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After all,Pranab Mukherjee was trained under the most wily politician that the country ever produced — Indira Gandhi. He was part of her Emergency time Gang of Four. He lived down that infamy by losing the favour of the family. Apart from his role during Emergency, he has had a deeper than normal association with the Ambanis. He would, however, claim that he was not more close to them than either Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi. He was, and is perhaps, no saint. But certainly he is no subaltern of Sonia Gandhi. The media says Sonia has outsmarted the opposition. It is Pranab Mukherjee who has outsmarted Sonia Gandhi!wrote S.Gurumurthy in the Indian Express

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To reduce the likelihood of clashes , the Sinaloa Drug Cartel has revived an unlikely custom: the ancient art of dynastic marriage. Chapo’s organization is occasionally referred to as an alianza de sangre (“alliance of blood”), because so many of its prominent members are cousins by marriage or brothers-in-law.All of this intermarriage, one U.S. official in Mexico suggested to me, functions as “a hedge against distrust.” An associate may be less likely to cheat you, or to murder you, if there’ll be hell to pay with his wife.Article in the NYTimes

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“Having fallen from respected insider to convicted inside trader, Mr. Rajat Gupta has now exchanged the lofty board room for the prospect of a lowly jail cell,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan said in a statement.

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Singh was arguably more effective in his term as finance minister in the Congress minority government under Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, which liberalized the economy in the early 1990s, than he has been as prime minister since 2004. The difference is likely due to Rao’s political support for Singh when he proposed dramatic steps to open the economy. Singh appears to lack that level of support from his own party today.wrote S&P in their report “Will India be the first BRIC fallen angel?”

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“The global economy is weakening cyclically on top of a highly fragile credit system. It is an explosive cocktail. The tower of debt is compounded by the gigantic over-the-counter derivatives market. In the past 10 years the notional value of derivatives worldwide has grown from $100 trillion to almost $800 trillion. The numbers are mind-boggling. if something goes wrong in the real economy, it could shake the whole credit system dramatically. It is a dangerous situation.

 

The euro is not the real problem but a trigger and compounder of the structural problems. It could only work if the euro zone entered a fiscal and political union, which won’t happen, as Europeans aren’t prepared to give up national sovereignty. Politicians therefore will go from one compromise and quick fix to the next, with the crisis deepening until some nations at the periphery won’t be able to stand the economic pain anymore. They will want their old national currency back, and devalue to adjust the external accounts.

 

We are witnessing the biggest financial-market manipulation of all time. The authorities have intervened more and more, and thereby created this monster. They might change the rules when the game goes against their own interests. We are in a severe credit crunch. It starts when the weakest links in the system can’t finance their activities. Then you have a flight to safety into Treasuries and German bunds, compounded by a quasi-shortage of good collateral. That’s why bond yields have fallen so low. This isn’t an inflationary environment but a deflationary one.”-said Felix Zulauf at the Barron’s Roundtable