Global currency unit

There is a strong case for making of a standard currency unit in the world, like SDR or Global Currency unit.

In 18th & 19th century Britain's Pound Stirling acted as the prime currency due to the dominance of Britain as the economic power. Later German Deutsch mark and French Franc was added to represent the rise in their economic ( and military) muscles. After World War II ( 1944), Bretton woods system, with US dollar deliberately placed at the center of the system, was agreed upon. Bretton woods actually defined the exchange rate of each currency in terms of gold, but shortage of gold led other countries to define domestic currencies in terms of dollar. Hence the US dollar became the center ( sorry, centrE) of this system .

The US government guaranteed all the holders of dollars that, they could sell the reserve dollars in exchange for a fixed rate of gold. When a crisis occurred in 1971 and there was a drastic reduction in reserves of gold at Fort Knox and many other places ( where the gold was held ), the US government declared that it would not be able to gurantee and currencies should be traded floating. Earlier it served the US central bank to run the deficit of US dollars as the trade deficit of US was being financed by the purchase of dollars by other countries.

Notably in 1913 Central bank of US , Federal Reserve was formed to contain the panic of 1907 as the third bank. Fed had government nominee on its board but it had large stakes in it of JP Morgan and other rich banks ( one of them controlled by Rockfeller family). So the government of United States does not control its own central bank, which takes decision on liquidity, flow of currency and impacts its trade.

So the other countries which buy dollars actually fund the deficit of United states and the loan people take is actually from the rest of the world. Being a prime currency also gives a leverage in buying commodities like oil & gold. But ultimately US population is under the debt of its own currency , due to result of promotion of spending theory. Spend more to expand the economy. Now most individuals dont benefit by credit, ultimately they have to pay them ( as you see now in this credit crisis of 2008-9. The value of the dollars have fallen and more unfortunately US is losing credibility as "the" economy. Then who is benefiting ? By playing and getting infusion of tax payers money big corporates are. They didn't take the responsibility of the credit crisis but they are being rewarded by the US government, as the government fears loss of thousands and millions of jobs, leading to further deterioration of its economy.So a few banks ( and its shareholders)would have more control over the economy of America and would be able to manipulate the money flow according to their whims.

In my opinion the control first should be taken by all the governments throughout the world, not only USA. Secondly a prime currency independent of any country's currency should be established as the standard. Now the question is how this world currency ( say) should be bench marked and what should be the rate of exchange.

In order to give each and every country its share there would be a formula to determine their weight in the currency, rather than just a few countries currencies like dollars, euros and yen. I propose a formula, which might be or might not be agreeable but its my point of view.

Lets say, world currency is denoted by W. The countries by 1, 2,3.. Their currencies by x1, x2. Their purchasing power of a basket of essential goods ( in comparison to other currencies in say, 2009) by pp1, pp2.. their population in 2009 by P1, P2... balance of trade by T1, T2... ( in terms of purchasing power parity) . Let ppavg be average of purchasing power parity of all the countries in 2009.

So the weight of each currency would be , W1= pp1*P1 +Function of (T1)

So the world currency would be

W= [(pp1*P1+T1)+ (pp2*P2+T2) +......( ppn*Pn+Tn )]/ Function of (ppavg*( P1+P2...+Pn)

This may not be perfect solution given the already inbuilt biases in the calculation of purchasing power due to economic positions of each country, which doesn't account for the future potential, but at least it takes into account the population and trade balance , which reflects the consumption and savings pattern of a particular country.

At least each economy would be represented according to its "real" buying power, not through artificial manipulations of currency market. In economic theory currency's value is determined by demand and supply, but it neglects the heavy influence of big corporates and countries, which can manipulate the flow of money and liquidity by injecting or buying certain currencies.

Wish to have your opinion and would like you to point at my flaws as I am not an economist. I am a student of economics.

Watch out this column in future and the comments.

