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Hi, I would like your opinion on possible path path for me to be a financial developer. As you can see below, my profile is primarily that of a Java Developer. I am currently based in Germany. I did my Bachelor in Engineering in Computer Science in India. My grades were no so great either (c.a...

As I stated, this clearly isn't the case in NYU vs Baruch. Why even go to NYU. Go to MIT or Stanford then. I doubt that NYU can match their reputation anywhere. How about studying at Baruch at dirt cheap rate, work in NYC, pay-off you relatively small student debt, and go to Asia/Europe and...

Did Fed's operation twist help the markets or kill the markets? I feel that by flattening (deliberately) the yield curve fed killed the markets and the bank's very little chance of surviving. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44614459

I ask you one question. Do you pay $100k for reputation or for placements? Perhaps you should read the thread about NYU student having $100k in student loans. Putting placement stats on your website != advertising. In fact, not putting placements stats == spreading misinformation. What's funny...

Did you even read what I said? I said in comparison to the students at Princeton and UCB. Just go through the course structure and the profiles of the students on those two programs. In fact, also go through the program requirements, which clearly state that some knowledge of finance is...

I dunno where, but I read on NYU's website that their placement rate was 84% in 2010. Baruch had, I think, placed all but 1 student back in 2010. I talked about final placements and not about internships. What you posted was just a resume book with info on internships. Further, there is no...

My Rankings (My focus is placements, as anyone who says that you come here to learn and that placements are not so important has got to be kidding; this isn't exactly PhD, as you get paid to study there. You just cant spend close to a $100k and not think about placements). Let me also add that...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/business/global/europeans-struggle-to-clear-hurdles-to-latest-euro-rescue-plan.html

I'm sorry to say Roubini is a joke. He is an out and out bear. This guy has been wrong a dozen times in last 2 years, and now if is right, it doesn't make him good prophet. This is the same guy who talked about dow @ 5000 since march 2009 till 2010 at every market dip. The moment market rallied...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/15/business/global/china-ties-aiding-europe-to-its-own-trade-goals.html

Best of luck for your Application!

Here is my point of view: You profile looks good, if you can get GPA up to 3.7. Programs usually say that an introduction to C++ is required, but believe me, you need more than that. If you can get advanced courses in C++ (programming) try to get them. I would also try to touch at-least 780 on...

I wanna add one more thing: The best long term Indicators IMO (I mean over 10-15 years) are government policies. If the govt. screws up everything today (for instance poor regulation, low investment in infra/education, poor immigration policies), then even if the economy were booming now, it...

@ myampol I actually use ECRI's indicators. Anyway, thanks for those informative links!

The CBOE VIX measures the volatility of S&P 500 - not a company vs company. If this isn't an overall measure of market sentiment, nothing is. CDS swap rates and bond yields can also be used as an indicator of market sentiment. CDS markets indicate market stress. For instance, look at the CDS...

How long will Germany tolerate the incompetence of others ( call it their arrogance)? How long before EU eventually breaks down? http://blogs.wsj.com/marketbeat/2011/09/08/greek-cds-spreads-go-stratospheric/ Another German leaves ECB, over purchasing of sovereign bonds...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44426451

I think that we should first be clear that booming exports does NOT/IS NOT equivalent to trade surplus. The imports could rise even faster (case in point India). Regarding US trade deficit: It's just that Chinese Yuan is also depreciating at almost the same rate as the USD (An appreciation of...

@ ravikanbhatt If I were you, I would first retake GRE to score atleast 780 - I would probably aim for 800. Also, if by any chance, those low GPA scores were due to low scores in Math, or your Math scores were just about average, I would also take GRE Math Subjective. I assume, as your...

@ iesztransform It's not about verbal. It's about quant score. Quant score of 800 in GRE is common at most top MFE programs.

SNB's record move - fixes EUR/CHF lower limit. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/06/markets-forex-idUSL5E7K61D820110906

Japan has been doing that for like 15-20 years - it has probably the lowest bond yields in the world. Also, ironically, US bond yields are the lowest levels when its debt/GDP ratio is at one of the highest levels in history ( In 1980's it was like 30% Debt/GDP). Inflation is a joke. Today's...

I was gonna post something constructive, but deleted it.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-04/berlusconi-moves-to-pass-new-austerity-package-as-general-strike-looms.html

US http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/U-S-Philadelphia-Fed-index-reuters_molt-3983819338.html?x=0 http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/1147808/1/.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-05/stagnant-august-payrolls-in-u-s-add-to-signals-of-renewed-recession-risk.html...

Perhaps try taking courses from an Open University in a piecemeal format.

@ Daniel Duffy Agree. Come to think of it, US has a higher debt/GDP ratio than Spain, and Spain is being thrashed in CDS and bond markets. Spain actually ran lower deficits as a % of GDP in 2008, 2009, and 2010 than the US did. This is really hypocritical. If Spain is being given this...

And in which currency are those forex reserves? dollars - a depreciating currency. The reserves of EU countries are in gold ( a currency that is actually rising; see the word currency) - an appreciating currency. In a way, Japan's and almost every country's success on planet that holds dollars...

