Slaying of the Big Bad Bear - Mini Analysis - Part III of III

This is Part III of III of my mini-analysis and a continuation from Part II. Click here for Part II

For Bank A to make money in this cash from Bank C is vital. Why? Because without this, it can’t buy the second set of Treasury Bonds that it wants to short. Hence bye bye any chances of making money. More importantly it has to return the original $100 it borrowed from Bank B. The damage is two fold. So it has to use it’s own cash reserves to pay off Bank B.

Now, Imagine this scenario with Billions of dollars and multiple banks involved. Bear Stearns basically had to dip into it’s own reserves to pay off many many many Bank Bs and in the process lost all it’s cash reserves. This would have been ok if the securities it had in it’s position were valuable, ‘cause that way they can sell them off to raise cash. Unfortunately these securities (many of them mortgage backed ones) were useless as no on wanted to buy them. So they were basically screwed!

Post comments if you did not follow this. I would be glad to discuss.

Also, I will post later about the whole Bear Stearns saga once I understand it.

That’s how the cash crunch at Bear Stearns came about (atleast that’s the way I understand it!).

Slaying of the Big Bad Bear - Mini-Analysis - Part II of III

This is Part II of my mini-analysis and a continuation from Part I. Click on this for Part I

Examining how 'repo' market transactions work:

Let’s say Bank A (investment bank) wants to make money by participating in a transaction including any security (bonds, equities, derivatives, etc). There is a series of transactions it would do to invest the security. Let’s say the amount it wants to invest is $100. And let’s say it wants to invest in Treasury bonds. The transaction sequence would be:

Transaction 1: Borrow $100 from Bank B. Tell Bank B it has $X in cash reserves as collateral.
Transaction 2: Buy Treasury Bonds for $100 from a Firm Y.
Transaction 3: Lend the $100 worth in bonds (not cash) to Bank C. Bank C sends $100 in cash as collateral.
Transaction 4: Use this $100 from Bank C as collateral to borrow $100 worth of Treasury Bonds (these bonds are different from those bought in Transaction 2).
Transaction 5: Sell bonds borrowed in Transaction 4 as a short (buy high, sell low).
Transaction 6: Sell bonds bought in Transaction 2 (they are with Bank C but can be sent back) long (buy low sell high).

Following so far? In effect the firm would make money if there is a difference in value of Bonds shorted and Bonds sold long. But the key point to remember is that Bank A has not used even a single $ of it’s own! Remember Transaction 1 began with Bank A borrowing $100 from Bank B. This $100 made it’s way around in the form of cash and bonds. But it was not Bank A’s to begin with.

Transaction 3 is what is known as the ‘repo’ market transaction. In effect Bank C is sending $100 to Bank A because it knows that the $100 worth of Treasury Bonds it is getting in return are valuable (since they are guaranteed by the US Treasury). Now Imagine if instead of these being Treasury Bonds, they are some of these Mortgage Backed Bonds (MBBs). By now it is common knowledge that these MBBs are not as valuable. Far being of any value everyone on the Street wants to avoid them like Plague!

So Bank C does not want any part of them and does not accept them as collateral. Uh oh! Bank A is now in trouble.

Continued in Part III.

Slaying of the Big Bad Bear - Mini-analysis Part I of III

By now all y’all must have heard and read the autopsy of the demise of Bear Stearns. I will not go into the details that have been put out by various news outlets in the past week or so but what I will do is bulletize them:

-JP Morgan’s buying price = $2 per share=0.0547 shares of JPMC for a share of BS
-Closing price of BS on Friday, March 14=$30 per share. Hence discount=28/30=93.3% (ouch)
-Fed loaned $30 billion in ‘liquidity’ to BS through JP Morgan Chase
-Glass-Steagall legislation was invoked to help out BS indirectly
-Two Bear Stearns managed Hedge Funds filed for bankruptcy in July 2007. Net worth lost=$1.6 billion
-Cash reserves of Bear Stearns on March 13, 2008 = $17 billion
-Cash reserves of Bear Stearns on March 15, 2008 = $0
-Fact= On Thu, March 13 (nite) Alan Schwartz approached the SEC and NY Fed and mentioned that Bear Stearns would have to file for bankruptcy on Friday morning.

