Monday, February 28, 2011

How will America handle the fall of its Middle East empire?

Highlights from Telegraph Blog article:

1. Empires can collapse in the course of a generation. At the end of the 16th century, the Spanish looked dominant. Twenty-five years later, they were on their knees, over-extended, bankrupt, and incapable of coping with the emergent maritime powers of Britain and Holland. The British empire reached its fullest extent in 1930. Twenty years later, it was all over.

Today, it is reasonable to ask whether the United States, seemingly invincible a decade ago, will follow the same trajectory. America has suffered two convulsive blows in the last three years. The first was the financial crisis of 2008, whose consequences are yet to be properly felt. Although the immediate cause was the debacle in the mortgage market, the underlying problem was chronic imbalance in the economy.

2. Just as 1989 saw the collapse of the Russian empire in Eastern Europe, so it now looks as if 2011 will mark the removal of many of America’s client regimes in the Arab world. It is highly unlikely, however, that events will thereafter take the tidy path the White House would prefer. Far from being inspired by Twitter, a great many of Arab people who have driven the sensational events of recent weeks are illiterate. They have been impelled into action by mass poverty and unemployment, allied to a sense of disgust at vast divergences of wealth and grotesque corruption. It is too early to chart the future course of events with confidence, but it seems unlikely that these liberated peoples will look to Washington and New York as their political or economic model.

3. the world is changing faster than we know.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

US and Europe doing damage control?

Suddenly the US and Europe have become pro-democratic and are opposing the Gaddafis and Mubaraks of the world. This reminds me of Sonia Gandhi & Rahul Gandhi's comments on how corruption is a big threat for India.

All the politicians, all over the world are same.

Ha, I have now become middle aged guy.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Carry Trades Running Away (with the money)


When the markets tanked (Sensex at 17,000 )sometime back ,Carry Traders came in and pushed it up to (Sensex - 21,000). They also pushed up the inflation in entire Asia. Now after Eyptian Crisis (fueled by inflation), the Carry Traders are now back to home. Thanks to them, the Sensex has tanked again to 17,000 levels.

Who is to pay for the difference of (21,000 - 17,000)? Poor Middle Class Indians, mainly due to inflation.

This brings me to remember the monkey story about the stock markets. Have you heard it?