We're doomed!!!

First came to me about a couple of weeks ago when both the UK and the US politicians started chastising the bank chiefs and blaming the banks for the financial crisis. Besides humiliating them on their huge pay packages, they have also brought out a lot of very flawed arguments - that makes me wonder if they really know what they are talking about.

Argument: RBS made a very bad decision buying ABN AMRO.
Analysis: That is now clear in hindsight. RBS simply didn't have enough cash to make such a large purchase - it would only have made sense if both RBS and ABN were growing as they had for the past 3 years. However, 94% of shareholders were in favour of the takeover. No one could have forseen the depth of the current crisis - that all banks, not only RBS and ABN, have massively lower market cap.

Argument: Bankers with their large pay packages siphoned money off the economy, therefore they shouldn't be paid so much.
Analysis: Bankers that have caused losses have long been fired from the banks, but its the ones remaining that are suffering the brunt of the blame.

Argument: Banks and their fancy financial products caused the financial crisis.
Analysis: Admittedly, they were part of the problem. But who profited from getting cheap mortages they couldn't afford, and walked away when they realised they couldn't pay up? Who built and sold houses on what we know now are inflated prices? Who bragged that boom in 2007 was due to the deregulation of the economy? We are all to blame.

There was even this very pointed question at a particular chairman of a bank, "How many in your board have experience or qualification in finance?". This question coming from a gray haired politician who, himself, has no such experience or qualification. In fact, looking at the entire room of executioners - I doubt that anyone in the room really understood the crux of the crisis.

I thought the point of the whole exercise was to find the problem, fix it, and prevent it from happening again. Alas, they never even got past finger pointing.

Under the current leadership.... We're doomed...

Swimming pool water is not good for you.

I went swimming on Thursday. I thought it would be a good idea to learn how to breathe from my left side as well as my right - since if I'm going to be swimming regularly better even out the neck muscles on both sides right?

Problem is, I can't. I ended up drinking quite a decent amount of swimming pool water...

I ended up with diarrhea, stomach aches, and a mild fever. I missed work on Friday and instead slept for roughly 20hours...

So take my advice. Don't drink swimming pool water.

The woes of a poor banker

We heard our bonus pool (the pool of money, not a real swimming pool) on sky news, not through our intranet. Headlines were "NO CASH BONUSES", "BONUS POOL CUT FROM 2.1 BILLION LAST YEAR TO 175 BILLION".

The mood in the office was sombre. I could almost forsee people jumping off buildings.

Ah well... I was prepared for it. Its sad but... I guess there's no point thinking about something you cannot control.

What I can control is my spending. Sigh...

Snow in London

Just to show you a few pictures of London covered in snow. So, I mentioned how I came in from the airport last Monday. I took a train to Paddington, and took the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus, where I got stuck for more than an hour waiting to get on the Central Line. In the end, I gave up, and walked out of the station - to be greeted by this scene:

So this is Oxford Circus, one of the busiest streets in London. Granted, its a little early in the morning, but notice the lack of traffic! The scene was so peaceful, quiet, and beautiful, I almost got over my frustration on waiting immediately.

The scene next to my building. Trying to capture the thickness of the snow.

Random shot of snow building up on bicycles - it was still snowing quite heavily at about 1pm.

The bench near my place.

Bonus time

Everyone is talking about it. I mean, not just everyone in the bank, but everyone in the street. Its on BBC, its on the Metro, its on Evening Standard, the Times, the Daily Telegraph.

There is just so much vitriol and distrust against ALL people who work in the bank - innocent me included. "NO BONUS SHOULD BE PAID" they exclaim, "How on earth can they pay bonuses to bankers after receiving 20bln pounds in government aid?".

Indeed, if the government hasn't bailed us out, there's a chance I'd be jobless, let alone having a bonus.

But on the other hand, if the government didn't bail us out, maybe some other bank would have bought us (like Nomura buying parts of Lehman), and maybe we would have had guaranteed bonuses (again, drawing the Lehman example)...

I'm not really arguing for a bonus. I'm just upset at every layman hurling abuse at bankers in general, and applying pressure for us to get nothing. We all know the bulk of a banker's compensation is his bonus...

