DANCE OF EXTRAVAGANCE

Thanks Gayatri for the link. Finally, some splendid insights into what happens when a salsa banker goes shopping.

In a brilliant commentary, Bloomberg News columnist William Pesek looked beyond the eye-catching headlines to make sense of a story that has had so many folks nod their heads in disgust:
"If there were a museum dedicated to extravagance and excess, Hong Kong banker Mimi Monica Wong might warrant a plaque. The 61-year-old agreed to pay two Latin dance instructors HK$120 million ($15.4 million) for eight years of lessons, and that's not a typographical error. Here's the best part: Wong is the head of HSBC Holdings Plc's Asian private-banking unit.

Granted, Wong won't be paying all that money; this week, a court ordered that a HK$62 million advance she paid be returned (things reportedly unraveled after one of the instructors called Wong a ``lazy cow'' at a practice session in a Hong Kong restaurant). Even so, I wouldn't want anyone willing to pay that kind of cash for cha-cha, samba and rumba lessons telling me where or how to invest my money in Asia."

I can dance to those words, keeping my non-existent millions intact.