Mobster.. Fraudster... Bankster.

Would i hedge against

the towers that are crumbling

in which i dwelled for years,

which sort of destroyed

the old mighty Kremlin

along with its spires,

the towers that once stood

mighty and tall

on the street named wall ,

even while it

threatens to wipe the meek

earnings of the young joes and all,

 knowing well that, to do that

 would mean to be

 being meaner

 than to maul,

Oh ! why would i care,

was i not the one who led

this entire thing to be here,

Well, i care not to guess and

i am sure you know me

by now to the bare,

that i am just not your ordinary banker,

i am what they call

the wall street banker.

Profits is what I would die to make

even while things seem huge

that are at stake,

like the pensions that people hold dear,

i treat them like they are already mine dear

Pocketing them as my  huge bonuses

even while i keep inducing

my books

quarter after quarter, year after year,

only with losses,

since the great debacle of 2008

which sure did matter,

and that’s why i decided not to create assets

as it dint pay much than to sneak my hands

into the ordinary blokes pockets,

and that's how i still get to keep

the porches and my private jets,

and that’s why

I am not your ordinary banker

i am what they call

the wall street banker.

I securitize your mortgages,

calling them as debt obligations

knowing well that,

they would all end up as

collateral’s causing more damages,

and that's why i hedge against them

for well i know they would

end up as i expect them,

and that's how i wipe all the taint

off me,

by not wanting to be a saint

which is not for me,

and dying  to make profits for sure

which exactly is just me.

and that’s why

I am not your ordinary banker

i am what they call

the wall street banker.

while wells fargo is busy lending

sub-prime auto loans,

i am hoping to see it soon load and get blown

for i see there a chance for me to hedge,

the chance that i created for myself

by bringing it to that edge,

and that's why i am not your ordinary banker

i am what they call

the wall street banker.

I kick the LIBOR rates around,

even as Barclay's and banks of all the royals

in Scotland and England

would swear by on all accounts,

that this game is being played fair,

though they might give in a bit
when forced to confront the court's
and other such affairs,

that at times it involves

the twisting of the arms

of the meager players around,

and the bending of the rules

to wrestle everyone to the ground,

and yet they would maintain,

what's being played is nothing but a fair game

a stance that the likes of meagre joes cannot but only acclaim,

as the bail-outs have become cliched,

in comes the bail-ins in a sleigh

to hot things a bit in the game,

where no one gets to hide

under their own shade,

because this should be the game

where i always should be winning,

and the ordinary Joe, which is you,

should always be losing,

and that's the only reason
i ever chose to be a banker,

and to make the likes of you 
call me

The wall street banker...
































Prasanna Kumar

Seriously Speaking - It feels like a Deja vu

                  How would you describe a government which after having promised the moon crash lands the dreams of millions into the pit where it becomes even harder to get paid to own the basic needs leave alone owning the inflation?, Capricious, inept, deceptive, Incompetent, whatever be the word that one may choose to use it would be right in describing this new government which is on a spree to fix the fiscal fallacies at the expense of the gullible ordinary people of this country who are being made to believe that spending more would result in the betterment of the services provided by the government, while the fact remains that its just an effort on the part of the government to make the people acknowledge that the money that they have will buy less than what it used to yesterday. In a slew of measures adopted to make the balance sheet of The Indian Railways look good the newly elected government instead of showing proclivities towards choosing to do away with inefficiencies chose to raise the fares by 14 %, inefficiencies that have been plaguing for a long time at every level, starting with nonexistent efficient traffic flow analysis that could be translated into efficient resource management to not doing away with the outdated factious three tire structure on departmental lines which have been weighing heavily on the performance of the state owned enterprise, the government should have looked into the real issues to arrive at real solution's. But Nope, it had promised the moon so it had to come up with a brilliant idea to make people get used to the fares it will be charging while it really starts sending them to the moon. This 14 % hike in the fares might end up adding more or less 8,000 crore rupees to the state enterprises kitty which on the whole generates an annual revenue of 1,20,000 crore rupees, this meager addition to its kitty will have no impact on its entire outlook if it chooses to ignore the anomalies or inefficiencies and sticks to the established huge bureaucratic structure.                                            Governments across the world which have been elected democratically when forced to confront the realities of the after math of major financial crisis's, whether it be the 70's secondary banking crisis or the mid 90's Asian crisis or the recent sub prime crisis which resulted in the undoing of the hegemony of major financial institutions have all adopted a common stance of fiscal prudence initially only to indulge in fiscal profligacy during the latter part of their tenure's. And so now while this Newly elected government keeps itself busy by raising import duty on sugar, and prices of diesel, petrol, LPG cylinders and of various other essential commodities adding to the burden of all ready thinly stretched finances of ordinary house holds in this country, one wonders why this government has not been proactive in taking any kind of concrete measure to recover the illegal wrongful and irregular expenditure made by Reliance industries limited to the tune of 1.8 billion $ ( more or less 9,000 crore rupees ) when it went about drilling for gas in the KG basin. Further more Reliance industries limited has been very adamant in not furnishing the records for these expenditures to the Comptroller of Auditor General, in a country where an NGO could face cancellation of its FCRA registration and could have its bank accounts frozen for not furnishing records for a mere 2 lakh Rupees, this government seems to be dillydallying with a huge smile on its face about what it should be doing with a company that has openly flouted the Norms and the laws of the land, even while being aware that Reliance industries limited is sitting on a huge cash pile of 80,000 crore Rupees. How should one construe this?, Should this be construed as the rap on the head of that ordinary citizen who voted for this government in response to the democratic right he was called to exercise, and as a mean conviviality to oblige him in return with a government that has the kleptocratic and oligarchic signature all over it which sure seems like would only aim to legitimize the ill ways of crony capitalism.

                       Though the BSE index has been gaining new ground since April and has almost soared 14 % the Real inflation figures for the same period have been hovering dangerously at around 10 %, clearly indicative of the fact that cheap money is being herded into the speculative market's not based on the underlying strong economic developments but rather based on the need to boost the prices of certain assets as a way to hedge against the risky ones that firms and companies hold in their books, and that's quite the reason why Despite the euphoria in the financial markets there have been very little investments made to add new productive capacity, almost all the major firms are preferring to buy back their shares and are engaging in mergers and acquisitions and continue to increase their debt in spite of  the lackluster short term prospects. This and the recent fiscal deficit figure of 45.6 % of the budget only points in the direction where there is going to be no respite from the inflation anytime soon even though the government has been making it clear about the step's that are being taken to cull the spiraling inflation. A lower inflation figure would mean higher servicing cost of government debt, and the other privately held debt, which in other words mean that government might be proactive in trying to keep the prices of a basket of food items a few notches down but wouldn't be as proactive as it should be in curtailing the cost of commodities, industrial raw materials and farm inputs, which goes on to say that people will eventually realize who will be footing that bill ultimately and when they do they will curse their moon and stars. Dreams and promises can be sold like a product but once they have been bought they don't behave like one, for ideas and promises to become realities it would take more than the efforts put in by the multi crore propaganda machinery to broadcast those ideas and promises through every available medium, it would take more than the effort of using politics of resentment to further ones own political agenda, it would take more than a mere effort of carpet bombing marketing exercise of an unprecedented scale, it would take an enormous will to generate profits not at the cost of the gullible people but by being at the mercy of expanding economic activity, increased savings rate and median wage.