Category: Links

Here are a few links for some nice Sunday reading.

The InfoLadies of Bangladesh, Armed with Bicycle and Netbooks @ Gizmodo

Structured Products @ Capital Mind

Fear is a No-No @ A VC

As Mrs Watanabe ages, Japan turns to Mrs Wang and her credit card @ Beyond BRICS

Job versus Vocation – What I didn’t learn in B-School @ HBR

Legislation may end interchange fee and end cap ATM fee @ Cash Money Life

How to lower your homeowners insurance premiums @ The Digerati Life

Mango MasterCard Prepaid Debit Card Review @ The Smarter Wallet

Here are the links from this weekend. Enjoy!

The Power of Why (Simon Sinek’s TED Talk) via Brad Feld.

Cash transactions will become costlier in HDFC Bank @ Think Plan Invest

China cements its Africa link @ Beyond BRICS

Why Gallup when you can Tweet @ HBR

$5 home-made toaster teaches the value of Walmart @ Gizmodo

Google Voice goes after impressionable young minds @ Tech Crunch

The surprising cost of volatility @ Alphaville

The rise and fall of G.D.P. @ NY Times Magazine

PocketSmith Review @ The Digerati Life

Carnivals

One Family’s Blog

Carnival of Financial Planning

Magical Penny

I spoke to my sister today, and she has received the book that I bought online for her a few days ago. I couldn’t speak at length, but looks like the book reached in good time, and was in great shape, so that went really well. I thought I’d write a quick note here, because quite a few of you have written to me, and left comments about it.

On to the links for this week, they are quite varied, and that is probably an indicator of what all happened during the week. Enjoy!

US stocks raise alarm on algo trading @ Matthew Goldstein

The web struggling to keep up with the stock market crash / bounce @ Techrunch

The biggest job creator you have never heard of @ HBR

Investigation in New York @ NY Times

Founders of two successful internet start-ups share their secret @ Digital Inspiration

How to get approved from a prime credit card @ The Digerati Life

ULIPs vs ELSS @ Value Research

Oh those naughty short selling US senators @ FT Alphaville

What percentage of your assets should be allocated to US @ Cash Money Life

Why do Harvard kids head to Wall Street @ Baseline Scenario

Sophisticated investors don’t deserve your love, they are stupid @ Weakonomics

Best student credit cards for those in college @ Smarter Wallet

To me the biggest story today was Warren Buffet coming out in strong support of Goldman Sachs, and Lloyd Blankfein too. I don’t know if his support will make any difference to the SEC case, but it should help the GS stock a bit.

While we are on the subject, let me share this video where Bill Clinton talks a little about this issue at a macro level. It is about 5 minutes, and very well worth your time.

On to something more actionable now – I found this useful article at Digital Inspiration about keyboard shortcuts for the iPhone, and I have been using #2 and 10 a lot since I discovered it.

Barry Ritholtz takes a look at the big picture. This is one of the best macro overviews I have read for some time.

The Digerati Life shares tips for easy credit card management. I feel that using credit cards simplify life a great deal, and instead of trying to run away fro them, we should try to master their use.

Here is another related post from the Smarter Wallet about paying down credit card balance

What trust brings to Amazon, Zappos and USAA: Very interesting article on Harvard Business Review that talks about how good things happen to companies that trust their customers.

SEBI has released a guide to understanding IPOs, and I think this is a good start for investors interested in IPOs. Don’t expect too much insight, but as I said – it is a good start.

Let me end this post with this awesome joke I found at FT Alphaville.

Heaven is a place where the police are English; the chefs are Italian; the car mechanics are German; the lovers are French and it’s all organized by the Swiss. Hell is a place where the police are German; the chefs are English; the car mechanics are French; the lovers are Swiss and it’s all organized by the Italians.

The Goldman story has been topping the charts for the last few days, and I have a hunch that we will hear a lot more about their internal emails, which were released today.

Talking Across Cultures (With or without profanity) @ HBR: This is a great article that will be especially helpful for people who work with others from varied backgrounds.

Currency futures: An example of how India changes @ Ajay Shah: Ajay Shah writes about currency futures often, and this is a post about how the volumes in this market have grown, and how this market has evolved over the years.

Monty Hall Economics @ The Psy – Fi Blog: A fun read about the Monty Hall problem, and how probability and behavior influence our decision making.

And now, here is a funny little Monty Python video for you.

RBI to Banks: Rollover Fixed Deposits Without Penalties: If you have fixed deposits in India, then this recent change will impact you, and going through this post will help you understand the impact.