I still have not got my hands and mind around analyzing this monumental failure of Bear Stearns but what I have tried to understand over the past week is how exactly would cash reserves dwindle so dramatically in such a short time and spark this demise. Here is an attempt from me to explain this:

Let me start by pointed to a passage in the Financial Times weekend edition, March 22-23, 2008. Link
“The motivation behind the Fed’s plan was for Bear to lend the Treasury debt in the repurchase (repo) market for cash and shore up its capital, which was straining under a massive withdrawal of funds by investors. Some $17bn (€11bn, £8.5bn) had been pulled in two days. Bear could not raise funds from any of its non-Treasury assets as its rivals had lost faith in its creditworthiness.”

The key words in the above passage are “…to lend the Treasury debt in the repurchase (repo) market for cash and shore up its capital…”. What exactly is a “repo” market and how is this key to cash reserves. See Part II.

How it goes?

Been a while. So what's shaking?

Stories I've been following recently:

-B Rack's dissociating himself from his pastor. Potentially campaign-ending if not handled right.

-Bear Stearns in trouble. FT has a fascinating behind-the-scenes account today.

-The Spitzer saga. No comment other than to point out that this country's media focus is too myopic.

-Dollar getting killed! I expect some sort of intervention in the next few weeks.

-Crude Oil, Natural gas prices, Gold, Corn, and metals shooting up. It is going to be an ugly year!

-Iran's 'democratic' elections. Pakistan's power struggles.

-Tucker cancelled on MSNBC! Oh nooooo!!


Things with moi:

-Asked for and granted a 2 week extension of deposit deadline from MIT Sloan. (April 1)

-Wharton decision on March 27.

-Opened a FX (forex) trading account. Following the USDJPY closely. Fascinating stuff.

-2 week vacation in India! April 18-May 3. Yeeeeeaaaaah!

-Discovered LinkedIn and Facebook! LinkedIn has been great to get back in touch with a lot of friends.

-I may have to get reading glasses! Booooo! Had my eyes checked and was given a prescription for reading glasses. Not too thrilled about this.

-Postponed the decision to let people at work know about my B school plans until May 2.

-Watched 'Vantage Point'. Sub-standard movie-making.

-Heard SIRIUS satellite radio this past weekend. Loved the Raw Dog stand-up comedy channel.
Rest seemed average.

-New York City rocks!

later

OH/TX/RI/VT and Yeah, This is Inflation Allrite!

First, kondum's predictions for tomm. democratic primaries:

RI
-Hill Dawg

VT
-B Rack

OH
-Hill Dawg

TX
-Both*

* = Hill Dawg will win the popular vote but B Rack's gets more delegates. You watch!

---
YEAH, UH-HUH THIS IS INFLATION ALLRITE
so, y'all are probably hearing these strange terms: recession, stagflation (what? stags are going to fellate?), CPI etc. Normally we, ordinary folks (atleast I am ordinary), dont see much direct affect of this. But hold it peeps!

Episode 1: When I get lazy (I do get lazy often) I give up and order Chinese from City Garden, this Chinese Rest that is housed in my building. My fav is Sesame Crispy Shrimp w. Broccoli. I dont pay TOO much attention to the price but the other day I semi-freaked when the girl asked to pay $12.45 for it! I am like "what the hell?". The girl at the counter (she is a surly teenager btw) matter of factly goes: "yeah we change prices". To be honest I did not remember how much I paid before so I came back to my apt and compared prices from an old menu. The price has indeed gone up 5%. Again I can't remember when the last menu was printed but it can't be older than 6 months. So there you have it: evidence I of Inflation.