Come to think of it, even an EM like India hasn't had a balanced budget for like 10-15 years. The reason for budget deficits(for most countries) in last 10 years is the high price of commodities and not bad economy. In fact, I can bet that 9 out 10 countries that had budget surpluses in last 10...

Please do not compare two different education systems. India's education system gives more emphasis to rote learning than to practical learning. The things nit/ Iit lack is not quality of theoretical curriculum but quality of practical learning. Further Stanford derives it's reputation from...

I agree with you Alexei to some extent. I believe that the rating should be somewhere between the country with the best and the worst rating. I dunno about you, but I smell rat, as though it doesn't want Euro Bond to work. Perhaps S&P has something to do with the funds/banks that trade CDS for...

@ DC If I am talking bollocks, perhaps you might suggest a better way to make Euro bonds work? if Euro bonds were the only option available to the current crisis. I myself do not favor Euro bonds (from the point of view of Germany, and the basis of current idea posted on Reuters), but I...

30 year and 10 year yields will plunge big time, as chances of recession rise - yield curve flattening. The shorter term maturities can't go higher as fed is holding rates at 0-0.25%. I believe people will be surprised how low yields on 10 and 30 year can go. My take - 30 year will be sub 2% in...

If I were to issue a Euro bond: 1) I just wouldn't allow every nation to list its bonds there. 2) Also, not all debt issued by a country can be financed by Euro bonds. 3) The local govts. shouldn't have the ability to issue these bonds (their bonds should be considered equivalent to municipal...

I really don't know. S&P still seems to have some clout, especially if you exclude treasuries. The investors were caught off guard when S&P downgraded US, so they didn't know what to buy and what to sell, as US-T were the ultimate safe haven (after Gold). In case of Europe, investors know...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/03/europe-sp-idUSL5E7K30Z020110903

The fact is grading at Mumbai Univ is in %, whereas at IIT and NITs is as per GPA ( so you get a relative score not an absolute one). Tell me how would you distinguish yourself from others in the same university, if your college just doesn't give you internals. I have seen at many colleges (good...

No. If you carefully parse through what I've written, you wouldn't get that impression. Let me summarize what I said. I said that the curriculum of almost all universities are same (especially the subjects), although some universities will include/discard something to what is taught at other...

Agreed. GPA's were meant to relative grading. But unfortunately, the relative grading is not so strictly followed (almost no where in the world, let alone India). I hope you have read about grade inflation in the US. The best relative scoring system is usually in standardized tests, and for...

He depicted getting a GPA of 6.8 as though it were really a hard nut to crack, and I believe this is just a plain lame excuse. Further you do understand that conversion of % into GPA is not exactly dividing 100 by 10. AFAIK, I may be wrong, you get a GPA of around 9+ when you get 80%+ at IIT...

MRoss If you are not too picky about weight, I think a Macbook Pro might serve you better - Dedicated graphics. Regarding the Air, I guess the processor (sandybridge) with its own 384 DDR3 dedicated graphics might be useful (it would definitely be faster than the one you plug in separately)...

This is highly flawed argument. IITs and NITs get their reputation because of huge rush of applicants to these colleges, resulting in competitive students. After doing the hard work, if you slack off, it's your mistake and no one else's. P.S My cousin studies at IIT delhi, and he doesn't study...

Exactly ram.

I guess it is gas cooling. Most people do with fans. Some use giant fans. Very few use liquid cooling systems (water). Elite few/crazy people use gas cooling (usually liquid nitrogen). Liquid nitrogen is usually used to cool super computers. Some crazy over clockers also use it. Cooling usually...

I haven't used an active stylus pen nor seen one, so I may not be able to appreciate their utility value. Perhaps, when I use one, I may like it.

But they are way better than the resistance touch; I used to tap the screen 2-3 times with my stylus until I got a response. They are also better in that only your hand can make it respond, in comparison the resistive screens in which a touch from any object makes it go crazy. Accuracy is...

Indeed it is. What are they? I thanked god the day capacitive touch came to the market, for I thought using stylus sucked. How is the active stylus better than the one we used in the past?

That's why average user has stopped buying PCs ( looking at jaw dropping plunge in PC sales (ex Macs) in last 2 quarters.) The average user now buys tablets, and more than 75% choose iPad. The average user finds Linux tedious to use, for they have gotten used to WIndows, and you need a really...

Speaking of hackers using Macs, has anyone read the action packed Millennium series by Steig Larson in which Lisbeth Salander does all sorts of hacking with her Powerbook ( Macbook was called Powerbook back then)?

@ alain I agree with everything that you said. However, as I pointed out, these are the major reasons Linux sucks for pretty much every average computer user. My point in mentioning all those was that Linux to isn't holy grail, as it is made out to be. When people post the biggest problem with...

@ Alexei What have other manufacturers changed in this time? except for processors/ram (the same you suggested for Apple) Apple made a transition to Intel back in 2007, and these were the advantages, as per wikipedia.

I'm happy that you mentioned the above. The performance of Microsoft's own web browser at best sucks on Windows, for this reason almost everyone is forced to use Chrome/ Frirefox. The Firefox's performance on Windows machine isn't great either. It takes almost 10 seconds ( in which time some...

