Pandit in the Citi

One of the great and tragically misunderstood virtues of capitalism is Creative Destruction. Joseph Schumpeter and others famously pointed out that, perhaps perversely, one of the real measures of dynamism in an economy is the rate of failure. Firm failure (and, the symbiotically related measure “ease of entry”) is important for rejiggering the status quo and setting the stage for testing new ideas, structures, and, most importantly, people.

The Next Head of Citibank? Vikram Pandit

The subprime mortgage “crisis” is clearly shaking up a segment of the economy and, in its wake, one of the largest and most venerable blue chip financial institutions in the country, Citigroup

A longtime banking analyst said late last night that Citigroup may be forced to cut its dividend or sell assets to stave off what she said was a $30 billion capital shortfall, moves that could pull down its shareholder returns for several years.

…”We believe the stock will be under significant pressure and could trade in the low $30s,” she wrote. That would be as much as a 28 percent decline from yesterday’s $41.90 closing price for Citigroup shares.

If correct, the findings could be yet another blow to Citigroup’s chairman and chief executive, Charles O. Prince III, who has endured a barrage of criticism in the last few years for his failure to control costs and improve results.

If Prince is forced out, as Wall Street odds makers strongly believe, one of the top internal candidates for replacing Prince will be superstar Investment Banker and minor legend on the Street – Vikram Pandit.

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Must it be Halloween everyday?

darth_vader_2.jpg

Since it’s Halloween, and I have not yet overdosed on Starburst and Snickers, I started to wonder how what role fear has in 2007. We seem to want to be scared, which is why horror movies are so popular, although I am not a fan of torture-porn flicks like Saw and Hostel. Catwoman was scary enough.

But what about using fear for non-entertainment purposes? It can often be used in situations where it may not be the best approach. Like a parent who warns, “Study hard, or you won’t get into the Ivy League and you’ll have no future.” Well, I studied hard, didn’t get into the Ivy League, and am doing OK.

It may sound naïve, but hope really is a better sales pitch than fear. And if all you have to offer is fear, or it’s close relations such as cynicism, paranoia, etc. – you start to become unpleasant company after awhile.

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Making the most of Halloween

Think about it. Once a year a bunch of impressionable young children come to your door and give you their undivided attention. This presents the PERFECT opportunity to proselytise. It’s like a reverse Jehovah’s Witness-type situation. While many of the world’s other religions are clever enough to take advantage of this amazing opportunity, Hindus are left behind (mostly due to a lack of creativity it seems). Beliefnet has a great feature that gives us a tasty sampler of some of the divine candy out there, and also provides us insight into why Hinduism faces an uphill battle when it comes to creating converts of the young:

First up is the Christian “Scripture Candy:”

Once you pop, you can’t stop! These scripture-wrapped mints are downright addictive. Not too minty, yet soft enough to melt in your mouth. According to the maker, these mints were created to turn “a pagan holiday into something to glorify God…” [Link]

Why can’t someone make candy with Gita passages?

Next we have Star of David pops:

I’d eat a chocolate Hanuman pop if it existed. I’m just sayin’.

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"He Speaks So Well"

If you are a regular viewer of the Sunday morning news shows then you will have taken note that Bobby Jindal has now graduated into that honored circle. You are not a real politician in this country until you’ve gone a round or two with the Sunday morning punditocracy. Tim Russert’s Meet The Press is the big leagues with This Week with George Snufalufagus coming in second. Slightly more inviting and easy for a first-timer like Republican Bobby Jindal is Fox News Sunday. Here is Jindal’s full interview from this past Sunday’s episode:

He makes a pretty convincing pitch for why he would be a boring (no corruption or titties) governor which is what he says the people of Louisiana have long been waiting for after decades of corruption and mismanagement. He also talks a little about the “Bubbas for Bobby” that helped him win. This was his first big interview since he won so check it out.

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19 is old enough

You think that Ashwin Madia is on the young side in running for Congress at the age of 29? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Meet Ytit Chauhan, a 19-year-old Indian-American running for city council in Atlantic City, N.J.:

Picture shamelessly cradle-robbed from his Facebook profile

The first round of campaign finance forms shows that this year’s City Council candidates may spend tens of thousands of dollars to land a seat on the resort’s governing body. While files are incomplete, the candidates raised a cumulative $103,141, while spending $77,578 for the Nov. 6 contest.

