US Presidential Elections - III

After two long years, the race for the White house, is about to end this Tuesday. The race was so close. It was really tough. Even today you cannot be sure about who is going to win. It looks like Obama has a good chance. But anything can happen.

This week "Time" magazine had a good article about the leadership style of the two candidates and also, about the various problems that they might face in this presidency. I think it makes perfect sense. There are just too many things that the next president should fix. There is a huge Economic Crisis, Energy crisis, Unemployment, Housing crisis, Health care, possible Recession, Problems in Iraq, fragile Afghanistan, decaying Pakistan, Rise of China, newly refreshed ambitions of Russia, Climate crisis, Problems with Iran, Terrorism in the country itself.

Am just a normal university student, who occasionally happen to check the news. Even I can list down 14 critical issues that the next US president has to address. Then imagine the real trouble he is in.

Over the years, the world has developed a certain dependency towards US. We all tried to follow their Free Market Capitalism and Democracy and unknowingly became too dependent on US. The problems that the US president has to address just becomes too much when you add in this "Dependency" factor. Whether you like it or not, every decision, he is gonna make is gonna affect the world, not just the US. And that is the sad reality. We are in a once-in-a-century crisis right now, because the current administration for some reason, refused to acknowledge this fact.

You can read the 6-page article here and it will give a pretty good idea of how the next 4 years can be. Anyways, am eagerly waiting for the results of the US elections.

Obama informercial

Check this one. I found in Time website. Prolly shd hav been the effect of Obama buying primetime for an infomercial. If you havnt seen it yet, you can see the infomercial here. I think Obama has too much money to spent and is not quite sure, what he can do with it, with elections coming to an end. "Spend this many millions in this many days". lol.

Spoofing Sarah !

"Katie, I would like to use one of my life lines"

This is hilarious. I read something in Time website today, titled, "Shamelessly Spoofing Sarah". See the videos and have fun !

I dunno how many ppl saw the Sarah Palin interview with Katie Couric, where she said, she has foreign policy credentials, just because she can see Russia from Alaska. I bet, even Vladimir Putin would have laughed hysterically when he read about this. For some reason, when i saw the interview, i remembered the Miss Teen USA video.

After seeing the videos, i thought about President Bush. I mean, how is she different from Bush? Have you seen the "Sovereignty" video, where President Bush, tries to explain what tribal sovereignty is? lol.

I was actually feeling bad, that Bush is leaving, because with Bush it was too much fun. But i think we have Sarah Palin now. Atleast for this, Sarah should win.

US presidential Elections - II

Have you seen the "Google Docs rox" video in youtube? I kind of like the "commoncraft" series. I dunno how many people know about this. But check the following video, titled, "Electing a US president in plain English".

The US system is so complex. The first time i was introduced to the US politics, it was through the module "Introduction to Political science" in my second year. Until then, i had no clue about their presidential system. We often read about this in "Civics" (Last few pages of "History" book, where they vaguely introduce rights, duties, blah, blah) in school. But who cares about Civics, when you get enough choice in "History" portion. (That is the plus side of studying in State board syllabus)

As i was saying, the US system is quite complex. But this video makes it so simple. I wish i had seen this video when i was doing that political science module. (Not that, it would have helped my grade. Just that it would have made me go to classes)

Why Obama is winning

I read an article in Time website today, about the Obama's journey in the last two years. Was really interesting. You can read it here.

"He is undoubtedly as ego-driven as everyone else seeking the highest office — perhaps more so, given his race, his name and his lack of experience. But he has not been childishly egomaniacal, in contrast to our recent baby-boomer Presidents — or petulant, in contrast to his opponent. He does not seem needy. He seems a grown-up, in a nation that badly needs some adult supervision."

Is it really the end of America and Capitalism?

Is the current crisis, the beginning of the end?

America has always been the sign of Democracy and Capitalism. (or Anglo-Saxon capitalism, as the Europeans like to call it). No denying that. My opinion is, Democracy is the best form of government, in spite of all the trouble that comes as one package. And capitalism is the best way to increase the prosperity and also is the best ideology for nation-building.

A serious question is being raised these days. Is the current crisis, the end of American dominance in the Finance ground? The American government is planning to buy stake in all the big banks. They have publicly announced that this is a short term decision and the government will not interfere in the banks activities. But many Europeans have already started saying that the American system has failed. Is it really the end of capitalism? I hope not.

But what exactly is about to happen? If indeed America fails miserably, what will happen next? Read this article in Wall Street Journal, titled, "The dangers of Diminished America". I think every line makes sense in this article. The failure of America will indeed create a power vacuum. And given the current situation, where the world rogue countries are either afraid of America or dependent on America, this could prove disastrous. The Democrats in America are already talking about ending the war in Iraq, abruptly. They are already talking about cutting foreign funding. They are going to concentrate more in Nation building. Considering the current situation, where Recession in the US in unavoidable, i think this can create real trouble for the next president. Lets hope Obama can lead the nation, as he led his campaign in the last two years, which is the best example of how a campaign should be run. McCain campaign was chaotic. Not in line with the Democrat, as pointed out by Colin Powell.

