The State of Denial!!
Posted on June 8th, 2010 by Kid
Am I Calvin … I wish I was !!! Calvin & Hobbes is one of the best comic strips I know.
The State of Denial
The Indian Rupee!!
Posted on May 19th, 2010 by Kid
I wrote a big post on global currency, on India’s scope and every thing. And the next thing I see is a article in Rediff Business on Why RBI thinks the Indian Rupee can be the next Global Currency.
I think more often than not, we tend to be optimists who are not rational. Are is it just propaganda to lift the feel good factor??
A Step in the Right Direction!?
Posted on May 17th, 2010 by Kid
I have previously published my rants on the way we democratically handle ourselves. One of the them would be here. But today I came upon this piece of news.
Gujarat would allow online voting for the Municipal elections and are calling it e-voting. Is it the step in the right direction or simply just a move forward to rely more on technology. Read the Full news here.
Will online voting result in greater say of the public in handling of the affairs of the responsible body ?? There is still lot more to do!!
Sorry India, its going to be China!!
Posted on May 12th, 2010 by Kid
Sometime back, I read that Nostradamus predicted next Super Power would be from Asia.
Sorry India, it is going to be China.
But what we can salvage, giving our best shot, is the 2nd spot.
I don’t like the foreign policies of the US. I made that very evident in the post here.
US is the biggest bully I know. Primarily because it is the biggest economy in the world because it is the biggest market in the world. This agian is due to the fact that it has built a very good infrastructure, it has employment and lot of other things. To do this, you need money. The money came from the govt. Which is massively in Debt. But it is still a power house. Why??
The World’s currency for trade is the US Dollar, which is printed [pun??] by US. This is a very shallow argument, but if you read more, you will find out why it is the most important factor. My explaining this here would take up huge space and we will deviate from my the main interest of this post.
For any country to be the [bigger] super power than US, it needs to convert the world’s currency from US Dollar to either its own, which will make it far more easier for that particular country to rise but would be generally unacceptable to others, or to something more neutral.
If it becomes something more neutral, than many and not one will have a fair chance of making it to the Top. In this case, the biggest chance is of China. I don’t see India coming anywhere close.
Why China??
- China has the biggest Foreign Reserve, a big chunk in USD. Dumping the USD will cause more damage to US then China.
- China has vast reserves of Raw Material and is hoarding them also by importing them
- China has a very big manufacturing facilities.
- China has huge internal Demand and equally huge Supply chains for its economy to sustain on it own.
- China has the military muscle to ward of any attempts to suppress its sovereignty.
- China has a spine !!!
(Now do you see Why not India??)
What China lacks, is primarily the support of First World Countries, which can be offset by the huge support it can garner from the African nations. And that majority of the world looks at it from suspicion. (Indo-China war & alleged China’s support to Pakistan) for once makes China a not very favourable option for India.
India itself lacks the support of the world, primarily because India has never come across as a country which has a Spine. i.e. we do not stand up for our friends and hence it makes very difficult for anyone to actually rely on us !! [sad]
India also has huge internal problems with people only waiting for a small chance in order to stomp upon eachother, and our apparent lack of concern of the common good of the community as a whole and keeping our me-first attitude.
Chinese Yuan!!
Why China cannot have its own currency [chinese yuan] as the world’s currency. Because, chinese yuan is cheaper than its value undervalued. This allows to have a huge trade surplus [and also is funding the current hoarding of world's raw materials] effectively avoiding itself in being in a position similar to what US is in currently.
That is why China proposed a neutral currency in one of the G-20 economic talks post recession for
1. it will be easier for the world to buy a neutral currency argument than the chinese yuan for a common currency
2. retaining yuan to be relatively unaffected by the world trade and its control firmly with the Chinese government.
Why something like Euro will not work.
Euro was the first step in this direction. What failed was, in order for the world to buy euro, the economy backing it had to be sufficiently big enough. In doing so, they had to include smaller countries which did not have a very sound economic state.
Enter US and Recession, euro is on its way down.
What makes sense is, for BRIC to have a common currency for international trade, and try Iran and Venezuela to endorse it. This will not offset the US in a big way. Because US has fairly huge control over the world Oil price with its own reserves, Iraq’s oil reserves under its control and Saudi Arabia being its close ally.But it sure will be the step in the right direction for the next super power.
Why BRIC?
- China and India are the two world’s biggest market. No matter which way you look at them, they are. Brazil is the fourth. (PS: for those who can correlate the incident years back in my college, Population turing to be positive factor here)
- China, India and Russia have fairly good technological base to develop. I am not sure of Brazil, hence I am not commenting on it (Though India has pathetic investments in R&D for its size)
- Above all, BRIC are the fastest growing economies in the world and are fairly sound. India’s Financial policies are very sound, no matter whoever tells you what. On top of that, the present big economies (read the US, Japan and Europe) are not going to come our out of recession anytime soon.
So what is our next step ??? You tell me …!!
Random Links which may be useful for further read
Rupe-India Report : This is a fairly old report. I read the complete report from the link on the left side of the column. This particular page highlights many things.
Balance Sheet Recession : The basis of what Balance sheet recession is, and in support of the above report and probably the reason why the recession is not going to be over anytime soon. Also, the argument for people who tell japan worry about its debt.
China’s Foreign Reserve : By far the biggest foreign reserve in the world
India’s Foreign Reserve : In comparison, India’s foreign Reserve.
UPDATE
IMF loan to Greece : Blog by Swaminathan Aiyar on the money meant for third world countries is going to Euro countries
Besides these links, which are fresh in my mind, you can search the internet for following
- China Hoarding World’s Raw Materials
- BRIC Economy Size
- Failure of Euro as a currency
What I lack is objective thinking, but I compensate it with abundance of day dreaming.
Freedom and Choice!?
Posted on May 8th, 2010 by Kid
The author (Phillip Pullman) defends the controversial title of his book. But in doing so, he puts a very clear indication on Freedom and Choices pertaining to it. Clearly distinguishing where the freedom of a group stops over the freedom of an individual.
Quoting it below
“No one has the right to live without being shocked.
“No one has the right to spend their lives without being offended.
“Nobody has to read this book. Nobody has to pick it up. Nobody has to open it. If they have to open it and read it, they don’t have to like it. And if you read it and dislike it, you don’t have to remain silent about it. You can write to me, you can write to the publisher, you can write to the papers, you can write your own book, you can do all those things but there your rights stop.
“No one has the right to stop the writing of this book. No one has the right to stop it being published, sold or bought or read.”