Reflections

Wow ! Just saw the 2nd last episode of the final season. This has got to be one of the most brilliant television series ever. Distinctly remember that scene in the first season with the chemistry professor Mr White saying to his students, "Chemistry: it is the study of change…It is growth, then decay, then transformation.” And thats the word that sums up this series:  transformation. Transformation of character ! “My wife is seven months pregnant with a baby we didn’t intend,” Walt explained in Season 2. “My 15-year-old son has cerebral palsy. I am an extremely overqualified high school chemistry teacher. When I can work, I make 43,700 dollars per year. I have watched all of my colleagues and friends surpass me in every way imaginable. And within 18 months, I will be dead. ” From being that loser of a chemistry teacher, who gets humiliated by his boss at what is his second job at a car wash, to becoming the methamphetamine kingpin of Uni...

Its so fascinating looking at the american economy bouncing back. It was all but done with in 2009. The subprime crisis had prompted everyone to think that the age of US led capitalism is over and the age of state capitalism is here (with state owned firms such as Petrobras, Gazprom, China Mobile, ICBC and even Emirates airlines growing the fatest). There was such intense opposition to the state bailing out the ailing automobile and financial firms with the popular slogan "private profits and public losses". Quarter after quarter unemployment data kept getting worse. But here we are again. US growth seems to have stabilised at 2% and unemployment at 7% is on a downward trend. Its really a matter of a few months when the FED would start sucking out excess money from the US economy (by stopping buying treasury bonds) the anticipation of which has already started strenthening the dollar and shaking emerging economies such as India and Turkey which had been benefiting from the i...