If your house is worth less than the loan you took

Assume you bought a house for LKR 100 mn. Assume that you had cash of LKR 5 mn, and you took a loan of LKR 95 mn to make the purchase. Now, suppose house prices started to tumble, and the house is now worth LKR 70 mn.

Now, one of your richest uncles passes away, and leaves you off with LKR 100 mn. What would you do? i.e. 
a) pay the loan off
b) default on the loan, and buy a better house elsewhere (all the prices are going down, so there is this house which was LKR 140 mn then, but now going for LKR 100mn…)

:)
fyi: I am not sure what I would do…

Should interst expense be tax deductible?

Interest expense is tax deductible for corporate tax. But is this something that should be disallowed, say 2015 onwards?

Why? because at present, the tax payers are subsidising a private company because of its choice of funding.

Say company x is 100% equity financed, but company y is only 50%  equity financed. If its in the same business, I don’t see why tax payers should subsidise company y.

Karuna, AIG: Size does matter

If Karuna was of a low rank, he would probably be languishing in a jail. But he is not. He was one of the bigger fish.

If AIG was the name of a USD 100,000 annual turnover business, it would have failed if it ran out of money.

Size does matter.

What about appointing Karuna to the Sri Lankan Parliament? Morally, I can say that it is wrong to appoint a former high ranking terrorist, who planned and carried out attacks and allegedly, used children in the war.

I can also say that it is better to bring a former terrorist in to the democratic system, forgiving their past deeds – else, a terrorist will always be a terrorist.

Sometimes, I guess we have to do what is practical, and not what is “correct” or “the proper thing to do”.

So, what if Prabarkaran wants to join the parliment? Well, he is the biggest fish: and doubt he wold ever want to be a MP. If he does, Brother India would wait for him.

Value of ATD (office)

You will definitely get noted for the lack of Attention To Detail. Managers, customers, suppliers – basically quite a lot of people will pull you up if you fall short. While you may not get a pat on the back for good ATD, people will notice it. Because of that, they will notice and rely on you.

What have I done to improve my ATD?

* Always check spellings. Proper sentences.
* Double check what I send across.

Thank you Airtel

Dialog slashed prices (again). Getting ready for the (much delayed) launched from Airtel. I am waiting for them to cut data rates. When that happens, I may actually surf using my phone.

The Dark Knight – was good

A pretty good story line. The movie was quite long, but I enjoyed myself. Wish the AC was on from the start though. Cost cutting (Liberty)?

The Fed and the stock market

A friend described what happened during the last month (weeks) as the “nationalization of risk and privatization of rewards framework”. How True. Looks like the US lawmakers are not yet ready to sign a USD 700 Bn cheque to the Treasury. I hope they don’t. The excuse that the world economy may go in to a recession and thus deserves a tax payer hand out is a load of crap.

The private institutions other than Freddi and Fannie should have been allowed to go under. People in power seem to make decisions with their politician hat on their head, rather than the future in mind. By wanting to purchase illiquid assets/ bad debt the Fed is encouraging moral hazard.

Aba

Watched it a few days ago. Tiny story line – stretched to the limit. However I enjoyed it. To put it in to perspective, more than Hancock, but definitely not even close to Kungfu Panda.

Two points:

a) Aba has reignited talk about Sinhalese decedents of a rogue king from India vs the original Sri Lankans
b) A lot of people seem to speak more about the fact that a pretty lass didn’t have hair on her legs, but had it under her arms…

Georgia helps build US economy

Would be interesting to know how much of the USD 1 Bn aid (link to VOA) to Georgia would find itself back to US contractors.

Bush: What about your backing for Kosovo?

US / Russia / Georgia

I am not anti US: but I am anti idiot Bush and his camp which attacked Iraq and the aftermath, Kosovo, Darfur, and I can go on.. I am with Russia on its support to the breakaways. Perhaps one reason I love Russia is because it can say f*** of to idiotic Bush & co.

Despite my love for Russia, it sickened me to see how some Russian soldiers robbed from an innocent man, at gun point after been shoved to the floor at gun point.  I wish the Generals had instilled proper conduct on the soldiers: some, seem to be just thugs; that’s all. Given the footage, I would love to see them prosecuted. No sovereign, or representatives of a sovereign should be allowed to engage in criminal activities against civilians of any country. Period.