Note: The world Currency proposed by Lok Sang Ho of Lingnan university, Hong Kong takes into account the conversion of weight of each currency into US dollars and proposes a basket of a few currencies of dominating countries in addition USA, Japan and Europe, like Australia and Canada. Though it would be agreeable due to less complexity in terms of agreement, it again sets the bias towards a few countries, leaving major countries like China and India and continents like Africa. The agreement would not be feasible because of dynamics of each country, but it would give a more equitable weightage to each country's economy and its population.

Love Pranay

musings from Mountain View, CA

Acknowledgements
http://e-articles.info/e/a/title/Dollar-Crisis-of-1971/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Currency_Unit

http://www.ln.edu.hk/cpps/wcu/index.htm

Where the mind is without fear -Gurudev

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,

Where knowledge is free,

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

by narrow domestic walls,

Where words come out from the depth of truth,

Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection,

Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;

Where the mind is led forward by thee

Into ever-widening thought and action,

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country *(THE WORLD ) awake.

Rabindranath Tagore

Poverty of Ideas & Courage

Friends, South asia is much in news, with Pakistan at its epicenter. Sri Lanka fighting against LTTE , one of the most sophisticated organization in the world. India; fighting its own callous attitude. And I don’t mean, shabby intelligence coordination or soft government. I mean Indians themselves.

Nepal; just out of a "revolution". Bangladesh, fighting tooth and nail against poverty; economic poverty but not poverty of ideas, which its sub-continental sisters share.

Lets take Pakistan. The Pakistanis, great people but victim of enforced non education and a greedy poitical class.Omnipresent military, using Kashmir & India to continue to divert attention from the economic and social poverty , which Pakistanis never deserved. No one in that "pak" ( pure) land with balanced mind wants war. They want peace, without India, without their military, without the US presence.

Nepal, again the same political bickering, political class struggling to take charge.SriLanka may have finally awakened, but will the war bring a final peace? Will some Indians try to wrest control from the legal government there? Hard to say.

Bangladesh, same story. Yet some people like Muhammad Yunus working with richness of ideas and creating socio-economic well being. But will the larger populace support such initiative and the government. Will they hold the government accountable?

India is a contrast. It build satellites at 1/3 the cost of western countries, but more sophisticated. On the other hand, some 10 men storm their sea front ; the Indian government flexing muscles in G-20 & G-12 & G-X, whimpering. But at the core of all this, the Indians themselves are responsible.. Yes, it’s a true democracy. Despite the hard wired corruption, governments fall through votes. Yet Indians forget their drama, in the cushions of cricket or another "C”. Callousness. Each voter is the deciding factor, but no one realizes the power. So what happens, a few crooks rule the governments? So after the few hurrahs, they sit back behind the Tvs, increasing the weight and life style diseases (specially middle class) and wait for the government to react and fail. Then they blame! Just blame anyone they can lay their hands on.

The middle class. Defined by the corporate as the biggest, rising, consumer class in the world. Wow! Can they choose products, when they can’t even choose their own lives?

The poverty of any type has entrenched in this sub-continent. But the biggest poverty is of courage; of leadership; of ideas. Anyone ! Anyone, taking notice! Its not by chance that this region is the most improvised regions of the world, with richest natural resources, the earth can provide.Masticate on the thought, hard to digest.

Love Pranay

Passion, Courage , Life !

Passion gives courage to create beyond the known.

Without exploration , life is but a stagnant pond. Possibilities lie in flowing like a river , despite the rocks in the path. Actually rocks create a rhythm in the flow, otherwise even the flow becomes monotonous.

Love !

AIG fat cats & rewards

Rewards for failures!!!

Now we are hearing that for the first time in history of any industry. Maybe AIG was more influenced by Freud and others, who claimed that punishment does not propel children in their life. Freud never claimed that they should actually be rewarded for mistakes, this actually may increase their propensity to commit mistakes, and they may even enjoy it.AIG is doing just that.

The executives are behaving like children; trying to cajole American government by beating their chest and try to instill fear in the government that people would lose jobs, if they are not retained. Mind it, these are the same people who in the first place were responsible for the collapse of AIG. As for stock market the share price of AIG is below 1 dollar, a year back it was around 60.

Some sections of society are backing their claim because they are also fearful that AIG and market will collapse. In this sense we should actually bailout Mr. Madoff also, who cheated investors of their money.

