finance, markets, banks, currency, debt, assets, risk......

As a business student, such words are supposed to on the tip of your tongue most of the times, and in an economic environment such as this, I have been spending a lot more time with these words, their sources, and their brothers and sisters.

"Die two months ago, and not forgotten yet? Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half a year." (Hamlet, Act III, Scene II)

I quote one of my favorite pieces of literature to contemplate about the fall of the global economic order. We're still feeling the reverberations, in fact, we've been feeling it a lot more since my last post. First the Americans took the hit, with their companies failing and merging and being nationalized, and then it spread to Europe! I use the exclamation mark because those guys seemed so much more socialist and regulated than North America, yet it looked to me that they took a much greater hit than the US. Anyways, both the "old world" and the "new world" (to quote a fallen neocon of President Bush's entourage), are doing what they have derided the developing world for indulging in for so long - nationalization. Its not the government's job to run banks and institutions, its not the government's job to take care of the market, but of course, you tell that to my innocent pet dog sitting at home and even he wont believe you. Well, what can I say, welcome back to the fold, friends, I guess!

I read this joke on the internet, that people still do not realize the gravity of the situation when a country like Iceland (given their size and importance on the global economic stage) can fail! Pardon the bad joke, but things do look bad. Millions of blogs are probably writing better and more details opinions about the whole thing right now, so let me try to just stick to my own thoughts.

On another note, all the market and investment hullaballoo has done nothing to mitigate the craze for investment banking in Indian business schools. I have had all the big banks you hear about in the news personally tell me (and my group of friends of course!) that everything is fine and they are still open for business and still offer you a great career and all that good stuff. Somehow, I doubt if the model of doing business (as one of the big banks told us) will not change. I think a lot of things will change, if the intention of the US Government and other world governments is right, and they have any intention of making things better in the long run, rather than just focusing on getting liquidity back into the markets at present and not focusing on the fundamentals. After all, apparently it takes two Goldman Sachs executives to do right the wrongs committed by their company. Talk about conflict of interest!

Anyways, the fundamentals need to change, and I think the western economic orders needs to change the way it does business. I mean, how much debt can the saving economies of the world provide to the west to live its luxurious lifestyle? The bad news is that the lust for the same lifestyle of living beyond ones means has snared countries like India and China, which are leading the consumption pack.

With my limited knowledge, I felt that the Indian economy was more than eager to embrace the American way even when they can see it front of their eyes that it can't be sustained, but hey, why wouldn't I want a Mercedes Benz?!

Anyways, I suppose globalization is the way to go, and not the one way globalization that we have seen, but the two way street that sees the exchange of money, ownership and sharing of resources. I have already griped on my blog so many times about how its perfectly acceptable for western companies to take over resources and markets in the third world but its perfectly unacceptable when an Indian takes over the white collar job of an American, for example. In fact, I am completely with India's stand on the WTO for that matter. Apparently the third world has no right to question America and Europe's massive farm subsidies, but we also have no right to question their insistence we open our markets for the same, jeopardizing our own agriculture in the process. Ha ha, this world isn't a fair place, it never was!

Lets not miss the silver lining here. The developing world is where its at, and I feel that the global economy is slowly losing its polarization, with us having a greater say and more leverage to take our decisions. And this is without India being any more capitalist than it currently is. Recently Jet Airways fired around 800 of its employees on probation because the company couldn't afford to keep paying them. The employees went to CITU, the commie trade union, and Raj Thackrey! It led me to believe that no matter where you go, violence is the only language that works in India. Apparently now he is the saint of the economically aggreived. Of course, they were hired back a few days later, because poor Naresh Chandra couldn't sleep at night after the decision! Of course, no pressure. No pressure at all.

The bottom line is, lets bask in the protectionist and old world economy of ours, folks, its the only system that seems to be working right now!