Vote for mattresses

My wife had been pushing me to replace our old mattresses for a very long time now. Finally I agreed to replace them subject to US Congress passing the bailout bill Monday night.

We sat huddled to the TV. I had bigger material at stake in stock markets than her friggin mattresses, yet she was more tense and chewing her nails through out the voting.

Everybody thought it was just a formality and the bill would sail through to the next stage. Initial stages of voting conformed to the expectations but midway through Republicans started catching up on the Democrats and much before the final vote, 218 Nays sealed the fate of the bill and the mattresses. My wife's scream at home echoed on the Wall street as Dow Jones plunged 500 point with the fall of hammer.

The US Congress, professor of free markets and free world, re-asserted its ideology of free markets. Ironically, the same Congress has put its seal on various wars against free nations in the past.

But general opinion is that after much ado, the bill will see the light and the giant BLOB (usd700 billion) will make a fresh entry into the financial ring. What would it do there?....Take a deeeep breath...

Till then, my wife would be cursing the Republicans(and me), everytime she turns in her sleep.

Lehman makes landfall

It's not the US gulf coast, but the financial markets weathering the worst hurricane season. Bear Stern, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Lehman Bros. and Merrill Lynch(?) in alphabetical order have shaken up the financial markets around the world, especially the emerging ones.

Freddie n Fannie

US Govt. today adopted financial orphan twins Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. In other words poor taxpayers will have to share their bread with their now half brothers, shareholders of the two firms.

The twins bear their signatures on more than $5.3 trillion of mortgages across USA. Last year together they posted a book loss of usd 14 billion. Not a ghostly figure in relative terms (considering the mammoth aggregate on roll) yet enough to evaporate trust and faith from the markets in realty. Eventually this distrust would have rendered them insolvent .

Think of the sum equal to six Indian economies going down the drain. It would have broken the back bone of the financial system across the world. So grave was(?) the danger.

For the moment, the move by the US govt. is like a shot in the arm for financial world and we may see the euphoric reaction until realty when faced with stark reality.

Ta Ta No No Bye Bye

Thanks Mamta. Thank you very much for saying bye bye to Tata. Nano project is a disaster for inidia. With over a billion people, India need to have a robust public transport system and not the match boxes on wheels. Atleast someone sans balls with brain.

Keep it up.