Yup, it was, and I found another vid on youtube on which a guy booted his laptop in 10 secs using Ubuntu. :) SSDs are god-send for hardcore gamers. No matter what spec, a PC without SSD cannot play Crysis at full settings.

Speaking of SSD, I found a cool vid on the youtube showing a nice experiment.

Just saw that Macbook Air's (i5) boot up time is 15 secs. A big part in that extremely low boot-up time is played by SSD. SSD can easily shave off boot up time by 50%. Other important factors - processor speed, and RAM speed. I bet that if you build your own desktop with the fastest SSD on...

The only looser I see, if JVM were really important, is Apple, not the consumer; the biggest example is when Apple got screwed when it didn't allow third party hardware to be used for Macs; however, Microsoft did allow, and Apple got almost bust by 1997, as Windows grabbed all the market share...

You can find machines with better config, including macbook pro, costing much lesser than $5k. Other than the fact that it weighs 2.5 lbs, there is nothing that this laptop offers that others don't. On a pure computing power basis-given it's just dual core i7- it is highly overpriced, even by...

What's your point in posting the above image? The image is for an App, and I talked about a PC. This is like me posting a review on a App intended for Microsoft. It has nothing to do with OS/hardware, and from my experience, majority of the Apps designed for Windows are absolutely junk, and many...

@ Alexei I request you to see reviews on Amazon.com on any Mac laptop/desktop. Many of the comments come from the people who until recently used Windows their entire life, and most of them are extremely happy with their machines. Further, they defined Windows OS/ PCs as shoddy, unreliable...

For Apple: One of the biggest uses of Mac that come straight to my mind is its use in Media Industry. It is used heavily for video/audio editing. Anyway, as we are NOT businesses, but people, our demands are totally different from what businesses want. What is good for businesses is NOT...

Cool.

@ Alexei Why restrict yourself to the OS the PC manufacturer gives you? Why NOT just use dual boot?. It's NOT like the hard disk is expensive these days, or their size is small. I have run Windows on a Mac, and ironically, I found it to run better on a Mac than a normal PC. Free Windows OS CDs...

A god can lift a laptop of any weight. Weight does NOT bother him, If it does, he is NOT god, but human. I can't wait to see God complaining : I can't carry this laptop because my arm pains. lol

Just curious, why not buy a Mac if you are anyway gonna splurge $5k. (FYI the macbook air with slightly lower specs costs just $1.7k) Besides, the laptop, even the $5k, only features a dual processor i7, not a quad core or the hexa core one (I know the Sandybridge does not feature hexacore, but...

There is nothing sure shot; companies that are distressed can remain distressed and eventually go bankrupt. You have to clear whether you want to trade or invest. Your thread title states trading, and then your message uses investing. If you are interested in trading it doesn't matter whether...

I have heard of numerous courses that specialize in Artificial Intelligence, Parallel computing, etc. But I doubt you'll find any PhD with a focus on trading. Algo trading is simply an application of the above fields.

You think that Kashmir issue is a minor skirmish? The Hindus were forced to leave their livelihood, rendering them homeless, to save their lives. Such extreme steps are NOT taken if the situation were anything close to what you described. Kashmiri Pandits were willing to be homeless and hungry...

Yep. We have to show the govt. the power of people. This is one chance that Indians cannot afford to squabble. For first time since Independence, the people of India have awoken from their long sleep and joined in unison to fight the war against corruption, especially that done by bureaucrats...

There are hundreds of history books, in fact NCERT books, which clearly stated how muslims came from Afganistan and robbed temples in India. It is because of the tolerance of Indians that Muslims stay in India. Tell me what Pakistan did at Independence. Such were the heinous crimes committed...

I agree with the points mentioned by FEnzo.

And how many students are able to get admitted to govt. colleges? An engineering, private college, can charge anywhere between 1.5l/2l per annum. B-schools and medical colleges can also be very expensive ( non-govt ones). Add to this amount the cost of living. You might talk about quta for...

@ darth Try explaining that to millions of Indians who cannot afford to go to college/school because the first thing that PSU banks demand is collateral. If they were that rich, why would they even avail a loan. What followed the above was total hogwash. There is no point in discussing it...

darth FYI, according to sjain's comment you too write like a castrated elephant. Infact, that comment would apply to anyone who has written more than 1 line, as he could barely go beyond 2 words. Are you in some other world? Did I not mention that there are positives and negatives of...

I will talk in whatever way I want; you do NOT need to preach me that, and keep that display of offending/intolerable language to yourself or to your mates (who can tolerate it). I think you are the one who is actually posting embarrassing/disappointing comments on this thread. Your language...

sjain If you can't read long articles, DO NOT. Perhaps, you should also stop reading newspapers.

FEnzo I am curious as to whether countries such as Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, etc were included in the study. Including them skews the result, because all they gotta do is sell oil and get money. They aren't real economies IMO. The amount of effort gone into developing a country like...

Exactly, and from my point of view, 50 years are more than enough. In fact, anyone who still considers the past invader responsible ( particularly if it happened long time back) is simply using an excuse to hide the failure of the present administration. The best example, go to Chandigarh, a...

