The Monetary Madness

Friday is a day when I normally keep of the TV. Having spent innumerable hours gazing before the idiot box, fridays I devote to some more fruitful chores. But the 10th of October was a Friday with a difference. I was glued to this monstrous creation for the better half of the day!!

I was aghast at the Domino effect visible cutting across regional barriers! I could visualise others like me watching as the drama unfolded across the world! Probably the only ones sleeping with no worries in the world must be the dwellers of the African Jungles or the Eskimos who have no access to the TV nor the stock exchanges!

Indeed, this is the price of industrialization. Lost are the wonderful days of complete relaxation with no worries picking on you even in your sleep. Let me admit, I am not great investor or one who really follows the ECG of the stock exchange, but the unusual turbulance in the financial markets had everyone shivering- I being no exception as I tried tovisualize what happens to my account held declining Euros! And to top this, I received an e mail from one well wisher who was doling out free advice on how to remain calm amidst all the chaos. His Nostradamus instinct smelt a rotten future. And yet he opined that inspite of the strong possibility of world wide recession, there was no need to panic.

Well, of all his suggestions, one did really hit me somewhere. Hold on to your money as a hungry man does to his only small peace of bread! Cash or Gold should be the products of demand in the days to come. Close your ears to real estate, stock exchange and so on.

The Monetary Madness did pose new questions about the possible new world order in the days to come. Is the concept of Global Village a bane or a boon? Would this have happened in the good old days when economies across the world had no iota of information about what happens elsewhere? And yes, the role of the US dollar. And for us uninformed earthlings, the whole scenario is baffling, to say the least. Savour this- The Indian rupee was emerging real strong just some time back as the poor Uncle Sam was loosing value by each passing moment. The rupee roared whislt the Dollar cringed! And now? In a short time, Uncle Sam's country is faced with the most fantastic financial crisis and yet the Dollar Roars as the not so long ago roaring Indian Rupee has bottomed as never before!!?? What a contradiction!!