Leading the pack is Steve Layman, a Republican running independently who is challenging Councilman Tim Mancuso, a Democrat.

Unendorsed Democrat Ytit Chauhan is also running in that race, but he signed forms indicated he planned to spend no more than $3,500. [Link]

Chauhan has even caught the attention of David Letterman and his company WorldWide Pants. Variety reports:

David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants production banner is spearheading an untitled feature documentary about young adults running for public office. The doc will follow five men and women ages 18-20 who are seeking elected posts in a range of states, including New Jersey and Tennessee.

The film is the first docu and the first noncomedy project for Worldwide Pants. Doc will be directed by Michael Moore’s former assistant Jason Pollock, and “An Inconvenient Truth” producer Lawrence Bender is attached to produce.

The candidates include Ytit Chauhan, 18, a first-generation Indian-American running for city council in Atlantic City, N.J.; and George Monger, 18, who successfully appealed to lower the Memphis voting age from 23 so that he could run for city council. [Link]
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The Tronie Foundation

Since we’ve already had one depressing story about child slave labor in India today I thought, why not end the day with an…errrrrr, uplifting story about child slave labor? Thank goodness for the Seattle Times for reporting on this gem to take some of the earlier slime off:

As a 7-year-old girl in southern India in 1978, she was taken from her parents and sold into slavery.

At the same time, a 9-year-old boy in Southeast Asia was surviving alone in a cave, after the fishing boat on which he was fleeing Vietnam became shipwrecked.

Rani and Trong Hong would eventually be rescued from their separate childhood nightmares and brought to safety in Washington state. They would meet as adults on a blind date, fall in love and marry…

Now, motivated by the pain of their early years to help others, they are renovating a home exclusively for victims of human trafficking — people recruited, transported and harbored for sexual exploitation or slave labor. [Link]

Talk about a power couple! Click on their names in the passage above to read about their unfortunate childhoods. The non-profit they’ve established, partly on the profits from their lucrative home-building business in Olympia Washington, is called The Tronie Foundation (and it could use your donations):

Rani works with victims who have been abused by all forms of Human Trafficking. Whether the victim was part of a mail-order bride schemes, sold into servitude, sexual slavery or victimized as part of an international adoption ring, Rani because of her own personal experience has a heart for these women and children. She shares openly her own personal story, in hopes that they too can be restored and live a productive life, free from the pain of their past.

“No woman and child should be so severely abused that they end up looking like they are mentally and physically ill. As a survivor of human trafficking, I personally have chosen to speak publicly to give hope and encourage those of you that may be afraid to come forward. [Link]

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Preserving the Evidence

Amrit Singh, the hardworking New York ACLU lawyer who is also the daughter of the current Indian Prime Minister (written about many times here on SM), has teamed up with fellow ACLU attorney Jameel Jaffer to author a book which outlines the broad scope of the detention and torture policies practiced by the Bush Administration in its “War on Terror.” [via Ultrabrown]

Administration of Torture is the most detailed account thus far of what took place in America’s overseas detention centers, including a narrative essay in which Jameel Jaffer and Amrit Singh draw the connection between the policies adopted by senior civilian and military officials and the torture and abuse that took place on the ground. The book also reproduces hundreds of government documents; including interrogation directives, FBI e-mails, autopsy reports, and investigative files; that constitute both an important historical record and a profound indictment of the Bush administration’s policies with respect to the detention and treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad. [Link]

“Awesome” is the first thing that comes to mind. Even though we can’t undo a lot of what has been done to take America way off course in the last several years, it feels somewhat better to know that someone is taking the time to bear witness to and document it all thoroughly. This way, as Bush likes to proclaim, history can best judge his presidency. To get a feel for the book you can download part of a chapter here. You can also listen to a Podcast here where the authors discuss their book, and a recent NPR interview with Singh here.

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J. Ashwin Madia – Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District

My cousin Manan (who is also an Iraq War Vet) just forwarded me the news that 29-year-old Marine Corps veteran Jigar Ashwin Madia just announced his candidacy for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives:

U.S. Marine Corps Iraq veteran J. Ashwin Madia announced his candidacy to represent Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District Tuesday.

Madia will seek the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement.

While serving as a Marine, Madia was also a prosecutor, defense attorney, and legal advisor to a Marine Corps commander.