Any economy is not run by stock market, its run by basic fundamentals such as saving and consumptions. Mr. Obama is right in moving on and tackling fundamental issues of infrastructure like energy, construction, healthcare and education. But more of it in another note.So what do you say/opine? Should we feed these fat cats more? Lets move on to more relevant topics such as Nation's development!

News - And lo behold ! The AIG is contemplating of suing the very government , which rescued them

Love Pranay

Ethics

Hi Friends

Hope the audience of this blog is doing fine, despite the overuse of the word "crisis". When we are in the thick of the things, we tend to forget that situations,buildings, economy , everything is created through word. As its said in the Bible ( Genesis 1:3 ) : Then God said, " Let there be light". And there was light.

But let me come to the concern , I am having these days and words from a film I watched yesterday "Flash of Genius" professor echos in my mind. The film is based on real life story.A fight over patent between an inventor and the Ford motor company, over windshield wipers. As the actor says, "its not even about patent or money, its about Ethics".

Madoff case in USA, LTTE's and Srilankan governments fight, a non relenting judge in India, who is unwilling to resign ( even after indictment), Illionis governor's righteousness over attempted selling of senate seat and now Allen Stanford's ponzi scheme.

Yes the world is lot more richer ( except for this so called crisis) , more prosperous ( lot less people die of diarrhoea, malaria and more from lifestyle diseases like diabetes ) but are we together as humanity as ethical as, say 50 years ago. Not so far back, there were accounting frauds and Enron scandal. The point is the frequency is increasing. There would be many who would start counting numbers ( The population is more, so it should be propotional ) to negate this point. But Ethics is not number dependent. This is what make us different from machine. It is ethics which differentiate between nuclear bomb and nuclear energy, renewable energy and carbon energy, electronic tapping and surveillance.

Businesses cant be run without ethics. People these days have become so cynical that they accept this "as a fact of life" and give up the fight. Its not that the guilt doesnt sit in the hearts and minds of the perperator. It corrodes her/his conscience, like Satyam's Raju. So finally what did he get. Guilt, jail and downfall.

My belief is that the human beings are losing there "beings" and developing into a machine. Have you noticed , how many forwarded mails are on simple pleasures of life,the beautiful moments, which people miss, yet what they do is click the "forward" button.

Lets take a break and take in some fresh scent of air outside and look at the flowers and children, maybe they would remind us of what we teach to our children.

musings from Santa Ana

love Pranay

Elections and Infrastructure

Hi Friends !

After a long time the issues at hand forced me to start writing and break my long silence. I have been mulling for a long time, looking for a perfect excuse to ink my thoughts.

After Barack Hussein Obama took over as the president of United States of America, he has announced a slew of measures to control the , decontrolled economy and rein in the wall street wild horses. Another perceived horse, turned out to be a fox with his ponzi scheme, Dear Madoff...No one could see his name, Mad-off.

Now lets talk about the largest democracy in the world. Yes, my country India. Elections are round the corner and swords are being drawn. One of the most passionate electoral battles are fought in this country, sometimes even letting out blood. Though election commission has done a yeoman service to the nation and the Supreme court along with the president always have showed that they form independent pillars of the nation, with a mind of its own, this time its a bit different.

Election commission itself is in controversy now with the infighting amongst the commissioners. But lets not talk about trivial issues. Power struggle is the nature of human mind. Lets talk about power and enrgy scenario in India. at least 80,000Mw -100,000MW gap in demand and supply of electricity. Not to speak of other forms of energy consumption. Despite the parliament's and profit driven media's ( specially visual) undue attention on the nuclear deal and nuclear energy, lets admit one thing. Nuclear energy cant fulfill energy needs of India. the writing is on the wall, but the policy makers and industry is transfixed on that. Theres not enough uranium in the country and even the long term supply contracts with Australia and Russia wont do good.

