• Huge crowd join French strike
  
  My first reaction on reading the headlines was "what bullshit"! Is this a time to go on a strike? Is this going to do any good? Isn't this going to affect the productivity of the country and deepen the economic crisis. Is this what is called a socialist nation?
  
  Then I pondered more about it. Digging my past, it occurred to me that not only I have seen strikes but also have participated in them. During my college days, I took part in "Mandal commission protests" - It was a protest against government policy (in India) to reserve more seats for certain caste of people (who were oppressed in past) in education institution. What made me participate in those strikes? Was it my youth? Or was it my immaturity? Or was it just me being idealistic? Yes, it gave me a sense of social involvement. I believed that I had to voice my opinion, I had to speak out and change things.
  
  If I think about it, Gandhi was believer of non-violence and non-cooperation. He encouraged people in participating in non-violent protests that ultimately lead to India getting her independence. So maybe protests and strikes create enough pressure to break the system. It forces the authority to acknowledge the people's voice and take constructive steps to give what they want. Going back to the French strike, maybe it has some sense after all. Maybe the people striking against the way the French Government is handling the economic crisis will force the administration to think hard and come up with a solution that is more appeasing to the public. Maybe after all strikes and protests are not about wasting a day but about investing a day to make the future better.
  

• Big Layoffs No Longer Help Boost a Company's Stock
  
  Good! Laying off can not be the solution to the problem. Ofcourse, it is necessary in some cases but in most of the cases it is just to convince the investors that the layoffs will make their balance sheet look good. This was true before this recession was in action. Now, announcing layoffs just reflects the fact that they too are affected by the economic crisis and are going through rough patch. It is going to have less and less affect on the stock of the company. So what is this layoff going to do the company - ofcourse save some money. But then having lesser people means having less resources. This will result in low productivity and therefore will result in low sales. Low sales is going to definitely bring the stock price down. It is time now that companies think of some innovative way than laying-off to make their stock ticker attractive. Maybe it is time to adopt a company-wide salary cut. Maybe it is time to release office spaces and adopt working-from-home policy. Maybe it is time to look into reducing their electric power usage by using solar energy to lit their offices, to heat up the whole office space and to boot up their servers and desktops. Getting more people out of job is not a lasting solution - keeping them in job and working out with them during the crisis is what is going to help America come out of recession.
  

• President Obama signed the Lilly LedBetter Fair Pay Act of 2009
  
  It is a shame that we still have inequality between men and women in our society! It is a shame that still women are thought lesser than their counterpart men! It is a shame that we are still talking and debating about it. Isn't it?
  
  This bill is going to enforce equality in paper but is it going to be accepted in the society in its completeness? Well, it depends on the women in the society. I am so proud of Lilly LedBetter who at the age of 70 did not accept the inequality and fought for her rights. She still has not got her $360,000 compensation but she got something more than that - a bill with her name enforcing equality. Yes, she got the law signed, but it is upto the other women of this and the coming generation to make the law into practice.
  

Nation at Perilous Moment, Needs Stimulus package

I am putting my faith in President Barrack Obama that he and his administration will come up with a stimulus package that will help America recover from the economic crisis. We have to wait (patiently) and see how soon America rebounds - by summer 2009? by early next year? Ofcourse, the earlier the better.

This economic crisis has brought out lot of subtle issue into spotlight. What is going to be America's growth rate in the coming years? Is American economy going to grow as it was in the last few decades? Is America going to be still one of the prosperous place to live? Will it still attract immigrants, students, visitors, foreign investments? It all depends on what we are going to do with the money, where we are going to spend this money. The general idea is that the stimulus package will help stir up the economy and probably that will cause the other private sectors to get back into action. But will it ever return like good old days? What is going to be the next growth factor? Where is the next epicenter of growth? In the tech world at Silicon valley? In the car world at Detroit? Are they still capable of growth?

It is a simple logic that we will have better growth rate if we buy less and sell more. But then we are known to be great consumers. Maybe it is time to change that. It is time to produce more than consume. It is time to invest more on our future than exploit the present resources. It is time we look in improving our infrastructure like transportation, healthcare and education rather than just live and use them. Hopefully some money from the stimulus package will be spent in this.

Education is an interesting discussion point. Here is a some interesting data quoted from an article in New York Times - "Between the early 1950s and early ’80s, the share of young adults receiving a bachelor’s degree jumped to 24 percent, from 7 percent. In the 30 years since, the share has only risen to 32 percent. Nearly all of the recent gains have come among women. For the first time on record, young men in the last couple of decades haven’t been much more educated than their fathers were." In my opinion, this needs to change. Education, innovation, produtivity and growth rate are all chained together. One influences the other. Hopefully the stimulus package will do good to our schools - California could get $10 billion stimulus school aid

I liked what Rahm Emanuel, Obama's Chief of Staff said in this context - "You never want a serious cirisis to go waste - it is an opportunity to do things you could not do before". I can substantiate his point from history - I believe the defeated countries of World War II did not rise in spite of crisis. They rose because of it!

I just hope that this economic crisis gives us a chance to find new venues of growth.

• Israel launches attacks in Gaza
  When is this going to end? Hamas attacking Israel and Israil attacking back again and again! Aren't these people affected by the economic recession that seems to be affecting the rest of the world? Aren't they worried about their jobs? Maybe not, they can always find a job in the army or whatever the fighting force is called by Hamas.
  

• Obama to lobby for stimulus plan
  I would like to know how and where the money is spent. I hope it is not going to be spent in buying jets for big companies (Citi Jet: Treasury 'Pressured' Bank To Stop Delivery).
  

• Former President of India R. Venkataraman passed away
  He is one of the few politician from the South India who played an active role in the central government. Very few politician from the south make it to the central government and play key roles - hope this changes with time.
  

• Timothy Geithner sworn in as Secretary of Treasury
  Can he change the economic climate in the world?
  

• President Barack Obama signed two memorandum aimed at achieving energy independence
  What happens to the old existing cars running in the roads? Definitely, their value is going to go down at a steeper rate. Soon, I won't be able to sell my BMW - nobody is going to buy it for the simple reason that it only gives 22 miles per gallon compared to the new cars that are going to come (if the auto industry keeps its edge) with 35 miles per gallon.
  

• Over 68,000 job cuts announced
  Is this going to affect my job search ? Most probably. I am in software industry and most of the job cuts that are announced are in service company or non-tech company (Sprint, Catterpillar, HomeDepot etc). But I do suspect that this is going to have a negative impact on my job finding. More companies will be cautious in spending money even if they have funds.
  
  
• Home Sale up
  This is a great time to buy house if only you have money! Great bargain on good houses. I guess, people who are financially stable are seeing this opportunity and making some investments.
  
  
• Iceland government collapses under financial crises
  I wonder how it is to live in these countries at this point of time where there is government breakdown along with economic disaster. Sounds like total chaos to me - pretty scary situation!