Episode 2: I was shopping for Ground Turkey at Rittenhouse Market today and for some reason looked at the price label and yelled out softly "Holy Shit!". The price said $6.15 for 1.4 lbs of 7% lean Ground Turkey. I can clearly remember the price to be in the $4.75 - $5 range not too long ago. That's got to be a close to a 20% price increase. (unless my memory is fading badly). Evidence II of Inflation.

Not good folks. I need to look into this more.

Wooing Weekend at MIT Sloan

So I was in Boston this past weekend, flew in on Thu actually, to attend the MIT Sloan admit weekend for Rd 1 admits. We were invited to spend Fri and Sat at Sloan to find out how wonderful and cool Sloan is and all that. Events were organized during the day on Fri and Sat plus some ‘parties’ at nite. Fri nite I was so freakin’ tired I had no chance of attending any of those ‘parties’. I attended the one on Sat nite and it was good.

The day events consisted of testimonials from Sloan alumni on their pre-, during-, and post-Sloan experiences; classroom style discussion-lecture sessions; short lectures by three profs in marketing, finance, and entrepreneurship; career ‘fairs’ with student club members; mini-sessions on academic life, trips/treks, and financial aid etc.

Here are some of the highlights:

Things that caught me by surprise
--Most of the admits were normal and NOT nerdy! That was cool you know it being MIT and all. I got along famously with every single person that I met which was refreshing. Majority of the kids were not alpha-doggy types.

Best part of the weekend
--By far this had to be the short lecture by this diminutive German Prof of Finance. Her lecture on VC/PE lasted about 20 min and I haven’t been in a lecture like that before. She was feisty with lots of graphs and numbers which all seemed to make sense. How great did I think it was? Let me tell you how. Prior to that lecture I had absolutely no interest in a career in VC/PE and right after the lectures ended I walked straight into the career fair on VC/PE!

Lamest thing of the weekend
--This current student, with a prior drama degree no less, ended up making us dance at 10 AM on Sat morning in the auditorium. Apparently his prof at Sloan did it as it was part of ‘peeling your personality’ layer by layer to make you an effective leader. Forget peeling layers brother, I hated having to shake my body vigorously at 10 AM on a Sat morning after a nite on short rest.

Things that were done well
--With the attention span of a 2 year old I hate it when things run over the scheduled time. Much to my surprise every single event ended on or pretty freakin’ close on time. Time Nazis these Sloan kids! Me likey!

Things that could have been handled better
--Lunch on Friday was arranged so that new admits would be seated with current students with relevant backgrounds. While I did end up sitting next to a guy who was getting into a career that I am interested in, I would have liked to speak to a kid who was coming in with my educational background. The career fair sessions could have been organized better too-maybe broken up into smaller groups. The events on Sat about Financial Aid and Academic life could have been handled better too.

“You did what?” things that I did
--The Dean of Sloan walked to our group on Fri eve during social hour. I seized the opportunity to put him on the spot. I told him that I was considering going to Wharton or Sloan and so what would be his pitch to me on why I should go to Sloan (he spent 26 years at Wharton before moving to Sloan). Guys in my group looked at me as they saw a ghost or something! The Dean to his credit humored me and did his spin on how Sloan is all about people and all that. As I was about to leave he winked at me and said “Hope to see you in August”! Right after we walked to another group one of guys in my group said “Dude, not sure if that was balsy or plain stupidity!”

Things that made me warm and fuzzy inside
--Three admits randomly walked upto me and thanked me! I had no freakin’ clue why at first but then they went on to explain that they followed my posts on an online forum during the admissions process at Sloan and apparently my posts got them through nervous times. My online handle at this forum is ‘kondum’ as well so they figure that out by looking at my real name. Hey, I am all for helping people in nervous times!

