Mahant!

If you are a student of business history, of the many stark revelations one would realize, one of them would be the coming revolution in transportation industry. One way of imagining this change is to look at it from the perspective of where we are and to where we are moving. We are moving away from oil-based transport to energy based transport. We are moving away from public transport to private transport. We are moving from short hops to long hops. Add a fizz of technology exponentiation and we have a Star Wars fiction coming true. The point of the post is not to contest the coming of the revolution or make any pointers as to where it could lead or what could lead this change. The point is a more fundamental question: Do we need transportation? To ask this blasphemical question is like asking do we need food. But yes, we have lived through thousands of years of progress without much transportation and next-to-nil communication, why do we have to still follow the sam...

The crisis that is prevalent world over now, is not a very unexpected one. Being a gold bug for a long time, something of this kind was expected by every columnist on Kitco / Daily Reckoning / Financial Sense. What I did not know, however, was its prefix of "credit". The magnitude of the crisis somehow is much less than total calamitous financial and social Armageddon that was imprinted in my mind. Thankfully, I have lived these nightmares before. Again, it is very different to read about Dracula and a different experience meeting one! People may have anticipated these nightmares, now the wish is fulfilled; we got to live through it now. The crisis does not look 'economic' anymore. We knew it would affect lives, every body's, and to a much deeper extent than ever thought, but nothing prepared us to its actual existence. Its like being proved that ghosts do exist or that we are not alone and ETs are cannibals. Proving something, or being right about something, does...

Past few weeks have been the stuff of nightmares. Irrespective of which side you are the pain is incredible. One observation here: I am part of several groups that track stock markets. I am puzzled that people just dont seem to understand the gravity of the situation. It is as if, they consider this downtrend, to be limited to the fall their share prices or portfolio value. It is much more than that. And it is not limited just to people who invest in stocks. It involves everybody and to a much greater extent than just share prices. They just seem to miss this. I feel alone here, but I am pretty sure I am asking the right questions at these forums which others are missing at this time. Falkor