A load of crap from an idle brain

An interesting article by Paul Krugman in New York Times

Back in the early stages of the financial crisis, wags joked that our trade with China had turned out to be fair and balanced after all: They sold us poison toys and tainted seafood; we sold them fraudulent securities.

But these days, both sides of that deal are breaking down. On one side, the world’s appetite for Chinese goods has fallen off sharply. China’s exports have plunged in recent months and are now down 26 percent from a year ago. On the other side, the Chinese are evidently getting anxious about those securities.

But China still seems to have unrealistic expectations. And that’s a problem for all of us.

Read the full article here.

Lots of work related pressures mean that iam quite sporadic here.  As for the little time i have on hand, iam sometimes found here.

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Its not everyday you see history being created.  Obama won a few months ago, but then, till took oath and stepped into the white house as the President of the United States of America, history had not yet been created.

For a country whose Presidents were known to keep slaves while in office till Abraham Lincoln abolished this practise, its indeed a great day.  Let’s keep our prejudices apart and hail the man who with his sheer determination has come where he has today.

Its not going to be an easy ride for Obama. And he has repeatedly indicated the same in all his speeches.  At least we can be happy that a warmonger is not in power in the US.  Hope Obama over the next 4 years of his tenure will repair the image of US that has been battered courtesy George Bush.  Hope he will crack down on rogue nations (Pakistan) who like to use terrorism as a tool to destabilise the neighbourhood.

Obama has promised to close down Guantanmo Bay, but not indicated what he will do with all the prisoners there.  There are already indications that the prisoners will be moved into some other facilities.  A 16 month target to get out of Iraq is also in place.  Hopefully he will flood Afghanistan with more troops so that Pakistan and its rogue army that is in the forefront of supporting terror in the world and the Taliban will be put in place.

Fixing the economy is a priority for the Obama administration.  Hopefully the trillions that they are planning to flood the markets will kickstart the economy and  push the world forward.

My only wish: To see an Indian Prime Minister or a President with a 6 pack ab someday.  Meanwhile we seem to have a 81 year old (LK Advani) dying waiting to replace a 78 year old (Manmohan Singh) as the Prime Minister.  Did anyone say that we have the world’s largest pool of young people?

Above cartoon source: Twenty22

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Another legendary investor, Jim Rogers has no more confidence in the US, its bailout of the banks, the US dollar. He’s gung ho about China and the Renminbi.  So much that he now shifted with his family to South East Asia (Singapore).  He believes the future of the world is in Asia, more importantly in China and wants to stay as close as possible to the action.

America is bankrupt. American government bonds are extremely overvalued. “The world’s last bubble.” America is in debt for over 13.000 billion (13 trillion) dollar and adds a 1.000 billion dollar debt each year. According to Rogers this can not continue for long. Therefore, he went short in long-term US goverment bonds. “These bonds have peaked.” By the way: Rogers owns Dutch government bonds. “They are safe.”

“The fact that the dollar is gaining rapidly is only temporary”, Rogers says. “All hedge funds were short on the dollar and because of the appreciation of the dollar there is a short squeeze for the dollar. Managers have to close thier positions and they have to buy dollars instead.” “This is temporary, within a year you have to get rid of the dollar. Fundamentally it is a drama.”

“The question is not if the price of a barrel of oil will increase again, but how expensive a barrel of oil will be eventually?”

Rogers is not a big fan of Bernanke, the president of the Federal Reserve. With a big smile Rogers tells us: “Bernanke will continue to print money until there are no trees left in America.”

According to Rogers, farmers have a bright future. “within a few years farmers will drive Maserati’s and all stockbrokers will be cabdrivers.”

Read the full article here and also watch the interview with Jim Rogers here

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After a 8 year hiatus, the Democrats are back in power.  Looking at the way with which the previous Democratic President, Bill Clinton left, its a no-brainer to see that the Republican government under George Bush has screwed up not only America, but the whole world itself.  Its been a systematic destruction of ‘Brand America’ by George Bush and his government.

Though Bush has been the best President when it came to India-US relations, it needs to be seen how Obama would take the already warm relations further.  It would be an interesting first 100 days to see how Obama would start attacking the domestic as well as foreign issues facing America.  The economy is in the ICU, the war in Iraq is still continuing, Afghanistan is on a boil with active support of the Taliban by the rogue Pakistani intelligence unit, ISI. North Korea behaves erratically.  Russia under Putin has transformed radically.  There are indications of a new cold war starting.  China is still dumping goods into the US.  America is not loved globally as before. Every terrorist group on this earth wants to have a go at the US.

The real challenge for Obama was not winning the elections. The anti-incumbency factor assured his victory. His real challenges start now.

Above picture courtesy: BBC

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The one picture on the website of Huffingtonpost sums up the crisis the world markets, wall street is in.  Bush has in his 8 years of Presidency not only ruined America, but also the world economy.

I wont be surprised if the BSE Sensex hits the lower circuit breaker at least once today.

Bulls make money, Bears make money, Pigs get slaughtered – A wall street saying

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