So what-u-saying? You going to Sloan bro?
--Well to be a smartass Sloan is the only admit I have so far. Seriously though, look, to me the important things about deciding on a school are: will the school open new doors for you career-wise, are the profs accessible, is the class size small enough to get attention, and are your classmates inclined to have fun and not alpha dogs. Sloan is a go on all those fronts. Enough said.

Now, let’s see what Wharton has to say on March 27.

B Rack and Hill Dawg

If there ever was a sign that I have become a junkie it was on Tuesday. Temporary political junkie that is. I came back from work on Tuesday and pondered "hmmm? How about skipping gym today and parking my ass in front of the TV and spending quality time with the folks on CNBC watching the Potomic primaries (their term)?" And with that I started watching 5 hrs of CNBC (switching to Larry King over on CNN for a while). I never miss gym, but felt like I had to do it. And for what, to listen to Tucker (Tucker? My life is boring!) and Olbermann and Chris Matthews!

As much as I want to get non-personal in this Democratic primary, I find myself getting personal. I am at heart a cynic when it comes to politicians so prefer to criticize everyone. But somewhere along the line I started rooting for B Rack. And somewhere along those lines I found myself hating everything about Hill Dawg, I mean the way she smiles, the way she waves to her supporters, her laugh, her deliberate gestures, everything seemed to drive me nuts! But then I realized what the hell am I doing? This was not supposed to be personal. For those reading this blog you can go back and check back my post in August where I criticized B Rack's economic solutions to the sub-prime crisis . But now I can't seem to not like anything he says or does.
It is undeniable that he speaks and presents himself unlike any politician from recent times. Plus maybe 'cause he started off as the underdog made me root for him all the more.

That said, let's examine the 'real' differencies between the two Democratic candidates. Mind you at this point real policies mean squat. In politics it is always about convincing people that you can do what you say you will. Period. People want to believe you so whoever does the best job at that usually wins. Dont let the media and other folks fool you about "where is the real meat in his/her campaign". Pluuuuuhhsease! It's never about the policy peeps!

In any case, let's examine what policies each are proposing. Here we go:

Healthcare:
The difference is that Hill Dawg claims about 12-15 million Americans will be left un-insured if B Rack's plan is implemented as oppossed to hers. What B Rack is proposing is that healthy young folks can choose if they want insurance or not, the rest are all covered. hmmm? Not sure which one would work. Hill Dawg has not said how she will find her universal coverage plan without running into huge budget deficits. But it is tought to argue against how popular Hill Dawg's plan will go with the blue collar folks. And that is important. Remember, the practicality of both plans is not real good unless clear budgets are presented. But hey this is politics who cares, promise new deal with it later.

Foreign Policy:
B Rack has a distinct advantage here since he did not support the war in Iraq while Hill Dawg voted for it. But then again, the practicality of both candidates post-war solutions are stupid. Both want to get out within 3-6 months out of Iraq. I am no foreign policy expert but imagine this: you go to a country, destroy their security apparatus and infrastructure first then help them train their police and army and secure them. The training is not complete and you want to suddenly leave? huh? There will be more chaos than before if the US leaves Iraq right away. This should be far more planned than they are making it out to be. So again here, the practicality of both solutions is not good.

Ecomony:
Both candidates have huge long plans with specific dollar numbers on how to save the country from economic peril. And both are dubious. B Rack for example promises to save home-owners from losing their homes, bring back jobs from China and India, limit the effect of corporate lobbyists, and invest in alternative energy. Really? One look at both candidates campaign finance donations would reveal that they are equally in bed with all the corporations. And wait till the Oil and Car company lobbies against imposing stricter mpg on cars and investment in non-carbon energy resources. Again, Practicality of this happenin': Not Very good.

