Do it yourself

 In the next couple of days, the market participants world over will be focused on the FOMC statement on Fed rates, inflation & growth outlook and guidance for the monetary policy direction in the near term (next 3-6months). The “active” market participants in India, in particular, would be staying awake till late midnight on Wednesday to hear what Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has to say. The fact that Thursday happens to be the monthly derivative settlement for July contracts, makes the Fed decision, and likely reaction in our markets on Thursday morning, even more pertinent for the derivative traders in India. Besides the derivative traders, the currency traders; bond traders and corporate treasury managers who need to actively manage their Fx exposure, would also staying awake to see how the US Dollar, EUR and US Treasuries behaves post the FOMC statement and try to assess how Indian bonds and INR may react in near term. Our markets may however be relieved to a great dea...

Long Covid, is a term commonly used to describe the lingering adverse health effects of the Covid infection. Another dimension of Long Covid is the lingering socio-economic impacts of the pandemic. While only a small percentage of persons who suffered from the Covid infection are showing medical signs of the Long Covid; the socio-economic milieu of almost every country in the world is suffering from Long Covid. The pandemic has definitely widened and deepened the socio-economic economic divide across jurisdiction. A significant proportion of the population that was pulled out of the abysmal poverty in the past two decades has slipped back below the poverty line. Accelerated digitalization of social services like education and health has deprived many underprivileged children. To mitigate the sufferings caused by the pandemic, most governments provided monetary and fiscal stimulus to the poor and small businesses. The stimulus checks (and ration and medicine kits) created artificial...

I firmly believe that faith is a better decision making tool than logic. Faith lets you unconditionally accept or reject things. It makes it easier to believe or doubt the things you are thinking about - making the decision making easier and faster. Logic, on the other hand, agitates the minds as it questions the beliefs and raises doubts. It often leads to protraction (and often prevention) of the decision making. It is of course subjective opinion and could be challenged by logical thinkers. Regardless, my experience in life is that whether the decisions are right or wrong is only known in hindsight. There is little empirical evidence available to me, to prove beyond doubt that the impulsive decisions are less or more effective than the decisions taken after applying deep logical thinking. So, I usually take the easier route to the decision making that saves me from thinking and The context for mentioning this is a little complex. It is widely expected and accepted that the Federal...