Loud Thinking

Archive for November, 2014

“You can’t expect to be old and wise if you were never young and crazy.”

— Author Unknown

PMLN government has virtually surrendered and accepted its defeat by shutting down many TV channels.

SHAME ON SUCH SO CALLED DEMOCRATS WHO HAVE ORDERED TO FORCEFULLY SHUT DOWN ARY AND SAMAA TV TRANSMISSIONS AND MR ZARDARI HAS THE GALLS TO SAY WORST DEMOCRACY IS BETTER THAN DICTATORSHIP

SHAME ON LOOTERS AND PLUNDERERS OF PAKISTAN.

Misbah ul Haq is also gone. Pakistan 63/5.

The party is over…!

For all intents and purposes (barring any miracle) it seems that New Zealand may well be on course of a very well deserved and well earned victory in the 3rd and last Test match vs Pakistan.

And for the Pakistani team, it looked like they were outplayed by the NZ players in every department of the game.

However, the wicket keeping and fielding of the team, rather than showing any improvement, has depicted further decline of the standards.

As such, if we have to show any worthwhile performance in the coming ODI World Cup, the board and team management must revamp the whole process of fielding training drills and strategy.

Else, we should not forget that our cricket team performed so badly in the last Champions Trophy that it got the last possible position in the tournament.

We should never forget that plans never fail. Actually, we fail to plan.

Team management and players must be told that “You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win”.

The way PMLN is playing the game of deceit and denial, it seems that they know they have lost the game, set and match and that PMLN has been clean bowled, lock stock and barrel, by the IK’s in-swinger.

While they (PMLN) were claiming that their Havelian JALSA addressed by the PM, was a big success and throughout the country, canals of honey and milk were flowing in their golden era of government, then why the government is so nervous and afraid about the support of the masses, to the clarion call of Imran Khan that bus terminals have been sealed to stop people going to Islamabad, the transmissions of ARY TV channel is being shut down and use of Helicam banned to restrict free and fair flow of news and information to the general public and PTI workers being detained to create maximum hurdles in the gatherings of 30th November at D Chowk?

All these and other repressive measure are a proof in it self that at least MENTALLY, the government has lost the match vs the PTI + the masses of Pakistan, by a wide margin of an innings and at least 400 runs.

ICC must consider reducing the hardness of the cricket ball as fatalities and serious injuries are increasing almost on daily basis in this glorious game named cricket..!

Israeli umpire killed after ball strikes him in the face
JERUSALEM Sat Nov 29, 2014 10:42pm IST

(Reuters) – An umpire standing in a cricket match in the Israeli city of Ashdod was killed after being struck by a ball on Saturday, Israeli police said.

Police said the 60-year-old umpire, who was not named, was taken to hospital in the nearby town of Ashkelon in critical condition where he died of his injuries.

One of the players who witnessed the incident told the Nana10 website that the umpire, standing at the bowler’s end, was struck by the ball in his face after it ricocheted off the stumps from a shot that came straight back down the pitch.

The death came two days after Australian batsman Phillip Hughes died in hospital after being struck by a ball during a domestic first-class match in Sydney.

Cricket is not a major sport in Israel but Ashdod is one of the main centres for the sport where a large number of Jewish immigrants from India live.

(Reporting by Ori Lewis, editing by Ed Osmond)

The shadows of an innings defeat has started looming to writ large on the Pakistani team.

Mr. Ishaq Dar the nation needs your answers to the below mentioned questions on your decision to obtain 1$ billion through Sukuk bonds by pledging Lahore – Islamabad motorway.

1. Kashif
Nov 27, 2014 – 9:28AM
Reply
After motor way what next. Raising capital at such a high dollar percentage is going to bite the nation when it comes to paying back. Offering a rate higher than market shows desperation of the the finance team. Sadly all these loan schemes will end up with the prime minister dining in London with his family and the nation fighting with each other for basic necessities of life.

2.just_someone

Nov 27, 2014 – 7:53PM
Reply
@Gp65:

I know that son… Im an economist, I know these things well..
My point is quantitative rather than qualitative.
I could go through tons of auction mechanisms which would have done what I said at a cheaper rate (i.e. less than 6.25, nothing related to uncomparable sovereigns)

3. Jamil
Nov 27, 2014 – 2:13PM
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Compared to the prevailing global interest the rate on bonds is totally out of line and we should be ashamed for our government to have accepted it and beating their chest for it. Further should we be happy at every Pakistani being burdened by increasing indebtedness by the current government. Borrowing and at such high cost is a recipe for disaster.

4. Parvez
Nov 27, 2014 – 1:37PM
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It would be good to know who the actual purchasers of these bonds are ?
If you have millions sitting in Swiss Banks earning next to nothing…….then 6.75% backed by the government makes good sense for the actual purchasers.

5. Gp65
Nov 27, 2014 – 11:24AM
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@just_someone: “Wow, that is a very high interest rate on the bonds.”
Please note that Pakistan’s sovereign credit rating is B- which is deep into junk bond vategory.. It would have to go up 6 grades to reach the minimum non-junk grade which is BBB- (B, B+, BB-, BB, BB+, BBB-)
High risk does require higher returns. Even this rate would have been impossible to get if it had not been for the underlying collateral.

6. japani
Nov 27, 2014 – 8:37AM
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He added that the profit rate of 6.75% compares favourably with the average weighted cost of comparable domestic debt of about 11% in Pakistan, and will save the country about Rs5 billion annually in debt servicing.
OMG! The rupee depreciates around 6-7% a year so you have to add that to the interest rate as well. He’s being disingenous by ignoring that aspect.
Unlike the Euro bond that was issued without collateral, the government has pledged the Islamabad-Lahore Motorway to raise funds
I wonder what will happen in the event Pakistan defaults on this loan. Will the foreign investors take control over the motorway :)?

7. Siraj Ahmed
Nov 27, 2014 – 8:27AM
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Our Pm and Fin. minister may say aby good thing about Pakistan economy. But it is in such shambles that govt had to raise money at 6.75% even after pledging security?
Its 4 times more costly than normal international arbitrages are because no one trusts this govt. Will Imran khan talk about it on 30th ?

8. Bewildered
Nov 27, 2014 – 7:24AM
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Even junk bonds don’t yield this much return nowadays, and this Sukuk issue was backed by collateral and sovereign guarantees. What an utter waste of Pakistan’s already meager resources most likely to benefit the select.

9. Rebel
Nov 27, 2014 – 6:55AM
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Any body would invest at such a high interest rate (6.75%) with international interest outlook for govt. bonds not that good….
Its well above market rate that has attracted investors. I disagree with FM saying it shows investor confidence. He is not comparing apples with apples while comparing domestic rates and this rate.
Future government will pay higher price for their poor action….

10. Asif
Nov 27, 2014 – 6:30AM
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He added that the profit rate of 6.75% compares favourably with the average weighted cost of comparable domestic debt of about 11% in Pakistan, and will save the country about Rs5 billion annually in debt servicing
Is our finance minister really that stupid?? How on earth can he compare 6.75% rate in US Dollar with 11% in Rupee? Has he taken into account the yearly depreciation rate of PKR against USD? The true rate will be around 20%, and how does he expect a broke country like Pakistan to repay the debt? We don’t have export surplus from where we could generate extra USD.

11. just_someone
Nov 27, 2014 – 5:48AM
Reply
Wow, that is a very high interest rate on the bonds.
The mechanism for the auction seems flawed… you would expect that they would have decreased the interest rate given the high demand (simple supply and demand) but they didnt have that in the ex-ante mechanism.
We could have sold the original amount much cheaper!

Mark Twain once said: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”