Madia graduated from Osseo Senior High School. He went on to graduate from the University of Minnesota and New York University School of Law. [Link]

First thought (albeit very shallow)? It isn’t going to hurt him that he looks that good. I have a feeling that the comments section in this post is going to have a lot of female commenters leaving onomatopoeic words like “Rrrrrrr.” But does Jigga-man got the necessary skills to go with those looks? He is currently working at attorney at Robins, Kaplan, Miller, and Ciresi LLP in Intellectual Property Litigation.

Drawing on his experience in Iraq, Madia plans to make the war a major issue in his campaign. He also hopes to focus on balancing the budget and fighting global warming. What he stressed most frequently, however, is his desire for this campaign to be a real dialogue between the candidates. Madia says he wants as many debates and candidate forums as possible, noting that open congressional seats don’t come around very often.

With no elected experience and no history with party regulars, Madia certainly has an uphill climb. He’s seeking to break into politics in a congressional race that is likely to be among the most competitive in the country – and a race that already has an excellent DFL candidate. There is no question that he is an underdog in this race.

“The three issues that I care about most and that form the basis for my campaign are: 1) Ending the Iraq War without leaving behind a catastrophe; 2) Balancing our budget and returning to “pay as you go” principles; and 3) Creating and implementing a comprehensive solution to address global warming. I also want to talk more generally about the direction of our country, and what kind of nation we want to be post 9/11. I don’t believe that we need to have torture chambers, Guantanamo Bay, secret prisons, and spying programs on American citizens in order to be secure. In fact, I think that when we do those things, we tear at the fabric of our country” – said Madia. [Link]

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H. RES 747

Recognizing the religious and historical significance of the festival of Diwali

That’s right folks. The House could not pass that Armenian Genocide Bill today. They are also wrangling with President Bush who is asking for another gazillion dollars for the war in Iraq using our children’s credit. But you know what they did take the time to agree on? That we should recognize Diwali. Hoorah for Congressional efficiency!

A congressional resolution recognizing the religious and historical significance of Diwali, passed the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Representatives by a unanimous vote.
The Indo-American community leaders and political activists who lobbied for it, reacted with praise and cautious optimism as bill now awaits vote in Full House of Representatives.

The bill, H.Res. 747, calls for the U.S. Congress to acknowledge “the religious and historical significance of the festival of Diwali” and was introduced jointly by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Jim McDermott (D-WA).

“The Diwali festival is celebrated by nearly two million people here in the United States and many millions more around the world,” said Congressman Wilson soon after the resolution passed. “It is an opportunity for Congress to acknowledge the shared values of kinship, knowledge, and goodness celebrated during the five day festival.” He also called upon the full House of Representatives to take up the bill as soon as possible. [Link]

The question this year, like every year, is will Bush celebrate Diwali?

Full text of the resolution is below the fold.

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Amit Varma Wins the Bastiat Prize

A hearty SM congrats to Amit Varma of India Uncut who, last night, won this year’s Bastiat Prize.

Pict courtesy of Ultrabrown; Rockstars get bra-throwing female fans; Real rockstars like Amit Varma get Manish Vij as an entourage for the evening.

The Bastiat Prize for Journalism was established by International Policy Network to encourage, recognise and reward writers around the world whose published works elucidate the institutions of the free society.

In the enduring spirit of the Prize’s namesake Frédéric Bastiat, the Prize is given to writers who employ eloquent and witty explanations of complex ideas, combined with a clear understanding of markets and their underlying institutions -property rights, the rule of law, freedom of contract, free speech and limited government. 2007 marks the sixth year of the Bastiat Prize.

Varma’s work has been featured on SM many times before. In addition, his articles have been carried in a number of publications including the Asian Wall Street Journal and, local Indian biz rag, Mint. A collection of his published work can be found here.

Interestingly, while focusing on “old journalism” Varma and at least one other contender for the prize – Jonah Goldberg of National Review’s Corner – are possibly more well known in the blogosphere than they are on dead trees. Varma even credits blogging as the first step on a long path towards press geekdom –

As I mentioned in my post about being nominated, it all began with India Uncut. The blog led to the column, and made me grow as a writer. And I wouldn’t have bothered if no one was reading me. So thank you–you are more a part of this than you realise!

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