The need , the gap is immediate and nuclear power plants take at least 10-15 years to build. India has abundance of sunshine, even in the northern region of Jammu, Kashmir and Leh. The proven technologies in solar energy production allow India to use all of them in different parts of the country. Whether it is Concentrated Solar Power ( CSP ) in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh or Thin Film technologies in Northern and North Eastern parts. The technologies are there , ready to be utilised , the only thing required is the government's will ( more so the bureaucracy's will). The bureaucracy's hold over the every walk of life is self evident. They still live in old british mindset, which even the modern Britain has abandoned. But more of that later.

So if the will of the government is there it can build the nation singlehandely. Then intervention of the courts would not be required to do, what the executive wing and the parliament should be doing. Its also required in the case of security apparatus, we cant keep blaming Pakistan for our lack of intelligence, coordination and security failures.

The next door neighbour, Sri Lanka has shown us how the will power of the government is THE determining factor. I am against use of violence, but how do you react when a certain organisation in the name of an ethnic people, kill the people of all the sides. Come on, they are not social service organisation. They and there leaders are power hungry.

Coming back to Infrastructure. I believe whichever government comes to power in India, would be forced to take steps in further building of roads, power lines and clean water facilities. USA, even with such a vast infrastructure already built by far sighted presidents and legislative, is heavily investing in energy ( renewable) , roads and rails.

So our focus in other parts of the world also should be to make the people aware that bailouts will not work , investing seriously in basic needs of the people would. Poverty eradication cant be discussed and implemented in posh hotels of Geneva, it has to be tackled everyday in Somalia, India, China and even USA. As it is, Bangladesh has started tackling its own poverty long back with the great visionary, Muhammad Yunus bearing the torch.

India should look in its own backyard to take a leaf out of Bangladesh and even the mighty USA , may save some money, while eradicating its huge per capita debt. A debt which every American owes to different parts of the world.

Musings from California.... comments welcome

Love Pranay

Numbers and Reality

hi creators!
There is an ongoing debate on definitions, parameters and numbers . Specifically, when a country's progress is to be measured then we use terms like growth, sector growth, fiscal year etc. I will commnet on growth in India's "core" infrastructure.

The challenge is of defining the "core" sectors first by the government/economists. With time this list has to be transformed. Does this list actually reflect the "core" industries? If yes, why there is a comparison between corresponding period of last fiscal. Is this a true parameter for judgment? We really have to think over these fundamentals.

Can we include electricity as we know 45 % of our electricity produced is "T&D" losses? In reality stolen. Do we have a proper policy towards energy and utilization of available resources like coal and oil with the latest and more efficient technologies?

Lets think over these issues first, than getting bogged down by numbers defined by the past consumption patterns. Can we also include future forecasting, with proper Stats tools, rather than relying on past mathematical tools.
love !

Tobacco & Whacko!

love!
Tobacco giants have suddenly become generous. Notice there recent years philanthropy. Quit smoking!! Youth de-addiction in developed countries ( or more appropriately, where the tobacco companies were taken to task by the courts) .

Now look at these statements :

1) “Nothing is more important than our commitment to integrity – no financial
objective, no marketing target, no effort to outdo the competition… Our commitment to integrity must always come first." Chairman & CEO of Altria Group

2) “Global deaths due to smoking-related illnesses will nearly double by 2020, to 9 million,
with more than three-quarters of them in the developing world.” – World Health Organization

The funniest yet most disturbing thing to look at is "Altria". whats Altria ? A background : After the slues of cases were filed in US and Europe, Philip Morris the largest tobacco giant in the world ( hence, presumably directly or indirectly responsible for smoking related deaths) changed its parent company's name to Altria , to save itself from the negative impact of image of tobacco related business and heavy criticism. Altria's revenue was $90billion !

Philip Morris then turned its head and marketing strategy towards developing countries, with 930 million of 1.3 billion of total world population. Ahh! that makes sense ! Targeting the new ( mostly young) customers with increasing purchasing power.

Besides these the company has a history of opposing organized labour. That's so lovely, mr. chairman, specially talking about integrity .

So my friends ! this is just one of the stories of one of the big corporates in the world. there are many like Philip Morris whom we knowingly and mostly unknowingly endorse .

