Premier screw-up

The Indian Premier League is in a league of its own. So much was promised – fun and frolic, booming stock charts (if you wanted to list at an exchange), deemed returns, over and under-invoicing facilities, parking (fund) facilities, special drawing rights (and nobody would notice), official  scalping rights (‘have ticket will sell at any price I get’ policy), (did somebody say ‘betting rights?’, well, I haven’t heard that), and many more ‘options’. And, oh, a bit of cricket as well.

The system was good, the players weren’t. Greed is good say Wall Street-ers, but John Paulson and Goldman Sachs screwed the investors. Now who’s the good man? That’s the case with IPL. All is good when the going is good. Were those living off scraps, living on the footpaths being fleeced in the IPL scam? No. were the children of the country, most of them without pure drinking water and hardly a square meal a day being cheated of their rights? No. Were the hapless politicians not being able to serve their constituencies with best intentions? Sure they were. So what the hell did the IPL spoil? India’s nuclear treaty, as far as I know, is on track, India’s huge deficit financing policy is on track, India’s massive forged currency racket remains unhindered. What the hell was the problem? Why cant a few well-mannered, well-heeled people make a few extra bucks on the side? So they failed to pay the taxes. They will, you know, in the long run.

Let sleeping (of playing) dogs lie. The general corruption will persist. Why slay few stupid ones who try to do it openly – maybe give their girlfriends a few million – and then get caught? That is the tip of the iceberg.

Now Obama is after the financial system of the US. Let us be clear on one thing. Money matters where money stays. Where money hasn’t been for a long while, it has no importance.  John Paulson and Goldman Sachs are beings and things from a different world. And Paulson was clever enough to know that the harebrained idea of pouring money into where money has never been was stupid, stupid. So he used a legal handle to bet against. And he used the legal long handle, so to say, to have Goldman Sachs pay him to do that too. Paulson is to be honoured. He is not Michael ‘Junk Bond’ Milken, you see. He is a decent man trying to make a decent living, the very American way.

The sad part will be the hundreds of millions that will suddenly vanish from circulation – could have finally given some sustenance to areas where money doesn’t ever go, you see.

Clean up the system before you can clean up the people. You go to the ‘loo’ only when you need to. Other times you are probably, well, not doing the right thing at the right time. There are a lot of unclean noses around these two places.

Whatever is the truth, we were having a good time, weren’t we? Why spoil that?