Cyclical Nature of business - Article of the day 11 Sept

"A housing slump in India" Sounds impossible? Not really. In fact I have been amazed at how everyone I talked to about real estate in the last two years believed in the never ending rise of housing prices. Even after pointing out to them that this was exactly what happened prior to the US housing bubble, they had enough reasons to believe that India was different. They talked about how India was different from the US in x,y,z ways. Pointing out that they were using the "decoupled" logic which the stock markets used but failed miserably, couldn't move them.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/business/global/a-housing-slump-in-india.html?_r=0

This is the cyclical nature of business. What goes up, needs to come down. There will always be boom and bust cycles.

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Environmental politics - Article for the day 10 September

This hard hitting article from the Economist tells you what exactly is wrong with today's environmental lobbies, politics and the media

Because the damage is underwater, and what the eye doesn’t see greens don’t often bleat about.

This is one of Britain’s biggest environmental disasters of recent times. But it is not widely known

http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21584322-devastation-fishery-shows-idiocy-much-environmental-politics-parable

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

The Hidden Hand - Article for the day 9 September

So I had internet issues again (thanks for nothing Reliance). So missed a few days. But coming back to the point at hand. Conspiracy Theories.

I heard quite a few people in my friend circle spout the "India's foreign exchange crisis has been deliberately caused by political parties in preparation of bringing in foreign slush funds in order to fund the elections."

While I didn't take the time to do the research, Value Research has done it. I particularly like the way he explains that we always look for supporting evidence rather than evidence to disprove it. Read and enjoy

http://www.valueresearchonline.com/story/h2_storyView.asp?str=23506

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

There is a storm coming - Article for the day 4th Sept

600 point swings on the market. SEBI asking banks to relook at how they calculate circuit filters. It looks like there are a lot of things for the 24x7 news channels to talk about these days. A few people started comparing the crisis with respect to 1991 when our current PM was the Finance Minister. However, I think this post is a little more balanced. How does this affect us? Well if you don't have a Batmobile, at least get an umbrella.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/entry/get-ready-for-another-asian-financial-crisis

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

What are your priorities in life? - Article for the day 3 September

So I came across two brilliant articles on Bill Watterson, the genius behind Calvin and Hobbes today. The first one here is a short summary of Bill Watterson's life story and ideals. It is a quick five minute strip that will make you question your decisions. A longer post at brain pickings really makes you think. Deal with 5 years of rejection? Refuse to sell rights to a merchandising firm? That takes guts and a steely resolve to know what you are doing. Do you know what you are doing?

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post

Bonus - If you don't know where to start read this post from HBR

I have a dream - Article for the day 2 Sept

Everyone remembers the Martin Luther King speech. This detailed post by The Economist looks at how things have changed in the 50 years since. Reading through this I was struck by how we could say just the same things about Dalits today as was said about the blacks back then. Technology has made us much more interconnected they say, but then how does this persist? Another thing to note is that he didn't look for reservations but for equal treatment.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21583992-fifty-years-after-martin-luther-kings-speech-fixing-americas-racial-ills-requires-new

P.S. The logic behind these posts can be found in this post