Irrational Exuberance..

Markets in past few weeks are in a confused state...they over recovered since lows made in march..as an economist was mentioning...people suffer from "Traumatic stress syndrome" and its effects are people forget how bad things were.seems perfect,evryone really forgot that this recession was compared to The Great Depression,the firms which stood tall for over a century,the firms which could make profits at time of world wars,even they failed..and it was supposed to bring the financial system to a halt.And now,just 8-10 months down the line,those memories are fading away.Its commonly said,stock markets are leading indicators,i.e they recover 6 months in advance than economy recovering but even if everything goes on well,economy doesnt seem to be growing atleast for an year to come.
In past few days,i realised these economists and analysts are as confused as a common man is....Most of them speak bullshit just coz they are asked to..its just that they have better way or technical jargon for explaining whatever is happening in market.
What i believe is,let this be an opportunity to cleanse the system,or what Alan greenspan calls "CREATIVE DESTRUCTION".What stimulus packages can do is prevent firms to file bankruptcy but hardly helps in cleansing the system.Let the credit card bubble burst now,rather than an year or two later...
Now chinese markets giving first clue of weakness and fake bull rally.The bull rally was supported by recovery in china and a report reveals that the kind of money which china pumped into its banking system in past 6-8 months,its almost twice of the money pumped by all indian banks since their existence.In other words,the money pumped by china into its system was enough to create two indian banking system..such reckless money comes to stock markets and gives a false image of everything is fine.Though the worst mite be already behind us,even if credit card bubble bursts soon,but a big correction is due,technically and fundamentally both..
M hell bearish about the markets..but as always,commenting is free of cost,investing is not...:-)

WalMart's Hegemony

I read about this big retail giant for first time while reading The world is flat.Thomas friedman went all ga ga over how walmart has revolutionised retailing,how it manages to sell stuff at prices which no other retailer can even come closer to.The major reason as he pointed out was its excellent supply chain management and i was left wondering,how can solely a good supply chain management makes one a leader in retailing.Its beyond doubt that Wal-mart has one of the most sophisticated and well managed supply chain but thats just one side of the story.
When looking at an organisation for what it does for society,there are two things to be considered.They are what the organisation gives to the society,and whats the cost(for society) involved.There was lot of hype at time when concept of Retail chain came to india, with endless debates about how it will improve living standards and fate of mom & pop stores.Till now,the model has been quite successful and even mom & pop stores survived,infact,they became more efficient.But,Retail stores in india were no Wal-marts.
The retail giant is good for customers,but not for its employees.It serves products to customers at cheapest prices,but at the cost of meagre salaries which arent even enough for a decent living.
Lets see what impact Walmart stores had on society and individuals.
The good part,all i can see is one,goods at cheaper prices,many of which are made by workers working in china and bangladesh at wages as low as 17 cents an hour,14 hrs a day,7 days a week.
Now about the bad effects..thats where the meat lies..
When walmart came to U.S,many of the stores,which were serving consumers for over 4 decades,were forced to shut down.It seems its not just the walmart's agressive business strategy but support by various state goverments which made it happen.Millions of dollars were given in subsidies for walmart stores,along with land at subsidised prices.Competition brings the best in both parties till the time its fair but these subsidies gave walmart an unfair advantage and left other stores no option than to shut down.If we get into mathematics,even if wal mart works like a normal retail chain and pays back to society,or at worst,just manages to run its business at no gain,those cash and land subsidies are not a bad business proposal.So,U.S govt had a role to play.
Secondly,walmart has over 1.8 million employees in U.S...its almost half of New zealand's population.The employees are paid minimal wages,they arent provided any medical insurance/aid(Goverment is supposed to take care of them from taxpayer's money) and dey are not paid for overtime as Walmart flaunts abt its no overtime policy.The store managers are given special training to how to make employees work for more than 40hrs a week and all such tactics are put to use regularly.
The Walmart has been involved in litigations regarding causing damage to enviroment and Walmart's parking lot are famous crime destinations.
The five members of walton family,walmart's owners,make it to the top wealthiest ppl in united states,with total wealth over 110 billion $ which is equivalent to whole Dubai's GDP...so a walton family is a dubai in itself :) .And the walmart family donated 1% of it for social cause.Ironically,the richest man in world,Bill gates donated over 50% of his wealth.
To me,it seems a case of making whole america poorer at the name of cheaper prices to make one family rich.
Walmart's Hegemony in U.S is just the same as U.S hegemony in the world.May be,in time to come,both will end :)

Just see how bored one can get!!!

1.If the Leaning Tower of Pisa leans at 13 degrees to the vertical, why is Zee Cafe not included in the Big TV Southern Delight package?

2.If Samsung, then why was he not heard?

3.Explain in 37 words what you would get on Fourier transforming a cat.

4.Why didn't the chicken cross the road?

5.Its not you, its me. Explain

6.Determine the frictional force needed to overcome the anger you have for yourself?

7.Why are you angry with yourself?

8.In what ways does a remote control?

9.War, what is it good for?

10.Do Australians call rest of the world UP OVER?

11.Do you love me?

12.If your neighbour tells you that your door transmorgifies at night into a balloon, does that mean the apple yard now needs more alcohol?