Think before singing praises about these companies ( just because they have money, specially relevant to most "intellectual India ", your son or daughter maybe the bull's eye.

cheers pk

bostonian thoughts

"baastan" (Boston)! whuff ! what a way of pronunciation. But i loved the spirit, after all i just landed from a city similar to "baastan" ; called "dilli" ( Delhi). they even had a line to go with it ' dilli dil walaon ki' (delhi belongs to romantic people).

From being almost a bitter critic of its govt.'s policies to lover of its free spirit, I was always curious about america. my brother had already described (though not in a poetic way, as I would have liked him to be) the beauty of the city. The rich history ( actually the vanguard of free spirit of USA), the charles river ( the natural poem snaking around, taking in the innovative ethos of MIT and Harvard ), museums, art galleries, on-road music fests, finger licking food ( though being desperate to show my adaptation, I only used fork with comfortable unease), polite drivers ( ufff! in contrast to dilli's rude ones) the city has begun to seep inside me.

From the aroma of the natural surroundings ( which compared with delhi's southern district) to perfumed people ( ralph lauren, poison [or is it poission?], to local brands) , permeates and titillates your nostrils to intoxicate you into scintillating songs. sometimes seduce you too!!

River Charles spectacular view from our B-school, the multilingual, multicultural heady mix of students with multitudes of variety yet a common similarity ( of ambition), biking tours, duck tours, walking tours etc is making me feel like a sprint runner in an Olympic on the start line. Exciting!!!

more musings on the way,
love pk

Nawaazish!

" ab to samander bhi khaali khaali sa lagta hai,
mann ka sehara hi, yaadon ke baadh mein dooba rehata hai."

the divide & colours

hi all!
love!

sometimes i wonder about love and hatred and their infinite forms. but today i was disturbed by images of gujrat. a state known for communal harmony and peace. 5 years have gone by but the demon of hatred has dripped in slowly & steadily deep into the minds. specially the impressionable , soft minds of children.

some cant even relate to other community, either hindu or muslim. as if each of these communities are "not humnas " for the other. muslim/hindu cant takes name of "the other" community as if they live in different realm, age & geography. the bitter fact is they are neighbours!

a child's mind can be easily moulded and the elders in the family , due to their own insecurities , have created their children as potential fission points. children as young as 5-6 talks of religious divide ,hardly grasping its significance. efforts are on. good organizations & samratians are working tirelessly to create a bond; sometimes desperately to weave a fabric in which every thread seems part of the design, using games, classes even cricket teams, yet...

as a part of our india & world lets take actions in whatever form and contribute in some form to the cementing of ties, as if no "partition" existed.

lets play a holi, in which all faces are coloured with colours of life so much that one face cant be diffrentiated with another. all seems one & one seems all. Amen!!
cheers!!!
note: comments underlining divide/hatred and justifying them would be deleted.

freshness

Love!
the freshness of the morning mist, the koel's sweet piercing awakening, the melodious singing of "vande matarm, sujalam suphalam..." infuse the serenity yet a sense of pride in me . then the sunrays gently touching my eyes to wake me up like a mother...this is how my start of the morning is!
cheers urs pk

hume tumse pyaar kitna

Humein tumse pyaar kitna, ye hum nahi jaante
Magar jee nahi sakte , tumhare bina....

children & future

Love!
The media revolution in the world also brings us the strak realities of "the other world" we refuse to see or maybe ignore calling it as the fate. This fatalist tendencies may actually damge the whole world. we forget that the whole world is connected; more conncted then ever before. !! and what did we think, its just the stock markets. Phew!!! remember the gulf war; the consequent price rise & the cascading effect on the money with the govt., general price rise, lesser automobiles sales; again hitting the economy, loss of jobs & ultimately effecting each one of us, from cities to remotest part of india.And we ourselves sat in a glass house, believing that saddam & bush are far faraway.

saw the state of children living with their illegal labourer parents in the financial capital. the comparsion of weights of children struck me so hard that i forgot about all my information on GDP & tata-corus deal. weisght of a child is reflective of her health in future also. the contrast ; a nine month old child weighed 7.5 kgs in a posh locality of mumbai & not very far away in a jhopri ( shack), a TWO year old boy weighed just 4.7 kgs!!!!! no where the social disparity more evident.

