After the firm denial finally came the acknowledgement that there is recession. Bankers, encomists, politicians and even ordinary people seem to have resigned to recession. People are no longer aggresive in terms of making investments. Nor are they planning to buy any luxury products. Greed seems to have taken back seat and caution is the word of the hour. Markets are gyrating like never before, people seem to be thinking in terms of saving for the future and finally, dooms day predictors are having a field day painting an ever darker and every horrifying picture of what to expect in the future.
Despite all this, what I like the most about the current situation is that, the focus is back again on creating solid tangable assets and skills. America is trying to modernise infrastructure while China is trying to build some more of it. The earlier blind belief of concentrating on high end design activity in America and shipping the production business into the third world countries seem to be gone. Innovation and Manufacturing are taking centre stage in America. They are emphasising on developing green technologies.They want to develop new and efficeint cars along with cars that run without oil. All in all, the concentration is on doing and not talking. People who talk and only talk are being side tracked for some time and people with real ability to create, be it scientifc or artistic, are again taking centre stage.
Despite all this, what I like the most about the current situation is that, the focus is back again on creating solid tangable assets and skills. America is trying to modernise infrastructure while China is trying to build some more of it. The earlier blind belief of concentrating on high end design activity in America and shipping the production business into the third world countries seem to be gone. Innovation and Manufacturing are taking centre stage in America. They are emphasising on developing green technologies.They want to develop new and efficeint cars along with cars that run without oil. All in all, the concentration is on doing and not talking. People who talk and only talk are being side tracked for some time and people with real ability to create, be it scientifc or artistic, are again taking centre stage.
Physicist, Mathematicains and others who previously concentrated on coming up with the right option price are now heading back to their Unversities to take up their true avocation, research and the cream of the student community is no longer obligated to be Investment bankers.
If we watch the world over a period of time, we cannot miss this cyclicity of economic growth and contraction. The world appears to be exhausted after playing investment-competetion-get-ahead-of-the-pack games. The aftermath of this high energy roller skater ride is that everyone needs some time to allow the dust to settle and breath easy. You can however, expect the ride to start all over again. This time with renewed interest and gusto.
One cannot fail to notice another important thread that keeps running in parallel to the world ecomony. The world needs some issue to play with. In the nineteenth century, it was industrialisation, imperialism and war. Later it was oil and coldwar and now it is terrorism and hatred. We are again going to see an overdose of aggression, the blase effects of voilence and the return of sound common sense and the cries for living in peace. Why does it have to be that way is beyond my comprehension. But I am pretty convinced it is going to be the same. Whether there is any correlation between these two threads is a million dollar question that I am sure aonly a select few can answer.
One cannot fail to notice another important thread that keeps running in parallel to the world ecomony. The world needs some issue to play with. In the nineteenth century, it was industrialisation, imperialism and war. Later it was oil and coldwar and now it is terrorism and hatred. We are again going to see an overdose of aggression, the blase effects of voilence and the return of sound common sense and the cries for living in peace. Why does it have to be that way is beyond my comprehension. But I am pretty convinced it is going to be the same. Whether there is any correlation between these two threads is a million dollar question that I am sure aonly a select few can answer.
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