Experience:
I find it mildly amusing how almost everyone in the media has taken it for granted that Hill Dawg is so much more experienced than B Rack! Really? How exactly? By running behind your husband and trying pass secret healthcare laws? and how did that turn out Hill Dawg? The reality is she is a near two term senator and he is in his first term. But he has been in the Illinois Senate before and so their political/lawmaker experience evens out. Get this: none of them have had executive experience of any kind, neither has run a government or corporation at any level. So Hill Dawg, stop bullshitting people. The way the American Presidency works is you surround yourself with experienced experts on all fronts and listen to them. The President's pivotal role is to bring politicians and people together so that they can buy his/her vision.

So, is there any doubt who can unite people? I will leave it that.

State of the kondum Portfolio

well, well then looks like I have been ignoring my portfolio for a while now. To be real honest I have not looked into any of my 5 picks closely in the past 3 months. Sure I do glance at the daily prices on my iPhone but have not researched much into it. I am planning on sitting down this weekend and doing a minor analysis-a risk estimate based on what I was taught in a corporate finance course last semester. Let's see how disciplined I will be.

Ok here are the numbers then for my 5 picks from July 20, 2007 until February 11, 2008:

CCP: -36%
COP: -14.6%
E: -20%
PAL: -37%
CHK:+13.3% (hmm?)

Overall: -21%
S&P: -14%

Ouch! Imagine if that portfolio was someone's 401K? Safe to say I would have had to run for cover. In my defense, the S&P 500 Index has not been stellar by any means in the same period.

Now, let's briefly examine what this means? Is there any trend here (in my picks)?

Sectors:
E, COP, and CHK are in the energy sector. But CHK is going in the opposite direction of E and COP. Why you ask? Dont really no. But I will say this about E and COP: the news that E had to cede part of it's share to the Kazag Govt in the Kashagan field did not go well with its shareholders. Plus the net revenue forecast can't be too good. COP: They have been following an up-down-up dance for the last year or so and I guess this is the down period. CHK: no freakin' idea why this is up!!

CCP: This could be in the alternative energy/commodities sector and is woefully underperforming considering that they have been doling out consistent dividends and earnings. And Uranium continues to be in great demand.

PAL: With precious metal prices on the rise this one is surprisingly underperforming as well. Not sure why?

More to come over the weekend on this!

Predictions, Predictions, and Movie

Super Bowl Sunday and Super Tuesday are upon us so it only makes sense to issue kondum predictions:

Supaah Bowl:
Giants 28 Pats 24

Super Tuesday:
Hillary wins more states than Barack. But delegates will be split 60:40 across the board towards Clinton. I am expecting California to go the Obama way. Bottom line: This race will extend into March and April.
McCain wraps up the Elephant nomination.

Movie: Watched "Michael Clayton" yesterday. Recommend it although I would have preferred a different ending. With the way it ended it seemed no different than a sleazy corporate movie. It's official George Clooney has taken over as the modern day Harrison Ford.

later kids

Movie Review "There will be Blood"

Before I start posting heavily about B school stuff let me write a review about "There will be Blood" which I saw this past weekend.

Good things:
-Not sure if y'all like movies where acting is allowed to dominate narration and leave things for viewer interpretation. I have always been a big fan of such movies (Art too). And this is one such movie. Certain acts in the movie are islands which are not dwelt on too much but the effect is great. Powerful, to put in more grandiose words. For example, in the first 5-10 minutes of the movie there are no dialogues and there need not be-it was perfect. The story is nothing fabulous but you will still be fascinated. Screenplay is fabulous, actors are great in their roles, and locations are authentic or give an authentic feel. And dont be fooled by the title, in fact there is very little blood if any. This is not a voilent movie. Trust me.

Really Good things:
-Daniel Day Lewis. They might as well go ahead and give him the Oscar. He is into the role like you can't believe. The way he carries himself, the accent, the body language, the screen presence, everything is just right. I loved him in "In the name of Father" but this one's definetly a level above.

-Paul Dano (the kid from "Little Miss Sunshine") is perfect for his role too. Obviously he wouldn't hold a candle compared to DD Lewis but he held his own. This kid if he chooses his roles right will be a solid stay in Hollywood for quite some time.