not a moralistic , didactic theory. no morality or oneupmanship can improve the condition of our India or our world. I understand the peopel who read my blog is definetly from upper middle, middle class, educated with english as a medium & well versed with any info on & in the world. so what!??


lets think how can we contribute. its easier said then done, but the first step has to be taken. that may form the base. waiting for suggestions.

cheers pk

north korea & nuclear rights

hey friends
north korea today conducted a nuclear test! US condenmend the test as provoking the "international community". for US of A "international community" means itself! huh! US has been the worst nuclear proliferator. first they US tried ( along with china, which conducted the first nuclear test a few yrs before when Indira gandhi went ahead with first nuclear tests) to pressure India into accepting CTBT & then NPT. The same US of A with intentions of 1) Controlling nuclear energy & " other" programmes of India granted a defacto Nuclear power state to India, 2) Reaping corporate benefits for its devouring MNCs , with tangential pressure applied, in exchange for its defacto status.

Power remains with those who justify its use. US of A has always misutilised it. all the problems which the world suffers is mostly on its head. from nigeria, angola, pakistan's sectarina conflict & corruption , Iran's arrogance, afganistan's total destruction ; emotionally, socially, economically , India's shahshi tharoor deafeat in the race for secreatry general of UN, even bombings briatin & in its partners against "war against terror" are a creation of insecurity of US's polticians & more specifically the president.

is there an end to this cycle of nuclear deterrence doctrine? developing & underdeveloped countries like North Korea have been pushed to conduct nuclear test believeing that this would give them a sense of power & respect in the world. this at the cost of their own population reeling under hunger, mortality rate, languishing education & health care etc.

has nt the time arrived when this Unipolar force should be distributed equally & nations given a chance to work for their own population & contributing to the whole world?

I invite you to think & please comment.
cheers

dignity of labour

hi friends! Love!
how do you do? Im taking up a topic relavant throughout the world, specially to India.
what do you think when you hear household work? more importantly how people react to the
word " servant"?

Though India ( BHARAT) can claim to have a GDP growth rate of above 8. Sending GSLV into
space, Nuclear energy from Thorium, expanding megalopolis, does it really respect Labour
specially done through hands directly without any modern gadgets. like Cooking in not so,
elite resturants ( Dhabas), a young child, working as a delivery boy from our colony;s grocer
and most important household helpers ( proudly called SERVANTS/naukar/naukarani).

The point Im coming to is the sheer lack of respect for any manualwork amongst Indians & Dignity
of labour. whether the the person who sweeps the road, or who collects garbage ( ineffect helping
our home clean) or toilet cleaners , specially in 2 nd classs wities & towns, a bit less in metros.

The scant respect shown by our Doctors at a prestigious medical institute by brooming the road
during a strike against the govt. of India's decision , shows their insentivity towards the basic
dignity or the lack of it, shown to their own staff who cleans the hospital & patients.

Recently a "crime" committed by a 10 yr old domestic servant ( she applied lipstick), which could
have been passed with laughter or may be mild admonish was excuse enough to beat her,
bound her, left to bleed to death. what RESPECT? to labour ,a CHILD and a future WOMEN.

This provoked me to think & write this. please share your thoughts. some sensitivity towards
our "Domestic Servant" (in another paralance , who needs to be domesticated/civilised
, as an animal would be) may emerge or may be a movemnet.

waiting for your humane replies
cheers!

infinity, formlessness

Love!
The forms of existence are finite- all forms
to have a form means to be finite.
But existence is infinite
bcoz only the formless (nirankar) can be infinite
and existence is formlessness,
that is why , it can take all forms

Life &Security

Love!
There is no security in life,
because life cant exist except as insecurity-
that is why the more secure one is
the less alive one becomes. Death is complete security,
So never seek security
bco'z you are seeking death.

To live totally and in ecstasy, never demand security
Accept insecurity blissfully
and when you accept it
then you will know that it has a beauty of its own.