Is it simply a product of hype or is there an element of truth to the Banglore symdrome is something that I don't know. But apparently Amazon thinks Bangalore is the place to be. Amazon has an office at Bangalore now! I hope they start offering free shipping within India or something!
AlwaysOn Network has an excellent discussion on the weakening of the U.S. dollar. It also hints at replacing U.S. dollar with gold. But as of now, only Euro is a strong contender for that place.
Deepak sent me this awesome article Joel Spolsky wrote on pricing. And if you cant understand economics from that article, my dear friends, I have no hesitation in labelling you a "Lost Cause". It is hilarious and hits the nail exactly on the head!
I SO loved his ridicule of Windows Home and Professional editions! I do know some software do not work in the Home edition. The other day my room mate tried to install mySQL and it failed I think. Or was that IIS? Eh, I better start taking those "ayurvedic" memory pills =). But anyways, the point is, Home edition of Windows does not allow you to install certain software and that pricing strategy really really sucks!
Now Macromedia has come up with Flash and Flash Pro. And What does a Flash Professional edition contain? Integration capabilities with cold fusion, contribute and other software that nobody uses. Why?
But this article does leave out the nitty gritty issues: Open/shared licensing. The principle of licensing per user access, the principle of not allowing an evaluation copy to stop working (Winzip) and OEM software (which are cheaper than the normal editions). A very good read if you wish to buckle up and start saving on the amount of money you throw to buy useless software!
Brad DeLong , as resourceful as ever, picks up an article on the horror that the world has to face with mounting U.S. deficits.
I can readily grasp the logic of the argument that, without non-japan asian countries, U.S. deficits would never have become as high as they are now. After all it takes two to tango!
But then from what we have seen of history, we know histories exist to repeat themselves. Nothing is ever learned or unlearned, even if they are, they are quickly forgotten in the light of "new" circumstances which are in fact not new at all. Perhaps there will be a crisis soon -after the oil crisis mongers quieten down.
Rajesh Jain quotes WSJ's article on Mr.Doomsday of Oil, Colin Campbell:
More to the point, nobody knows how much can be gotten out of the ground. Much of the oil lies in places with volatile politics, including the Middle East, Russia and Africa.
Very interesting So the only stable oil rich country in the middle east, except Saudi Arabia was Iraq and now she also complies with the above mentioned model for Oil Rich nations! Do I smell a sinster plot? Or is it just plain greed that drives people to invoke race/religion/colour/ethnicity to create violence?
My boredom finally forced me to read the litany of articles on Why India Refused BJP. One very remarkable reason that was attributed by the ever Pro Congress Outlook is that BJP failed to consider the effect of falling interest rates on the senior citizens.
Granted, India has never bothered to actually consider the lot of the elderly, but attributing that as the cause of failure is almost laughable. But it got me wondering about the cultural effects of falling interest rates.
India has, in her entire economic history, never had interest rates in single digits till very recently. Hence, traditionally, the usual mode of savings would be in Bank Deposits or in Fixed Deposits that many of the manufacturing industries accepted, apart from the tonnes of gold that gets accumulated as ornaments and like. This formula, generally yielded rich returns before 1991, as the interest rates were in general as high as 30% (From my Grandma reminiscing about the "Good Old Days").
Post 1991 saw a deluge of products on the market, and a start of banking reformation. The Reserve Bank of India has, ever since, been cutting the interest rates.
The falling interest rates have encouraged the increasingly richer middle class to spend much more and save much less. This is obvious from the number of luxury goods manufactures and service providers in the Indian Market. Lesser money is then spent in taking care of the old. Traditionally, the eldest male child was entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the parents in their twilight years. But the exposure to the west and the enticing idea of sharing this responsibility with other siblings (which is an all too common trait among the Indians -transferring responsibility), has lead to a sharp decline in the number of elders who are taken care of by the sons and daughters. The new age consumers find it more convenient to let the parents be taken care of in one of the many Senior Citizens' "Homes" that have opened up in every nook and corner. This is the cultural fall out of globalisation.
Musing about the hoo-haa generated by even a half point change in exchange rates and stock prices, I poked around the garbage dumps of the internet to find out the evolution of such a simple but earth shaking system of exchange rates. The past is nothing to be proud of, but the mistakes made during that time resemble today
Oh well, long time since I wrote about the Asian Financial Crisis, now I got to submit an assignment -an analysis of a newspaper article of my choice. So, I picked up an article at the The Economist regarding the failure of the Cancun Talks. So here it goes:
The fifth Ministerial conference was set for a very modest task of reviewing the progress of negotiations and providing necessary political guidance. But even this goal was not met. This raises serious issues on not just relevance of WTO but also on the position of free trade in the world economy.
Scope of Cancun Talks
"Without prejudging the outcome, member governments committed themselves to comprehensive negotiations aimed at:
market access: substantial improvements
exports subsidies: reductions of, with a view to phasing out, all forms of these
domestic support: substantial reductions for supports that distort trade"
-Doha Ministerial Declaration, 2001
Cancun Ministerial Talks was after the ambitious agreement by the WTO to remove Agricultural tariffs and get cheaper drugs to developing countries to combat the AIDS scourge. At the Doha Round every nation agreed in principle to the above ideas in addition to the "Singapore Issues". Doha Round succeeded mainly due to leadership from U.S (in the wake of the September 11 attacks). With U.S agreeing in principle to many concessions (subject to many other conditions), the road to truely multilateral trade seemed clear.
After the Doha Round, plenty of efforts were made to come to a consensus on major issues. In fact, any change to World Trade Rules requires unanimous agreement from all members of the WTO and any change, indeed, would require nothing short of a miracle.
This is more obvious when sorry tales of missed deadlines and unpenetrable deadlocks come to light. Several contentious issues between the developed and developing nations have resulted in another deadlock in Cancun.
(Warning: Very long entry ahead. Proceed with caution)
I remember the day when I read the news (with glee I must admit) that Singapore Stock Exchange crashed :). I was around 13 years old and a staunch Communist (then). So the fall of a Capitalist Country (I thought Singapore was ;) ), was greatly welcomed.
But now, in my University, I have taken a General Elective called Financial Markets and Institutions, which, I think, has been introduced for the sole purpose of drilling into Singapore Business Students the perils of an Asian Financial Crisis (Something akin to the SARS Readiness Campaign that keeps hogging the headlines now and then).
I had a lecture in Asian Financial Crisis (one of the many I will have). And it was mind blowing. I am fortunate in having a Professor who doesn?t mince words when speaking and doesn't mind speaking the truth without any diplomat-speak. But, yes, I guess I might have just gulped in his words without much analysis of the "Other Side". But I must say his arguments are very convincing and sound very reasonable.
We all know how callous the MNCs have always been, given their ability to wrangle away from any situation by greasing a few palms of the Government. Right from Union Carbide to Enron, the MNCs have cared two hoots about Indians or their safety. Now here are the other giants who have bitten the dust. The Centre for Science and Environment has found out that Coca-Cola's and Pepsi's soft drinks contain pesticide residues far in excess of the European Union Norms.
The citizens were rightly concerned in the 70s which led to a demand for the MNCs to turn partly desis This made Coca-Cola withdraw from the Indian Market. ( it did not make an appearance till the 1990s when these restrictions were lifted). It is necessary that the MNCs realise that in any country, the safety and security of its citizens comes first. The behaviour of Pepsi and Coke smacks of imperialism, which was last seen in the East India Company (the company that 'conquered' India). Its about time the MNCs realise that when in Rome they have to be Romans.