-Almost all the actors in the movie performed well. I could not find one actor who was miscast.

Not so Good things:
-Could not find any.

Bottom line: Gripping tale about an Oilman who went ahead and did things his way regardless of the consequences.

Go watch it pronto!

MIT Sloan

Found out at 5 PM this evening that MIT Sloan has admitted me! yeah! Feels good to know that I will go to school someplace this Fall.

Off to celebrate now!

Decision Weekend

So, MIT Sloan releases their decisions for their Round 1 applications on Monday, Jan. 28. I am as I should be anxious about the decision. My prediction for Monday has been changing for the past week or so:

-Sometime this past Tuesday I had a strong feeling that I would be put on a waitlist (which is something that I would absolutely not want).

-Then suddenly this morning I woke up feeling that I am getting in.

Let's see how it turns out on Monday. Decisions will be posted by 5pm on Monday on their website. If admitted the person who interviewed me would place a phone call on Monday afternoon.

Will post on Monday.

whoaah! I didn't see this wave coming!

All of a sudden there are gazillion interesting articles in the FT, WSJ, and NYT about the distribution of wealth, politics, foreign policy, the economy, and religion. All of these topics that interest me quite a bit.

I forwarded the links to a few articles on Monday to a few of you guys. Here are two more from today: (Some of you may need registration to view these articles in their entirity. Email me if you would rather not. I can paste them in the email reply).

- Malaysia's Prime Minister had a cool article in the FT about Islam and how progressive Islamic nations can be. A definite worth-it read:
Muslim nations can pursue knowledge

-A Yale professor has an interesting take on the growing power of what he calls "State Capitalism". Interestingly with the middle east and Asian sovereign funds investing heavily in US financial firms now a few US "think tanks" are worried about its geo-political significance:
The unsettling zeitgeist of state capitalism

-This one is good too. I have always wondered this "What drives political leaders when they run for elections? Are they genuinely into serving people or is it just a case of narcissism?". Well, here is someone who thinks it is the latter:
Hillary Clinton and the thrill of political power

I have lots of things to say about these which I will write about later. Enjoy reading.

Is this it?

Here we are, in the second week of January 2008 and I am still not sure if I will be going to B school. I had hoped I would have atleast one admission by now but it has not worked out. I finished applying to Yale last week and am just about to finish submitting my NYU Stern application. So is this it? Am I done with my applications? Well, for now I think yeah. This should be. If I am not getting into any of the 5 schools that I have applied to, I see no point in applying to other Tier II schools. Will just wait to see what happens.

I gotto write about this though, I thought it was interesting that I received an email from one of my recommenders this evening. He just finished submitting his letter to NYU and then he wrote "I am sure there are lots of colleges in the US but I think I can't spare more time on this. I hope you understand". Whoa! Not sure where that came from! I mean really, I have been drafting most of my letters so that he does not have to spend more than an hour on the submission. I will put that down to Sunday evening, pre-Monday blues on his part. Anyway, this may be it so he can relax I guess.

So what else is going on:

-Watched the NFL playoffs this weekend. Happy that the Giants won. Also enjoyed watching Bret Favruh work his magic on Saturday. Should be a good Championship weekend next week.

-Have been trying to follow the Democratic primaries more closely-dont really know why? Some of my friends have told me how much they hate Hillary Clinton, I mean they really HATE her. Wow! Well, with South Carolin and Nevada coming up in the next few days, it will be an interesting week or so.

-I had my MIT Sloan interview this past week. I spent the past weekend in Cambridge/Boston and it felt great to be back in the Boston area. The interview itself went off well I thought. I was not satisfied with the way I answered 2 questions. The rest of the interview was good. My interviewer complimented about 3 times about my application and essays. Not a bad sign. But you never know with these schools. It all depends on the strength of the applicant pool. And if they have the guts to take a risk with a 30+ non-famous school graduate. Will find out on Monday, Jan 28.

