Is Economy the new Religion?

Ever since the big bang has ever happened, if there is one thing that has stood the test of time, then; in my personal opinion ; it is Religion. Yes, it needs no proof to prove this, just look back at the history. Be it any religion for that matter. One may say that there are so many religions that have perished. Agreed. But if you look at it and just introspect and ask yourselves what made it perish? It’s again another religion.

What basically constitute a religion? It’s nothing but an organized collection of belief system. Any economy is basically the same. It’s nothing but the sheer faith / belief of people in the economy that runs it. Some people have faith in Keynesian economics, where as the other have faith in Freemen Economic theory. There are however who have faith in Communism. It is very much debatable so as to which is better and I will tell you it’s not going to end. Let’s consider dollar it’s the sheer faith in the dollar that has made it the benchmark currency for any trade. As Indians also we are too much worried about the dollar and rupee comparison.

            See the belief the eurozone countries have in Euro and the rest of the world in Dollar.  The governments of the developing countries have sheer faith in the IMF and World Bank and thus act as per their terms. After the rejection of the initial plan for the bailout, the Cypriot government finally came out with another plan to recover from the financial crisis. This plan involved levy on the depositors. So it’s not just that you say abra ka dabra! And you get money. You cannot just create money out of thin air!. If there is something that can create money then its debt.

                It is observable that how a devotee doesn’t want to hurt his / her god, similarly the governments don’t want to hurt their god (the investors) even though it hurts its population. It’s faith in the consumerism that fetches the major chunk of GDP to some governments and faith in their economy that even though the debt to GDP ratio is over a hundred percent they are able to sustain that.

Disclaimer : The views expressed in this article are the personal views of the author , and has no intention to hurt any religious sentiments or ridicule any economic theory or any currency or any financial organization

Can Cyprus flu infect India ?

Cyprus has reached the heights of its fiscal imprudence. What’s going on there is indeed alarming. Imagine the public debt to be at par with the GDP of a nation. Or let me put it this way you are earning the same amount of money you need to repay someone or may be what if your monthly EMI is as same as your salary considering salary to be your only source of income ?

            Cyprus is the new not so proud member of the eurozone to apply for a bailout (Read as beg!).  Every nation on the face of the earth begs. But what’s so big deal with Cyprus? They don’t have the resources to repay if someone is going to bailout. Of course the IMF and some members of the eurozone have come up with a great plan! What’s the plan?

            Before actually talking about the plan let me tell you something. We all pay taxes! I know how it feels to pay tax at the financial year end.  In India we pay tax on what we earn yeah Income Tax! And we in India do live on our savings unlike in the Dreamland where the nations GDP is driven by consumerism (of some people if you know what place am referring to) where people don’t even know what savings mean. GDP is the market value of the final goods and services produced in a country. And GDP per capita is the indicator of standard of living!  So today you have money and you buy what about tomorrow? I will talk about standard of living in subsequent post. But for now let’s stick on to this. Tomorrow when you don’t have a penny on you then you got to sell what you have; as simple as it is. 

Let’s come back to tax. Currently Government pays interest for your deposits in the banks (at least in India). What if the government, tomorrow says, boy if you want to deposit your money you have to pay some amount of tax! That’s what IMF and some eurozone countries’ plan is. The Cyprus parliament however rejected this bill. But what’s the plan B? Let’s not talk about it since it’s their prerogative.

Let’s talk about if it really affects India. If it does then how and when? Basically for a nations’ public debt to be at par with the GDP the necessary and sufficient condition is that you borrow more than you can repay.  What leads someone to borrow so much? It’s indeed a food for thought.  Speaking in a microeconomic scale let’s see why someone borrows.

1.      You are really in need of that commodity.

2.      You need to just flaunt it.

The former condition is good, provided you can repay what you borrow considering the ROI that you can fetch out of that commodity. But the later is bad; this type of economic condition is driven by sheer consumerism. Consumerism is good to an extent but once you reach the ultimatum, it’s bad. Consumerist approach is indeed important to improve the standard of living but how much?

            Now though the financial condition of Cyprus doesn’t affect India directly, it doesn’t prompt us from giving it a thought and wake up. Thanks to the globalization that the financial condition of one nation or group of nations (EU) impacts the rest of the nations. So if tomorrow EU or US’ economy wobbles then am sure it’s going to affect us. I may even be wrong in saying that it may affect us, but considering the fact that the Global financial system is behaving so anomalously, I say that it may impact India.

            Sometimes it makes me think on what basis one can say that we won’t see the same condition in India in the near future. The banks have been shut down nationwide in Cyprus. Imagine if the same happening in India.

            One solution that I see in my personal opinion is that we need to cut down unnecessary imports. And implementing strict import duties on the unnecessary commodities. Also we can strengthen the manufacturing sector thereby providing the quality goods which are produced indigenously .Which also helps in reducing the unemployment problem and helps us to move towards the export based economy.

            More the pace with which we move towards becoming an export based economy; the Capital deficit tends to get normalized i.e. you don’t spend more than what you can earn!

                        So the mantra is save first, spend next!

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the views of the author and are completely unbiased. The author doesn't intend to hurt the sentiments of any nation.

Programming and Girls !

Commonly I have seen the articles that bring out the difference between girls and beer , girls and programming languages etc.. But this post has been written after keen observation of girls and their behaviour with their respective (yeah ! you read it right) boyfriends. This post does not intend to hurt the sentiments of the Gang of Girls but just a satire (Its not a all a revenge to the articles / images girls posts to make fun of guys ).