@ Fenzo Nope I didn't mean to say that Britishers coming to India was all good. As it is always said, there are always some negatives to positives, so too there were negatives with British coming to India. I didn't mean to say that South Korea was under British. If it did seem so, I'm sorry...

I would also like to add the huge difference between India and many Commonwealth nations that got Independent at around the same time as India. Also compare India with South Korea, which started as poor ( if not poorer) as India back in 1951. It now has Western standard of living. Similarly...

Your statement implies that doing wrong is equivalent to corruption, when it is NOT. Further, you also imply that wrong policies is equivalent to corruption. You are comparing a situation in which a person makes a misinformed decision, either due due to lack of info or due to hastiness, to a...

Talking of PPP, India's per capita income ranged between 170-200 rupees/annum between 1847-1900 (in 1947 rupees), equivalent to 15-18 rupees/month. The per capita income finally hit 250 bucks in 1947 (20 rs/month). Now my grandpa used to earn 50 rupees/month in early 1970's, and he said that at...

As to the question about discussing problems, my answer is that if you DO NOT like this thread, do not comment on this one. Instead, start a new one on how to tackle the problems faced in India. Now, the question is, if you do NOT know the problem, your solutions are useless, and you will end up...

I feel pity to say that the analytical skills of these (would be) quants are at best mediocre. First off, the British ruled India for 190 years, not 300. Second off, according to the logic of the above people, Switzerland is poorer than India. Compare apples with apples and not apples with...

Darth your logic is completely flawed. The statements that you said are self-contradictory. If the police is honest, it won't accept the bribe of 100 bucks. Instead, it will not only challan that guy for 1200 bucks , but also put him in jail for bribing. The police is the one who actually...

And why do you think the bureaucratic system is complex? Is has been designed purposefully by the politicians to allow corruption and little transparency at every point. The govt. will do anything to protect this system - by pointing out its benefits. If govt. is SO unwilling to even take steps...

@ darth You look like a totally delusional person. I ask you this : most of the people don't even know how to write their names ( more than50% according to UN report ( don't go by gov't literacy statistics because they too are fudged. According to some report just 50% of Indian who studied at...

When I call India as a failed state, I get a lot of flak from many delusional people. When I say that how rampant corruption in India is, people come out running to say that surely it cannot be so bad. I believe that either such people are delusional, or they don't live in India. A country in...

http://www.minyanville.com/dailyfeed/2011/08/12/reports-find-american-workers-less/?camp=syndication&medium=portals&from=yahoo Americans with jobs are getting less productive and more in-civil.

http://www.domain-b.com/economy/worldeconomy/20110813_austerity_measures.html And this happened in just 2 weeks. In 2013, Italy will have a balanced budget. France is already getting its act together. Germany, even in the depths of recession - 2008, had a budget deficit that America would run...

Main indices are down 4% - loose all their gains.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-09/france-in-crosshairs-as-germany-enjoys-sole-safe-haven-status-euro-credit.html Should bunds be considered equivalent of treasuries ( even if there is a downgrade and a rise in CDS, the bunds will rise), and bonds of every other European nation including...

Civil war about to start in western world; it looks very similar to what happened in Europe when people hit the streets to demand democracy; however, as it turns out, democracy is just a fad; it is no different than communism ( people were thrashed in some district in India, because they were...

The market definitely didn't take the downgrade lightly - down 630+ points. What's more France and UK are under scrutiny. Although, France, according to me, is in a much more precarious, as of now, situation than UK is. However, it could all change if banks in UK collapse just as they did in...

I doubt that the above has much to do with affordability of kids. In economic sense, it means you gotta marry and have kids; ortherwise, you are gonna be taxes. The reason for following the above policy, especially in Europe- at least it is true in Germany, is that generally speaking population...

As I have written countless times on this forum, I believe the ultimate safe haven is now Swiss Franc.

What a day! 10 hours after my message, markets down 500 points...

Even after almost 8 straight days of losses, with shocking economic data - GDP, ISM, etc etc- the volatility index seems to indicate as though everything is hunky dory. In previous occasions, the VIX used to spike up - indicating panic- and the stocks started to rally. Is this a recipe for...

put ;)

Apple has more than 2/3 rd of the profits earned by entire cellular Industry - Andriod try to beat that! http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/apple-inc-s-iphone-yields-major-profits-against-mobile-competitors.html/

I think, given you high work-ex, UCB will fit you even more as the average age of the class is around 28-29, and average work-ex is around 3-4 years. Also, majority of the graduates have job profile as Associates. In, UMichigan - I'm maybe wrong- the class would probably be younger, and most of...

Another good article on unemployment in India: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/india-graduates-millions-too-few-are-fit-hire India's touted demographic advantage seems more like demographic burden to me. Also, this article and its findings make me question the improvement in literacy rate...

In this market you DO NEED the Berkeley degree. If you can afford it, go!. Long term, indeed work-experience matters more.

If there is any truth in the placements of UCB (especially in 2008), I believe that it is worth it, given the massive lay-offs that have begun in major banks.