-hey, how about the weather huh? Feels like Spring here in Philly!

-Oh yeah, that "There will be Blood" movie looks good. Gotto find some time to go watch it.

-And finally yes, I am still monitoring my stock picks. I will post about them in detail later.

later

hmmm...how much can the survey polls be trusted?

well, this sounds familiar does it not? Pre-primary polls getting it wrong in an election! Where have we heard that before? Happened again this week when all the so called political "pundits" claimed a landslide victory for Obama. Of course that did not happen. So, now I hear all the excuses for the wrong predictions:
-after noting that Obama would begin comfortably the independants went to vote to McCain instead
-some dude on TV said that "white people" often lie in polls surveys about voting for black candidates 'cause they want to be seen as politically correct
-Hillary Clinton's teary-eyed response on TV swayed the women in the 45+ age group

well, obviously it will be difficult to pin-point what the actual reason was, but I read an OpEd article on NYTimes by the director of Pew Research Center (PRC) which was interesting. Mind you the PRC is considered to be a tad "left-leaning". Regardless, an interesting article. Here is the link:
NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/opinion/10kohut.html?em&ex=1200200400&en=052def808ec8ac80&ei=5087%0A

NH Primaries - Beginning of the End for the Senator from NY?

My predictions for the NH primaries today:

Elephant Party
1. John McCain
2. Mitt Romney
3. Mike Huckabee

Donkey Party
1. Barack Obama
2. Hillary Clinton
3. John Edwards

Corn(state)holio!

So, the election season begins this evening in Iowa. Like any source of entertainment it would not be fair if we do not do the pre-season predictions. Yeah, I know there are multiple sources who claim to predict how everyone is going to do and what have you but I have the most reliable source right here: my gut feeling! Here goes, my predictions for Iowa:

Iowa Caucuses 2008

The Donkey Party
1. Barack Obama
2. Hillary Clinton
3. John Edwards


The Elephant Party
1. Mike Huckabee
2. Mitt Romney
3. Fred Thompson


I will continue to do this until the nominations for each party are decided (effectively) in February.

Y'all have any predictions?

Bye 2007-Part 2

so what else did I do this month? ah yes:

-Saw two new movies: "Juno" and "Charlie Wilson's War". I would recommend both. I dont have the time to review them in detail here but trust me they are definitely watchable. "Juno" is good since the writing is real tight! I mean REAL tight! The actors are good too but the writing makes it easy for them. It is definitely an indie type movie with sharp wit and lots of quotable dialogues. One thing I would have liked was if Jason Bateman (spelling?) had a more humorous role-they kinda shackled him in his serious role instead of using his comedic talents. Despite that it was good. "Charlie Wilson's War" was good too despite both Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts being very uncovincing in their respective roles. This is another movie where the story was solid so whoever they chose to perform would have been ok. Philip Seymor Hoffman had a good role and he did a good job. Go watch'em both kids!

-Spent almost a week in the lone star state visiting buddies. It was a jolly time. Could have used a few more days there but had to come back for filling my applications, dang it! One of my buddy's kid, let's call him Junior Pinball, was fun to be around with! I mean the kid has a 24/7 motor (he is 3) and literally bounces off walls, couches, and floors like a pinball and I am not kidding! A kid like that is what the doctor ordered for keeping fit!

-I was watching CNBC some 2 weeks ago and came across the Fair Tax plan that Mr. Huckabee is proposing. Seemed like a BS plan but I decided to educate myself on what exactly it means. And let me tell y'all, it's something you should read up. It's pretty radical and interesting. Here is a link to the website: www.fairtax.org. We can discuss more about this in a later post.

ok, can't think of anything else to post. So all ya kids take care and have a banging new year's Eve!