But I know, whatever I say will change nothing. The bank is owned by the government now. The government has to answer to the people. It will no longer care about running the bank like a commercial business, basing decisions on economic merit. The best talent will go without the accompanying compensation. The bank will, soon enough, become a lethargic, 9-5 government entity.

Even my bosses' boss said, "Either the salary moves to match the work, or the work moves to match the salary. There can't be a mismatch."

oh kay...

Time to plan my move. In the meantime, its gonna be 9 to 5 for me.

Alumni Gathering

Today I was supposed to be playing football. But it got cancelled because of the snow - the pitch I suppose, was covered in it. Luckily there was this stanford alumni event that evening that my colleague (who was also in the same course as me) told me about. So I went together with him.

I had no expectations for that event. It was just a simple gathering at a pub. When we arrived the pub was crowded and we didn't really know who to look for. So we went around and found a small staircase with a little A4 sign with a Stanford logo on it. So we went upstairs, thinking that the whole room would have been reserved.

The room was packed. Like 50 or so people, all in their own cliques talking to each other. We felt a little intimidated. So we bought our drinks, and spent some time surveying the place and trying to at least talk to someone. Turned out that not everybody was there for the same purpose!

So finally we found this table of 4 with again the same Stanford sign on it. Talked to them and realised that the organiser was actually chased out of the pub because it was too crowded to hold organised gatherings there. She was in another pub across the road. We finished our drinks then headed over there.

There were another 5 people with her. Was nicer there as the music wasn't loud and there was a large table that everyone could sit around. We talked in smaller groups and changed seats as and when somebody had to go to the toilet. It was cool, I met mostly everyone there.

I didn't have any expectations, but I was glad that I turned up. Met new people and thoroughly enjoyed myself as they were a genuinely funny bunch! The organiser's going to set up a facebook group and maybe we'll have more of these gatherings in future.

How I got in to the office this morning

I landed at Heathrow at 4.45am. Cleared immigration at 5. Baggage collection was delayed because of the snow. Managed to get my bags by 5.30.

Walked out to catch the Heathrow Express and learned that it was suspended. Next train (which is the heathrow connect) which they couldn't guarantee would arrive at 6.20 or so. So I walked over to the underground station - and the next train wasn't for 7mins, and it only went up to hyde park corner... I also didn't want to waste my return ticket on the heathrow express, so I went back and managed to finally take a train to paddington - and I thought the chaos would be over... It was 7.20.

Then I found out most of the tube lines were suspended, except the bakerloo and the central line. I was advised to travel to Liverpool street via the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and then the Central line. I managed to get to Oxford Circus and thats when the real nightmare began.

The central line was packed. There was even a crowd to get to the platform. When I managed to get to the platform I was like four "layers" of people away. When the train arrived a few minutes later, the carriage itself was packed. I was standing in between doors so there was no chance i can get aboard. After two more trains came and left, I decided to try my luck at the end of the platform where I naively thought would be less crowded. Another three trains came and left (all with intervals of like 10mins..). Finally, the station announced that the next train would take 50mins to arrive, so I gave up getting on the tube. It was really stressful standing at the edge of the platform for minutes before the train arrives... you were not sure u could get on and when the train left there's this gaping hole in front of you and twenty people crowded behind you. Imagine what if someone decides to stretch, nudges someone who loses his balance, and knocks into you....

At 8.40 or so I walked out of oxford circus and while i was so frustrated at the whole affair, a curious sight greeted me. Oxford Circus was bright white with snow. It was still snowing. There were no buses, no vehicles (well there were some very sparse traffic). People were taking pictures. There was probably a feet of snow. I took a few snaps and then tried to find my way to work. There was no buses and the few taxis that passed were full so I trekked, lugging my luggage through the snow. It got tiring and cold so I stopped at starbucks for a takeaway coffee and then continued my hike. It went on for about an hour. I was still thinking it would be cool if I managed to walk to the office with all my stuff... but the going got tougher and finally, at Aldwych, a taxi that was free came by and I hopped into it. Brought me straight to work for 7quid. I finally sat at my desk at 10...

So it took me 5hours to get from the airport to my office...