Nation of millionaires - 2

Inflation in India, America and Britain is uncomfortably high, but it could be worse—just ask Zimbabwe:

“During the meal, one of my mates was drinking beer - 750ml bottles of Castle Lager (fondly called bombers) he ordered a 5th one, was advised that the price, which when he ordered his 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th ones was 160 million per bottle, had gone up to 340 million per bottle.”

So you gonna be fast when you are in Zimbabwe, got that!!

Link

Sleeping with the thief

Such strange things happen too:

“A Malaysian woman woke up to a real-life nightmare, discovering that the naked man who had slipped into her bed in the middle of the night was a thief, not her husband.”….”The 36-year-old housewife was asleep when the thief, noticing that her husband was fast asleep on the couch, quietly stripped off and lay down beside her”…”The dozing woman’s suspicions were raised when she spoke to him and his voice sounded strange”….”She then went to another room and found her husband fast asleep on the couch. That’s when she screamed, causing the thief to flee by leaping out the window together with the stolen items,”

While the thief must have been singing “Raat kali ek khwaab mein aayi aur gale ka haar hui…”, the husband surprsingly “Ye kya hua, kaise hua, kab hua, jab hua, tab hua….” and the woman actually two songs: “Dil ko chura ke le gaya ek ajnabi….” and “teri nindya re…re aaye haaye teri nindya re….”!!!!

Einstein on religion

“Albert Einstein regarded religions as “childish” and “primitive legends”, a private letter he wrote a year before his death has revealed.”

Even then he is a charisma in the religious world. I have been witness to people selling books like the Bhagwad Geeta, Bible, etc. claiming Einstein has read them. Possibly true, but none claims his comments on God and his review of the books!

Some more excerpts from the news:

“The word god is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weakness, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this.”

“Educated at a Catholic primary school but given private tuition in Judaism, Einstein later wrote that the “religious paradise of youth” - when he believed what he was told - was quickly crushed when he started questioning religion at the age of 12.

He wrote: “The consequence was a positively fanatic freethinking coupled with the impression that youth is being deceived by the state through lies; it was a crushing impression.”

Phunny!

Manbabies

WTF

This report tells us that on an average a Greek smokes 3000 cigarettes per year. This is equivalent to smoking a little more than 8 cigarettes per day per person! If one excludes the children up to the age of 12 (assuming a minuscule number of child smokers) in a nation of an average life expectancy of 78, then it is equivalent to excluding approximately 15% of the population that would not smoke. Which means 85% of the population accounts for 3000 cigarettes per person per day. This boils down to approximately 10 cigarettes per person per year. WTF!!

If Manoj Kumar were born in Greece, he would have produced Sutta, Kapda aur Makaan. In fact, he could have enhanced his trademark of covering up his face with his right hand (remember Om Shanti Om) by always holding a ciggy.

Pardon me for the stupid data crunching

Oil@125 - Some facts

India is the 10th largest oil importing nation in the world (oil imports are close to 70% of its crude oil requirements). If the average price of crude oil for FY09 is $105 / bbl, then, it will result in the FY09 trade deficit coming in at US$115bn. According to Citibank,

US$1/bbl increase in oil prices results in the trade deficit widening by US$700mn. Therefore, assuming a US$15/bbl increase in the Indian basket to US$120/bbl, the import bill would rise by an additional US$10.5bn, taking the CAD to US$47.3bn or 3.6% of GDP.

To be in-line with international trends, auto fuels need to rise 18% for petrol and 43% for diesel. However given political compulsions, this is unlikely to take place. As far as the fisc is concerned, to compensate the oil marketing companies for the under-recoveries, the government is likely to issue oil bonds to the tune of Rs630bn in FY09.

How much LPG, Kerosene, Diesel and Petrol Contribute to Inflation ? See Chart below. Overall, if the above fuel prices are changed to be in-line with international prices, they will contribute 4.70% to Inflation and the Government can never do this but burn deep hole in its own pocket. Additionally, the Indian Rupee is expected to become weaker on account of higher deficits.

Link

Mumbai among world’s cheapest

I do not know what quality of research was this, but it feels so insulting to hear that Mumbai is among the cheapest cities of the world. Insulting because we know how much it hurts when we loosen our pockets

“Europe dominates the list of 71 cities compiled by Swiss bank UBS, while Asian cities - including Kuala Lumpur and Mumbai - are among the cheapest places to live, based on the cost of a basket of 122 goods and services. Oslo maintained its top position from 2005, while London rose three places to second.”

Not sure if they have really chosen real estate as one of the basket components; and even if they have, I have my doubts on the weight assigned to it - it sucks most of our earnings!!

How about a survey of cities with the criterion - most value for your money spent. I am sure Mumbai will be terribly beaten here. For the money people pay here, they do not get good commuting, nor a good place to live and  top that with the timely threats that the Sainiks and MNSs keep shooting .

BPL joke

What would Satyajit Ray call his father each time without really being in a state of agony?

Baap Ray!!

Hence, a Below Poverty Line Joke

NMS

How about forming a Non Maharashtrian Sena (NMS) to counter the goons of MNS (Maharashtra Navnirman Sena). No violence; just increase the murkiness due to similar pronunciation

BTW, I have a firm belief we are not really a true democracy so I plan to learn Marathi (its a good language to know) and also be unequivocal in my support to whoever guarantees my peaceful existence in Mumbai.

Oil@125

Recently, crude oil futures smashed the US $125 benchmark to make a new record, amid worries over production interruptions in Nigeria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, exacerbated by a further weakening of the Dollar against the Euro. Soaring oil prices, which have grown by over 70% since the last year, will undoubtedly have a negative influence on the world economy, which has shown signs of easing already. In turn, this is expected to have an impact, and probably a huge one, on India.

Is not the price of crude oil rising for no reason now? Has a froth formation started which is soon going to be cleared? May be this is the time to buy some cheap “puts” on the oil. May be not. Yes, our resources of oil are dwindling and are soon to be exhausted in the next century, but why must the prices be so high? Yes, the dollar has weakened but not become a mere piece of paper yet. In fact, initially I read the experts claiming the rise of oil prices due to a weakening dollar (as the benchmark is in USD). Having rallied till much above $100, now I also read analysts attributing return of steam in the dollar as the reason for rising oil prices - basically an increase in US demand as fears of recession allay.

The economic pundits argue that the futures market are an efficient way to discover price. And Oil is the most liquid, most traded commodity in the world. So have the supply-demand equations altered to the extent that there are spikes in the price of oil? Were the markets not efficient when the price of oil was $70 a year ago, or are they not efficient now?

In India, the serving (I prefer not to use the word “ruling”) Congress government is going to be (or already) in a real fix. The subsidies, whether direct and transparent by the government or indirect as in tax cuts, oil bonds and compensation by government owned upstream companies, are a drain on the resources of the government. The losses to the exchequer can only be reduced when the consumer pays the right price for the product. But the rising inflation numbers released every week makes it dangerous for the government to play with the price of petrol.

So whats in the store for India? Are interest rates going to rise because the bonds issued by the government will keep on sucking the excess liquidity in the system and make money expensive? Inflation obviously will be really difficult to put a chain around. Probably, there can be several other unforeseen issues which we may have to tackle with. Lets see what is it that we have.

What we definitely need now is a strong push for research in alternative energy. I am sure at some price of oil, not too distant from the current $125, even the cost of generating power from sun will become cheaper.

For now lets hope the froth gets cleared and there is some sanity discovered in the price of oil.