Stay sober

Bye 2007

So, another calendar year will pass tonite. Not sure how y'all spent your 2007 but I had a FULL year. The 'finance' bug bit me during the 2006 Christmas holidays and in January 2007 I started researching MFE programs first and MBA programs soon after. 6 campus visits and info sessions, a 6 week GMAT prep, 1 intensive summer course, 2 finance and accounting courses, and 2 waitlists later, here I stand. Could have been worse though. I can't complain much really.

oh, also I have not blogged since early December and there have been a few updates since then:

-MBA programs
--Wharton put me on the waitlist. I was expecting this but was hoping for an admit. I am disappointed that the admissions committee could not take the risk and offer a non-traditional candidate like me admission. They were not brave enough, that's all I have to say. I am not bitter or anything just writing my honest opinion. They rather give an admit to a dude who spent 5 years in consulting and went to a Ivy school for undergrad. That's the formula I guess. Well what now you ask? I gotto wait till the Rd 2 decision is announced on March 27 to find out if I am admittted there or denied. The chances, depending on what you read, are pretty slim. So am not going to hope for much here. If I get in, I get in else move on.

--The MIT Sloan ad com decided to interview me. Which was a good thing to see. Sloan interviews a much smaller pool than Wharton and admits anywhere from 55-70% of the people who they interview. Plus the interview is conducted by an ad com member who has the power to make a decision. So, what does this mean? Well this means that I HAVE the power to influence the admission decision. If I do the interview real well, the chances for getting in are great. I have prepared well for it. Let's see how it goes. The interview is next week in Cambridge.

--Yale. I decided to apply to Yale. I attended an info session in Philadelphia this past week and it was ok. Although Yale is not considered to be in the top echelon of business schools, the undergrad brand name and a few professors elevate it to tier 1A. I have finished the application and now am waiting for my references to submit their letters online. The Rd 2 deadline is Jan 9.

--NYU Stern. After much consternation I decided to apply here. Tough to argue against being in NYC especially if you are seeking a career in finance. Rd 2 deadline is on Jan 15.

Enough serious stuff! So what else has been happening?! Well, let me post that in the next post.

See part 2 of this post.

ola!

yeah, it's been a while and I have no excuses to offer this time around. Here is what's happening:

-Karl Rove's wrote a comment column in today's Financial Times offering advice to Barack Obama on how to beat Hillary Clinton. Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/dee0a6e8-a109-11dc-9f34-0000779fd2ac.html
Not to sure what to make of it exactly but I have to admit this guy is a professional politician to the core. He looks like he is supporting Obama's nomination but at the same time he's pointing out his drawbacks. Looks to me like he is killing two birds with one stone so to say. Or I could be completely wrong and he is campaigning for a job on the Obama staff!

-The markets continue their volatility. I have not spent too much time analyzing them but am still following them on the periphery so to speak. More detailed analysis to come soon.

-On the applications:
-- Wharton: Interviewed in the 2nd week of November. I thought the interview went off well. Actually I could not remember much about the interview. It got over so fast. All I remember is that I rambled a lot. Let's see what is in store for me. The decision will be announced on December 20.
--MIT Sloan: I read somewhere that interview invites started going out today. I have not received one on the first day. They claim that interview invites will go out until Jan 28! The way I am looking at this is that if I get an interview invite from Sloan I have a good chance at Wharton. Why the convoluted logic? Well, Wharton extends interviews to a lot of kids and only offers admission to 35% of those invited to interview whereas Sloan accepts about 60% of those interviewed. Let's see.
-- NYU Stern: I went back to visit NYU for the 2nd time last week. I had to do it as NYU's essays clearly asks in one of their essays what you have done to get to know the NYU Stern community. I talked to the Vice President of the Social Enterprise Club there and it was a nice and honest conversation. One thing that stuck in my mind on both my visits to NYU: the kids at Stern looked very young. Apparently the average age there is close to ~25. I will apply to Stern if I do not get into Wharton or get an interview from Sloan.
--Yale: I am looking into applying to Yale for the 2nd Round. Need to do more research.

that's all for now.