Optimistic Investor (of Love)

In an attempt to figure out life, the first element which I chose to explore (in my life) is one of the most essential elements, which gives us strength to face Life when it hits us hard and beats us down to our knees. Agreed life is no sunshine and rainbows but when Love is there in your life, it is not even less than that.
Love is like a weapon which gives you the strength to face all the enemies in life and it gives you the confidence to succeed. For any achievement the first thing you need is the optimism to succeed, which comes from the faith you have in yourself and more importantly, the faith which others have in you.
No matter how many times JLo says-‘Love doesn’t cost a thing’ but it will just remain a song forever and never become a reality. We all are living in the dominantly capitalistic world and we all are pretty much aware of the fact that ‘nothing is free in here in this world’, then why to expect the impossible to happen. A lot are lucky enough to find the love and a lot are lucky enough to accept the fact that now its time to move on. It should be pretty obvious to understand why both of them are lucky. But in this world with unlimited resources and opportunities, still a few are stupid enough to refuse the fact that just by being optimistic and having faith and loving the person can’t make the other person love you.
It’s the world where people are obsessed with the returns (not only mileage). Market sees all kind of investors. Agreed that emotions should always be kept away while investing your hard earned money, but when everyone is sure that the volatility of market can’t be predicted then why can’t we just give a try to our intuition? There are investors of the kind who invest after lot of calculations as well as those who just invest on the basis of faith. Seriously, the investors of first kind though may hold their investments for long but even after getting periodic returns and benefits they can’t develop the faith which the investors of other kind have in their stocks. The investors of second kind may not get periodic returns, they may not get early returns but they never lose the faith in their stocks and they wait for the time when their faith brings success and then the faith becomes stronger inspite of the delay which may take place in bringing the returns. This is the case when both the investors are successful. Now what should an investor (third kind) who has lost a lot not once but twice in market should do? Should he keep himself away from investing or should he keep on investing in the stocks which though are not Blue chip but boast of early returns or should he change his strategy of investing and try investing once in the stocks which have always comforted the investors?
Life if considered a market here with love as the stock, I have been an investor of second kind and still waiting for the time with good returns. As she has been an investor of third kind my suggestion would be instead of keeping yourself away from market, just invest once in my love which has always been a Blue chip stock for you and has never let you down. Just for that faith which should have been developed so far invest your love in my life. I guarantee you the proper security of your investments with long term faith and beautiful relationship.
Your Faithful Investor
Arian

An Attempt to Figure out LIFE

Life is not as simple as it looks like. Life has different meanings for everyone and these meanings often change with time too. Our life starts the very first day we open our eyes and the more we try to understand it or the more we feel that we are now mature enough to figure out what it really is, it becomes more and more complex. It’s not that we never grow mature enough to solve this mystery, but it’s something that changes its course or its meanings whenever we try to guess something about it. Sometimes I feel that Life is never meant to be understood or to be predicted, it is just to be lived the way it wants you to live. But being a rational atheist its even more difficult to believe that almighty can be biased enough to not let us live our life the way WE want.
A rational atheist and a devotee of science and logic is a deadly combo, isn’t it? Being a student of science, it is difficult to stop figuring out what you feel is still unanswered. This is because the one of the most important lesson which a science student learns is to seize the opportunity to figure out the answer of any unanswered question posed by anyone. For most of us I believe, it is difficult to find out questions compared to answer them. We get excited every time we come across a mystery or a problem or a challenge and this is not because we love to solve them but the main reason is that behind every unsolved problem we see an opportunity to make a difference.
The best part of life is learning. The world in which we live is an ocean of knowledge, someone has said it right. Every moment we live, life has something to offer us. How vast is the ocean of knowledge is and how small compared to that our life is. Sometimes I wonder, is it right to say that ‘History repeats itself’? If it happens then it can only be because of two reasons, one being the limited offerings which life has in store for us and the other being the incomplete transfer of knowledge from one generation to other. I being on a vacation these days for Diwali at home, have no new technical challenges to face and hence planning to take an attempt to solve the mystery called LIFE.
With the hope that the attempt will not go wasted.
Arian
(in search of meaning for LIFE)

Economic Lesson:don't borrow from foreigners

We criticized governments for doing all the wrong things. But urging them to do the right things would be both futile and earnest. Futility doesn't bother us. But we can't stand earnestness. Left unchecked it leads right to world improvement...and thence to Hell.

Still, in the spirit of civic betterment, today exceptionally, I offer a bit of advice to financial authorities all over the world. In a word:

Default!

When you have more debt than you can pay, it is always best to own up...default...hang your head...say you're sorry...promise not to do it again...

...and go about your business. And do it as soon as possible.

Wondering from where comes this advice? From the pages of history - recent...and not so recent.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Arab states borrowed heavily from Europeans. The Ottoman Empire was an anachronism. The modern state had already been developed by Napoleon and Bismarck. Meanwhile, in America, the War Between the States sealed the fate of the founding fathers' republic. The limited government of Jefferson became the runaway military government of Lincoln...and later the all-powerful social welfare state of Franklin Roosevelt.

Back in the Old World, in the 19th century, modern technology gave Europeans a huge advantage over their neighbors. The Ottomans - who governed from the Balkans to Morocco -- were being left behind. Their economies were less productive, so they lacked the tax base needed to sustain modern armies. So, they brought in European entrepreneurs and European capital to build railroads, canals and other improvements.

Then, as now, declining economies were supported by more dynamic ones.

"China's lending hits new heights," says a headline.

