I read this story on Aircel's lenders agreeing to take a 99% haircut on dues worth Rs 20,000 crore. And decided to take a (pathetic) shot at poetry on a Saturday morning... 🙂 A New Barber in Town I went to Khan Market for a coffee 
But I bumped into my barber instead
 And in… Continue reading A New Barber in Town
Category: Abstract Ideas in Finance
Posts involving some abstract thinking in finance, often drawn from multiple disciplines.
A Thread on Diversification
My friend Shyam, wrote an excellent column on diversification. I agree with everything he has written and have some additional thoughts. Thread... A Thread on Diversification Diversified conglomerates get a bad rap for very good reasons. One big one, as Shyam points out, is capital misallocation.Companies in diverse industries have, for the most part, destroyed… Continue reading A Thread on Diversification
Ashoka University Lecture on The Practical Utility of Seven Math Ideas
This is a re-recording of an expanded version of a talk delivered by Sanjay Bakshi to undergraduate students of Ashoka University on 23 March 2019. Link
Presentation on Floats & Moats
After doing a series of posts on this subject, recently, I presented my thoughts to students at MDI. That presentation can be downloaded from here and the slides along with my commentary are reproduced below.
Speaking of Metaphors
Oh, I love those metaphors. Once upon a time, I was reading an Aesop fable to my daughter. The rabbit runs faster than the fox because the fox is only running for his dinner but the rabbit is running for his life. I froze right there thinking Hey Colgate is the rabbit and Unilever is… Continue reading Speaking of Metaphors
I Don’t Want to be a Toll Bridge, I Want to be Its Meaning
The Economics of a Toll Bridge Buffett tells us that the fundamental economics of a toll bridge are excellent. However, this post is not about a toll bridge. Rather, it's about the "functional equivalents" of a toll bridge. Now, apart from the reasons Buffett talked about, what are the other reasons that make a toll bridge… Continue reading I Don’t Want to be a Toll Bridge, I Want to be Its Meaning
Playing Socratic Solitaire on a Gal Called NIMBY
I got a mail from a student. Nikhil wrote: Your approach to multidisciplinary thinking is highly pragmatic but it is an approach never taken in the entirety of our education. Throughout we are taught subjects individually and each of the problems that we are given is confined to the context of that particular subject only,… Continue reading Playing Socratic Solitaire on a Gal Called NIMBY
How to Boil a Frog
Hello there. My name is Umbridge. I am a slimy, green frog. No, not the one who you heard croaking in a movie you watched last month. Nor the one you saw hopping about in your balcony this monsoon. (You shouldn't have screamed at poor Groffy! He jumped over and broke a leg.) I am the… Continue reading How to Boil a Frog
Flirting with Floats: Part III
In Part I of this series on floats, I wrote about how Berkshire Hathaway has been able to create less-than-free float from its insurance operations — a key reason for the company’s stupendous success. I also listed a few “general principles” on floats and showed how high-quality floats can become “unencumbered sources of value.” In… Continue reading Flirting with Floats: Part III
Flirting with Floats: Part II
Note: This post is a continuation of a previous post titled "Flirting with Floats: Part I." While cheaper-than-free float provided by astute insurance underwriting is the kind of float Buffett loves the most, there are other floats he has “flirted” with during the course of his long career. Perhaps it started with American Express. The… Continue reading Flirting with Floats: Part II