All the points that you mentioned are true. It is true that India and China are less efficient in terms of utilization of resources than America. However, they still consume much fewer aggregate resources- for instance crude oil- than US. Even, if they were to maintain same level of efficiency...

@ JoJo I of course can't reduce the population of India! Read it : NO AMOUNT OF ECONOMIC GROWTH CAN HELP LIVE THE WAY AMERICANS DO - there are just not sufficient resources. A classic example of a developed country with high population density, but nowhere near to the standard of living of...

I often wonder the reason why population density in some countries such as US, Canada, Australia, Russia, probably majority of Africa is so less, whereas population density, in general, of most Asian countries is of the charts. After all, according to geologists, the entire world was, at one...

Couldn't agree more with you. I have no idea about income inequality in China, but it is extremely high in India ( saw some text related to it on Wikipedia) : the top 3% of Indians earn 50% of India's Income. This dwarfs the income inequality of even the US. I think this partly explains why...

Anyway the discussion was about Apple's meteoric rise, and we somewhat drifted away from the discussion. Probably another catalyst for Apple's growth: Apple TV: http://www.dailytech.com/Source Apple to Enter TV Display Business Late This Year/article21967.htm...

Okay I stand corrected!

Extremely well written article by Hindu. It highlights the fact that GDP growth/ stock market rise has nothing to with increased employment. http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Chandrasekhar/article2153082.ece Reading the above article one cannot help but think whether the real loctomive...

Are you sure? Btw I said one reason; I didn't say the only reason. I mentioned another reason : ability to use 3rd party hardware. Even then it's an opinion. It is NOT a fact. So you cannot say that I'm wrong, unless I stated a wrong fact. I would be wrong if I said pi = 6 and not 22/7. So get...

Windows 7 as an OS is so dead. I'd prefer Andrioid over it anyday. I would have tried it, if its predecessor Windows 6 hadn't disappointed so much. I had bought an HTC windows powered phone couple of years back. Also, FYI software has nothing to do with quality of touchscreen. As long as you...

Yes. Indeed comparing Apple to Google is comparing Apples with Oranges. However, I feel Apple has hurt the overall market for other players, but I feel this was really essential. Last time I checked iPad sales have really dented the PC market (particularly the lower end) - afterall most people...

Even then you are dead wrong. Apple's market share of worldwide cellphone market in Q1 2011 was 5% not 3.9% http://technology.ezinemark.com/apple-vs-android-apple-iphone-market-climbs-is-hurting-android-17dc14dadaa.html...

if 142% sales growth in cellphones, near tripling of sales of iPads, more than 100% growth in profits (at such a high base) , and close to 100% rise in revenues is not a meteoric rise then nothing is. First you state that iPhone market share has been at best stagnant or risen by a small bit...

@ Treefingers Again you are missing the whole picture. You are comparing Apples with oranges. The Apple iphone is a smartphone and not a simple cellular device. Next time don't compare iPad with normal mobile cellular device! It is now the number one smartphone maker in the world. You talk...

Yes Indeed the overall cellphone market is stagnant in comparison to hay years of 2002 to 2009/2010. It is growing nowhere near 100%+++ yoy growth in sales experience back in 2002 to 2010 period, because at that time the sales of cellphones (in world's 2 biggest cellphone markets - India and...

First off: Apple iphone sales have increased more than 100% yoy (just read post). The overall world cellphone market grew barely 19%, which you yourself have stated. Infact, even the overall smartphone market didn't grow anywhere close to as fast as that for iphone So, how did Apple iphone loose...

Apple may not be the best at everything that it does, but where it does well, it beats the entire competition - User Interface ( amazing) and hardware design. For years, I had used Nokia and Samsung cellphones, both costly ones and cheap ones, but I was never impressed with them. The build...

http://www.fiercemobileit.com/story/apple-reports-record-profit-and-iphone-ipad-sales/2011-07-20 Quarter after quarter Apple delivers blow-out earnings, but can we say Apple's growth is good for tech Industry overall? Does Apple's growth lead to more revenues (overall) for the Industry, or Is...

So could this, possibly, load to massive inflows to strong core countries such as Germany and France, especially if situation does not improve over longer term. This would, I suppose, make them even stronger : smarter people, higher population, faster growth in economy -> bigger say in Europe...

Who says that any course of action would be difficult, but they are themselves to blame for the situation they are in today. Heck they even lied, by misstating the facts about their debts and deficits, to get themselves into European monetary union. It was not only Greek government, but also the...

Which of the two would offer a better Return on Investment for a person coming to study from Asia, considering the following factors: 1) Cost of the program 2) Cost of living while studying 3) Job prospects, both in the respective country and in home country 4) Post graduation earnings, both in...

I would like you to quote the text where I mention that a country defaulting on its debt is no big deal. I have said nothing like that. If you see the topic of discussion and my initial post, you will find that I merely suggested the possible scenarios, if the present trends continue. I said...

Perhaps you are focusing on the wrong thing. There are infinite ways to solve a problem, but some ways are much better than others. You are subtly suggesting that it does not matter what path we take. However, I beg to differ, for the simple reason that Greece ( the corrupt government officials)...

