague’s unasked question: “But you said…”
My column in Mint