World Economy

World economy in the true sense depends on Mega economies, starting from US, Japan, Russia, China and up to a small extent(Minors) a composite virtual union of Singapore, Hongkong, India, Brazil, Taiwan, UK,France and Germany. If the Megas/Majors (Note Russia is on the free ride from Minor to Mega) do well, we all do well and everything would be hunky-dory. The component of Megas would be Crude, Technology, Currency (as a commodity like UK), defense entities that serve as drive engine. The Component of Minors would be Agri/Pasturs/Forest/Fishing, Service, Semi-conductor, telecom, chemicals. The definition of majors and minors is purely at the aggregate level and not at the per-capita level, since a minor like UK, France are light years apart from China, Russia from per capita point of view.

The third component, called as other, would include the rest that would hardly drive/non-drive the world.

There is more way than one to classify the World economy, the other being non-novel - emerging, developed and under-developed economies. BRIC is Emerging as we all know, which was over hyped to be future driver, only of late being realized that It follows the Whims, whips and Whishes of Global superpowers (read economic superpowers). But the future holds bright beneath the horizon for BRIC.

The irony of 21st century is when Megas shudder, the Minors get concious and hide into cocoons . The not so well happen(read Under developed countries) to starve as we have seen of late when Agri rich isolate themselves with their involuntary exports. The M2 s of the world US of A and the oriental Japan have lot at stakes, if we realize, how the world economy shivers when they sneeze more often than required. Though the acceptable expectation would have been a diversified conglomerate polarized economies. That day seems to be not so far away, but not quite yet. Watch out for the logical Entities like Euro, BRIC and SE economies (Include India)

The one way to solve the contemporary economic problems and dependencies would be to multiply monies. To start the next level of innovations, discoveries that would drive the cost and expenditure towards South. Some examples for the same would be Solar energy, Space exploration, Nuclear fuels used at domestic level as opposed to industry, Bio-fuels, etc.,to name a few. To address the issue, we need to look into the focal point. The focus of attention goes to Dark continent countries, Argentina, Asian economies and some regions of developing economies. These regions are dearth of opportunities, resource management, entrepreneurship culture, freedom of economy and an array of issues. These is where the World Organizations like UN in general should have had pivotal role, but alas had failed. The need for including Minors in UN would become a matter of necessity and design than political objectives which some Vetos oppose with Vested interest for further expansion

Morality & Rationality

What is morality ?

The Wiki Says this -

The ability to distinguish good and evil or right and wrong, right or good conduct; Motivation based on ideas of right and wrong.

Does morality has absolute meaning? Is it a grea area? Would hunting animals for survival be termed as moral?If involuntary hunting is immoral, so does it mean non-survival is moral ? I would define morality as a code of values for right form of existence - not necessarily optimal but behavioral. So if non-survival is moral then it concludes that morality are just principles and not the absolute rationalities. From involuntary hunting perspective non-survival is moral and survival is rational. This makes morality stacked against rationality in some unavoidable circumstances.

When contradictions exists, chosing morality makes one irrational and otherwise. There are four forms of existence - One which is moral but not rational - supported by people of the type Social - " Rights" . The one which is rational but not moral - Mostly individuals, Capitalists. Exceptions exists in this case, when Capitalists are both moral and rational. The third form being - moral and rational - true individuals, true industrialists/capitalists - ( like Mr. Gates) ,and finally the immoral and irrational - the one driven by instincts.

Morality is like doctrine, set defined beliefs associated with a sect, group, following, ideologues, hypothesis propagandists etc., They are outside the realms of logic and usually define a specified behavior for mankind for his overall well being

While rationality has got nothing to do with behavior. It is driven by the logic and analysis. It is driven by the most optimal goal, It is more akin of a machine instructed to perform specific operations to complete a task(s) assigned

Financial Turmoil

What with Options for financial planning taking a beating, the million $ question of the day is how to think clearly in the era of "Financial Turmoil"

To begin with let's first identify the status quo issues that appears inescapable

a) Inflationary pressure - at decade high. This force would off course would have its impact on input cost for manufactures, wage hikes for firms, etc. The investors* would always aim to obtain greater return from the markets beating inflation

investors* - any aspiring investor whose one of the aim for investing, would be to beat inflation

b) Securities performance - Reaching new record lows, making difficult for the retail investors to stay invested and expect reasonable returns - thanks to the systematic pull out of foreign investment and claiming the market to be less attractive

c) Industry performance - Thanks to the low average wage inflation across industries, would prompt investor to have a rethinking on the investment and financial planning

d) High Interest rates - This would make loans dearer and would leave us with less savings for reinvestment and expenditure

e) Housing market - Following the trend of metal bust, it is witnessing a slow down at a global level

Having identified some of the basic burning issues handy, an appropriate optimal solution has to be applied for the same.

(i) For retail investors, who have already invested should stay invested and not press the panic button. They should look for averaging and buy more stocks to make the security more cost effective. They should also consider investing in blue chip firms. They must avoid speculation and take rational decisions

(ii) Identify commodities that seems to be giving good returns, say they must consider investing in Gold deposits which has proved to be a decent investment, considering a good 10 % returns per annual.Investment in gold could happen in the form of certificates or bars or accounts or they can be even traded like shares in Gold Exchange traded fund.

(iii) Identify dormant amount in the savings which would not be disposed of say 1 year. Keep certain percentage of dormant amount (depending on financial goals) in Fixed deposits and/or Mutual funds for a period <= 1 (an example)

(iv) Never seeking a loan with the objective of investing in "investables", except for real estate/housing

(v) Like Gold, certificates of the Silver to can be obtained which follows a direct co-relation. Silver accounts could also be opened

(vi) For low risk appetite individuals, the Debt investment is a good option which can return more than the average inflation.