China has the most dynamic economy in the world...with $2.8 trillion in reserves, most of it in dollars. It is lending money all over the world It is America's biggest creditor. And now it is helping wobbly European nations go deeper into debt too.

Foreign money comes at a cost. When the Ottomans couldn't pay, they tried austerity...and then borrowed more. The natives grew restless under the austerity measures. The debt grew larger too...as more and more money was needed to support previous borrowing.

Soon, there was no way out. Backed by better armies, the Europeans foreclosed. France's general Bugeaud laid waste to Algeria's fertile plains. Later, France found a pretext to invade Tunisia. Italy took Libya. Britain invaded Egypt. Soon, Europeans were in control of all of North Africa...and much of the Levant.

Lesson # 1 -- don't borrow from foreigners.

Lesson #2 -- if you get into trouble, don't borrow more from the foreigners. Default.

Next, it was the Europeans' turn to be the borrowers. They got into a nasty, pointless war in 1914. The French borrowed from the English. The English borrowed from the Americans. The Germans couldn't borrow, so they printed money.

Then, when the war was over...everybody waited to get paid. The Americans waited for the English to pay. The English waited for the French. And the French waited for the Germans. The Huns were supposed to pay reparations, but they were broke ...so they printed more money. In the end, after many disasters, no one got paid...neither the Americans, nor the English, nor the French. Instead, they all suffered a worldwide depression and then another worldwide war.

Same lessons: if you can't pay; don't try; don't pretend. Default.

And now the European states are in debt again. Not because of war, because of the social welfare system...aging populations...and bank debt. They cannot pay. So they try austerity measures and borrow more. The Chinese and Japanese are the latest benefactors.

In the US...the problem is similar. The government runs at a loss. Debt mounts up. The states implement austerity efforts; they have no choice. The central government, like Germany, prints money.

Now, both America and Europe are the Old World. Their social welfare model is failing. It was developed as a response to the needs of the nation state in the early days of the industrial revolution. It was suited to an era with expanding populations, fast-growing wealth, large pools of factory labor and almost unlimited resources. Governments needed to keep the urban masses under control. It was no good to provide them with security, insist that they obey the laws, and let it go at that. The politician that promised only a dollar's worth of benefit for a dollar's worth of taxes was soon replaced by one who promised to give back $1.20...or $1.50. In theory, this made perfect sense. Once government became recognized as the servant of the people, rather than their master, the people had a right to get their moneys' worth. And then, why would anyone willingly submit to the authority of a government if it delivered no more than the citizen could get on his own? Why allow yourself to be forced to pay into the government's social security program, for example, if it paid out no better than a private plan? Or, if the government's health care system delivers no more or better service than you can get from private plans, what's the point?

The promise of government's social welfare projects was that they would take money from the few rich and the many as yet unborn in order to give it to poor and middle class voters. That is, voters thought they could get something for nothing. And, for a very long time, governments could deliver. They simply relied on the next wealthier, larger generation to make good on promises made to the previous one. It worked for 150 years. But now the next generations are often smaller. And maybe poorer. The old live longer. And there are more of them. The rich are too few to make pay the bills. The rate of growth has slowed down. The return on additional inputs of debt has turned negative, while trillions in unpaid debt and commitments comes due.

Again, governments in the Old World have borrowed and promised too much. But rather than default honestly and openly, (forcing the people who lent imprudently to take the losses) they try to put the burden of the losses onto the innocent citizen...and the unenlightened investor.

He will pay higher taxes. He will get less in services. His money...his savings...his pension -- all will be devalued by inflation. If he has stocks...they too will likely be sold off in the financial crises to come.

But let's look at another, more recent example. Iceland.

You may remember, two years ago Iceland was a mess. Its banks had borrowed, lent, and speculated recklessly. Iceland's feds squirmed and winced. At first, the government decided it would do what Ireland was doing. It would rescue the banks...that is, it would bail out the banks' lenders with public funds.

But when the public caught on to what was going on, a referendum was held. Voters rejected the bailout as if they were voting against sin itself. More than 90% of voters cast ballots against a taxpayer bailout.

Unable to stick the voters with the losses, the Iceland government left the banks to default.

Was this the end of the world? Did Iceland slip below the North Atlantic waves...joining the Titanic on the chilly, dark bottom of the sea? Did commerce break down? Did the Icelandic money become worthless? Was this the 'end of time'...the apocalypse forecast in the Bible?

Nope.

"Iceland is doing better than anyone could have hoped," reports says.

Inflation fell from 18% down to 5% last year. The cost of insuring Icelandic debt fell to less than a third of the price in early 2009. Unemployment is barely 6%.

"Thanks to its rescue plan," says the IMF, "the recession in Iceland has been less deep than expected and not worse than in the other countries deeply affected."

How did they achieve this? Are the Icelanders smarter than the Europeans?

Not exactly. They tried the typical dead-end solution. The trouble was, no one would lend Iceland more money. And once the public revolted, after realizing that it would be left holding the bag, the Icelandic feds had no choice. They had exhausted all the bad ideas. They were forced to go with a good one.

The foreign debt was consolidated into a few banks...which then went broke. The remaining banks were left intact, ready to keep the country's financial machinery in business.

Lesson learned: got too much debt? Default quickly. Make it clean. Make it fast. Make it work.

Can't say

Can't say I don't want you anymore
Can't even say I don't love you
can't say my priorities have changed, either
I would rather say-I have learnt to live
even with the dream shattered

I have faked a lot of laughs
I have even joked really bad
just to keep my emotions buried
inside my heart and my head

You talk about your pain
and compare it with mine,
don't do that, really you can't
as your pain is over
but I am still going through with mine


[P.S :P, :), :D]