It has been quite a while since i blogged, and since i like to analyze why, the plain reason is that i did not find anything interesting to blog about. Maybe i did, however did not feel that i considered it important enough to write about it. Also you need to type it out which means work and alas, i am lazy. I did write some thing every long the other day for an email, so i have not lost the habit of writing.

Let me note down the points i need to wite about and then we can discuss each in detail, atleast as much as possible.

1. Charlie Rose: One of my favirote shows on the television, Charlie Rose is a talk show telecast at midnight in the local pubic television channel. Charlie interviews the prominant leaders/newsmakers/authors etc on his one hour show daily monday to friday. Apart from award winning jornalisic capabilities, his show features a dark room with single table and a couple of chairs for the participants. There are no people shooting the show since it is done remotely through the studio/recording room. This atmosphere allows a very intimate interview process, where charlie approachs his guest towards more personal/informative questions rather than interogating them. The website is http://www.charlierose.com

2. Morgan An Amercian Financier: Recently I brought two books, One called the Titan and the second one called Morgan An Amercian Financier. I started reading the second first and found it very informative biography.

For those of you who don't know, J. Peirpoint Morgan was one of the most prominant financier, or investment banker as one would call such a profession, along with his father Junius Morgan. Both father and son combo, the elder based in london and the younger in new york, successfully transferred much needed capital from european markets to the newly emerging industrial age of the states. It was the period between 1870's to 1920's that majority of the industrial ventures took place including railways, coal extraction, and oil. Called the gilded age due to the vast income differencials between the wealthy (who earned about 1 to 2 million dollars per year average) and the general working class ( whose wages topped off around 500$ per year), it would have been a very interesting place and time to be in the banking and money management sector.

However, few selected people sucessded in the profession and J. Peirpoint Morgan was one of them. Generally known companies of today such as General Electric and U.S. Steel were literally founded and nutured by him. Due to the anti-trust laws of the late 1920's ( which we still use against microsoft and other monoploies), the House of Morgan lost prominance into smaller companies such as Morgan Stanley and J.P.Morgan. ( I am not sure of J.P.Morgan but Morgan Stanley for sure)

In many aspects, the dot com boom and bust ( and infact the preceeding boom of the 1990's when capital from the rest of the world invested in markets of united states) is very much like the booms and busts during the railway construction period. Early in 2000, when i arrived in united states, and silicon valley, I heard an economic history professor comparing the railway boom to the bot com boom, among other booms and busts in recent history. I read further about the economic cycles of united states while taking of the classes at the university called "Economic History of United States" What I learnt in that one semester was only an overview, more like an introduction of sorts to economics cycles. What this book descibes in the most detailed method possible through the lives of the Morgan family and friends, as well as the businesses they were involved in, how life would have been during that time. The economic cycles, the personal drama, the money side of things, the greedness as well as the philanthropic side of the american elite. It is a story of how the american elite find a place in the books of history and how new york emerges at first as financial powerhouse comparable to old europe, and after the second world war, becomes the undisputed leader as financial capital of the world.