Why ULIP is a bad investment @ Value Research: Dhirendra Kumar looks at the reasons ULIP proponents gives on why ULIPs are a good idea, and then dissects those reasons to see if the argument holds or not.

Heaters: Funny post by Scott Adams about his experience with installing outdoor heaters.

How shopping lists can save you money by The Smarter Wallet

As we head over to the weekend, here are some great reads for you. Enjoy and have a good weekend.

Are Futures Simply Better? @ Capital Mind

The New Inner Circle of Steve Jobs @ Digital Inspiration

10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps @ A VC

Innovators become active experimenters @ HBR

Flow chart for email @ The Big Picture

Structured Notes start to overcome the Lehman taint @ Matthew Goldstein

Indo China Consumption Fund @ Value Research Online

Berkshire’s Investment in BYD @ Rational Walk

Financial Retirement Planning for a life expectancy of 100 @ The Digerati Life

I am not impressed with this frugal tip @ Indian Thoughts

I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I somehow ended up reading these stories one after the other and thought I’d make a quick links post with these stories.

1. Israeli tanks in Gaza in worst clash of the year

2. South Korean navy ship sinks

3. Arjun tank outruns Russian T – 90s

4. Nuclear capable Dhanush and Prithvi – 2 to be test fired tomorrow

5. Russian bombers intercepted in British airspace

As I read a series of great posts this late Wednesday, I thought I’d do a quick middle of the week links post. Let me begin by highlighting this article by Paul Krugman who talks very strongly about taking on China for its manipulation to keep its currency low.

Next up is a post in the Harvard Business Review, where they talk about companies over-pricing their stuff in China. Great stuff; here is an excerpt:

2. Consumers, increasingly, buy products that are status symbols. Starbucks has done well in China partly because of its snob appeal. Its audience is concerned less with the fact that buying a Starbucks latte is, by local standards, a luxury than they are with the prestige they gain by tapping at a laptop in a Starbucks cafe. Similarly, Haagen Dazs has thrived by adding elaborate desserts to its menu and creating an upscale ambience in its stores. In cities like Shanghai, teenagers often take their first dates to a Haagen Dazs parlor and they are willing to pay for the privilege.

Two great posts about these new ULIPs that guarantee highest NAV returns. First at Value Research and then at Jago Investor.

Lastly, Barry Ritholtz on reviewers on Amazon who have the concept all wrong.

Enjoy.

I start this week’s link edition by highlighting another links post by Bad Money Advice. This is not the first time I am doing this, and you only have to go through his post to understand why.

Among other interesting stuff – WSJ talks about how Buffet’s gains beat every mutual fund for the past 45 years. Out of the two closest mutual funds, one was run by Peter Lynch for a long period of time, and that was part of the reason why it did so well.

Business Week reports how Brazil is worried about over-heating. If you were thinking about investing in Brazil, then this article is definitely worth a read for you.

The Weakonomics writes about putting the unemployed to work.

The Digerati Life talks about filing a consumer complaint with the FTC.

Jago Investor has a primer on floating rate mutual funds.

Tip Blog has the sequel to his exchange about investments with an ex-colleague.

Happy reading and have a good weekend.

After a fairly long  gap, I am back with weekly links. In the past I used to call this – “Interesting Reads” but that got a bit boring, so now I am going to pick up a few words from the posts and use them for a title. That should spice it up a little.

Let me start off by pointing you towards this story that Weakonomics picked up about a Kiwi girl selling her virginity to pay for college. The final price for it – 30,000 US Dollars!

Bad Money Advice included this story in his February round up, and also pointed out an interesting comment by Cosmo who wondered if this would be taxed as capital gain or income, had it been legal in the US?

Not to get too carried away by all this, let me draw your attention now to some posts that are more in line with the theme of this blog:

Ask Mr. Credit Card does a Safecreditscore.com Review

Digital Inspiration tells us how to get an exporter code for PayPal in India

The Big Picture takes an in depth look at the cyclically adjusted S&P 500 P/E Ratio

The Digerati Life tells us how cash only living can work

The Financial Samurai tells us a story about his friend who makes a lot of money but is not pursuing his dreams. I think a lot of people will be able to relate to this story. I actually had a post in drafts based on this but never got to finishing it. Sometime in the coming week I think.

Indian Thoughts wonders about Money vis-a-vis happiness – this and the post above are similar in nature, though both worth a read on their own.

Ajay Shah takes a look at some interesting features of the budget – mainly on regulatory co-ordination, financial reform and stability.

That’s it for this edition, I’ll be more regular with the links now that I am back and slowly getting back in the daily routine.