This post brings out the similarities  between the girls and the programming languages . Few of my observations have been listed below:

1. Girls are like NULL pointers, you should never follow them , for chaos and madness await you at its end !

2. Their anger is like sleeping threads , you never know when a spurious wakeup can happen.

3. They are masters of type casting , you can't typecast your lies and present it.

4. You ignore their warnings and you are sure of getting the runtime error.

5. They are like the observer model with a twist , they notify the changes (read as your wrong doings) only during a fight.

6. Girls are highly case sensitve !

7. Their requests are always asynchronous and blocking , they won't let you do any other thing until you complete that request and you can never predict when you get a request.

To Be Continued...

Whats Happening ??

This was written at the time when my inbox was overflowing with the messages regarding the date 12/12/12 amidst of the chaos of India losing pathetically and then the Boxing Association issue and to top all that the big market (read as wal mart ) scam in India.

Once it so happened that , I opened my twitter account to check the tweets and suddenly , the words "What's Happening ?" in the tweet space caught my eye and then all this came up to my mind. So here it goes ...

Number of messages in my cell do dwell,

When I check, it's all about twelve twelve twelve.

This day everyone has got something to sell,

To doctors ,the dame do compel.

Astrologer makes you dance to his tune,

Buy selling you the story of fortune.

Couples deciding to get into knot soon,

I wonder if the world tomorrow, is going to doom ?

And in what name 

Are they playing a game,

Putting at stake ,the nations name and fame

And to the loss , give excuses that's lame.

Some try to bring in a big big mart,

Which shall in ways will rip apart,

Those, who thrive on their pushcart,

And fools call , this move smart.

Day and night, athlete does toil,

To get name and fame to the thy soil,

With a faux process, they create a turmoil,

In the oil of shame , now they boil.

More or Less

It had been quite sometime since I had an amazing weekend. This one is going to be cherished for some good long time to come. The reason , not being that I did something great or something great happened , rather so simple , for I did keep myself away from all the things that I would normally be using viz. laptop , mobile , pen drives , hard disk , watch etc. 

       I dont intend to say that I am a techie or something but the point here is that the these things though very much essential, always keep reminding us how fast is the life that we are living and these things make us feel that  life is so complicated though it is not , I would call them "pseudo-complicators" ( I know such a word doesn't exist but just that is what I feel these things are !). 

      I must admit that I really did get nostalgic , felt the same freedom that I used to have a couple of years ago and yes I did not call up friends and decide to meet , I just knocked their doors and Voila ! they were avaliabe :) Just the same as I would do a couple of years ago (Rather a decade to be precise). I was thinking how beautiful it was when our lives were not surrounded by these "pseuco-complicators". 

We have all things we need,

Don't have things that we want.

Crazy thoughts grow like weed,

Things still continue to haunt.

We were happy when, things We had 'ere less,

We thought We'd be more happy when We have things more.

In this process , We have run into a mess,

Can't stich the things that We have tore.

We didnt have a phone ,yet we used to meet,

The friends with whom We would play.

Now though We own a phone so neat,

Not even a Hi , to them We would say.

We used to walk down the lane,

Where we used to play day long.

To go out now, is a bane,

Don't wanna walk even a furlong.

It doesn't matter what you have,

What matters is what you do.

The only way out to salve

Is to start the things all anew.

Insomniac !!

I am here, I am alive,

By the shore so unclear, I go on a drive.

I feel am lying afloat on that shore

Like an unread book in the shelf, just get bored more and more.

I wake up from the bed, realizing am awake

With lotta time to spare, but of that time what to I make?

Shall I stop the thoughts and try to sleep?

Or shall I get up and over my thoughts take a leap?

I feel by the night so Insomniac

But by the day so hypersomniac,

Though I feel am asleep,

My sleep is only skin deep.

I don’t know what more to pen,

Why do I feel so every now and then?

Common Man. Really ?

       Woah !! Well I was watching the news of Mr. kejariwal , starting his own political party. Neither I am against it nor for it. The point is not what he is doing or has done is right, for I don't want to waste time in judging him. However the point is excessive use of the word "aam aadmi" , "comman man" that has really tested my patience.

This word, over a period of time is being used as the achilles heel of the public. While I was watching the news of Mr. Kejariwal's new party , I remember this word being used umpteen number of times. There was a point in time when I just got irritated with that word. 

I then started thinking what makes the media and the bloody unethical corrupt politicians use the word "aam aadmi" or "common man" in their pseudo propaganda. I started thinking " Am I a common man ?" , " Really Am I ?". However there are few bureaucrats / politicians who dare to call the public as cattle herd.I just want to tell such politicians one thing :- "Boss , it's me who is working hard ,it's me who is earning and you are getting paid from the tax that I pay. In a way it's me who is paying you the salary and then how dare you call me aam aadmi ?"

The root cause of the problem is we the citizens who vote for such people. Of late we have become so lazy that we prefer to be ruled by others and in the process create lot of demagogues and charlatans.

The public has been so hypnotized that they start wearing the caps with " I am Anna Hazare" , " I am Kejariwal" , "I am comman man" ..."I am blah blah...". I am not trying to say that the support extended to Anna Hazare and co is wrong but the point to be considered here is how quickly we do put ourselves in others shoes. 

India doesn't need 1.2 billion Anna Hazare or Arvind Kejariwal. What India needs is 1.2bn persons who understand and identify themselves not in the name of some politician or politician-to-be , but in their own conscience , own -self. Me and you , everyone of us , is not common. Each one of us have the capability to bring in the change for good. If you and me , everyone of us realize this , we are no longer common. 

Disclaimer: The content of this article just expresses the view of the author. The intention of this article is neither to disrespect Mr. Anna Hazare nor Mr. Kejariwal or to hurt the sentiments of the general public.