It was part of the pre-read that we probably didnt read in detail – Economics is the study of unintended consequences … And it is right. The unintended consequence of Term 3 is a sudden sense of understanding about fiscal deficit, currency exchange rate, broken window fallacy, MPK and MPL !!!
This term started with peals of nervous laughter as we wrote the Micro Economics test and in the middle of the term, Archita lost her voice symbolically and again we had peals of laughter and then today we ended the term that way … By discovering that our Ignorance was always in equilibrium, professors tried to push the curve to either side but all our aggregate minds came back to the same equilibrium !! We applied the “Solow” model as “slow” model. We also realised our minds are freely floating like the dollar – one new concept pushes the other out and so on 🙂 and it’s better it is free floating, fixing the IQ like fixing the currency exchange rate is bad. Don’t believe me ? Think George Bush Jr and his fixed IQ, he single handedly decreased the collective IQ of the US !!! So any fixing is bad – for the economy and for the human being.
Prof Krishna Kumar – you managed to make sceptics out of us, we will now question anything that comes in the papers except what Subba Rao says and now I can explain my dislike for Chidambaram. Could you maybe speak to him and give him the idea that we should be able to fill our tax returns on the back of a postcard ?? And not go to his alma mater Harvard to decipher the current form !!
If any of you are wondering about the title of this blog … It came on the second day, when Prof Suren said “be careful about your choice of words – complete and finish mean the same, but it depends on how you use them…. If your wife is wonderful, your life is complete, if the first one finds out about the second, you are finished” – and his classes were about getting us finance poets and philosophers to atleast think of finance as bearable. Prof Suren, you made finance more than bearable. Just a few definitions that between Antony and I that we changed, we are the true finance poet and philosopher and we move between the roles interchangeably !!
Do you remember the day you tried to explain WACC and Antony and my look were truly classic poet and philosopher looks ? That’s when we renamed these two acronyms – WACC – Wasted and Completely Confused, NOPAT – No PArTicipation. No you didn’t fail completely. We both are ok and after today’s homework, we promise we will participate and suddenly everything is clear. So changing the definitions to WACC – Wonderful and Crystal Clear, NOPAT – Now PArTicipating.
Prof Suren, sorry to ask a personal question – did your wife take kindly to your newly adopted son, Wong? He was so upset that you were going away, that he was sitting facing the wall in the class today. We will try and cheer him up for you.
Your anecdotes brought alive the concepts and your quick repartees made the class lively. We won’t forget to keep our egos in check when we do a merger or acquisition, we will remember to check the opportunity cost, we will ensure cash flows and we will keep our balance as we read a managerial balance sheet.
Can’t forget to mention the brave man called Srini – our TA for finance. He came back to teach us despite the DMUU experience … I think he took classes in persistence, optimism and the Pygmalion effect from Prof Martins !!!
As we go for the gala dinner, I want our group to think about something… We completed Term 2 with the understanding that the Greek letter “Pi” denotes profit and we are finished in Term 3 with the same letter denoting inflation.
Got it ??