@ ItaUK Entitled to what?

Then who paid for the salaries of the greek government workers? Without that money all of those workers ( who work for the state) would have been unemployed. Finally, besides your own conspiracies, what proof is there that Greece is not getting the money. If Greece says ( the government) that it...

I dunno whether people will agree with me. I think the best approach for PIIGS and for Germany/France is to let the PIIGS default on their debts, and instead of bailing out the countries directly, they should bail out the banks ( the banks of the core countries) that held the bonds issued by...

@Anthony Agreed. But the situation is much bigger than Greece. It's Spain and Italy now. Given the rate of deterioration of the Pubic Finances and credit markets for the countries ( specifically bond markets), I see that they too will need a bailout in next year or so. What would you suggest...

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=India&country2=India&city1=Delhi&city2=Mumbai Came across another survey that shows that delhi/hurgaon are more expensive in Mumbai. The price of is outrageous, as this car has not even been launched. It is slated to be...

Agreed. I too would favor any default over any bailout, resulting in such severe austerity plans. It has many advantages indeed. First off, these countries are able to start everything afresh. Economic growth will be much higher indeed, with more government money going into development than into...

They will go bust, because if they default, their bond yields would have by that time reached levels of Greece's, and it would be impossible to raise money to fund the spending that these countries require. In both Italy and Spain, more than 50% of the buyers of government bonds are investors...

Agreed I think the Germany of taxpayers will force the government to abort the EU. Otherwise, there will be a massive revolution in Germany too.

@BBW I was merely pointing out scenarios. My focus is not whether we should bail out Spain or Italy. My focus was that in a situation similar to Ireland/Greece/Portugal they will need a bailout, or they will go bust, with massive repercussions on the worldwide economy. I think it is safe to say...

@ Anthony Wait till she goes to Mumbai. lol. If I were to maintain my same standard of living I would definitely need a raise of 50-100% in my salary. ( I can't live in slums like more than 50% of Mumbaikars do, nor can I live in a house ( in this case apartment) that is close to a slum).

After, Greece, Portugal, and Ireland which have been hammered by bond vigilantes and downgraded to junk status by Moody's (rightly so), the next targets seem to be Spain and Italy, and looking at fast rate rate at which their spreads are widening , they probably too will need a bailout...

@alain This is just not experience (mine). Ask any Indian, he will 9 out 10 times say that Mumbai is more expensive than Delhi. Finally, in India people do not get Western salaries (per capita income in Mumbai and Delhi is almost same ~$3000), so if real estate is expensive your cost of living...

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/luanda-is-worlds-most-expensive-city/816931/6 The most outrageous part I live in Delhi, and one of my relative lives in Mumbai suburb. Our costs : I live in Dwarka (rental in a fully furnished 2 bedroom flat - Rs 14,000 (~$320/month) Groceries+ Food+...

I think that this thread is serving no purpose, and this thread either ought to be locked or deleted. Just my opinion.

I agree with Andy. The entire post was confusing. If you can't name names, I believe that you are not doing a good job in making others aware about such programs.

Sure. I agree that Indians are number 1 source of underground money flowing into Swiss Banks. However, the money $400B (forex reserves) is with the swiss central bank and not with the Swiss banks. Also, the black money put by Indians in Swiss banks is nothing knew; they have always done that. I...

My question is slightly different from this topic; nevertheless, I could not stop myself from putting it forth. Why do Google's, Microsoft's, or Intel's of the World not establish universities with their own money? These universities will never fall short of funding, and in return, these...

Lately, I have also observed that insane amount of money is flowing into Switzerland in the past 2 years- just look at forex reserves (almost touching $400B from barely $70B very recently). This amount of money inflow growth is insane/unprecedented for such a small country. Even developing...

Yes the mindset of the society, almost always plays a huge role in laws designed for such activities. For this reason, I mentioned that such thinking " prostitution, drinking, smoking" is considered a social taboo in many cultures, more specifically east. However, in a democracy, I would rather...

I consider it just another trade. It's like a service industry. I service your PC; you pay me. It is only that this profession (prostitution) has been tabooed, particularly in the Eastern culture. I would go further to say that even US is tabooed. Go to Germany, and you'll find. In fact, one of...

I guess Shanghai too, but you would of course need to be fluent in Mandarin to get a job.

@ NewHavenCT I sure will have great weekend. I hope you too have. I would agree that discussions on topics such as this can never end, as every human being on planet, and by extension on quantnet, will have his own opinion.

At the end of the day, I would say money talks. The decision of changing a job/career/country for most people is not Democracy vs Communism, etc is nothing but money. Consider millions of Indians, mostly blue collar workers, who left India for better salaries in UAE (during the 2000's). Such has...

When I said those statements, I said them because that was what the tone I got from your comments. It could very well be the inverse of what you said. I never talked about foreign policy of warfare in order to maintain wealth was the only way to achieve a sustainable society. I infact, would...

I would agree that investments into infrastructure/education might not be a single metric to measure a nation's progress. But as the topic was related to brain drain and its benefits, so investment into infrastructure such as universities is probably more relevant than any other factor. Sure a...

