Detailed NRO Judgement by Supreme Court

A land mark judgement in the history of Pakistan. May Allah (SWT) accepts this effort and change the destiny of people of Pakistan to a better future. Here is a link to download the detailed judgement.

Detailed NRO Judgement by Supreme Court

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DAWN.COM | Columnists | Burnt dreams

I like to read Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa. Whenever, she writes, I find time to read her. She is eloquent, comprehensible and does not hide behind thin veil of something else. She says what she has to say or what she feels. I came to know her when she published her controversial book "Military Inc." Since then I have been following her writings. I wish that she may publish her columns someday so that her fans can enjoy reading without waiting. I also wish that she may sometime in future decide to write blog. Here is her latest column:

"the path for normative feudalism was prepared intellectually as well. A large portion of literature, especially in Urdu, which was read in the largest province, did not challenge the feudal authoritarianism particularly exercised by the new feudals, such as the military in power. In fact, numerous intellectuals became conduits for military regimes trading their souls for land, money or cushy positions.
Some of them even manipulated religion and converted the discourse to the advantage of authoritarian military rulers. So, most tragically youngsters at that time like me saw the edifice of neo-feudalism being built through encouraging intellectual dishonesty. The Zia years were among the darkest in our national history. Personally I saw Lahore, a city I was born and grew up in, and which was known for its intellectual shine, capitulate to dictatorial rule. Things would never be the same again."

DAWN.COM | Columnists | Burnt dreams

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Financial crisis: Downturn shows we were too slow to fix world's debt addiction - Telegraph

"He may yet have to. Banks have been faced with three problems throughout the crisis, and while one has been solved, the other two are still just as pressing.

The first is that financial institutions have been severely undercapitalised. As investors pulled cash out of the banks, their capital ratios dropped to dangerous levels, leaving many of them not just beyond the acceptable limits laid down by Basel but close to outright insolvency."

The financial institutions were playing on other people's money.

Financial crisis: Downturn shows we were too slow to fix world's debt addiction - Telegraph

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The Capital Structure Decisions of New Firms

"Outside debt (financing through credit cards, credit lines, bank loans, etc.) was the most important type of financing for new firms, followed closely by owner equity. These two sources accounted for about 75 percent of startup capital."


Why so? May be because the owner does not want to share his profits or may be that he could not find a partner.

The Capital Structure Decisions of New Firms


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Deleveraging: Now the hard part

Every research into finding the causes of recent financial crisis leads to one point that debt is the cause, yet there is blindness and deafness. What could be said about this phenomenon other than that 


"As to those who reject Faith, it is the same to them whether thou warn them or do not warn them; they will not believe."
"Allah hath set a seal on their hearts and on their hearing, and on their eyes is a veil; great is the penalty they (incur)."
(Aya 6 & 7 of Sura Al-Baqara)


Here is an excerpt from Mackinsey Global Institute research report.


"Even as signals multiply that a global economic recovery is underway, government and business leaders face uncertainty over its durability and how to manage the lengthy process of debt reduction—or deleveraging—that will weigh on growth after the bursting of the great global credit bubble.

New McKinsey research shows that the challenge of reducing total debt levels relative to GDP is a global problem that is only just getting started. Leverage is still very high in some sectors of several countries, including the United States. History also shows that deleveraging episodes are painful—on average lasting six to seven years—and exert a significant drag on GDP growth in the early stages." 

Facebook | McKinsey Quarterly: Deleveraging: Now the hard part

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There are no free lunches in this world

"The hypothesis that actual prices reflect fundamental values is the Efficient Markets Hypothesis (EMH). Put simply, under this hypothesis, “prices are right,” in that they are set by agents who understand Bayes’s law and have sensible preferences. In an efficient market, there is “no free lunch”: no investment strategy can earn excess risk-adjusted average returns, or average returns greater than are warranted for its risk."

The "no free lunch" slogan is not restricted to the EMH as above. It is omnipresent. Here is an excerpt from an interesting article.

"My father used to tell me, "There's no such thing as a free lunch, son." One day, when I was feeling clever, I thanked my dad for the "free" lunch he had just bought me. He replied, "This lunch isn't free, son … you have to sit here and listen to me while you eat it, don't you?" Point taken."

The Hidden Costs of Free Software - Small Business Software - Entrepreneur.com


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Intel’s Bet on Future

Future is an uncertain entity, anything can happen. Future projections are at best probabilities. Here is an excerpt from an article about Intel's bet on future. The future is what you think and have faith in.

"With the global economy reeling, businesses and consumers had pulled way back on their typical technology spending, and sales of personal computers had started to decline at their steepest rates in history. The major two-year investment was a matter of faith — in an economic recovery and in the Internet continuing to drive a long-term increase in demand for computers, smartphones and other devices with chips inside."

Intel’s Bet on Innovation Pays Off in Faster Chips - NYTimes.com

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