Tobin's Tax

Paul Krugman is thumbs up for the British Government's proposal to tax the financial transactions.  He gives his support arguments in this NYTimes article.  But the economist Greg Mankiv and Stern's Prof. Damodaran give their counter arguments as to why such a tax would not work and become is actually a deterrent to the financial markets.

Dubai Financial Crisis

There is a lot of talks in the past 2 days around the world regarding the recent Dubai financial crisis.  Dubai's state-owned Dubai World has asked for a moratorium on its debt scheduled for December.  This has triggered reactions around the world with major bank stocks going down by around 3% in European stock exchange; Sensex going down on fear by 500 points on Friday later to be recovered by LICs aggressive buying and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's statement that India may not be affected by the Dubai crisis.   Dubai World has around $59 Billion in debt from various banks all around the world.  I read articles in net in which, many opine now that Dubai's projection as financial center itself is a big illusion which has sustained for about 20 years to come out naked in light now.

Some of the links on the same:

Financial Times 

Financial Express by Ajay Shah 

Process-oriented or Result-oriented

This page is shared by one of my friends in his Google Reader. Mostly based on Parkinson's law that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion". The author says a lot can be accomplished by keeping a fixed time schedule. He cites several examples from others and his own life to prove his claim. I do agree. I personally tend to work better if I am with certain constraints - in this case "the time". Better planning and organising makes the task easy to accomplish within a short time. I know a friend of mine who used to cook with just 2 vessels and a spoon. And he cooks rice, chicken, vegetable side-dish, dosa and what not! Constrained resources makes you use them as optimal as possible.

I still remember the days when I was working on optimizing video processing algorithms to be done in lesser number of cycles.

Over a period of time, you learn and become more creative in utilising the resources effectively.There is always a debate between the process-oriented and result-oriented. For long, people have advocated to be process-oriented and said that results will follow. If you achieve the results, no body questions the process unless it is totally non-agreeable, unethical, unlawful etc. Proponents of process oriented may say that it is the journey not the destination that gives satisfaction. I am of the opinion that the objective is different for different people. Some people get satisfaction in good execution and some people derive satisfaction in better results with minimal efforts.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

I am not a regular follower of F1 racing.  But, today happened to see the Abu Dhabi GP in TV.  Incidentally this was the inaugural race in Abu Dhabi.  I was watching the race by around 3:00 pm.  I doubted whether that was a live relay.  Because,  Abu Dhabi is on the east direction and it must have been at least 5 pm then.  Later realized that the race started at 5:00 pm local time and this was the first race with the flood lights on all around the circuit.  I am amazed at seeing the circuit.  In each and every corner and wherever you see, you could see the richness.  The bluish structures across the circuit, waters with boats parked nearby the circuit, artful blue and white painting on the areas nearby the race track - what a view!  And with the helicopter following the car through the entire lap, the aerial view was spectacular.  Surprisingly, they have a hotel built across the track (that bluish structure!).  The residents of the hotel can see the racing at the comfort of their rooms.  

See this link too