I don't see anything wrong with prostitution. As long as the person gets what he paid for and the person who provides the service receives the promised amount, there is no crime involved in my book. Prostitution is in fact a legal profession in many countries in Europe (Germany/Switzerland/ etc...

I have seen and compared the performance of Swiss Franc versus every major currency on the planet, and couldn't find a single currency against which it fell over 1 year/ 3 year/ 5 year/10 year period. Why are investors so much in love with Swiss Franc? ( Even Japanese Yen has fallen against...

Hmm. Talking about entrepreneurship is another thing. Using skills learned in Western countries in home countries. Here there is no restriction on pay, but the dividends in terms of returns (as opposed to risks involved) are extremely high. Some people may ofcourse go down this route, but I...

I need to correct that. With all the former states, Russia's GDP amounts to roughly $2.1 trillion ~= 1/7 th of US.

I was unclear. My mistake. By that I meant to have a better control of the oil wells in Iraq. The Mid-east/North Africa as we know it is highly unpredictable (1970's oil embargo), and now Libya, Bahrain, so having a steady supply of oil was desirable, and the 2001 bombing probably scared the US...

@ pankaj Did you ever consider the possibility that there were other reasons why I didn't even appear for any competitive exam?

I almost always find a GDP projection (20-30 years down the line) is very heavily biased in favor of a country that has a very high population. For Instance consider GDP projections of China, India, Indonesia, so on. Do such analysis take into account factors such as quality of governance...

The war on Iraq, and now probably Iran, was driven more by ulterior motives such as access to nations natural resources (Oil) than by anything else. If we believe everything that comes out of the US government then that would be a huge mistake. We all, now, know that Iraq had no nuclear weapons...

@ cgorac Agreed. I was referring to the jobs (generally) done in these third world countries. Jobs such as R&D, product design, etc are rare to come by in such countries, because there is just not enough concentration of people who are willing to do research in such countries as compared to the...

The people who work for foreign (western) MNC's basically do the equivalent of blue collar work in manufacturing industries in their home countries (Even if you consider Service sector). Most of the jobs outsourced to these third world countries are back office jobs (jobs that require much much...

Finally the government can't run away from its duty of educating the population of its country. After all, its the taxpayers money and the govt's money, so this money should be spent in a way that it benefits the general population. This is like : People misuse facilities for poor people...

@ Goalseeker The Singapore govt., I believe enforces those rules for only those people who get subsidized education, not on those who pay full tuition. At-least that is what I saw on the website of Singaporean Universities.

Yep. I agree with Alexei. I think the very reasons that we expect these immigrants to go back to their home countries are the reasons they left their home countries. US/Europe even being in one of its worst recessions offers much better quality of life than any developing country (BRIC/ African...

@ darth I can't possibly think that attacking me personally would India or its Education system any better. You are no one to make choices for me, and I do what I like, so do not ask me to take the JEE because I'm not interested. The one in which I was interested were GRE and GMAT. I took the...

If you really want to be a quant. I think the first and foremost thing you need to do is get some programming skills, esp C++,VB. I don't how you are gonna model and implement those quant strategies without writing a high quality code in a fast language such as C++. I believe you need some...

Well I don't know about China and Chinese. I had a thought that this misinformation might have been because they probably do not have complete information through the internet or perhaps the language barrier. Most the Chinese would prefer to see this information in a Chinese language, but most...

@ mfegrad I agree, and I do not intend on posting anything else on this thread related to that topic. The above statements were the last, and replies to the above will simply be ignored by me. You have my word.

Can we now focus on Chinese students on this thread now?

@ Shatnatnu Yes universities all over the world give importance to marks in previous grades, but they do not simply shunt out applicants who didn't get a perfect 800 on GMAT or whatever that GMAT score. IIMs on the other hand simply reject those who do not a specific scorfe (percentile). Do you...

Working for big companies does NOT imply more earnings! Also you have some serious RC issues. Did I say knowledge does not matter? If yes please mention or quote . Do you know the mean of phrase "more than"? Something is more important than the other does not mean that other has no value. Tell...

First of all, before calling it a stupid generalization, see the frame of reference of my comment. I refereed of the many Indian applicants who apply at US universities. Secondly, only 3-4% of the applicants who apply to foreign universities from India are IITians or from IIMs. Finally are you...

I doubt that we can use UCB average as a standard for other programs, as the class at UCB is much more experienced than that at probably any other program. Those without work-ex already hold a Masters in engg or a PhD. Now for anyone without any work-ex to earn something like $150k-$200k one...

I don't that that you should decide your career path on the basis on salary. Your highest priority should be doing what you like. I don't get it why you need an MBA. As a quant, I believe MBA has no benefit. CFA, perhaps yes, because it gives you broad overview of finance. Finally, there is no...

I liked Good Advice, starring Charlie Sheen.

Interesting read.

Did you ever take the pain to read that Indian companies are just not innovative. Indian companies and Indians employed in those will always code third grade stuff, as compared to someone at Microsoft, and will always do Back Office work. You talk about Applications that TCS build for Apple or...

