Month: June 2008

Investing in what when inflation is running crazy.
Stocks ,commodities,real estate.
Which is better?
What is the best?
Investors are scratching the head,
Stocks have lost their glitter. Wall street, Shanghai and Mumbai are very weak.
Commodities find a safe niche,and probably the best bet.
It also has its shortcomings.
Today gold is trading at 930$,in March it was 1013$,last week it was 880$.
The difference is too high.An average investor finds it hard to combat.
Land is a good buy.
It has become too expensive
Development land is beyond the reach of the common man.
Building costs have escalated in geometrical progressions.
Agriculture land is affordable.
The returns they fetch is not encouraging.
Liquid cash is secure.
It has to dance to the whims and fancies of the ever changing dollar.
Have a smattering of all in your basket of investment, dear investor.
Success is yours.

Price of crude oil is a sensation.
It has become a cynosure of all eyes.
As it rises ,it shoves down stocks and pulls with it commodities like gold.
Its movements are closely monitored
Wall street, Mumbai and Shanghai,affected by its up and down movement.
The weak dollar and geopolitical activity in Iraq,Nigeria,are responsible for this erratic trend.
Inflation is staring hard.
Commodities are in upswing.
There is lot of deployment.
There is still more wage cut.
India’s Reserve bank has increased the CRR.
Fed is aiming, but caught between housing slump and weak dollar.
The song in Sound Of music is well remnant of this situation
“How to solve the problem Maria?”
.

Malaysia Is introducing windfall tax,to fill up its treasury.
The hike in gasoline by 41% has created much discontent.
Every commodity sees a surge in its prices.
Right from vegetables to cement there is a steep rise.
Malaysians have started feeling the pinch’
Stocks are trading low.
Now the new entry windfall tax.
Oil Palm plantations in Peninsular Malaysia are to pay 15%,over and above CPO price-2000RM.
For Instance
Price of CPO-3500RM
FIXED pRICE -2000RM
difference—-1500RM
Tax 15% of RM 1500=225RM
The plantations paid cess last year to supplemnt cooking oil prices.
Now there is no scarcity in cooking oil supply.
The rise in cooking oil price remains the same
Will the government pass shotfall benefits to plantations ,if the CPO trades below 2000RM.?
Strange are the ways of the governments.

Inflation,Oil,Financials of the present day are like Mark Antony,Brutus, Julius ceaser.in the Roman era.
The economy of most countries are wrecked by these three ominous syndromes.

The world is perplexed. The sooth sayers of finacials are doomed.
Bernanke has bluffed, fluffed,all of us ,by spelling out that dollar is getting strong.
Asian stock markets are gasping for breath. Mumbai and Shanghai are going down the slide .
Can the Triumvirs be tamed down?
The Roman triumvirate sealed their own destiny.
Can we look forward for such an end to thes three life like caricatures?

I read the story of Midas when I was in my primary school.I used to read it again and again. I was flabberghasted, as how God could grant such a wish to Midas-turning everything he touches into gold.Finally his food also turned into gold.This is the moral of the story.
In Cameron Highlands, Malaysia,I saw the same course of action, though in a different comfiture.It is a retreat for the Malaysians. The weather is pleasant. The flowers beckons while we negotiate the cuves, The huge trees wave to us,as if they are giving a rousing welcome.This Is what I expected. This is what I enjoyed two decades back.
But ,to my dismay,all these fascinating pictorials are absent today.
As you reach KG Raja, you see no flowers, no greenery, but espy the poly sheets that cover the nursery. White sheets,scatterd all over.
Every single stem, every flower,everyshoot fetches money.The flora and fauna is grown in Cameron ,exported to Holland,Japan,Australia.
It fills Malaysia’s coffers,but drains the beauty of the land.
The dangling ,beautiful flowers are grown in Malaysia.
They are a feast to the eyes of Japanese, Australians.
True a modern Midas is in the offing

Gold Man Sachs Vice President,Hormats, has called for U.S global policy retructuring.He said U.S has to improve economically and should become a leader in crafting economic policies.
Mr.Hormats,first set your house in order.
It is easy to preach than to practise.
The housing bubble,the subprima crisis ,oil surge,dollar weakness,are all manipulations of certain self conceited group.
“We have to give ,if we want to get”is Hormats rider.
Everything is reciprocal in this mad, mad world.
The need of the hour is good governance,not rhetoric oration.
Eloquence in action not in speech, is the requirement of this era of financial turbulence .

Gold and dollar are making us gasp. A day back dollar was on the rise,gold fell to $865. Now gold is on the move-$887.Twists and turns beyond one’s comprehension.
Dollar has been artificially strenghthened.
U.S. tried to contain oil and gold’s upward trend,by nourishing dollar.
Financial reporting was at its height,very much similar to weather forecasts.
Their verbosity could only bring in temporary glory to dollar.
In spite of Saudi increasing its supply,oil has targeted record high of $140.
Inflation is spreading its wings in such velocity, that the world at large is apprehensive of the future.
The G 8 summit has ended in a fiasco. Keats would call it as”fever and fret”of the human race.
Let me conclude with Shakespeare’s tag All is well that ends well.
Three cheers to Gold.To Dollar Better luck next decade

A trip to cameron Highlands ,this weekend,was an eye opener.I chanced to meet a chinese entrpenur.He is into flower exports.He has a patented a particular green tulip like flower in Holland.His 6 acre flower garden is bubbling with activity. It is mini Asia, as people from Bangladesh ,Nepal.India,and Indonesia are working. This man ,let we call him as MR .Chong,employs 60 workers.Right from seedlings,transplanting,rearing ,manuring,irrgation,sizing,packing are done under his meticulous care. The packed flowers,find market in Japan ,Australiaand Hongkong.The flowers are a feast to the eyes. The man is an embodiment of hard work Mr Chong ,is humility and success put to together.-a rare combination.

Watch the market Follow the financial reporting.View the snapshots.
Draw a graph. It will resemble an Electro cardiogram graph of aptient with a massive heart thrombosis.
The rise and fall are so swift,so frequent,so deep.
Cardiologists tell us to wait for anothr 24 hours or 48 hours .They buy time to announce the stability of the patient.
Analysts rush to announce that the dollar is strenghtening,retail sales are picking up,euro has fallen against dollar,in the G8 summit dollar will not be allowed to fall.
Dollar is being pampered,cajoled and assuaged,so that oil and gold will loose their sheen.
How long can they devolve such manipulation?
Why is U.S up to such pranks?
Gold is arm twisted,oil is knocked to satiate the thirst of US economy.
Mmarket gurus take the cue from the cardiologists.Practise patience.