Capitalism vetoed

Communism has been voted out numerous times in the past and staunch capitalists have advocated their religion to bethe de-facto standard which should be adopted and admired all across. Times change. And in this fast moving world, they change at lightning speed. Somewhere in mid 2007, one of my good friends in US, told me that things are not looking bright as loads of people had defaulted on home loans. At the same time, Sensex and Nifty were making new highs almost every week. Money was poured in BRIC countries from almost every corner of the world and the party never seemed to end. FIIs, HNIs, retail investors all just couldn't stop basking in glory of their well earned 30%-50% returns in a few days time. All seemed like a fairy-tale story.

Switch over to Jul 2008. MAYHEM, PANDEMONIUM, prevail. And God knows till what time it will prevail. Capitalist empire has been brought down to it's knees. This economic crisis is unusual and the steps taken to overcome the same also seem to be unusual. Newsreports of bail-out packages for some of the mamoth size companies are the order of the day. Not even in my wildest dreams, I could ever imagine that Lehmann Brothers, AIG, Merril Lynch will fall like nine-pins. And this doesn't stop with these financial giants. Automobile companies like GM, Chrysler seem to be doomed as well. Circa 1929. The Great Depression. Crisis which lasted for over a decade and left millions jobless and hapless. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF.

Some of the questions which keep quizzing me on this economic crisis are :

1. Howcome these BIGGIES go bust all of a sudden and what was the Bush's administration doing in order to prevent the same.

2. US is having some of the toughest compliance measures and regulations to be adhered to. Still all the fiascos (Enron, Arthur Andersen in 2002) and the current ones (Lehmann, AIG) all result from US. Why and where these laws fail to prevent these fiascos.

3. This question or thought might sound wierd to certain extent. Is US trying to shadow the laws of nature. They have brought down the economies in Iraq and Afghanistan (may be others as well). These countries have bled for the last few years, courtsey some of the sinister ideas of US. Their propaganda seems to have outplayed them and now it's their turn. So lets not be too surprised at all this nemesis. Possibly, Dubyaman should have taken care of his pants rather than pulling down the trousers of a least devilish dictator. Cries of millions of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan has not gone as a gas, it has hit right in your face, Mr. Bush.

So, what next ?

India was probably the victim of the privatisation of West. Ministry of Disinvestment spear-headed by Arun Shourie became the talk of the country in Vajpayee's government. It seemed that every government holding company was rather a liability and Arun Shourie tried with all his might to put these into the hands of insatiable indviduals. Stiff opposition by Left seems to be right. MoD was shut down and this prevented India going the US way. There seems to be a dramatic turn-around now with talks of nationalisation of many of the private companies in US. Indian economy may not be decoupled from US or Europe, still it is able to survive. We don't have scores of companies in Fortune 500 list but we are still doing better by not losing millions of jobs and claiming new highs on unemployment rates. One of the simple reason being we are still governed and regulated by an authority which will not put the entire nation on the block.

Going forward, I don't see Communism bouncing back, though there are many fundamentalists who will still vouch for it. At the same time, I am highly skeptical of Capitalism becoming prevelant, again to return us the daunting ghosts of present times. Probably, a new world order is required to overcome the flaws of both forms of political ideologies and propose a new structure which stands by and for all so that these horrendous times should be avoided. On the philosophical note, I guess, few of us, will have to rise above HUMANITY so as to guide and govern us from all the improbable ominous thoughts and actions we will always have.