@ D Gerg and @ BBW I couldn't agree more with both of you. Tata Nano is called an innovation , a great product, the dawn of innovation, the might of Indian Industry. This at best is too naive. There is nothing innovative about it, except it sells for $2k. Innovation is when you make a car that...

@ pankaj Boy you have been smoking something. All those posts that you quoted were in response to topic " recommendation letters and personal essays faked by Chinese to get into top US colleges". I said the same is done by Indians. Big deal. From where did you bring in IITs/IIMs I don't get it...

@ Aditya Do you even read the full thread? or just jump into conclusions? The question was whether American programmers are much more efficient, productive, creative than Indian counterparts, and I believe those comparisons completely show that they are. How many googles, facebooks, twitters...

And Indian comapnies work totally on their own. They never outsource. BS. Secondly first check up on yahoo/google before blatanlty saying that the numbers are wrong. Secondly to compare profits reported according to Indian accounting standards and comparing those with US accounting standards is...

I think numbers do not always matter. Just look at headcount of Microsoft, or even better Apple, whose most of the workforce is in the developed world, and then that of Infy/Wipro/TCS and the results are appalling. With 50% fewer people than either TCS/Wipro/Infy Apple produce 5 times more...

@ Avinash If you look at my first post on this thread, you would actually see that I actually, even though subtly, vouched for India's method for weeding out incompetent applicants, at-least from Asia, where the level of corruption is extremely high and people can, if they want to, can go to...

@ BBW Totally agree with BBW here. Now when I talk about corruption in India,my reference is almost always the US and Canada or Western Europe, and by these standards, the corruption does look chronic.

@ Joe This is one reason American system and Americans so great. Because they are much more receptive towards criticism than most countries. I believe that this is the best method to improve on anything. If you allow people to express their ideas and feelings (both +ve and -ve) and are also...

@ Pragyesh I do not want to get into any more fights. If you do want evidence of IIT, just go through this :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institute_of_Technology_Joint_Entrance_Examination Now, I believe that you can use your imagination over why and how the paper was leaked. Further...

@avinash I haven no intention of getting into an argument. My simple statement was that like China, corruption exists in India. But because of those several denial statements, I had no choice but to elaborate that corruption does in-fact occur in India and is pretty severe. Now if anyone...

@ Aditya I never intended to cause the conversation to go to that end, but the posters forced me to. My only point, as highlighted in my first post, was India is corrupt, and straight off every Indian on the planet jumped in to type that it is untrue. @ Pragyesh Those dilapidated buildings...

My above posts are testimony to the fact that "Indians are always in Denial about facts, especially about India". First Anuj said that "There is no bribing/corruption of officials at reputed colleges, especially IITs. When I produced evidence, Pragyesh then says this doesn't happen regularly...

good one. Though I assumed that everyone on the quantnet community, being quants/future quants , would be familiar with metric system. Anyway, 100km= around 62 miles.

@ Pragyesh Dis you ever think that there was an ever easier route to IITs. Also, NOT everyone who gets in IITs is bright. Sire, you are totally wrong. Almost 50% of seats in IITs are reserved for OBCs/SC/STs who get admitted very easily into these colleges, without putting in as much effort as...

Your logic is the dumbest ever. Just because someone isn't caught does not mean it does not happen; the best example are the ministers in India. Tell me how many ministers are convicted in India. Since many ministers have not been caught, can you say most of them are honest? I also have doubts...

You do NOT need to study at an Institute to know that it is corrupt, just as you do not need to be a devil( or be associated with one) to know that it is bad. As a matter of fact my cousin studies at IIT Delhi, so you need not tell what IITs are. The buildings are dilapidated. There are...

I think that I should in fact run a journal to expose the quantum of corruption in India. lol Perhaps IndiaLeaks?????

@ anujjain Just read the article/blog on DCE and IIT. I have huge database to prove that quantum of corruption in India. My relative, was previously in Navy, and told me all sorts of corruption carried out in Navy. I of course can't disclose either his name or other details. I can, however...

Yep I did in fact get ripped off. I won't deny that, because I found out that I could have it in $60! I was probably too inexperienced. lol

Isn't this the very reason they should socialize with Americans. I can't possibly find an easier and a faster way to learn English or for that matter any language than by communicating with native speakers. It will also help them to grasp concepts faster in class (taught in English) and study...

Next time please provide facts to support your assertions. Don't jump to your conclusions.

just google dude. Did I ever mention that Indians can be in so denial. They will always pose a hunky dory image of India, as though everything is fine. In fact I don't even need to prove that. All people can see posts on the thread related to poor quality of education in Indian colleges. Many...

Totally agree with you. In fact I would suggest that you watch a few videos on youtube, regarding accidents in Dubai/UAE. As Indians/Pakistanis are the majority group (70%) there, you can safely assume that either an Indian or a Pakistani was involved in those insane accidents. You would feel...

Isn't, at-least, US a democratic country. I think one should be freely able to choose the people with whom one interacts. I don't know about others, but at-least I wouldn't be hostile towards a Chinese if he is friendly towards me, regardless of whether he clumps together with other Chinese. In...