But the serious question remain, What is his stance going to be? Is he going to pull out the country from the world and create a "Financially induced Isolation" or he is going to keep the country as the focal point for the world and pay the huge price tag? We are not sure.

I have a friend, and we constantly argue about this. His view point is that capitalism has failed; Deregulation and Decentralization has failed. My point is, yes, it has failed to some extent. But the question to be asked is, "What alternative do we have?" And i truly believe Capitalism and Democracy is the best way for prosperity and we are not going to achieve that in a world where America fails, and a place where there is no one else to take up the leading role.

Also, read this interesting article in Newsweek magazine titled, "There is a silver lining", by Fareed Zakaria. And also, another article in Newsweek, by Francis Fukuyama, titled, "The End of America Inc"

Anyways, lets hope for the best and wait until January 2009.

Power of Oil !

Check the following link. I found it using stumble upon. Btw, if you havnt started stumbling yet, now is the time. Great tool to kill time.

http://www.dubai-architecture.info/DUB-GAL1.htm

Varanam Ayiram - Songs

Just heard the songs of VA. Really liked it.


Well, it is Harris. So in few more days, we can expect to see people uploading videos in youtube, showing with proof that he "adopted" the songs from some english or spanish song. But lets give it up. The songs are really good. A good mix of fast and melodious numbers. I liked 5 songs out of the 7. "Adiye Kolluthey", "Yethi Yethi", "Nejukkul peithidum" are the three most played songs according to my winamp playlist.


Really looking forward to the release of the movie. They say it is like Forrest Gump, which is one of my fav movies of all time. So should definitely see the movie.

Black Monday !

Lehman Brothers office in Wall Street

This is a famous term in the Wall Street. Every traders nightmare is this. And that is about to happen. The monday that initiated the "Great Depression" in 1930 is called the Black Monday. Can today, the history repeat itself? What will happen if this monday indeed becomes the beginning of the biggest depression that we have ever seen? Or will the take over of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, smoothen the crisis? What is in store for the Asian Markets?

There are so many unanswered questions and we shall get the troublesome answers in few more hours, when the NYSE and DowJones start the trading.

Lehman Brothers, one of the worlds most successful Investment Bank is about to file for bankruptcy. Lehman was one of the highly paying, cool investment banks. But today, it is filing for bankruptcy. No one has a clue as to what will happen to all the 25000 employees in Lehman. All their stock options evaporated in days. The stock price of Lehman was once worth 85USD, but on friday it was 3USD. Almost a 95% drop in stock price within a matter of few months. The CEO's stock options were worth almost a billion one year ago. but now, his stock options are worth 36 million. The worse is yet to come. If lehman indeed file for bankruptcy, the stock price will fall way below than this. There are so many companies that have invested in Lehman Brothers stock and bonds and Lehman will drag them all to mud.

Next is Merrill Lynch (ML). One of the oldest and most famous Investment Bank in Wall street. The company was worth almost 150 billion a year ago. But now, they have been acquired by Bank of America for 50Billion. But i would say, this is a good move by ML, as they can prevent themselves from becoming another Lehman.

If you had followed the events that happened in the last weekend, it was like a thriller novel. All the emergency meetings and the billion dollar funds and rescue attempts...Lehman and ML were two of the four pillars of Wall Street and American Banking system in general. They have collapsed and brought to their knees by this Subprime mortgage crisis. “My goodness. I’ve been in the business 35 years, and these are the most extraordinary events I’ve ever seen,” said Peter G.Peterson, co-founder of the private equity firm the Blackstone Group who was head of Lehman in the 1970s and a secretary of commerce in the Nixon administration. (During the Interview with the New york Times)

This leaves Singapore in a very bad state, as Singapore is one of the Financial hubs, where ML and Lehman are pretty strong. What will happen to the employees here? what will happen to students like me, who are just now starting to look for a job? Singapore is pretty much a manufacturing hub. If it is not Finance industry, Singapore will face serious problems.

This problem can continue to European Markets. I recently read an article in nytimes, that said the house prices in UK are suddenly falling in a rapid rate. If you can remember, this is exactly how the US credit crisis started. If the problem continues, it will result in the downfall of the European banks that have been pretty sterile to the credit crisis so far. Lets hope that doesnt happen.

Indian software companies could face various problems. They might loose a lotta money in this crisis. When the foreign companies fear about their future, the first spending they will cut is IT.

What is the fate of US Economy? What is most likely to happen? These are two important questions. Well, the answer lies in todays stock market. If the stock market reacts very very badly to the problems in ML and Lehman, then that is the beginning of the disaster. Because you see, failure in investor confidence will seriously affect the stock prices. If all the investors think their holding is risky, they might try to sell it off. If every single investor is plannin to do that, then we are doomed. The virus will then spread to all the other sectors, with falling stock prices and job cuts. And further increase in inflation and spiralling loss in consumer product manufacturing companies.

All the financial ministers have already started pleading the markets not to panic. There can be no panic in Japan, because the exchange is closed for a public holiday. But no one is sure how the other stock markets will react to this. This might as well change the way we see Banks and Investment banks for the next few years. There is so much at stake here.

Rare ARR Interview

I dont know how many people have seen this interview. I think, this was taken roughly one year after the film Roja.