13.5 Point Someone....How?

14.Using Schroedinger's theory, prove that you are reading this and also not reading this at the same time.

15.Why do you have to seal a leakage...... Why not crab it?

16.Why are you?

17. Seriously, why are you?

18.A man ran around a tree 43 times and then took a bath. Why?

19.Using a shrapnel and a t-shirt, how long will it take to restore peace in Malaysia?

20.What is the adivantic equivalent of a semi-nivadic glanmesting schiropatic?

21.Scooby Doo, where are you?

22.Write the 6th state of matter after Solid, Liquid, Gas, Plasma, Anti-Matter and Matter of Fact.

23.Without the use of scale, measure Schawazwarchild radius of Schawazwarchild.

24. Find out who Eric Cantona is. Is he not?

25.Ten leaves crashed a wedding. Why?

Delhi..

I believe for outsiders,der is some kind of entry fee(variable though) when they come to place like delhi/NCR on whole,as if to introduce us to a new way of life.As i myself and some of my friends moved to this place last year,many of us have already paid for it,many havent as of yet and they mite be paying along wid interest in time to come.It seems like a GOD's way of making us do forceful donation to the needy people ,especially those who come with talents like(taking wallet out from other's pocket widout letting dem know or to take stuff from a car by breaking the glass).I mean dey r daring people and almighty makes us pay for those needy ppl.So,thats how youth like us end up doing social service(though unwillingly).It seems i have done more than my share for an year..its almost like social service quota for a decade in terms of losing my wallet once and then my bike.In that way,i have done enough to uplift living standards of two of needy families with ppl having special talent.AND i dont intend to do more of it in time to come...so i have paid enough fees..its time for others to pay..so spare meee...

Movie as a revenge

Every now and then,der comes a movie which gives everyone a chance to take revenge from ppl one doesnt like.There are two ways to take revenge,make them suffer by troubling them straightway or take them for such a movie.To add to the category,was released LUCK last week.I am not sure if seeing this movie wd bring doom to ur luck for years to come(it really can,as a punishment for wasting 2.5 hrs of life on dis movie) but it sucks,it really does.Sometimes,i wonder how the director/producer,i mean do they really expect der movies like this ones to be hit or is it just they r making it to tell industry that dey r alive.I was in pune and had to enter a mall to kill time as my friend whom i was supposed to meet,had to be in office for another 3 hrs.The movie's mafia actors aka danny,sanju baba made hell lot of dialogues on "LUCK" and frustrated whole junta.The word LUCK must have been used atleast 150 times in dis movie.If der wd be an award for worst dialogue,no body can beat this movie for centuries to come(i dont deny mithun's GUNDA can tie).The only bearable part i can say was the babe introduced and a song here or der.Hats off to people who came even closer to feeling its a good movie.And for all revenge takers,take tat person for tat movie and carry earbuds for urself..

Movie earnings as measure of Recession Easing..

I just read somewhere that Transformer and Ice Age 3 tied for earnings of 42.5 million $ over weekend..well,is it a sign of recession easing or the other way around..it was supposed to be an extended weekend in driving season in U.S...its the time when ppl go for drives,not get into watch movies..i think it must have been a cost cutting measure and is reducing consumer spending...so dont go on nos.Recession isnt going anywer soon....Finally,someone gained from recession,these movie producers:)

Fedex is the champ..

Last one week has been pretty happening with Wimbledon going on.India-WI series was full of lacklustre all the time for two reasons-Indian team is not in best of form and Ten sports just cant broadcast it the way Espn/star sports does.Anyways,50 overs looks too long nowadays.So all focus was on tennis.Except two of the matches in final rounds,nothing was something really exceptional.Firstly,the one women's semifinal Dementieva and Serena and the other one,ofcourse men's final.Well,tennis is one of the sports which is highly followed around the world along with cricket and soccer.Other two being team games,makes it much different.I wonder what kind of concentration levels and mental toll it would take on des players,mostly just few years elder to me(and some younger).Its just amazing.Its one of those games where even before the tournament starts,there would be 1 or max 2 clear frontrunners for the championship and then there would be a whole bunch of guys who carry "can do it" tag.And every year,there comes a rising star,someone never heard of till last year, rising to glory and ends up being a tough opponent.The women's title was once again {unfortunately) dominated by william sis.They made around 2 million pounds in just prize money in this tournament.I wonder kam se kam 30-40 million pounds banaya hoga in sisters ne...Safina's match against Venus was a sheer disappointment..but Dementieva's loss was quite unfortunate,she succeeded in dominating thruout the match but just losing it at the last moment.Well,it happens so often in tennis,"so close yet so far".So was Roddick today..i dont mean to take away any credit from Fed(And i mean Federrer,not Bernanke's Fed,they dont have much credit to their side looking at this recession).Beyond any doubt,He is the Champ of all times,it takes real talent to outperform evryone 15 times but yaar,Nadal wasnt playing,so finally des "can do it" guys got a chance to prove their mettle and this guy Roddick did everything right and still ended up being on the runner's up end.I am touch disappointed probably for the first time for Fed winning the title.Lets hope this "can do it" gang gets another chance in time to come and rattle away the domination by fed-nadal and william sisters.May be next time,Roddick's aces will do it..For the time being,Congo for Fed's success..