Interesting Links-19 (03/02/2011)

Corporate Finance:
Corporate governance mechanism's objectives are being redefined. As per the Anglo Saxon method of corporations, the shareholders are the key stakeholders and the managers who look after the firm should work for the maximization of shareholders' wealth. And managers contracts and their incentive mechanisms are designed such that their welfare is aligned with that of the shareholders. The benefits of other stakeholders are limited to the transactions they are involved in. The recent crisis brought in the government in particular and society in general on to the board as the prominent stakeholder in corporations. Now the definition of corporate governance is undergoing rapid changes in terms of its objectives.......... time has come it has to look beyond the welfare of shareholders. Here is a nice write up. [Link]

World economy:

Jonathan Parker, Kellog school of Management reports the initial reactions on the report of global financial crisis. (U might remember, i posted a link to it under the title of Official book on finance crisis) [Link]

Interesting Links-12 (27/01/2011)

India Focus:
1. OPTIONS ON NIFTY WILL BE TRADED SOON ON SGX!! As most of us know, Nifty futures are traded on Singapore exchange (SGX). We also do know SGX-Nifty account for 25 to 30% of the total open interest on any day. It reached more than 50% when India regulator (SEBI) imposed restriction on participatory notes. On the whole SGX-Nifty is effectively banking on the regulatory arbitrage. [Link]
2. An interesting piece on exchange competition and implications to Bimal Jalan committee recommendations. [Link]
3. Some useful stats on Indian Economy. Presentations by Ajay Shah [Link], Prof. Rajan [Link] and Shankar Acharya [Link]

World Economy:
 4. Viral Acharya, Stern school of business on regulating wall street. [Link]

Interesting Links-11 (26/01/2011)

 World Economy: Opinion
1. 'Increased inequality in American society motivated the government (Bush government) to encourage mainly the state owned banks (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) to lend to the poor, which has been the root cause for the current financial crisis' - Fault Lines, by Raghuram Rajan. Few economists' responded to such controversial hypothesis. [Link], Rajan also responded to their criticism.[Link]

Corporate Finance: Stock buyback
2. Prof. Damodaran discusses the issue with nice illustrations. He discussed the present state of stock buyback as a corporate action. [Link]. He also discussed the effect of stock buyback on the wealth of stock holders, he discussed it by relating to two hypothetical worlds such as most pessimistic/lazy market and other most rational world. He argues that stock buyback doesn't have any  effect on the all equity financed firm. He also discussed the issue in various contexts. [Link]

India Focus:

3. Ajay Shah on the inflation forecasts. Video [Link]. He also discusses the credibility of IIP numbers and most other official numbers and he also cites the alternatives such as the data from Automobile association for data related to automobile output figures.

Note: Today i will not be updating this post further during the post-lunch as i will be out to watch No One Killed Jessica and Dhobi Ghat (two hindi movies) in a row at Escape Cinema!!  Happy Republic day! :)